Yes. Wisdom of the Desert is slowly producing jinns for the Levant, we have four of them, more are coming. I'm aware of how needed this is. I would love a Book of Daimons too.
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I think there’s a lot of room for a hot war campaign. There’s already an argument that if you’re outside the Order’s usual area, the Code doesn’t necessarily apply. Let’s do some Fifth Crusade shenanigans, man.
The far north of the world could be a cool destination of that sort. Maybe you can find a mystical explanation for the aurora. I guess I’m thinking a little bit of Pullman’s Golden Compass and what that did with it.
DAY 27: THE LIVES OF THE ARTISTS
Mythic Companions are interesting but they don’t get a huge amount of attention in most sagas as people would rather play a Hermetic Magus as their principal powerful character. Having a colossal amount of virtues is great, and some (like the Nephilim) have access to cool supernatural powers. Definitive edition includes Mythic Companions in the core rules now, and includes Nephilim(divine), Devil Children(infernal), Faerie Doctors(faerie), and Spirit Votaries(magic) as examples. The one type of Mythic Companion that I think is the hardest to work successfully in a saga is the Maestro from Art and Academe. The need to keep getting patrons could be a great driver of adventures, but if handled by dice rolls will require a lot of time spent developing non-artistic skills. At the higher levels of artistic reknown, you will either need a very long life (which is difficult if you live in a major city like famous artists often do) or to be very lucky when experimenting. I would love to see a worked example of an artist’s life cycle, possibly showing off how their art (whether physical or performing) integrates into the world around them.
Are there any Mythic Companion types you find difficult to understand, and need illustrating?
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DAY 29: BIGGER OR BETTER SOLO RULES
As a teenager, I loved gamebooks like Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf. I’ve also enjoyed various styles of solo roleplaying, like automated hex crawls or journalling games. I particularly love the solo winter phase activities from Pendragon, to cover what a character does in a year off if they miss the main adventure.
From the interest shown both here and on discord whenever people advertise new online games of Ars, it seems there are a lot of people who are geographically isolated from fellow players or unable to interest their local group in playing. There’s surely a reasonable market for material for the solo gamer.
Ars Magica has a reasonable set of solo rules (link to the start of the topic, which begins with Quinchris’ rules) which me and Ezechiel3571 tested in May 2016 - ten years ago!
V3 rules and V4 rules and the most recent V4.4 rules and V5.5 rules(I’ve linked the posts on this forum which contain the links, rather than the links directly) so you can follow the evolution over several years. Peripheral Code issue 2 contained a copy of the rules as they were in 2017.
Anyway, I think there’s a possibility of making an expanded version with more description and prompts. I’m sure there’s a good mechanic to be derived to allow plots to recur or escalate over time. Alternatively, a simple version could be turned into a simple browser game to allow people to while away time on the adventures of a magus they’ll never get round to playing with other people.
I mentioned the Pendragon winter solos - many 80s and 90s games included mechanics for specific areas of the game which could be handled as a mini-game. Perhaps there’s areas where we could come up with a mini-game or systems to handle some Ars Magica activities that can be handled with a few rolls, or done solo to free up table time?
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Lab work. Ars Magica has had a solo mini-game since the beginning.
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I kept working on it, and I have been using it to run quasi ST-less game on Discord. My own branch evolved into what I called Ars Officina, with background explaining how single mage covenant came to existence in Mythic Europe. At some stage, I would love to make is a proper pdf. Hopefully still this year.
That sounds like an interesting evolution of the rules. I’d really like to see it when you’re ready.
Lab work - some people get obsessed with what they can research and enchant and plan decades of lab work in advance. I like to develop spells that will give me a new capability on adventure, and keep working on mysteries. Everyone’s approach can be different and Ars supports that.
DAY 30: MAY YOUR STAMINA NEVER FAIL
I love gamebooks. Flipping between those paragraphs, trying to find the best path to success, discovering alternative endings - all huge fun. Also, I’ve seen the example in the Runequest starter set which teaches people the rules through a solo adventure. Now the format has limitations - you’d probably have to limit use of magic to the spells you start with on a character sheet or are in items in the scenario, so only predictable effects come into play. However, I think there’s room for some good solo adventuring, or dare I say interactive fiction, in the Ars Magica setting. Also, this style of game can be adapted for computer use by popular software such as Twine, so long as you work out how to implement some basic mechanics.
Here’s to enjoyable interactive fiction!
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DAY 31: LUDI SOLITARII MAGAZINE
OK, this was a “30 days of” post. However, January has 31 days and I have one final idea to share. We already have excellent fanzines in the shape of Sub Rosa and Mythic Europe Magazine. I would only suggest a new ‘zine if it targeted something the others didn’t. As the name suggests, it would be games/pastimes for solitary people - a magazine aimed at the solo gamer. In addition to having a gamebook-style adventure taking up half the magazine, there would also be articles on solo play, getting inspiration for Ars, advice on online play, and challenges to keep you occupied (such as designing magic items, or journalling prompts for writing fiction).
It could also be the one place to make a positive use of AI - I don’t know how to get a chatbot to GM for you, but plenty of people have tried and know how to make this sort of work. If I could get one of those people to write an article on this and give examples of the prompts they use, this could be the one place where AI actually helps.
Anyway, that’s my suggestions so far. If anyone wants to continue with a “please create/publish this!” thread feel free!
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I am slow but I made such a thread. We’ll see if other people find it a useful topic.
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I'm currently doing a quick book of additional rules for peregrinatores, obviously centered on the Rhine Tribunal, but also including abstract rules for things like vis hunting (genericised from C&C), finding potential covenant sites, recruiting new grogs when your old ones get sick of your shit and leave you on the road, and recruiting or joining a new covenant project. Its geared towards solo or 1 on 1 play, but would be useful for a small group.
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