We are still refining exact plans, but licensed matter will definitely include setting as well as rules. We want third parties to be able to make and sell adventures, sourcebooks, remixes, variant settings, variant rules, novels, comics,... without needing any individual negotiated license from us.
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And with that my “unpublishable” Ars novel just became publishable.
Thanks John!
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When we've talked (internally) about open licensing ArM, your novel proposal in fact is one of the examples I pull out as "we need to make it easy for this sort of thing to happen."
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241 days... why 9/11? It's got some unhappy associations.
This is what we actually entered in backerkit:
The system requires is to choose a date and time. I think a countdown is the only thing that is public-facing.
Actual launch date is subject to change, but within our master schedule of things for the year, including crowdfunding days, this is a likely target. If not Sept. 10th, I'm going to tell you on the sly that it is very probably going to be on a Tuesday at 10 AM central within the four weeks after that.
We would have preferred to say "this fall!" but the BackerKit Launch system requires specificity, even if subject to change.
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I agree, Michael, that it will need Smythe-sewn binding. (Unless we wind up presenting it as a hand-carbed ebony box of embossed copper sheets or something, which is highly unlikely, but I don't want to preclude any possibilities.)
I'd like us to settle on production details that will be known (and budgeted and quoted from printers) from the start, not contingent on stretch goals.
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This is why you go with 9/9 or 10/10. Because October 9th and September 10th are confusingly similar. :-J
Give me ISO date format or death. 
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I’ve been a backer on at least one Backerkit campaign - the Laws of the Night one by By Night Studios. It seems to be going quite smoothly.
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What's your take on the Tremere / OoH / Doisettep trademarks? Are you swapping them out?
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And, just to be clear, right now we think CC BY-SA is the best way to achieve that, but the goal is what is important, not the particular license. We (they?*) are still looking at the details of the licenses and what their practical implications are. If another license is a better way to achieve the goal, we will use another license.
*My position here is ambiguous. I am not an Atlas employee, and my current contract is to produce the text for ArM5D, not the rest of it. John and Michelle will be making all the final decisions on these issues. But, unsurprisingly, I am involved in the discussions.
Well, not quite yet… 
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When you do open the floodgates, it would be nice to have a ready copyright "copy-paste" for third parties to be able to just put at the start/end of the pdf.
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Seeing as it takes time to develop things, what this does suggest for right now is that people might start working on things, knowing that when they're ready to publish there will be some sort of a license framework it will fit into. John's comment about rules/setting and intent help a lot there, even before the specific licensing is figured out.
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Indeed, as we drove to Somerset, WI yesterday to spend the afternoon working with our injection molding friends on InFUNity Tiles, Michelle and I were debating the timing, and whether it would be better to start licensing material in advance of the crowdfunding campaign or during/after it. On the one hand, we could make stretch goals out of the expanding licensed content. On the other, if we increase the advance buzz and get people working on and running new Sagas before 5D appears, that may increase the base of people interested in acquiring it.
Fundamentally, the book should be a luxury object that no one needs but everyone who likes or appreciates Ars Magica will want to have.
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TBA, but obviously this is a thing we have to examine closely (and perhaps communicate with other parties) before opening the license.
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I am beyond excited at these news, if not completely surprised (obviously). The license part of the news is awesome, and I think will be tremendously helpful in keeping Ars Magica alive. You can definitely count me in for the kickstarter. I would like to congratulate all of you for so many years of hard work in bringing this to life!
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We might not know the answer to this yet, but how big is this book going to be - in page count I mean?
This is cool news. I have been here since the edition came out and I know myself enough to know I am def going to back this at whatever amount is 'you get a book shipped to you' level.
It will be very interesting to see what has changed and what has not changed and stuff like that.
I hope its successful enough we get more products and stuff. There are still Tribunals that could use a 5e update. (You know, like removing how everything is demonic)
But yeah, kudos on this.
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Looks like the clarification and expansion of Hermetic Guidelines I have been working on is going into pause mode until ArM5D comes out.
I would suggest being a bit cautious about this until John has decided and announced exactly what is going to be opened. It won't necessarily be "everything for every edition of ArM", and if, for example, ToH:Rome is not opened, a new Rome Tribunal book would have to create all-new material, rather than just updating and revising the old book.
We don't know the answer yet. The layout is being designed, but the text is not quite finished, and so it has not been laid out.
It will be big, however.
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Well now I want THAT!
Seriously this is all great news. I'll definitely be signing up. I've been writing another two Ars games, one in setting and another in an alternate setting. It'll be great to be able to use a corebook that's had some of the rules updated and enhanced.
I'm also somewhat intrigued by the idea of publishing one of my alternate settings. I wrote an enormous amount of material for the Nathas game I ran, it would be nice to get it tidied up and published for other people to use.
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