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View Full Version : [Ars Magica] Does it break without troupe play?



Kiero
2010-07-04, 11:28 AM
I find ArM sometimes interesting, particularly when applied to different timeframes and locations (I got involved in a PbP game a few years back that was set in early Colonial America [circa 1750], for example).

But there's a big thing that really puts me off the game: troupe play. When I'm a GM, I play the world, I have to worry about everyone and every thing. When I'm a player, I love that I only have to worry about "my guy" and my guy alone. As I understand the default model in ArM, you have to play three characters, covering three different social levels.

You've got the mage, who's supposedly the star of the game, the big mover and shaker who deals with the unknowable powers of magic and the politics of his own kind. You've got the companion, a capable mortal set apart from others because they've been chosen by the mage to represent them and take care of things that need a special touch. And you've got the grog, a servant or other member of the lowest orders who gives you a view from the ground floor as it were.

There's a double-whammy for me there; I don't like playing multiple characters, and neither mage nor grog interest me in the slightest. The companion on the other hand is exactly my kind of fun.

Would it break a traditional game of ArM to only play one out of the three (besides that player possibly sitting on their hands when their character isn't permitted to be involved in magely business)? Are there ways around this, or has anyone had to deal with it? It is possible to dispense with the troupe model altogether (and just let people pick one of them to be "theirs")?

Nero24200
2010-07-04, 12:22 PM
It depends on alot of factors. There isn't just the possibility of playings sitting about doing nothing during magely buisness.

Mages in Ars Magica can be very powerful. Non-mages tend to have multiple characetrs to help spread their use. If a mage is pretty good at..for instance, using spells to retrive infomation, like D'n'D divinations, then grogs or companions who are intended to be good spies are going to be overshadowed very quickly. The authors are fully aware of this, hence the idea of Troupe playing styles. It means the mage can hold back less without others having to sit back and do nothing.

Non-Troupe play, in my opinion, can work well as long as their is good co-ordination during character creation. Make sure every character is good at something no one else is (requiring a very keen eye on the mage) and it should be managable.

Though you may need to take my surgestions with a pinch of salt, since I only have a little experience with the game.

Riffington
2010-07-04, 06:03 PM
It doesn't break the game at all; remember, the multiple people you roleplay aren't necessarily allies. The only problem is the one you already described: it will sometimes be true that certain characters are involved in a story but not others. So by having fewer characters, there will either be times you are sitting on your hands while others are playing, or times when your troupe is skipping scenes because you look bored. If you can avoid this problem, then you're good.