The crowdfunding campaign for Ars Magica Definitive Edition launches October 15th. Ars Magica Definitive Edition distills over 40 books of Ars Magica rules and setting lore into one 600 page hardcover full colour tome. In a previous post I asked Atlas Games Co-Owner John Nephew why a definitive edition and why an open license. In this post I ask Line Editor David Chart if the definitive edition is the end of Ars Magica.
A role-playing game about medieval magic
What is Ars Magica? How do you explain the game to someone who knows roleplaying but hasn’t played Ars Magica?
Ars Magica is the roleplaying game of medieval magic.
Wizards are powerful right from the beginning with flexible and well-defined magic that they can use as much as they want to solve problems. Other characters support them, and players take turns playing their wizard character and other characters. In most stories, the question is not whether the wizards can solve the problem, but how they solve it, and what the consequences are.
Games concern a group of wizards and their associates who live together and, in most cases, try to ensure the security and prosperity of their home while pursuing their own goals. The rules support detailed downtime activities, and wizards are often most interested in these. A single saga could cover ten years of game time and a year of real-world time. The setting is an extensively researched medieval Europe with the addition of supernatural elements, including the Divine and Hell.
A lifetime of play
David, you have been writing for the Ars Magica line for decades. In fact, you have managed the product line for the last many years. You wrote and rewrote the game twice and now a third time.
How did you get into this? What inspired you with Ars Magica? What is Ars Magica to you?
I first encountered Ars Magica through the review of first edition in Dragon Magazine. The first copy I saw was the second edition; that Doug Shuler cover has a special place in my heart. I loved the flexibility of wizards, and the ability to carry out long-term plans with a well-defined effect on the game world. I also loved the fact that combat was not the central conflict in most stories.
Ars Magica is pretty close to my ideals for a roleplaying game. The rules provide strong support for the fiction (which is not the same as the story), and encourage you to play characters over a lifetime as they try to make a difference to the world around them. The setting means that players can try to make the history of your Mythic Europe better than the real-world counterpart.
I love the medieval period now because I got into Ars Magica.
What is the best experience you had with Ars Magica?
The interactions between the goals of the player characters and the times when they create things that you could never have imagined. My best experience was in the first saga I ran. I set up a plot line in which a demon tried to corrupt several player characters. When the demon showed its hand they all nobly rejected temptation. But another wizard sought the demon out and made a deal. The saga climax came when the other player characters found out what she had done, hunted her down, and destroyed her.
A gorgeous version of the 5th edition
There are already five editions of Ars Magica of which you were a key creative writer in two of them. What is the Ars Magica Definitive Edition? Why a new edition?
The goal of the Ars Magica Definitive Edition is to create an absolutely gorgeous version of the central rules of Ars Magica Fifth Edition that all Ars Magica fans will want to own even if they have every Fifth Edition supplement already.
The art and layout are new. The game is Fifth Edition. You will find more rules for mysteries, laboratories, and original research, but those rules are all taken from published supplements.
The preview really shows what you have in mind and I think it will be gorgeous and very appropriate with everything in a single large tome. Can I ask that you print on parchment as well?
Under the open license, you may translate the book into Latin, hand-scribe it on vellum, illuminated in 13th century style, and bound in leather. Send photos.
Lol! I’m sure someone will do that!
When the definitive edition has been released, is that the end of the line? No more Ars Magica for you?
No, quite the opposite. Atlas Games will release a lot of the rules and background for Ars Magica under the open license, so that anyone can write for the game and charge people for what they make. I hope that this will be a new beginning. The amount of material available will encourage lots of people to do so.
I already have a Patreon to create new material.
Great to learn that you have set up a Patreon.
Getting started with Ars Magica
Ars Magica has always been a game that fascinates players around the world but that many struggle to get to the table. The learning curve not just of the mechanics but also of the setting is steep. Some gamers love this, but it also pushes actually playing the game into the future because finding a group of players who can devote this amount of energy and time to a hobby project can be hard.
Still, playing Ars Magica is very rewarding. I recall we did troupe play back when we were university students without kids. It was fun to do shared world building and to have other people pick up loose ends and develop them into full blown adventures. The cast of characters we had was huge and there was great rejoice when certain characters made their dramatic reappearance in later stories.
What is your recommendation for people new to Ars Magica to get started?
A metaphor I sometimes use is skydiving. There are things you can do to lower the barrier to entry to skydiving, but the biggest problem is that most people do not want to jump out of a perfectly functional aircraft. You cannot change that and still have skydiving.
Ars Magica is the same. It cannot be made into a casual pick-up game that fits on a couple of index cards and remain Ars Magica. The extended saga, the interaction with medieval history, and the thoughtful use of magic to solve problems and achieve your character's goals are what makes Ars Magica the game it is.
Which is not to say that the barriers cannot be lowered.
My recommendation to new players is to get hold of the starter set through my Patreon. It will take you through a short troupe-style saga, introducing all the important elements of the game over the course of about six sessions, and leave you able to continue that saga or start your own.
I look forward to see how the starter set turns out.
I tried skydiving once and it was fun to try but I will much more likely be playing Ars Magica again. But that is also because I'm not 25 any more! I think you can do shorter games, but of course you will leave out a lot. To me Ars Magica is more like the kid in the candy store. So many delicious choices, where to begin?
The future of Ars Magica
What is the Ars Magica legacy? Will people still be playing the game in 30 years?
I think people will still be playing in 30 years. Some people will be playing sagas then that they have just started now. I hope we will see the growth of a vigorous creative community using the open license to create and share material, while being paid for their efforts. Their creativity will determine the game's legacy, and it will be more than I can imagine.
Thanks. It will be exciting to see how the campaign goes and what happens with Ars Magica. I wish you and Atlas Games all the best.
I have one last question before we wrap up.
One last thing
David, when playing Ars Magica, have you ever molested the faeries, interfered with mundanes, dealt with demons, or scried upon your fellow Magi?
Of course. Hasn't everyone?
Of course. The code is a brilliant piece of game design. By telling players in the fiction what you absolutely must not do, the game communicates perfectly what the game is about.
Thanks for a great game.
Thanks!