Ars Magica Definitive Edition funded in 3 minutes. Stretch goal after stretch goal was unlocked in rapid succession. Soon the crowdfunding campaign hit the first open license goal and with 30 days to go, the campaign is well underway to unlock any goal that Atlas Games can come up with.
Congratulations to Atlas Games for a well prepared campaign that beat all expectations. I’m sure backers will get a marvellous collector’s item with the physical book when the campaign fulfils some time next year. Personally I’m most excited about the open license.
Ars Magica is now open license
John Nephew announced late yesterday (a couple of hours into the campaign) that the myth and magic of Ars Magica is now free. The core mechanics and Mythic Europe setting is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license as of NOW.
Which essentially means that anyone is free to create and publish content inspired by, referencing, or to be used with Ars Magica. For commercial and non commercial purposes. As long as you include a note that this is Ars Magica (attribution) and that you grant a similar license to your work (share alike).
Trademark laws still apply which essentially means that you cannot publish a book called Ars Magica, Order of Hermes, or House Tremere.
A smorgasbord of ideas
Ars Magica is famous for being hard to get to the table. “The best game I have never played”, one commenter said. The definitive edition may get more people to buy the game. But will they play the game? A gorgeous 600+ page book. A smorgasbord of ideas and opportunities. But where to start? David Chart has announced a Starter Set on his Patreon. That could help some. I previously published games inspired by Ars Magica as GM-less, no prep story games, Montsegur 1244 and Death of Rapacus.
As of today, I could release Death of Rapacus as a spin off from Ars Magica.
Not that I needed the open license or a permission from Atlas Games to publish Rapacus. Copyright law when it comes to games is notoriously fuzzy. You get automatic copyright on the text you produce. But not on the idea. Nothing prevented me from publishing a commercial game about wizards in a medieval housing community duelling out their pitiful personal vengeance on their neighbours. Which is what I did.
But I couldn’t call it Ars Magica light. I couldn’t pitch it as “Get a fun flavour of Ars Magica in one session, no prep required”. I can do that now. The open license is a promise from Atlas Games that they will never take legal action against any published work derived from Ars Magica as long as it too is published with a CC BY-SA.
Maybe I will go ahead and publish a re-skinned Death of Rapacus with the Ars Magica terms and with a CC BY-SA license. Maybe I will create a new game?
How about Magick BORG, Ars Magica in the format of MÖRK BORG. The world of Ars Magica in a digestible, colourful book of random tables to immediately get a story going?
Time will tell. Let’s see where my mind wanders to next.
Autumn fireworks for free
Autumn has come to Stockholm. A stunningly beautiful season. Compared to Denmark, the east coast of Sweden has a continental climate. Hot sunny summers, cold sunny winters. Rarely wet and windy as further west.
We have a little time here in October before the darkness of November and December close in. The first nighttime freeze. Leaves turning yellow, orange and red. Sunrise later and later in the morning. A firework of colours, free for everyone to enjoy. Especially if you have a little dog that needs to do business outside everyday.
An excellent opportunity for new inspiration and ideas to take form.
