Ars Magica Accessories Thread

Hey folks -- you may have heard about our Replay Workshop, where we are developing things like game components and accessories out of recycled plastic and such. Besides general things like dice and minis terrain, we want to do things that would be enhancements for specific games like Ars Magica. So this is a thread for sharing ideas and getting feedback.

Starting things off -- I have been wanting to make vis tokens, which would look like they could come from the game world, and could be used at the table to track vis as it is acquired and used in play. I like the idea of an adventure beginning with a magus, leading an expedition, being given a handful of vis from the Covenant's reserves; and then handing those tokens back to the Storyguide when they are expended.

So here is my current prototype of a single pawn token for vim vis. One side has the Order of Hermes logo; the other has the symbol of VIM and text reading ORDO HERMAE and PIGNVS VNVM. (Thanks to David Chart for the Latin consulting!). I carved the mold in aluminum and tested it with polymer clay, cured in the oven, and painted these two samples very hastily.

The Order's symbol also works fairly nicely as a wax seal stamp, even if my stamping technique is lacking

Comments, feedback, and wish lists encouraged!

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That's really cool!, you did a really good job with the old coin look.

I'd love some chess piece versions as well for the older magi to still use because I always loved that whole buisness of keeping vis in chess pieces. Not sure how you'd mark them though.

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Sticking with the token idea, shards and tokens for the Theban tribunal, confidence points, wound identifiers.

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Thanks! I'm really happy with how it looks like ancient Roman or Medieval coinage.

I debated using chesspiece symbols and may yet make variants that use them, probably in place of the OoH symbol on the face. Or I could switch to having the Art + symbol on one side and a chesspiece symbol + quantity on the other. So maybe "TERRAM" and "ORDO HERMAE" around the Terram symbol; PIGNVS VNVM and VIS around a picture of a pawn on the other.

I can imagine too that there would be multiple versions of the vis tokens in circulation, so having varied examples would be fine.

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what is that supposed to mean?

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While still dice, a set of d10 with each Technique x2 on one and each Form on the other?
A variety of objects for voting sigils?

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pignus unum = one pawn

So it really means that this token is a stand-in for a unit of vis; it's "pawn" as in "pawn shop" but then wizards equate it with a playing piece in a game of chess and riff on that for larger measures (rook, etc.).

penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Pignus.html

"A thing is said to be pledged to a man when it is made a security to him for some debt or demand. It is called, says Ulpian, Pignus when the possession of the thing is given to him to whom it is made a security, and Hypotheca, when it is made a security without being put in his possession"

Since vis is the thing that magi value, vis in a form that is clearly identified, measured and fungible can be used as collateral between wizards.

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Definitely want to do custom dice! Sigils could be interesting too.

Injection molded plastic and made some sample vis tokens

Colored one of them with a silver sharpie marker...need to fiddle around with some coloring options. Possibly just some light dry brushing to highlight the relief text/images

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A stress die.
On the D10, have 2 - 9 and a skull (or something similar to represent an undesirable result) for a botch and say the symbol of the order of hermes to be the X2, or just have X2 on the die.

Dice rolling boxes and dice bags.
The bags and boxes could have symbols and colouring appropriate to each house.

Spell Cards.
Have the most common spells such as Pilum and say 19 others, and then say 20 blanks.
This would also work as a printable PDF.

Other game mechanics tokens.
Wound and Fatigue tokens. One side a relevant AM symbol, other side -1, -3 and -5.

On the more expensive end, custom voting sigils.
The customer send the art or gives a written explanation of what they want. An artist designs the sigil, and then it is created. I'd think around $1K as it involves an original piece of art, but some might pay.

This thread is a brain storm exercise , so I might as well put some wildish ideas out there.

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Hmm. I especially like the idea of Wound/Fatigue tokens... Could make circles (1-sided), triangles (3-sided) and and pentagons (5-sided)

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Not a bad idea, but in 2023, a custom art piece on a printed support can be obtained for a much more reasonable ammount.

I think a stress die is a must. In fact, it would be great to have a matching set of a stress and a simple die, in different colours, with the 0 on the simple die as a 10. It would make it very clear which one you are rolling in a particular situation for those times when it isn't clarified beforehand (I am sure I'm not the only one!).

David

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And doesn't Weird Magic require a botch dice distinguishable from other botch die?

Yes so at least two color options for the botch dice would be useful. I believe extra botch dice from certain applications of Faerie Magic are also viewed a little different with the expanded rules for that in HoH:MC or maybe I am confusing that with extra botch dice around using Faerie Sympathies in one's magic.

Fun ideas for doing various dice! We'll have to make a mold for just making a set of various d10 designs, or individual molds for different designs. Hmm. A single mold with multiple designs saves time in production, but means the whole set is done with the same plastic mix, which nerfs the "different" colors idea for at least the die itself.

OK...we have produced more than a hundred of the Vim Vis token, so I set them up for a product in the Replay store! Ars Magica Vim Vis Tokens (bag of 5) [Replay] – Atlas Games Shop I am certain we will have them in our booth at future conventions as well.

I'd like to do all the other Arts, but probably not one at a time...I need to make a single mold for the larger injection molder that is being made for us right now by Citizen Scientific Workshop (https://cit-sci.com/) so that a single injection outputs all 15 arts, rather than having to make one at a time. Actually, I want to make a steel template of circular sizes and sprues/runners/gates leading to them, which can be set between two sheets of aluminum that can have heads and tails carved on each to go inside the circles. Then the faces can be switched out -- if I have "tails" of all 15 Arts, I could do variant "Heads" with symbols for the Order of Hermes, the individual Houses, or whatever. It would be cool to have varied sets of tokens like coins that had been struck in different mints across Mythic Europe.

ADD - Just realized it would also be cool to have alternate "tails" with the inscriptions not in Latin, but in Greek/Cyrillic/Arabic for circulation in the Tribunals in those parts.

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To continue with the Vis things. What about making chess pieces with the Art inscribed on the base?

Additionally, a stamp that one can use with the symbols of each House (And if Atlas wants then maybe of the Tribunals).

Chesspieces are an interesting idea! Should be doable.

Definitely want to do stamps. I want to test making one in polypropylene to make sure it holds up with hot wax, clay, ink. I have a scheme for overmolding the stamp on a screw that can attach interchangeably with a handle that itself could be turned from wood, plastic or metal for that matter.

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