Big News for Ars Magica

Well, it's only 920 AM PDT. Not sure when Atlas normally makes their announcements...

As of this posting, it is as late as 3:12 (eastern) or 12:12 pm Pacific. Hawaii and Alaska are earlier.

However, Atlas is based in Minnesota (pronounced Minna-soda), I believe, and there it is currently 2:12 pm. Or whatever. :smiley:

Maybe Atlas names CJ the new Line Editor? But who'll they hire to actually keep him in line?
It might be fun though.

That'd be awesome!

Abe, surely?

Technically they didn't say which Thursday...

At the moment it is just after 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm, depending on which time zone you mean.

Okay, so there it is:

blog.atlas-games.com/2015/05/fut ... f-ars.html

Sad to see, but it was somehow expected with yesterday's annoucement.

There were so many books that I had hoped to see in this line, which will never see the day. This is sure a day of mourning. We have been blessed with a crew at Atlas Games that has been kind and awesome, talented authors and a group of fans that has been dedicated to the game. I could not wish for a better community and people to speak to about my favourite RPG.

To all at Atlas Games and to all authors:

You have my sincerest thank you!

Why sad? We have at least three books to come: one is apocalyptic! :slight_smile: Then Magic Shoe will come out - and after that maybe more supplements for it. Sub Rosa, GrandbTribunal and Project Redcap will continue. Hell i might do more podcasts too!

And am i really that bad? Humph! One day I will make it to Line Editor and wreak revenge! :wink:

CJ x

I was really hoping for an HBO series, but... wait, what am I talking about? I wrote the blog post.

Seriously though, we mean what we say when we say that ArM5 needs to stand on its own for a while, without a 6th edition right around the corner. That sort of business model makes no real sense, and we want everyone to get the most out of the last few books for a good while before they think it's all obsolete.

Hopefully I'll have more news on catching up with the PDF releases, too, for those of you who like to grab them electronically. I'm going to say.... next week, maybe? Together with the Fiasco playsets, which are a lot of fun (albeit not entirely 5th edition canon).

I support this bid for Editor-ship!

No revamp of Iberia or Rome. Phoo!

Still, let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, and let a thousand fan projects grow.

So it was bad news. That too bad. It's always sad when a game goes terminal. I am not interested in Magic shoe, I don't like Gumshoe, and Fiasco might be good for a one off laugh but it is hardly campaign worthy.

My experience is that once a game stops being supported by the publishers it very quickly fades away

Historically that has not been the case with Ars Magica - or Glorantha come to think of it. We still have Thrice Told Tales, Egypt and Dies Irae to come - that takes us into 2016. The game still has a fanzine, a dedicated wiki and a dedicated convention - which runs in both Europe and North America. Even if like me you own every book released so far, there will still be new material in Sub Rosa.

David Chart came to be Line Editor under much worse circumstances - when White Wolf cancelled the line. Atlas bought it, and some twenty years on we are in a much better place. And no one has said there won't be a Sixth edition - i personally think we could do with a few more 5th (Scandinavia cries out for treatment) books, but hell Ars is far from dead.

Have faith, we have seen far worse twice before. This is good news.

CJ x

This is my fear as well. But let's see if we can prevent it.

Well, I have to say I'm quite content with the news. While I would have liked more 5th edition books, it's pretty complete as it is now, and I'm even happier that 6th edition will still be a (long) while off. I really think having a break of a few years will help a new edition to blossom when it finally comes around.

... but yeah, an HBO series (and revamped Rome tribunal) would have been sweet. :smiling_imp:

Excuse me, but you invalidated a bunch of the previous editions books by turfing the existing canon, and now you're not even going to replace them? Really?

If you write the novel i'll do the screenplay. I have written for tv...

Is this announcement killing the game or setting up s GenCon announcement of 6th edition? Seems like the game has about six months of filler announced. After that point, the game will probably be dead for most purposes. I do hope Atlas realizes that retailers are unlikely to stock a game whose end has been announced. If the idea is to try to sell down back stock during a couple yesr hiatus, that simply is not going to happen.