Ars Magica

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Ars Magica is also the title of a book by Judith Tarr.
Ars Magica
Image:ArsMagicaRPGCover.jpg
Cover for Ars Magica, fifth edition
Designer Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein·Hagen
Publisher Lion Rampant, White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, Atlas Games
Publication date 1987 (1st edition)
2004 (5th edition)
Genre(s) Medieval fantasy
System d10-based with strong magic system

Ars Magica is a role-playing game set in Mythic Europe, a quasi-historical version of Europe around AD 1200 with added fantastical elements. The game revolves around magic-using wizards and their allies. The game was developed by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein·Hagen and published in 1987.[1] The current edition was written by David Chart, working for Atlas Games and published in 2004.

Ars Magica was one of the first examples of a Troupe system: early editions recommended that the players collaborate to create the campaign world and story. Each player would have an opportunity to be the Story Guide, and each player would have more than one character, so that if they felt their main character would not go on an adventure (for example, if they were busy with their research) a secondary character may be used. Troupe play has been de-emphasised in recent editions, however, and in the latest (5th) edition of the game is relegated to an optional play style described at the back of the book. Many "troupes" opt for a more traditional system with a single story guide, or have one player be the "Alpha" story guide with responsibility for the overall plot, and a few "Beta" story guides who run side-adventures.

In order to get an "authentic" feel from having such a historical setting, the game uses medieval Latin for a number of key terms.

Contents

[edit] History

The first two editions were published by Lion Rampant Games. In 1991, Lion Rampant merged with White Wolf Magazine to form White Wolf Game Studio.[2] White Wolf published the 3rd edition, which greatly expanded the settings and peripheral rules while leaving the core system intact. White Wolf also published many supplements, detailing specific regions of Europe, or outlining stories that could be played in the original setting. Ars Magica was later sold to Wizards of the Coast, who produced several supplements, but just before publishing a 4th edition sold the rights to Atlas Games. Atlas published the fourth and fifth editions, and new source-books and supplements.

The 5th edition was released by Atlas in 2004, including extensive changes to the system, especially the combat system and character creation. Many players feel that the alterations to the combat system were long overdue,[3] especially the rules for armour, which in previous editions simply made wearers much more likely to die in combat. Ars Magica 5th edition won the Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game of 2004.

Many characteristics of the later Storyteller system developed by White Wolf can be traced to Ars Magica and the fact that the Storyteller system was developed by one of Ars Magica's co-authors; White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension was envisioned as "Ars Magica in the Modern World," and many of the changes in Ars Magica 's 3rd edition were introduced in order to make the game-worlds more compatible.[4].

[edit] Setting

The setting, Mythic Europe, is based on Europe of the 13th century; the geography is the same, and the mundane (non-magical) politics are practically identical. However, the "Medieval paradigm"[5] - the collection of folk beliefs and superstitions - is correct; under this 'paradigm', children really are abducted by Faeries, and the mountains really are home to dragons. In 3rd edition, to tie the game into the World of Darkness line, this was the case because those were the beliefs; other editions distance themselves from this interpretation, simply taking place in a world where those beliefs happen to be true[4].

Player characters take on the role of both a Magus (or if female, Maga), and of a Companion, otherwise called "Consors". Companions are select skilled non-Magi (warriors, foresters, castellan, and so forth) who help wizards conducting their affairs, as Magi tend to be distanced from "mundanes" due to their study of magic. Additionally, there are a number of Grogs (skilled peasants) who can be controlled by any player. The wizards live clustered in specific citadels called Covenants, which are often built in places of power. Covenants are the home base for the Magi, but the Magi tend to roam the Magical Europe for their adventures. Some sources for the game consider the covenant to be the central character of the game[6].

[edit] The Order of Hermes

Main article: Order of Hermes (Ars Magica)

Magi belong to one of the houses of the Order of Hermes, a society founded by the wizard Bonisagus who created a consistent way to describe magic, allowing Magi to share information, and the Parma Magica, a magical shield which allows a measure of protection against hostile magics (and, in some cases, non-hostile magics as well) which allowed Magi to trust each other. Magi from outside the order must join or die, though the Order doesn't insist that Magi present both options.

The Order is divided into Tribunals, which each administer a large country-sized region of Mythic Europe. Once every seven years, the Magi within a Tribunal stage a meeting, also called a Tribunal, where new Magi are presented to the order and the Quæitores judge disputes which cannot be resolved within or between covenants. Once every 33 years, each Tribunal sends a representative to a Grand Tribunal.

Each of the thirteen Tribunals corresponds to a set of modern countries. Each tribunal has a distinct cultural and historical flavor which affects play. For example the Roman tribunal is a densely populated area with a shortage of magical resources but offers high political plots while Novgorod is a hostile environment where barbarian invaders and magical beasts can be a recurrent problem.

Like any medieval border, the territory of each Tribunal is not precisely defined.

[edit] Realms of Power

Four "realms of power" influence Mythic Europe:

The Divine realm
The God of the Abrahamic religions and His agents in the world. The Divine realm is opposed to magic (see Christian views on witchcraft), and magic is weaker in areas where the Divine is stronger (in cities and around churches); yet, the Gift is part of a Mage's soul, and therefore a gift from the Divine.
The Infernal realm
Satan and his minions. In the medieval context, this includes everything from Satan himself to illnesses and bad smells. Demons tempt the faithful to sin, and while the Order of Hermes refuses to explicitly name the Infernal as their enemies (which could provoke their anger) their laws state that they can "never be allies". Magic is weak where the Infernal is strong, though infernally-tainted magics do exist, and are usually of great power, in order to tempt Magi. Any Magus found guilty of diabolism is expelled from the order and hunted down.
The Faerie realm
Creatures of traditional fairy tales; the Seelie and Unseelie courts. These creatures are capricious and often malicious; however, their study can be rewarding, since magic is strengthened somewhat in faerie areas. Magi are allowed to ally with the Faeries, as long as they do not incur their wrath and thereby bring their fellows into danger.
The realm of Magic
A mysterious and largely unexplained force in the world, which the Magi manipulate to create their spells. Magic is distinguished from Faerie largely in that the latter is concerned with humanity, while the former is not.

Additionally, a "Realm of Reason" appeared in the 3rd edition. "Reason" was associated with skepticism and scholarship, and its "rational" aura alleviated the effects of the other four realms. Many fans of the game consider this to be paradoxical and inconsistent, since applying reason and rationality to the world of Ars Magica should really lead to the conclusion that magic exists and fairies are real, and yet the "True Reason" promoted by the realm of Reason claimed the opposite, and thus resembled a delusional state of mind rather than a rational one.[7] The realm of Reason had additional counter-intuitive effects - for example, imposing penalties on wizard's magic use in libraries, despite the consistent portrayal of wizardry in Ars Magica as a scholarly pursuit.

Reason proved a highly controversial addition to the game, and was perceived as part of an attempt by White Wolf to make Ars Magica the backstory for their World of Darkness role-playing games; neither the 4th nor the 5th edition of the games has included the realm of Reason, and all references to it have been stricken from the canonical setting.

[edit] System

The game system is based on the d10. When an action is performed, one of the character's eight attributes is added to the relevant skill, and a d10 is rolled. The total of attribute + skill + d10 is compared to a target difficulty. The action succeeds if the rolled total is greater than or equal to the difficulty.

If the action can only result in a simple success or failure, the die roll of 1-10 is merely added to the total (called a "Simple roll"). If there is opportunity for exceptional success or failure, it's called a "Stress" roll. On a Stress roll, results of "1" and "0" have special meanings: a ONE is rerolled, and the result doubled (additional "1"s lead to successive doublings: quadrupling, octupling, etc; the final non-"1" being enlarged by the multiplier); a ZERO is treated as a zero (rather than a ten), AND one or more additional d10 botch dice are rolled. If any of these botch dice show a zero, the character has botched - failed in some disastrous way; if none of the botch dice turn up zeroes, then the die-roll is treated as a zero. Assuming the roll didn't botch, the total is (as above) compared to the difficulty of the action to determine success or failure (and the degree of success or failure).

The focus of the game is the magic system. There are 15 Arts divided into 5 Techniques and 10 Forms. The Techniques are what one does and the Forms are the objects one does it to or with. This is sometimes called a "Verb/Noun" magic-system. The Arts are named in Latin.

The Techniques are named after the corresponding first-person singular present tense indicative mood Latin verb.

  • Creo is the technique that lets the Magus create from nothingness, or make something a more "perfect" examplar of its kind; this includes healing as healed bodies are "more perfect" than wounded bodies.
  • Intellego lets the Magus perceive or understand.
  • Muto lets the Magus change the basic characteristics of something, giving something capabilities not naturally associated with its kind.
  • Perdo lets the Magus destroy, deteriorate, make something age and other similar effects - essentially, making something a worse example of its kind.
  • Rego lets the Magus control or manipulate something without affecting its basic characteristics.

The Forms are named after the corresponding singular accusative Latin noun.

  • Animal is used for animals. Since bacteria were unknown in medieval times, illnesses are evil spirits, which come under Vim.
  • Auram is used for anything that has to do with the air, including lightning. Weather phenomena such as rain and hail may be covered by Auram or Aquam.
  • Aquam is used for water, or any other liquid. This includes ice in the 5th edition; In 4th edition, Ice was Terram, since it is a solid.
  • Corpus (the incorrect declension Corporem was used in older editions) is used for the human body.
  • Herbam is used for plants and fungi, and their products - cotton, wood, flour, etc.
  • Ignem is used for fire, and fire's basic effects of light and heat.
  • Imaginem deals with images, sounds, and other senses, though humans' ability to perceive them is part of Mentem.
  • Mentem deals with intelligence and the mind, such as human or ghosts. The minds of animals are not affected by Mentem but by Animal.
  • Terram stands for earth and minerals, or any other non-living solid.
  • Vim has to do with pure magic; many spells to ban or control demons and other supernatural beings also belong to this Art, as such beings often have a form that expresses magically.

Thus, Creo Ignem spells create fire, and the normal effects of fire, such as heat or light; a Perdo Ignem spell may drop the temperature in a room. A typical Perdo Imaginem spell is granting invisibility to the caster by making one's image disappear. Rego Aquam could turn water into an unusual, but natural form (e.g. creating a pillar of water), while Muto Aquam could turn water into, for example, oil or wine; or change the nature of water so that it's murky and green but still healthy to drink. An Intellego Mentem spell may permit the caster to understand any language, or to read minds; and so on... A mage's skill when casting a spell is the sum of their scores in the appropriate technique and form.

If a spell involves more than one technique, or more than one form, this is known as a requisite; The lowest technique and form scores are used. For example, a spell to turn a person to stone would involve Muto, Corpus and Terram; The player would add the character's Muto score to the lower of their Corpus and Terram scores to determine their casting total for the spell.

By combining these techniques and forms, the Magus may achieve any effect and spontaneously cast a spell with that desired effect. However, there are often severe limits to the level of power a Magus can generate by casting spontaneously, and so he may also choose to learn a spell with that desired effect. A Magus is further limited in terms of the spell's application: Ars Magica features a set of magical 'laws', similar in concept to those of physics, defining the upper limits of any magical spell (Creo Corpus, for example, cannot create 'true' life, nor can it restore the dead; magic, in general, cannot affect the flow of time, nor can it affect the 'lunar sphere or anything above it')

Magic is treated in this game-system as a serious object of study: Magi are supposed to spend a long time in their laboratories: preparing new spells, studying their Arts, creating magic-items, etc. The game system provides rules for magical research on a timescale of 3-month seasons.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wieck, Stewart (2007), “Ars Magica”, in Lowder, James, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, Green Ronin Publishing, pp. 13-16, ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0 
  2. ^ A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAME #10: LION RAMPANT: 1987-1990.
  3. ^ Is combat busted?. The Ars Magica FAQ. Project Redcap. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
  4. ^ a b "How is Ars Magica related to White Wolf's Storyteller Games?" section of the Ars Magica FAQ
  5. ^ The Medieval Paradigm section of the Ars Magica FAQ
  6. ^ Covenants section of the Ars Magica FAQ
  7. ^ "True Reason" section of the Ars Magica FAQ

[edit] External links