This is an especially interesting idea IMO. 
You may be surprised to know that authors work very hard on this already. In fact, the authors, their co-authors, the Line Editor, and the playtesters are all watching for that sort of thing. It's probably the most important part of the teamwork that goes into writing a book.
Another alternative setting I like is the "Hedge Order" - an Order of Hermes that is composed of the various (more historically-grounded!) Hedge Magic traditions, rather than a single Hermetic Magic tradition. Traditions take the place of Houses (as archetypes for players). This also has the effect of lowering the power of magi, which I like very much.
Taking this to a further extreme - get rid of the OoH and magi altogether! Play a game of Companions, of lesser hedge wizards. Keep powerful wizards - like Hermetic magi and certain (Rival Magic?) hedge magicians - in the setting, but as powerful unique NPCs, much like a dragon. The game instead is focused on adventures, with the PCs winning mostly by getting the McGuffin and using cunning and minor magics rather than force and magical power (which they have little of). You beat the Cyclops by tricking it into blinding himself, not by turning it into a newt.
Yair
This was not some veiled criticism against any authors here, it was a general thought from the time I used to play another RPG called Rifts, which were filled with inconsistencies and conflicting data. So it is a pet peeve of mine that can ruin a whole game for me. Though I have found a few, but not that important ones that i cant ignore them.
Technically, I understand that the authors have been given permission to be inconsistent with previous editions ("canon-reset").
And Ars Magica is the single system I have ever seen with the highest degree of internal consistency within the edition - which is important to me.
I do so know what you mean.
Technically, I understand that the authors have been given permission to be inconsistent with previous editions ("canon-reset").
And Ars Magica is the single system I have ever seen with the highest degree of internal consistency within the edition - which is important to me.
I do so know what you mean.
Me, I'm one of those people that hates change and complain when it's impending--then when I see it, I agree it's better than ever.
So, possible alternate settings:
I had a 4th ed saga starting in 1132 that used the backdrop of the succession war between King Stephen and Empress Maude in the Stonehenge Tribunal. It took heavy inspiration from the Brother Cadfael series.
My feelings about alternate settings are a bit mixed. I've enjoyed AM for quite some time and I think 5e is magnificent. But, authors need income, and a new edition looms. So an alternate setting might be a good idea for future editions: 5e pretty much got things right, IMO--a radical new setting would intrigue the people who want something new, but still leave us a very solid base for traditional.
I hate Steampunk as a genre. I vastly prefer fantasy. That having been said--is there thought of moving Ars MAgica to the Industrial Age? It's certainly a radical shift. I myself wouldn't be overly enthused about it, but I'd imagine many would. It does have fascinating possibilities and implications.
I had a few disconnected thoughts yesterday while trying to fall asleep. They may be a bit scattered, but hopefully they can provoke inspiration in others.
I liked how 5th ed gave each house a specific free minor virtue. I also think making each house a Mystery Cult, Society, or True Lineage was a good step. My main issue is that these are, for the most part, two groups: Those with a unique ability, and those who group to a particular interest. I find that the Mystery Houses are much more different from the other eight, than say Jerbiton is from Bonisagus. (Also, from a game balance perspective, each Mystery House gains something unattainable, while you can theoretically build ant of the other 8 houses identical to each other. Strictly from the numbers, you get a lot more options from Faerie Magic than you would from Puissant Singer).
Proposal: Give each house a unique minor virtue that is otherwise highly difficult to attain. This would require making 7 or 8 new mini-mysteries, so to speak. However, it does let each player take satisfaction in having something precious, unique about their character.
I've never been a fan of House Tytalus, but I'd be leery of removing a House altogether. (I'd also be very said to see Merinita, my favorite, disappear). Perhaps a revamping of some of the House philosophies does seem in order, though.
One major change I would like is the philosophy of adventuring. As it currently stands, magi in-universe generally are adventure averse. They get the most out of cooping themselves up in their labs for a season. I'd like to see better adventure rewards so that it's less contrived to send Magi out on a quest. Not sure what this would entail--perhaps being able to achieve adventure XP and still do a season's work? Or maybe allow 'mini-seasons'--journey for a month, but still be able to invent a simple level 5 spell if powerful enough.
I'd support ideas for possible higher fantasy and ways to interact such as summoning spells, slightly easier means of healing or convalescing, and so forth. Just a taste or two.
A certain amount of contrivance is necessary to get magi into stories, I've always accepted that. Players have a bigger say in the narrative of their magus than any other character, and because of that there has to be some agreement as to what will pull magi characters into stories. The chief purpose of Story flaws is to pull magi out of the lab. This is the player's way of saying, these kinds of stories are ones that can pull me out of the lab. Story flaws, if or when they are resolved, should turn into different story flaws as part of the game contract. Hooks for the covenant, by and large, are agreed upon story flaws that all magi have a chance to participate in.
Acquiring components for a talisman, acquiring a familiar, resonant items for books (some books the covenant has might even benefit from resonant components). Further, covenant duties could lead to stories. And once every seven years, or more often, there's Tribunal.
Adventure XP can also be spent on abilities that are normally difficult to improve, because of a lack of books. While practice can do this, too, Adventure can be better because maybe you get some other material reward in addition to the XP.
This is typically where I plug my current saga, the Scions of Nathas!
Find our Wiki here
http://scionsofnathas.pbworks.com/w/page/15312850/FrontPage
Essentially its a homebrew setting, high fantasy. The PCs are all exiles from a doomed world (over run by undead). They led several thousand people to this new world and were responsible for protecting and providing for them. We are now 16 years in game time and they have settled 2 cities and 1 small town. They have explored their new home, interacted with the races already there (most of whom vastly overpower them) and engaged in much exploration of the ruins that litter the area they settled in.
There are no houses, instead each PC is from one of four traditions, each of which has orders, churchs or sub groups within it. Roughly its paladins (short range magic, healing bonuses, warriors), priests (who must serve the populace who in turn empower the gods through prayer), mages (distrusted but with powerful and versatile magic) and druids (mages with a focus on the natural magics of auram, terram, animal and herbam).
I've tried very hard to make the locals, all of whom are stock fantasy races, interesting and different enough that treating them as tolkein/dnd expies will lead to problems. The Dwarves for instance are divided into two nations, one young nation which is run along communistic military lines and one larger more ancient nation obsessed with honour and tradition and full of very deadly politics, back biting, frequent civil wars and clearly in a slow decline. The Elves are concentrated in a vastly powerful nation far to the east and in a tiny mountain nation to the north, the northern elves once had a much bigger and more powerful nation but it was crushed by the Eastern Elves. The ruins of that nation are where the PCs started and have been thoroughly explored/looted by them. The goblins of the forest (known in game as the Little Green Men of the Forest, or LGMotF) are tribal, but several tribes are friendly enough to trade and the PCs have developed a fondness for their spider venom brandy. The Orcs, are pretty much the butt monkeys of the setting are are routinely slaughtered by both Elves and dwarves. Although the PCs have encountered a group of "Grey" orcs to the east who appear to be highly disciplined and use magic. These orcs managed to enslave nearly 1500 humans whom our PCs rescued with much derring do.
Our PCs spend as much time in council arguing about what direction the nation should take as they do adventuring. We've build fortifications, created an education system, learnt to local languages, etc.
I've changed the ways auras work too, having ley lines that form aura "pools" when they meet. Bigger ley lines and points where multiple lines meet make bigger auras. Vis does not occur naturally but must be siphoned from the aura with "Manses", artificial devices that cap an aura and focus some of its magic into vis, the type of which is chosen when the manse is created. Because I was deliberately aiming for high fantasy, the vis allowance is quite generous.
I am pretty much happy with setting as written. There are specific things in particular tribunal books which make me not want to set a covenant there, but they are still interesting places to visit or to have people come from. As more and more Tribunal books are written, this may change.
Technically, I understand that the authors have been given permission to be inconsistent with previous editions ("canon-reset").
And Ars Magica is the single system I have ever seen with the highest degree of internal consistency within the edition - which is important to me.
What I meant was that House Bjornaer mentions a sept in Greece and Ex misc has a whole greek group, but none of them are mentioned in the Tribunal book, and all books are from 5th edition.
But I want to say to all the authors that I really enjoy all the books and this is not a way to complain to them. I have my own campaign set i the Thebes Tribunal and neither I, nor my players are unhappy about the book or the ideas of the authors. And on the possitive side, i leaned a lot about Constantinople and the life in greece through this book. It is in my eyes among the top 3 books of 5th edition.
Somewhere, someone might have said that those things that are mentioned in earlier books don't appear in later books because sagas may have already created what was necessary for their saga. No beastmasters in Hibernia (The Contested isle) despite their mention in, I think, Houses of Hermes: Societatas.
Mind you I don't think that's the only reason, I mean people can forget about things, or it gets cut in the final edit because the book is a bit too large, or it doesn't fit, or whatever.
Ah yes, the Bjornanear thing bothered me as well, but I decided that they were part of the Agatean Covenant (the underwater one) and that the Witches of Thessaly were hidden within the Ex Misc Covenant in ... Thessalonica (IIRC)
But you're right, as playtesters, we should have caught both of those hangs head in shame
There is no mention of beastmasters in Hibernia in the Societatas book. A poster, I forget who, put them in Hibernia in his saga, and then forgot that it was his addition and not canonical.
Matt Ryan
That was me. The quote "Hibernian Beast Masters" comes from Sanctuary of Ice, and so is 4th edition. I didn't just make it up. But because it's 4th and not 5th, its not canon.
Yes, i searched for them on Societates and their Tirbunals are not on that part. Hibernian are the Elementalist and maybe the Bards.
I'd give most other traditions access to Parma. The Order's version would remain superior because of it's ability to block the negative social effects of the gift. Hedgies and Rival Traditions get a bit of a power boost but they still can't challenge the order thanks to Magi's ability to work together.
I don't want to get defensive about this, but I do want to explain that there is a process here.
Not all back references are necessarily 'missed out'; it may be deliberate. References like this are intended for the troupe to develop. If they do so and then the tribunal book comes along and defines them differently, people can get upset. If you have used the Greek sept in your saga then you probably had to decide the where and the who of them already. It may be safer to not mention them -- it doesn't invalidate their existence just because they didn't get a full workup. It goes both ways as well: material postdating a tribunal book need not refer to it. If I write a story now that has a Greek antagonist or vital location, I would probably not use a magus namechecked in The Sundered Eagle or a mythic location described there. Any given saga may have invalidated the use of that character or location. All tribunal books so far allow a fair amount of room for personalisation and this is exactly the sort of thing that falls under that. My assumption is that players would rather have precious wordcount taken up by new stuff rather than covering old ground.
Mark
One of the most interesting ways to do wards vs Aegis I've seen is "Wards penitrate. Aegis doesn't. Thus, you can have a higher level Aegis for the same cost as a ward."
Two more ideas for Ars in different settings:
Heirs to Merlin - take your favourite bits of arthurian myth and carefully dump into mythic sub-roman/saxon invasion england. Magi characters tend to be very solitary as they don't have parma to shield from each other's gift, so adventuring groups would be one magus plus several warriors/bards/etc. Books are very rare, so most magical learning is from vis or by questing to initiate minor virtues. In fact, there should be a lot of questing all round to fit the setting.
17th century Ars - as wars of religion tear Mythic Europe apart, and witchcraft is suspected around every corner (but with the brutal massacres perpetrated by all sides, who can tell who is Infernal or Divine?) there exist hidden conspiracies who try to keep traditions of magic alive and to further human knowledge while avoiding the church, witch-hunters, mundane politics and the temptations of the Infernal. The "invisible college" is not in fact a group of proto-scientists working on alchemy but is a remnant group of a once-mighty "Order of Hermes" that came to an end centuries beforehand, and seeks to revive some ancient learning while devising new ways of thought. The chief difficulty of this time period is sensitive handling of the Divine and of religious politics during a particularly troublesome time.