Review: Houses of Hermes
Houses of Hermes, written by the esteemed Johnathan Tweet, details the twelve Houses of the Order of Hermes, as well its history and some common practices. It expands on the almost non-existent information given in Ars Magica 4th Edition and given the importance of Houses to the Ars Magica setting, is almost vital setting information.
I consider the lack of House information one of the primary faults of the otherwise brilliant Ars Magica game. Houses in Ars Magica are not just “classes” or “clans”. They are vitally important aspects to a mage character: House philosophy determines the character’s image and views of just about every aspect of life- magic, mundane relations, church and religion. A mage trained under the philosophies of House Merinita are going to have views, ideas and politics that are substantially different from House Tytalus. Similarly, magi of House Tremere will find himself more able to understand the motivations of the Tytalan magi, due to the similarity of their Houses’ philosophies and outlook (not to mention the close relations of their Founders).
For Those Who Came in Late
Ars Magica is a game set in the early thirteenth century in a fantastical medieval Europe, in which the things contemporary people believed are the truth. While this is similar to the Mage: the Ascension idea of “belief defines reality”, in Ars Magica, reality defines belief. Therefore, it is a setting that has many fundamental similarities to our own Europe’s history: the same kings and nobles rule, the same cities and towns exist, the same church gives mass and burial rites, the same peasants labour under feudalism. But there are also major differences. Faeries stalk forests and wander over the land, clean houses, scare cattle, conduct Wild Hunts and lead mortals astray. Demons also exist, and tempt humans to sin and damnation, and take part in a diabolical conspiracy to overthrow Christendom. Likewise, there are Divine forces at work: the Church projects an aura of Dominion that keeps hostile (and even benign) supernatural forces at bay; angels watch over chosen people, Saints preach the word of God and holy armies of Crusaders bring God’s Grace to the heathens. Finally, there is magic, the fourth force of Ars Magica, and it is here that the game’s protagonists make their home. The mages of the Order of Hermes are Europe’s premier magical Order. They wield magic that is superior to all others, and coexist under a single Oath, called the Code of Hermes. Within the Ars Magica core book, this Hermetic magic is detailed in depth, and has a reputation as being one (if not the) best magic system of any RPG. There are also all the standard creatures of fantasy and legend: dragons, griffins, werewolves, elementals, spirits, ghosts and unicorns.
Houses of Hermes at a Glance
HoH’s cover is a rather sombre and dull (colour-wise) one. It shows two female magi, one of whom is knee deep in brown/grey water surrounded by fire, fending off a purple coloured spirit. On the bank of the river is the other mage, who seems to be directing the purple spirit in its attacks. The cover seems to be from the tradition of “scene” pictures, and although it is not amazingly interesting (it is too dark for my tastes), there is a lot of detail in the picture.
For those not in the know, Wizards of the Coast briefly owned Ars Magica (after its White Wolf tenure), before being transferred to the hands of Atlas Games. HoH is a WotC product, but is written by Johnathan Tweet, co-creator of Ars Magica, and also co-author of DnD3e (and Over the Edge, among others).
Inside, there are 16 chapters: an introduction, a chapter for each House, an history of the Order, a chapter on apprenticeships, and the Houses at a “glance”.
The layout of the pages has an odd configuration, similar to that of GURPS supplements. It has a main body for text, and on the outside part of the page is a thick margin that is used throughout the book for additional information. This however seems like wasted space to me, since only a few pages actually use the margin for extra information. The majority of the book’s columns are empty, so only the main text box is used.
Each chapter is also preceded by a two page spread, with one page used for a small amount of information on the House being presented, and the other containing a quote or two to do with the chapter. This too seems like wasted space to me, as it could have been squeezed onto a single page, leaving more room for actual text.
The information given in the “House” chapters is broken down in the introduction, and gives the history of the House, some notable magi (many Houses just name the Founder, which is annoying), and the current status of the House (such as membership number, where the Domus Magna (Great House or HQ) is, and who the Primus (or leader of the House) is. Then there is information for players, designed to expand on a character’s view on magic, other members of the Order, House and also mundanes. Finally, there is a Saga Idea, a plot dealing with the House that could be expanded to be the focus of a Saga (campaign/chronicle), and a few story ideas that involve the House in question. Finally, each House chapter gives an example wizard from that House, which could act as a mentor or teacher for your character, or as an ally or enemy.
My Views
Firstly, my impression of the artwork of Houses of Hermes.
As an avid sketcher myself, I am always interested in the artwork in RPG books. For me, good art can be vital in my view of a book, and likewise, bad art can condemn a book. Art sets the tone for a book, just as the cover does. Bad art in a book makes me less likely to want to read that book. Bad art can be anything from simply being low standard, but it is also inappropriate artwork, or a style that I’m not keen on. It comes down to aesthetics.
I regret to say that I’m not a fan of Liz Danforth, whose work is featured prominently in Houses of Hermes. While some of the pictures are “okay”, most of them seem to be inappropriate for the game. The Ars Magica gameline seems cursed with such art, in particular the 4th Edition core book, which is beset with some of the worst gaming art I’ve ever endured (second only to Forge: Out of Chaos, and Millenium’s End).
Fortunately, Houses of Hermes is relatively artwork-lite, and has a couple of gems, such as on page 17 and 56 (John T. Snyder and Mark Tedin).
In addition to the waste of space caused by the thick border/margin, the formatting of the text is also rather extreme, with titles and headings having considerable spacing. This is yet another feature of Ars Magica in general, which seems to fill out its pages with large paragraph breaks. This is especially notable for small paragraphs.
Content
The majority of Houses of Hermes details the Order’s Houses, in alphabetical Order. Each House is given a small crisis or conflict that could return to bite it. Many of these little story seeds revolve around the major crises of Order, specifically the Schism War. People familiar with either Ars Magica or Mage: the Ascension history will know that that Schism War was a period in the early 11th century when Houses Tremere and Flambeau united to destroy “druidic” House Díedne. Throughout the book are littered rumours and legends of the possibility of the House’s return and/or revenge.
Another useful and interesting part of HoH is the House specific spells. Although not all Houses get their own spells, most that do are interesting and serve not only to make the House more powerful, but also as an indicator of the ideals and philosophy of the House.
Examples include Form of the Avenging Beast (Muto Corpus 20), created by House Bjornaer, which change’s the Bjornaer magi’s Heartbeast into a more ferocious and deadly form (a “dire” beast if you will). The Test of Flames (Creo Ignem 20) is also an interesting spell that serves as a more deadly form of certámen (magical dueling).
As I said before, each House has a unique philosophy, and this manifests in some gaining certain skills that cannot be taken by starting magi from other Houses. HoH details this more, particularly the Enigmatic Wisdom of the Criamon, and the magical device crafting abilities of House Verditius. Also included are Verditius’ Runes, the symbols created to represent each Hermetic Art. While they are haphazardly included in the core book, and in the Wizard’s Grimoir Revised, they are set out clearly here, which is a good thing.
After the History of the Order, is a detailed chapter on Apprenticeships. This chapter is useful for all number of things. Firstly, it allows players to go in-depth about their own Apprenticeship. Time spent as an apprentice is vital in the early formation of the mage’s worldview. This chapter is also useful for players in game who wish their magi to teach an apprentice, as it tells them the sorts of things that the apprentice should be doing (expanding, once again, on the scarce information given in Ars Magica 4th Edition). More than the other House specific chapters, this chapter has much generally useful information that applies to all Houses, but can also be used for people playing non-canonical games that don’t use the 12 Houses.
Conclusion
Houses of Hermes is a grab bag of interesting and useful information for an Ars Magica game, but also has a number of annoying flaws. The waste of space in the formatting is annoying, as is the artwork, which I didn’t consider very appropriate. Also, there are some useless parts in the House specific information, mostly in the “Outlook” sections, where certain groups are “Boring and ugly”. The one-liners are next to useless in determining inter-House relationships, particularly, when you have things like “Who?” “Are they for real” or “Ignore them”. Surely Johnathan Tweet could have given us more information that that? And I stress that these one-liners are quite common through the book- they are not occasional, which is the annoying part.
Despite some of these pitfalls, Houses of Hermes is quite a good book. The information that it gives is comprehensive enough to be of use to any Ars Magica game. The Saga ideas and story seeds are generally interesting, and while I don’t think I’ll be using most of them, they do serve their purpose by being inspiration for my own stories. Most of the spells are worth using, and are interesting or have uses for the House- some of the Quaesitor spells in particular are good for a Covenant of PCs to know.
The sample magi (one per House) are also good examples of their House, and come complete with stats - one of the traditional problems for Ars Magica is figuring out the stats of elder magi.
Houses of Hermes is a book with both problems and virtues. Poor art and wasteful layout means that less information fits in, but the material included is generally of the highest quality. Each House is detailed and made interesting and unique. There are still gaps in the information, and some ambiguities aren’t dealt with- the Tremere sigil question for example (Tremere don’t gain their sigil when they become mages, and must challenge their master for it). I give Houses of Hermes a 3 for Style and a 4 for Substance.
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