Has anyone run a Ars Magica game that hasnt been set in Eurpoe/Earth?
Any luck, how does the game adapt to beings used for a different setting?
I ask as I'm thinking of trying to run a AM5 game for some friends, and well, my knowledge of history is zero and my knowledge of europe somewhat limited....
Cheers
Kal
I've run it in the Caribean as a pirate thing, as a King Arthur thing, and as a Julian May aliens thing. I've done a Greek city state thing. I did a deep sea thing...I did a World War Two thing once as a crossover. "Eat My Pilum, Nazi scum! Bwahahaha!"
Which is to say: don't get caught up on historical accuracy: historical accuracy matters only as much as you want it to matter.
"Guys, we are in distant...Africa? Still, it's a long way from anywhere. Deal with it."
I've run a game in a fantasy setting (back in 1995). It was a setting that I specifically wrapped around the system and the story that I wished to run so adaptation was a non-issue.
I played in and co-wrote a setting set in the modern day:
I played Ars using a Hyborian Age setting, and another in a generic fantasy world I invented and mixed it up with Sky Galleons of Mars.
Why not? If you like how the system works, go for it 
Generic fantasy universes tend to be inspired by the Middle Ages anyway, so no biggie here. You have the baron, the king and the faerie sin the woods. No problem if you do not know the name of the baron in Shrewsbury art the time: in fact, it doesn't matter if he is "William Fitgerald III" or "Funkel the Bastard"; the game works the same (well, Funkel the Bastard might be slightly more difficult to swallow by your players as a real name, but hey)
Broadly you have a fair idea on how society works, probably, even if you are not aware of it If you have seen the Lord of the Rings, Bree can be taken as an example of a an average town in a generic setting: dirty and weird to ourtsiders. Knights are the guys living in castles and manors, and exploiting their subjects, and the subjects are miserable but get along with it even if they are the ones that really suffer when the nobles battle each other. That can work for a generic setting easily enough and get you into Mythic Europe without further ado.
Cheers,
Xavi
Mmm noted a few oddities there so might as well get your attention about them.
Matched Arts? Why would anyone pick a +3 bonus for ONE combination, when you can pick Puissant for the Technique in question and get +3 to TEN combinations...
Adaptive casting? Equally hideously overpowered as Matched arts are underpowered.
Strong writer affecting level limit numerically and unconditionally makes it also a over the top thing(writing abilities to or OVER your own level for example(myself i have made Virtues that affect max level limit by raising higher than 1/2 to another fraction)).
BTW, like the pictures on the site there.
Edit: Oh and after looking around it some more, a good old Bolt Action Rifle is NOT normally considered a "Battle Rifle".
Or even close. Battle rifle is usually used as name for "assault rifles" that still uses fullsized rifle ammunition.
Like the HK-G3:
world.guns.ru/assault/as12-e.htm
That is a battle rifle.
Looks cool, reminds me of Ars Modernica (is that still around?). Seems very 3rd/4th edition derived though. No more Tremere? What happened?
My one issue, Electricity should not be Auram. In the middle ages, the air is the only place one would find it, so Lightning is indeed Auram. But electricity in Wires should be Terram. Or maybe even Vim for Power (paradigm shift don't ya know).
Lightning shouldn't be Auram in the first place even. It should be Ignem. Plogeston (fire) that leaks through the sphere of the sky.
Vim, definitely Vim.
Actually we have tested running with the in paradigm common idea of "aether"/"etheral" as an 11th form covering all sorts of "unseen energy", while NATURAL weatherbased lightning still falls under Auram.
It also has the advantage of letting our major virtue "Master Etheralist" (equal to our version of Elementalist but covering Vim, Intellego, Imaginem and if included also, Ether(with virtues Life Mage(Co,Me,He,An) and Master Manipulator(Cr,Re,Mu,Pe) covering the remaining Te/Fo)) use identical rules as its siblings.
Possibly, but with the standard of placing all "weather" under Auram...
I should clarify: this was written and playtested in 4th edition. We updated it for 5th but didn't get a chance to playtest it, so some features may indeed still need a bit of fine-tuning depending on how you run your saga.
Thank you very much for sharing this, it is most interesting!
It is pretty awesome. Got me to thinking about my own tinkerings with the concept 
Mmm ok, i read several things to be updated so it looked to me like those i commented on were as well.
Has some nice and interesting parts here and there indeed. 
Just this weekend I played in a fascinating and fun adaptation of Ars Magica set during the Napoleonic Wars. We were English magi serving in the navy on the Glorious First of June. It was amazingly fun. We didn't use the mechanics of Ars Magica at all though, instead we played using the "Dread" system I believe it's called, which uses a Jenga tower and simplified stats. I'll see if I can convince the storyguide to come to Grand Tribunal America: 2009, maybe he'd be willing to run it again.
Dread - never heard of it before, but interesting! "Innovative" is putting it mildly!
I'm pretty close to starting a high fantasy version of ars set in a new setting.
I'm avoiding the background of my players characters by having them moved to literally a new world near the start of the campaign, so the bulk of the game is going to be learning about their new world, exploration, colony building and negotiating with the worlds existing powers.