Ars Magica Open License Announcements

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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We're excited to announce that Ars Magica will soon be released under an Open License, as part of our crowdfunding for Definitive Edition. This means that you, our passionate community, will have the freedom to create and share your own Ars Magica content with the world!

I've created this thread as a place for you to post your own Open License announcements. Let us know about any Open License material you've created as it becomes available, whether it's new spells, magic items, adventures, or anything else related to Ars Magica.

You're welcome to post a link to your material, but please put conversations into another thread. Also note that Atlas Games doesn’t endorse any of the material announced here.

I'm looking forward to seeing the amazing directions you'll take Ars Magica!

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To kick off this thread, I'll start with Atlas Games' announcement of the release of Ars Magica itself under the Open License.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ARS MAGICA RPG BECOMES OPEN LICENSE VIA CROWDFUNDING

Proctor, MN – 09/27/24 – The legendary roleplaying game of myth and magic will soon itself be transmuted, as Ars Magica's game system and setting will be released under an open license. The crowdfunding campaign supporting the release starts Oct 15 at 11am Central US time, on BackerKit.com.

Atlas Games®, the stewards of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying game Ars Magica, announced earlier this year the upcoming launch of Ars Magica Definitive Edition. This deluxe version of the 5th Edition marks an epic return for the game, not only with an expanded rulebook weighing in at over 600 full-color pages, but also by embracing an open license for third-party creators.
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Ars Magica Definitive Edition will empower players and creators like never before. The text of the core rulebook will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license as an early stretch goal. This open license will allow players to freely share, adapt, and build upon both the core mechanics and the Mythic Europe setting for the game, and sell their creations.

All of Ars Magica's 5th Edition sourcebooks may also be released during the campaign, depending on backer support. Stretch goals for licensing the existing 40+ titles in this edition, which flesh out every facet of Mythic EuropeTM, are scheduled to appear later in the campaign.

John Nephew started Atlas Games in 1990 to produce Ars Magica adventures with a license from Lion Rampant, the game's original publisher. In 1996, Atlas Games bought the entire game from Wizards of the Coast, and went on to publish the 4th and 5th Editions that included 65 supplements in total. "Ars Magica has never had an open license," observes John, "yet still the internet is full of fan-created content, which is something we've always quietly encouraged. That speaks more than anything to the game's devoted and creative fan following, and the importance of this license to make our support explicit."

Michelle Nephew is the project's Co-Producer, as well as co-owner of Atlas Games. "We've had the amazing opportunity to publish Ars Magica for over three decades, supported by that devoted fan community," she agrees. "As the stewards of this incredible piece of roleplaying history, John and I feel it's time to give back to our fans, and let them take the game in new directions we haven't had the resources to explore. It's our way of fostering a vibrant community of creators, and ensuring the game's longevity for generations to come."

"I already have a Patreon to make material for it, with permission from Atlas to start before the licenses are released," notes Line Developer David Chart. "Anyone who wants can write for the game, and charge people for what they make. I very much hope that this will be a new beginning, and that the amount of material available to build on will encourage lots of people to do so."

"Their creativity will determine the game's legacy," David continues, "and it will be more than I can imagine."

The highly anticipated crowdfunding campaign launches on BackerKit.com October 15th at 11:00 AM Central US time.

Resources:

About Ars Magica:

Ars Magica is the award-winning tabletop RPG set in a Mythic Europe teeming with magic. Players take the roles of powerful wizards, bound by a complex covenant system and dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the arcane. Widely regarded as the benchmark for magic systems, Ars Magica is also the pioneer in troupe-style, storytelling games.

About Atlas Games:

At Atlas Games, our passion is offering exceptional games to the world. Our first release was in 1990, making us one of the most reliable hobby game publishers in business, too. We believe in creative curiosity and sensible operations. We love new ideas and always keep our word. If that appeals to you, boy have we got a treat for you!

Contact:
John Nephew
Atlas Games Co-Owner
john@atlas-games.com

Ars Magica and Mythic Europe are trademarks, and Atlas Games is a registered trademark, of Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games.

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I'll start. I have a Patreon through which I am, at the moment, creating a starter saga/starter set, with pregen characters and scenarios to introduce all the aspects of the game, including troupe-style play.

https://patreon.com/DavidChart

That link is already in the press release, of course. At the moment, the material is only available to patrons, and it is a work in progress, but it will be released under the open license just as soon as Atlas do that for the existing material. (I think it will still be a work in progress at that point.)

I have plans for more material once the starter set is finished, but one project at a time!

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I’m writing a novel set in Mythic Europe. The protagonist is Joan of Flambeau, a young milites who travels to Iberia to stop the Flaming Shadow. There’s still a lot of work to do, but I’m about a third of the way through the project and I’m pretty happy with how it’s going.

You can read the first third of the book in the Joan Vault.

If folks have questions feel free to DM me or tag me in a thread somewhere.

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I am running the Curse of the Rhine Gorge for a second time. It is my hope to bring together all my notes from the two games at the end of this saga and to make a companion document for the GotF chapter, which would help a new storyteller get things going, with timelines, plotlines, dryails on the various local politics and ready to use scenarios (some of which regular visitors of the forum might be familiar with).

Will it ever happen though...

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I've had a podcast called Games From Folktales for some time, and it tends to contain Ars Magica material. Transcripts are at https://gamesfromfolktales.com/ My first project for the Open License is Mythic Venice, The first chapter, in pdf and audio, is free here: Ashcan and audio of Mythic Venice Chapter One – Games From Folktales

The complete text has been released to my Patreons, who are over on https://www.patreon.com/TimothyFerguson The plan is for it to be "pay what you want" on Drivethru or somewhere similar. It's ready to go when the license goes live.

That will be followed by my podcast's bestiary. The last version of this, which came out in 2020, is up here for free. Episode 250 – Half-remembered monsters – Games From Folktales The goal is to add extra materials for people to use in their own work. I'm also writing an index of creatures with Might in all of the Fifth edition supplements, to make supplement development easier. It's likely to be finished this weekend. I'm going alphabetically I'd I've just reached the Realms of Power books, which will prove a challenge.

After that, it looks like a Sicily book, but I'm still scoping the source material. The alternative is a Cheshire and Flintshire book.

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Various spanish speaking blogs keep regularly producing material for the game such as compilations of model Covenants, Antagonists, Sources of Income, etc... plus small introductory adventures or "one shots" for the game.

Plus a spanish language fanzine called Aegis.

Plus a whole Tribunal 5th edition book for Iberia!

I'm sure that they will love to get their hands on the AMDE license (and if as hinted it includes all of the other 5th books then it will be great!) plus whatever support from Atlas and the community and start producing material.

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I have a couple of one-shots which I've run for beginner players. They need a bit of polishing for public release, but I plan to put them on DTRPG as PWYW once the open licence is out.

More ambitiously (and therefore less likely) I have sketches written up for two games using Ars Magica as the base system:

  1. Nuns Against Evil, a game designed for episodic play in the style of a supernatural horror / murder mystery. All characters are attached to a religious order and faced with supernatural mysteries in the community that depends upon them. Inspired by a mashup of Evil (the recent tv show) and Brother Cadfael.

  2. Ars Reptandi Per Cavernas (or similar title - yet to run it past my Latinist friend), which is a hack of Ars Magica to play a relatively light heroic fantasy / dungeon crawling game in Mythic Europe. The rules complexity should stand to ArM more or less as Torchbearer stands to Burning Wheel.

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In case any of the other creators find this useful, here's a spreadsheet indexing the 615 creatures with Might in the 5th edition supplements. Ars Magica 5th Edition Creature Spreadsheet – Games From Folktales.

I can see this would have saved me some time on Venice. I hope it helps you. It's only name/realm/might/page #//brief description.

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8 posts were split to a new topic: Timothy's Might Spreadsheet Discussion