Ars Magica ?

[Voldecanter]

How is this gaming system ? Does anyone know if it is worth buying . I find the concept of 'mythic Europe' interesting , along with basing it off a sleight historical basis .

[holywhippet]

I played a few session of it, the DM wanted a system that didn't use character levels and this was the one that was suggested.

It's not really aimed at typical adventuring parties from what I could see. Each mage is a central character with their underlings handling other roles like fighter, rogue etc. The combat system is a bit more realistic though. When you take damage you acquire wounds. Each wound applies penalties to your rolls so unlike D&D you don't fight at 100% until you drop. Since you roll on both attack and defense your character will become increasingly handicapped the more damage they take.

Note that the system kind of assumes you might spend an entire season or two researching new spells.

[Riffington]

It is a great system, and well worth buying/playing. It's fun, thoughtful, and interesting.

It's not designed for constant dungeon crawls. It's designed to have adventures interspersed with seasons spent reading, researching, and politics. You have to have mature players to try it, but if you have the right people, it's wonderful.

[Satyr]

It is a neat system, but the basic approach is very different from the traditional adventure group roleplaying, and it is quite likely that every player plays more than one character (one wizard each, plus one assistant/retainer/follower of the other PC wizards when the focus shifts). The magic system is quite interesting and very powerful, but most importantly it invites you to experiment with its components, develop own spells and rituals and do the research.
All in all, Ars Magica is more a complentative, intellectual roleplaying game and not so much designed or intended for action gaming. And if game balance is important for you, please recognize that this is not true for this game's design philosophy. Wizards are just plain better.

[Riffington]

And if game balance is important for you, please recognize that this is not true for this game's design philosophy. Wizards are just plain better.

To be fair, it's a game about wizards, and everyone is playing one. D&D doesn't try to balance PCs with their mules, and Ars Magica doesn't try to balance wizards with grogs. (however, you play both a wizard and several grogs, at various times)

[amanamana]

(...) D&D doesn't try to balance PCs with their mules, (...)

I thought that was what the monk was all about...

[Satyr]

To be fair, it's a game about wizards, and everyone is playing one. D&D doesn't try to balance PCs with their mules, and Ars Magica doesn't try to balance wizards with grogs. (however, you play both a wizard and several grogs, at various times)

Yes, within the inner logic of the game, that is perfectly plausible, but there are some players who have their problems with this approach and therefore it should be mentioned. In Ars Magica, mundane characters are clearly second class and inferior to magical characters. I have seen exactly this problem in a group, as one of the players was very unhappy that his noble knight and war hero was essentially a sidekick.

[bosssmiley]

How is this gaming system ? Does anyone know if it is worth buying . I find the concept of 'mythic Europe' interesting , along with basing it off a sleight historical basis .

Ars Magica : Wizards :: Pendragon : Knights

It is simply the best game of its kind. All the other White Wolf games cry themselves to sleep wishing they were as sophisticated and intelligent as Ars Mag on a bad day (exception: Exalted doesn't. It's out the back huffing gas with Rifts, Synnibar and Encounter Critical).

IIRC rpgnow had the Ars Magica 4E book as a free download if you want to try before you buy.

[hewhosaysfish]

IIRC rpgnow had the Ars Magica 4E book as a free download if you want to try before you buy.

Really? I can only find 5th edition (and that for money EDIT and not a book...). Linky, pretty please?

[LibraryOgre]

One of the keys to Ars Magica is group character creation. It is very tempting to make your magus, your companion, and your grogs have an interlocking background... but it doesn't work, because your magus is going to be working with other people's companions.

Ideally, your magus will get along with one or two other companions, who will spend most of their out-of-covenant time with each other. If you have 4 people (Storyguide and 3 players), you'll frequently have one magus, one companion, and someone playing two or three grogs (who are like AD&D hirelings... important characters with personalities of their own, but not the focal characters of the story).

Why do it this way? It allows you to tell character-specific stories, but where everyone can participate. If your story is going to focus on Killsalot the Flambeau, other magi can be busy puttering around in their labs while Killsalot has the spotlight. If someone else wants to run a faerie story, your faerie wizard can have fun in the spotlight, while other folks play minor characters. Everyone participates, everyone gets their moment in the spotlight.

[Curmudgeon]

Really? I can only find 5th edition (and that for money ...). Linky, pretty please?

The main page for the 4th edition Ars Magica game is here. There's a link for the free PDF download there, and also here. You'll find errata for 4th edition AM here.

That linky enough for you?