This is one of the things that an Open License would be great for. If the various hedge magic traditions were in the SRD (ArM5 hedge magic tends to be quite close to medieval beliefs and practices, with a handful of legacy exceptions), someone could do a "low magic Ars Magica", because all the actual history is public domain, and has been for centuries.
I agree.
That's actually in the conditions set down by the Secret Masters. We aren't allowed to have a functioning combat system.
These are great news! An OGL for Ars Magica would bring more life to this line, undoubtedly.
Regarding myself, i am working on a personal project: i want to novelize the wonderful adventures i have played with my group, based on the Hibernia Tribunal. But, of course, i don't want to break any license if i commercialize this novel.
I'm not talking about publishing some official content, but using the Ars Magica setting to build a story, just like we do when we play the game. And using some specific terms like "Parma magica", "vis", "Vim", "Bonisagus", and so, without breaking any license.
Would this OGL allow me to write and publish my novel?
I'm not sure how useful it would be to me personally as I barely write these days and self-publishing seems like a daunting task...
That being said, given that Ars Magica 5 is currently in 'evergreen' mode, I think it would be a good idea to keep some kind of momentum going and, if it does prove to be a problem you could potentially revise the terms when/if 6e is released...
For people wondering about this, its not, especially if you have a template to work from. Its easier if you have real graphic design / layout skills, but you can get by using OpenOffice, a collection of free fonts, and a collection of PD images like Unsplash or WikiCommons. The actual difficult bit is writing something up with enough detail.
And if you don't want to do the publishing bit yourself, open-licensing will probably make things easier for fanzines, who will handle all that for you.
This is true. Even though I have vastly more experience with the writing part of the job, that is still the part of producing something self-published that takes the most work.
I can't stress enough how much I would get behind this open license.
(Self)Publishing novels about adventures in Mythic Europe sounds like a dream come true.
It would be fantastic if Ars Magica is made available under an open license. I have a character & covenant creator web app that I would love to make available to whomever would like to use it, but with Ars Magica content embedded in the app, I cannot do so. Open licensing would change that
Whether such tools can be published depends on the exact license. It does not follow from an open license in general. Would it not be wonderful if Atlas would publish traits and spells in a structured format, so that tool developers could just read the file directly. Buy the data separately instead of republishing it.
It would have been great a few years ago, as now I already have all of them in a database. It involved a lot of copy/paste and also some swearing against pdf text formating
Sorry I haven't responded much the last couple of days! Just a quick note to say we're continuing to follow the thread and talking with folks working on the ORC license.
I have been investigating indie self publishing through Lulu and One Bookshelf (DTRPG, DM Guild, Storyteller Vault). In the past few years I have really been getting into OSR games and retro-clones. Lots of free or PWYW titles, home brew material, and even original games. I even have some stuff I wrote up and formatted for Old School Essentials and was planning to start dabbling in self publishing this year.
And the year starts off with Hasbro lighting an OGL dumpster fire.
I have a few groups on discord and roll 20. I grew weary of tedious PbP gaming and was lured away by the instant satisfaction of "live" gaming.
I mention that because I want to take a break from the old classic and get them to play some other stuff for awhile. I have lots of games I am interested but have no experience with. The two I am familiar with that I am interested in include Mage and Ars Magica.
Which brings me to my point.
My group is mainly familiar with the two most popular versions of D&D (those being 5e & OSR). So what I am thinking of is writing a set of quickstart ArM5 rules to teach them the game. There will be a lot of people looking for new games this year, and it is more than likely that they will be coming from a D&D background (probably 5e). The tractatus I am thinking about would be geared towards such an audience.
This is probably not the best place to discuss methods or mechanics. This is just an example of something someone could do using an open license and Ars Magica which could be written without much (if any) reference to the setting.
And if what I accomplish is just sort of mediocre, someone else could come along and improve upon it or carve out ideas for their own better system. Any works derived from open content must in turn be open content. You can mark your personal IP as separate, like the names of characters and so on.
Also, I wanted to say that it is helpful for folks to describe what they would like to be able to do.
This is exactly the kind of thing we would LOVE to see and we intend to make possible. And we'd want the creators to be able to get money from it, to reward and incentivize the kind of work necessary to make it really great (and, from our selfing POV, to draw more buyers to the entire ArM line that we have for sale).
Campaign/Adventure (see my 1st Crusade actual play. Have done a ton of research and would be interested in making an Ars Magica 1st Crusade campaign book.)
Sourcebooks for an alternative Mythic Europe
New Regios for use
Expanded Cosmology (i.e. Book of Worlds from M:tA but for Ars Magica)
Sci-fi expansions for the Cowboys and Aliens Fans - beings from beyond the Lunar sphere
Write (short) adventures, maybe a starter kit for conventions. Maybe some add-on rules (I keep thinking about hacking the CC-BY Blades in the Dark faction / entanglement system to be a political plot generator for Ars Magica). I've thought about doing playbook-style starter characters to make things easier for con play, but that's a serious graphic design challenge, and so beyond my skillset.
I don't think I personally have it in me to write anything of value, but if I can work up the nerve to try I might take aim at some of the lower-hanging fruit we saw published under OGL ("101 X's" or the like) which shouldn't be too hard though I'd probably feel obligated to offer them for free...
As to what I'd like to see from other people, while I very much like both the system and setting for Ars Magica, I do think it would be a great opportunity to adapt the game mechanics to new eras and settings - Classical era, renaissance, China, etc.
If you decide to do it, talk to me, I have some graphic design skill (the cover for Animals of Mythic Europe is my own adaptation of the classic Ars Magica covers)
Well, in the short term, a Venice book and a bestiary. In the medium term, help other people get their work polished. In the long term, all of the things I've been putting off for ages, like a Domdaniel sourcebook.
: I wonder how many of us created such devices in the privacy of our sanctum...