So I am currently part of a group working on an Ars Magica style game set in Japan in the 15th year of the Tenmon era (1549AD); Kenja no monogatari, or Tale of the Sages. It’s based around the Order of the Sages, a group founded to conserve the art of magic through the dark age of the Sengoku Jidai and to protect its members from the depredations of the factions and warlords. It will be a complete game, using a rule set based on AM but having all the rules in the book. The core magic system will have its metaphysics and limits based on Buddhist, Shintoist and Daoist beliefs rather than Plato and Aristotle. Our plan is to take it crowdfunding in the spring of next year.
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Sounds really interesting. Will it be Backerkit or Kickstarter?
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I am tending towards Kickstarter since I’ve used it before and already have a creator account but its been a few years so I am going to do my due dilligance as to functionality reach and cost before I commit.
Do the metaphysics and limits change based on the ruling philosophy? Is there distinctly ‘Buddhist’ magic, different from ‘Daoist’ (and ‘Shinto’) magic?
Historically, the Japanese approach to differences was practical rather than dogmatic, but there were numerous magical and spiritual traditions that clearly owed more to one school of thought than another, enought to make the diffrences an intresting part of game play.
For example, a court diviner schooled in Onmyōdō ritualism would use a different set of five elements for their magic—the Wuxing (Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, and Metal) that originally came from Daoism. Meanwhile, a Buddhist mystic in Japan understood the world through a different set of five: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Void.
Likewise, you would go to a Miko or a Shinto priest for a different kind of magical intervention than you might seek at a monastery.
The Chinese metaphysics (of Chi and elements) which underpinned academic attempts of that era to understand the universe gives enough common ground to justify bringing the traditions together and creating some common practice. However, the different approaches—the shamanistic/animistic roots of Shinto, the spiritual self-development of Buddhist practice, the ritualistic magic of the court, and the rather eclectic trickery of folk witchcraft and the activities of the yokai (representing the four different magical lineages of our Order's founders.) Should provide enough friction and differentiation to make things interesting (we hope!).
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From a gameplay perspective, our Order has a core magic that is an effort to synthesize across these traditions, but it is a work in progress, not a finished project. So the Order accepts seven magical elements. A character's default is only five, however, and which five would depend on which founder their lineage is more closely associated with the Wuxing or Godai elements.
Each lineage is essentially equivalent to a mystery cult, linking to its founder's magical tradition and more closely following those cultural lines. This also provides an opportunity for characters to either double down on the traditional differences, focus on developing the more flexible core magic, or attempt to synthesize and learn from the other lineages, which should broaden routes for character development.
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Good luck with your project. We ran our Kickstarter (on Backerkit) 2 month ago and the Ars Magica community was super supportive.
(Our setting is in 16th century Italy, so: same era, other part of the world)
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That does sound interesting. And you even used a piece I commissioned from Dean Spencer for the cover mock-up!
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Yeah! that’s a great piece, we’ve used several bits of Dean’s work in the mock ups we’ve been doing for layout planning,and visualisation its very inspirational. Our ideal is to get enough funds for fully original art, so that it vibes fully with our text, though I suspect a piece or two of Deans work might make it in simply because we gotten so used to it.