If you've played Ars Magica...

[Greyfeld85]

I have a question for you.

How easy/difficult is it to rip the fluff out of the system and create your own on top of it? Also, if the fluff is changed, can the game support singular characters instead of troupe-based roleplaying?

[endoperez]

That depends. What would you use to refluff? If you put in something like Zelazny's Amber, it could work quite well. With typical fantasy stories, there's more trouble. With modern world, you might be better off using Mage, a World of Darkness subsystem related to Ars Magica.
Generally, if all your players won't be magic-users, there's going to be some trouble. You could give the non-magic-users more powerful equipment and as much XP as the mages, but without magic resistance, they're really vulnerable... and if magic resistance is common, the spell balance suddenly changes a lot.

In short, I think the fluff would be rather mutable, but changing the focus away from the group of very powerful magic-users might be problematic.

[navar100]

Easy. Just don't use the default Houses and do whatever you want. Heck, you can have a party of four named Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin and play the founding of Hogwarts.

[Ravens_cry]

I've never played it, but from reading reviews and descriptions, it is definitely a game of magic users. The whole idea is you're some conclave of mystical practitioners.
You could easily change the basic setting from Mystical Europe to some other world, even some of D&D's settings, Dragonlance's Red, Black, and White Robes might work with some tweaking, but that focus of "magical research and backstabbery" would still be there.

[Greyfeld85]

That depends. What would you use to refluff? If you put in something like Zelazny's Amber, it could work quite well. With typical fantasy stories, there's more trouble. With modern world, you might be better off using Mage, a World of Darkness subsystem related to Ars Magica.
Generally, if all your players won't be magic-users, there's going to be some trouble. You could give the non-magic-users more powerful equipment and as much XP as the mages, but without magic resistance, they're really vulnerable... and if magic resistance is common, the spell balance suddenly changes a lot.

In short, I think the fluff would be rather mutable, but changing the focus away from the group of very powerful magic-users might be problematic.

I actually plan to make all the players magic-users, but the game I have in mind has no reason for troupe-based roleplaying. The hub the PCs will be playing in will be all magic-users, all the time. It's a very magic intensive game, and I need the flexibility a magic-centric system offers to spellcasters in order to make it work. But I also need to be able to create my own fluff, because of the way the magic in my setting works.

I've actually looked at Mage: The Awakening a bit for WoD, and it's very detailed and interesting, but I liked the approach Ars Magica takes with the command words for each spell type.

I considered Savage Worlds at one point, but the magic system isn't really nuanced enough without a massive amount of homebrew material on my part.

[LibraryOgre]

For an all-magus game, there should be no problem. You might want to consider some of the limits of hermetic magic (like "No bringing people back from the dead, no effecting anything outside the Lunar Sphere, Nothing lasting longer than Sun without vis"), but the general magic system is pretty rip and drag.

[Balain]

We used 4th edition (I think) to play a wheel of time campaign.

[endoperez]

I actually plan to make all the players magic-users, but the game I have in mind has no reason for troupe-based roleplaying. The hub the PCs will be playing in will be all magic-users, all the time. It's a very magic intensive game, and I need the flexibility a magic-centric system offers to spellcasters in order to make it work. But I also need to be able to create my own fluff, because of the way the magic in my setting works.

I've actually looked at Mage: The Awakening a bit for WoD, and it's very detailed and interesting, but I liked the approach Ars Magica takes with the command words for each spell type.

I considered Savage Worlds at one point, but the magic system isn't really nuanced enough without a massive amount of homebrew material on my part.

In that case, there shouldn't be that much trouble. You should give some thought to how to make more powerful spell effects worth it, when they are unlikely to get past the other mages' spell resistance. I'm not sure how to fix that one, but this set of home rules might provide inspiration. Specifically, the part about Might scores of monsters suggests giving different creatures different capabilities to resist different Arts.

[Tyrrell]

In that case, there shouldn't be that much trouble. You should give some thought to how to make more powerful spell effects worth it, when they are unlikely to get past the other mages' spell resistance. I'm not sure how to fix that one, but this set of home rules might provide inspiration. Specifically, the part about Might scores of monsters suggests giving different creatures different capabilities to resist different Arts.

From my experience penetration isn't a problem, even in fifth edition, hermetic magic is hard to resist. You absolutely don't want to make higher level effects more powerful.

To the OP I'd say that the only issue that will require some adjustment to put into a fantasy setting is the realms. If you're happy with Divine/Infernal/Faerie /Magic for your setting then you really shouldn't need to mess with the rules at all. (Except for fix sort of things such as reducing the penetration on charged devices).

[Tyrrell]

How easy/difficult is it to rip the fluff out of the system and create your own on top of it? Also, if the fluff is changed, can the game support singular characters instead of troupe-based roleplaying?

I did exactly this for a third edition game (several years ago) but upon reflection everything that I did with third edition would be easier to do with fifth edition (except teach it to my players).