Ars Magica

Ars Magica is a fantasy role-playing game in which the players play wizards in "Mythic Europe", a version of Medieval Europe in which magic works and folk tales are true. The game is famed for its innovative magic system which influenced the design of many later games.

History

Ars Magica was designed by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein·Hagen (the latter would later design Vampire: The Masquerade). The first edition was published by Lion Rampant Games in 1987, the second edition also by Lion Rampant Games in 1989. In 1991, Lion Rampant merged with White Wolf, who published the much expanded third edition in 1992. Two years later, White Wolf sold Ars Magica to Wizards of the Coast, who sold it again to Atlas Games. Atlas Games published the fourth edition in 1996 and the fifth (and currently latest) edition in 2004. The fifth edition won the Origins Award in 2004.

System

The basic task resolution system is based on a single ten-sided die. When performing an action, the player rolls a d10, adds the relevant attribute and skill values, and compares the result against a target difficulty. There are two types of rolls: simple rolls and stress rolls. In a stress roll, the die is re-rolled after a 1 has been rolled, doubling the result, and a botch die is rolled when a 0 is rolled. If the botch die shows 0, the action has failed critically.

The most famous part of the Ars Magica system is the magic system. A spell consists of a Technique and a Form, which are learned individually. Each Technique and each Form has a Latin name (verbs for Techniques, and nouns for Forms). The spell roll is d10 + Technique + Form.

There are five Techniques:

• Creo ('I create').
• Intellego ('I understand').
• Muto ('I change').
• Perdo ('I destroy').
• Rego ('I control').

There are ten Forms:

• Animal ('animal').
• Auram ('air').
• Aquam ('water').
• Corpus ('body').
• Herbam ('plant').
• Ignem ('fire').
• Imaginem ('image').
• Mentem ('mind').
• Terram ('earth').
• Vim ('force', i.e. magic itself).

For instance, Creo Ignem is used to ignite a fire, and Rego Animal to control an animal.

Setting

The game setting of Ars Magica is called Mythic Europe. Mythic Europe is identical to 13th-century Europe, except that folk tales are true and magic works. Mythic Europe is not an EDO setting; there are no Tolkienian races.

There are four supernatural realms of power which compete with and inhibit each other (making it more difficult, for instance, to cast magic spells in a church or a fairy grove):

• The Divine realm (God, angels, the Church).
• The Faerie realm (fairies).
• The Infernal realm (the Devil and his minions).
• The realm of magic (Magi).

The Magi (wizards) are organized in the Order of Hermes and live in communities called covenants. In the covenants, the Magi are accompanied by companions (skilled people who run the mundane businesses of the covenant) and grogs (servants, such as guards and caretakers). The player characters, the troupe, are members of a single covenant. Each player has a Magus and a companion character, while the grogs are pooled and played as needed by various players. The focus of the game is clearly on the Magi.

There are no non-human player characters.