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A number of touches in Ars Magica will be familiar to fans of White Wolf’s original world of darkness games. Magi practice in an organization known as the Order of Hermes, manipulative (though non-vampiric) Tremere form a powerful house within the order. Combat uses of system based on Init, Attack, Damage, Defense and Soak bonus’s. Thankfully only one d10 is rolled on most rolls instead of the multiple dice common in the storyteller system (or worse exalted).
These similarities are for the most part intentional. Ars Magica was originally published by Lion Rampant, the company that would one day merge with White Wolf Magazine to become today’s White Wolf Games. During the White Wolf era of the game Ars Magica was billed at the medieval history of the World of Darkness. This, and the idea that belief defines reality, passed out of the game when it was sold by White Wolf to Wizards of the Coast in the early 1990’s. A strong link between the games remain in the system if not in the express setting.
Ars Magica does not use the multiple d10 system found in later storyteller games. Instead, except for magic, Stat + Ability + d10 is rolled against a fixed difficulty score. Magic is handled somewhat differently. A Magus or Maga (as mages are called in Ars Magica) cast spells based on one of five verbs and ten nouns. Each “art” has it’s own score.
Ritual and formulaic spells take time to learn and once learned are not forgotten. Both are cast by exceeding the spells casting level on a rolls of Noun + Verb + bonus +d10. Spontaneous spells are made up on the spot and are cast at either Noun + Verb + Bonus + d10 divided by 2 or 5, depending on whether the magus voluntarily becomes fatigued with the casting. Copious rules are provided for the creation of magical items, study from and writing of magical tomes, invention of spells, binding of familiars and study from vis, raw magical power in physical form.
Unlike the later White Wolf games Ars Magica has no technocracy. The magic of the order of Hermes comes from a combination of Druidic and Roman magic. There is no goal of either personal or universal ascension. While there is no Paradox a sufficiently badly failed spell may send a magus’s mind, and possibly his body, elsewhere for a time or permanently. This state, called twilight, is feared by all right thinking mages. Of course the setting wouldn’t be complete without house Criamon, a group of enigmatic and at time incomprehensible magi who embrace twilight.
Characters are defined by eight statistics and a numerous but not unwieldy list of skills. Stats are Intelligence, Perception, Strength, Stamina, Presence, Communication, Dexterity and Quickness. Characters, depending on type, may also have up to ten virtues and flaws. Unlike past editions, where virtues and flaws ran for +/- 1 to +/- 7 the Fifth Edition has only two levels. The first are minor virtues and flaws giving or taking one point and the second are major virtues and flaws giving or cost 3 points each.
The balancing of Virtues and Flaws has been drastically changed for the fifth edition. Earlier editions of the game were very much balanced to the flaw end of the spectrum. For example, in the Third Edition of the game the loss of a eye, ear or hand were all -1 flaws. This caused players to load up on social flaws to avoid maiming their characters. A good number of Ars Magica characters were the outlaw black sheep of a powerful family with multiple enemies and a bad reputation.
Fifth edition clears up this problem. Characters are limited to one “story” flaw and one major and one minor personality flaw. A story flaw is defined as a flaw that allows the GM (storyteller in Ars) to drag a character into an adventure. These flaws are for the most part softer than other flaws. This is in keeping with the trend in many modern games to have protagonists where abilities outweigh flaws.
Perhaps the most controversial part of Ars Magica has always been its setting. Ars Magica is set in Europe in the year 1220. For many European players this means that their games will be set in or around their home town. For many American players this means that setting research can be a major chore. The impression that Ars Magica requires a Ph.d in medieval history to play was not helped by several supplements for the forth edition that were in fact written by Ph.d’s in medieval history.
The fifth edition attempts to strongly move away from this stereotype. Saga’s now come in one of five research levels: none, low (research limited to a modern map of the area), medium (a modern map, plus a chapter on the history of the area in the 12th century from a history book), high (map plus book on the history of the area in the 12th century) and extreme (everything from multiples books to completed research doubling as a Ph.d Thesis). For the record topographical maps of all of the British Isle’s down to the 1:25,000 level are available from the British and Irish Ordinance Surveys (respectively).
Most Ars Magica campaigns (called Saga’s) play out over the course of years. Study and aging rules are integral to the game a magi can easily live to be 100 or older. That said most Saga’s will normally be restricted to a fairly compact span of time. No more than 25 years is common.
Players take the role of three character types. Magi, Companions and Grogs. No pretense as to game balance is made. Against a mundane target a Magus (or Maga as Mages in Ars are called) will make the target quickly and messily dead. Magi are hampered by the effect their Gift has on mundanes. This effect varies from none (rare), to one of the scariest people I’ve ever meant (common), and finally tops out at “get the torches” (also thankfully rare).
To make up for their social handicap magi travel with Companions. These are talented mundanes. The rules suggest, but do not require, that companions have some from of mystic virtue or flaw explaining just what, for example, a minor noble is doing with a bunch of wizards. All players normally have both a Magus and Companion character. A normal adventure features one magus character and the rest companions. Traditionally the Magus character rotates each adventure.
Finally rounding out the party are Grogs. Grogs are the redshirts of Ars Magica. They are best described as a type of communal NPC created for cool ideas that didn’t merit a companion character. Grogs can be played by any player of used the Storyteller as NPC’s. Grogs are created with only three points of virtues and flaws and no major story flaws. If somebody needs to get eaten by a dragon odds are it’s a Grog.
There are three major drawbacks to the fifth edition of Ars Magica. The first if production values. The art in the main rule book ranges from recycled cartoonish to downright horrible. Much of the internal layout is extremely basic in a way that says one of the designers doubled as a graphic artist. The book has a very high quality binding. In fact some would say that it is so overbound as to be likely to outlive the human race. From the cover to the back the book screams small press.
Ars Magica is an old game. Reading this book you can’t help but notice that years of play have worn away many of the rough edges that gamers have come to expect. The game is well balanced, at time though it becomes too well balanced and refined sucking the life from the rules. Reading through the virtues and flaws section I couldn’t help but wish that they had brought back “immortal +7”. Some of the older virtues were clearly unbalancing but they gave the game character (even if that character normally began his career 5’4” and ended it 4’8”).
Finally the biggest problem of Ars Magica, distribution. Unless you live in a major city Ars Magica is probably the best game you’ll never see at your local gaming store. Atlas Games, the publisher or Ars Magica’s, has long taken the stance that it does not encourage online discounting. Most Ars Magica products ordered online are at a 20% or less discount. This makes Ars Magica one of the priciest games to buy. While Atlas Games stance in favor of local gaming stores was laudable in 2001 the truth of today’s market is that many stores no longer carry most small game lines, including Ars.
Adding to this is the lack of material for online download. Early in the era of online delivery Atlas offered the fourth edition of Ars Magica as a free download at www.rpgnow.com. This caused a number or retailers to decide that the game had died and that the time had come to put a permanent hold on reorders. Today out of print material can be found on either RPGnow or SJGame’s e23 site. In print material is never offered for download. This is regrettable, more and more the life cycle of a small rpg is becoming dependent on (legal) downloads. If not addressed soon this may threaten the long term viability of the line.
