ARS MAGICA VIDEO GAME

[David_Chart]

@John Nephew

@cj.23

Is this really an alternative setting? Will the Diedne book and world book not be canonical? This is a kind of important question, for me and the other authors at least?

Let me refer you to David's post in this thread:
catnip & garlic

The Diedne supplement will be an official part of the game line, and the intent is, as much as possible, to make the video game itself canonical.

Right. I would like the world book to be a canonical "Stonehenge 1000" sourcebook for Ars Magica Fifth Edition if possible, but it might not be possible.

Computer games and table top games are different media, and there are different problems for each. Here's a concrete example that's already come up.

In the computer game, Longevity Rituals will not work for unGifted characters. If they did, then virtually every character who was alive at the beginning of the game would have to be taken into account in every storyline, right to the end of the century. There would be no guarantee that anyone would die. No problem for a tabletop game, but for the computer game it creates a huge amount of extra work, much of which will never be used, because most unGifted characters won't be given a Longevity Ritual.

So, it will become part of Ars Magica canon that Longevity Rituals for the unGifted were a 12th (or maybe late 11th, in Thebes) century Hermetic breakthrough. I'm pretty sure we can actually do this; I don't think we've said anything that contradicts it. However, similar things might come up that can't be accommodated that easily, and that might mean that the setting for the computer game can't be, quite, the canonical setting for the tabletop game. We'll be working to keep things as close together as possible, but at this point we can't make firm commitments that we will be able to keep the computer game entirely within tabletop canon. Fingers crossed...

Of course, even if it is, it's set 220 years earlier, so it's still an alternative setting of sorts.

The Diedne book is different. First, a fair bit of it will be for 1220, and thus will not affect the computer game. Second, the magical secrets of the Diedne will be properly integrated into Ars Magica canon, because failing to do so would be too much of a break from the tabletop game. (Yes, of course they will have magical secrets.) I don't plan to describe the plans of the Diedne leadership, or take sides in the Schism War, in the book. So, we can promise that this book will be canonical.

@John Nephew

The folks at Black Chicken Studios are very enthusiastic fans of ArM, and they are passionate about making the video game true to the RPG. From the first time I talked on the phone with Larry (he's the guy doing most of the talking in the KS video), it was clear that he is extremely familiar with the game and has a clear vision of how to port it into an engrossing computer game experience. It won't replace the tabletop game by any stretch, but for those of us who enjoy the game and the setting it will give us a new and fun way to explore it.

This sums up my impression when I talked to Larry as well. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this develops. (Although I may need to find a Windows laptop from somewhere.)