How'd it go? Was it a useful and interesting addition to the campaign? Did anyone abuse it?
Please, not everyone at once.
I would love to, it just seems with every ars supplement these days they add a load of virtues that permit entirely different types of magic I just gave up trying to remember them all. I am still running an 8 bit brain here, born pre windows see... which simply cannot handle any more rules divergence. When someone wants to play a toon with it I will have a look - until then there are thousands of other pages of rules I am busy with.
Have you read the RoP:F book? its like learning a new game, and written in Atlantean... maybe I am a bit dim but surely there are better ways to do this, and storyguides should be permitted to wing some things rather than find a billion dice rolls and sub tables for stuff.
Anyway, story magic was just another one of those long list of virtues no-one I have played with has taken so I will leave it well alone until...
Hi,
I'll give it a go. I have not actually used Story Magic, but it is the sequel to the minor charm virtue that I like very much; some of the rules need explanation, but it is a stylish virtue that, depending on how things are ruled, is also useful.
Story Magic, however, is a major virtue that takes a lot of effort to activate, and then has limited effects, all of which are under GM control. More than this, the text encourages the GM to make the virtue be not all that useful.
It's a minor virtue with a major cost.
All in all, hard to abuse.
Anyway,
Ken
When you are reading all the supplements of Ars Magica (5 ed), you really encounter a plethora of Virtues and new Abilites. Even the same character concept (for example, bard) can be done with a lot of different builds. So it´s really dificult to find experiences for one virtue in particular, most of all if it´s in a supplement. Sorry but i didn´t ever used it, not even my NPCs.
Thanks for the replies.
I have not read RoP:F yet, although I do have the Faeries book from a previous edition (4th?). I find Story Magic to be quite confusing, actually. Not really sure how it could be used in a game.
Hi,
Story Magic is in HoH:MC, I believe.
It could be used in a game to gain a +3 bonus in a scene that is thematically appropriate to the activating charm. A charm for valor might apply to a battle, a charm for romance to... romance.
It could be used by a player to ask for a thematically appropriate coincidence, sort of the way Gandalf has an 'eagle' story charm. 
An "I'm surrounded by idiots" story charm might let a character con his way out of an untenable situation, a McGuyver story charm might allow a character find something handy, a 'greed' story charm might allow a character to discover how to bribe his ostensibly incorruptible guards. This can be kind of cool, in theory, a way for a player to tell the GM what kind of story element he wants thrown in.
It's hard to abuse though, being written in the Steven S. Long style. In most games, you can get or create story hooks like this anyway, and in games where you cannot, the virtue text encourages GMs not to make the virtue good enough to allow a player to get off the railroad.
Anyway,
Ken
Hmm, can you explain how Gandalf had an eagle story charm?
Hi,
grin When it looks like there's big trouble, he uses the charm and giant eagles show up. This occurs in The Hobbit, when eagles come to rescue the party from the Wargs; offstage in Fellowship when Gandalf is rescued from Saruman's tower; again offstage in TTT, when Gandalf is borne to Galadriel after his return; and finally in RotK, when Gandalf and the eagles rescue Frodo and Sam from the fires of Orodruin.
This is probably the kind of charm use the rules recommend against allowing.
Anyway,
Ken