Happy Spring to our Ars Magica Fans!
We are continuing to work hard at getting the Definitive Edition ready for our crowdfunding campaign this fall and, as usual we want more input from YOU!
Are there any changes to the character sheet that you would like to make? Here is a link to the current character sheet for reference.
Additionally, what would be helpful appendices to include in the book?
Thanks again for your loyalty and support!
I would like in addition to printed character sheets a google-sheet or XL spreadsheet to speed up XP calculations. Esp for newbies, it can be difficult to see where they have accidently over or underspent. I have not used a paper character sheet for Ars Magica for over a decade now, but still use paper sheets for other games I am in, so I can't comment on the paper side.
Bob
I’ll just note that the “description” entry for characteristics is a holdover from previous editions. Nothing in the core rulebook says anything about giving your Intelligence, Perception, etc a descriptive adjective.
Note that I’m not saying those kind of adjectives aren’t fun or useful. But nothing in ArM5 talks about them. They’re not a thing.
I'm going to be evil and say important info should be kept together: score / ability / specialty / xp.
Because with "3 Latin ............." you only move your eyes down through each entries.
Whereas with "Latin ................. 3" your eyes will jump to the wrong row.
Re: Helpful Appendices
Fans have assembled a number of indexes for the game over the years. Some are linked on the Atlas site, but some of those may not be definitive and include the entire game line. Other indexes listed below are answers to questions fans often come here to ask (“I know there’s stats for baboons somewhere in the game line, but where?”)
So my opinions:
this is not printer friendly. I'd suggest also making a B&W version which doesn't have the decorative elements along the outside, this would incidentally give a smidge more space for everything else. I am currently running an in-person game (I know, Holy Grail), and reading what is written in the boxes is often tricky.
I would suggest the following order Ability - Specialty - level - XP
I find the race/nationality to be superfluous since place of origin is right underneath. Nationality is a concept that is about 600 years too soon.
The combat section is pretty big, I'd have multiple "loadout" options, maybe 3? Unarmoured/partial main armour/full main armour, whereas I find more than 3 weapon entries seem like overkill (a brawl one, main weapon, ranged weapon should in most cases suffice)
making the sheet digitally filable would help with legibility, especially if it auto-calculates totals (as pointed out by @rgd20)
Regarding Appendices, @Doctorcomics hit the main points. Someone made a complete list of all canon magi from 3-5th Ed by tribunal in a google sheet and it is super convenient, since it is easily sortable.
My opinions:
Decrepitude and Warping should have a spot to record "experience" as well as their score. Although you generally use the score in play, when they increase you're tracking Warping Points or Aging Points.
Same for Reputation scores.
I really would like to see as complete a list of seasonal activities as possible, with the summaried rules and reference (perhaps in a table). Since every season the players generally want to review their options and it's all spread out currently.
I've made my own for my campaign, since it greatly simplified choices for players and put it front and center for them. A new core book appendix might have something of it, but perhaps lighter in table format with just a reference rather than the amount of text I have (needed a more self contained doc).
Anyway, I shared it on the forum here as it can highlight a bit what I meant:
Do you mean either of these google sheets? Or are there more perhaps?
I'll add that it might be very convenient with an official Atlas Games version (these can be hard to find for many), but perhaps not necessarily taking space as part of core book (downloadable official version?).
As for the Character Sheet, both me and my players have preferred to use the Mad Irishman "Ars Magica Fifth Edition Character Sheet 2.0":
http://www.mad-irishman.net/pub_ars.html
There are a couple of reasons:
+1 for printer friendly option (but keep a nice rich color one)
+1 for 2-3 armor, and perhaps weapon loadouts (nice to have clear armored/unarmored situations)
+1 for having Warping/Aging/Decreptitude/Reputation "XP" field on it (should be a must have).
I would really also like to have more of a Magi specific sheet and a grog/companion (non-magi) specific sheet. Currently you can skip the additional sheet, but I'd like to have a more targeted (single page ideally) for the non-magi with pretty much all (non-magical) abilities/options already written out on there. Who wants to scrawl down lots of the same every time a new character is made?
On that note: I would also much like to see a much more standardized setup of personality traits in the game (while keeping option for a custom or two) - and ideally written out on the sheet as well.
I also personally think there's a bit much in terms of border and whitespace. It looks good, but when text fields are so tight you quickly run out, and it might be good to consider the page count and the use of the sheet estate.
If at all feasible I'd also like an A4 formatted version to make even use of the estate (for us europeans that don't have Letter format pages). I understand if this is not a priority, and we're fine - but for us it adds a lot of extra whitespace and when sheets already have a lot it really does aggregate...
Neither of these... This one instead which also has the non 5th ed books added in:
I'd recommend a change on the first page. The first page should have things that are regularly referred to. If it won't be referred to at least once a session, one must ask, should it be on the front page?
Decrepitude and Warping are taking up precious space. One could also argue the virtues and flaws, while exceptionally important can also be off the first page as they aren't referred to that often. Even name race religion, height, etc I'd like to think most people have the facts in that box down pat. They know if their character is tall,short, wiry, petite, a man-mountain, etc. Move it from page 1.
There's also a thought of magi character sheet and grog/companion character sheet. Grog sheet has the weapons on the front page.Also drop the lines. Which grog is carrying 6 weapons?
Magi character sheets could have arts on the front page.
Personality traits might also fit on page 1.
One thing nobody mentioned, is a separate Lab sheet. A Magus' Lab, if one is using the rules from Covenants (or if they appear in the new Deifinitive core book), should be able to have a page to fully flesh out his Lab. Virtues, Flaws, what specialties it has, and their bonuses.
On the character sheet: a summary of the "standard" Range, Duration,Targets with all the other spell formulae. It's what you look up when you want to cast a spell.
In the appendix: the spell guidelines for each technique/form combination. No need to have the explanatory text there.
For all rules summaries in the appendices: page numbers of where the full rules can be found.
I'd argue against this. I think the appendices in the Definitive Edition should not include information that you need other books to make use of. The test should be whether the information is useful if you have only the Definitive Edition book.
For instance, the DE should not contain a list of magi given in other books: that's better kept to a downloaded list, as that list is useless to someone owning just the DE. On the other hand, including a couple of writeups along the line of Magi of Hermes or Antagonists would be useful, as it gives GMs and players some ideas of what these people look like mechanically.
The official character sheet was so bad, I made my own years ago. It has a place to put confidence, but it should be 2 numbers, score and points. No place in the characteristics to put aging points they've gained. A fresh fatigue level seems unneeded. And after reading this thread, I should have put warping and decrepitude on the back, it's not needed often. Sadly, my campaign fell apart years ago, so not going to update it again
Ars_Magica_5th_Character_Sheet_v1.6.pdf (160.1 KB)