Nile was an interesting project because it was part of the whole North Africa thing that got so large that it became its own thing. We could easily add a half dozen more books in this setting. I can't give too much away because of NDA, but when we were writing this I did say "This is a perfect bridge setting for people who have played other games and want to try Ars but keep their old tropes. I nominate this as the new Triamore!"
Which is not what's happening...but if you want to do it, how to do it is obvious.
We did cut about 30 000 words out of North Africa that are based on the whole Sunidata thing (for those not familiar the wizard king in this fights the hero by certamen, jamming on his magical gamelan so that they turn their armies into a mountain and a storm.) Basically it's about where the slaves sold in the North African markets come from.
There's a whole layer of stuff that's going on in the background with the Red and Black that could be a campaign setting.
Yeah...Egypt is a whole new world of coolness. It shocks me now to think that it never occurred to me to use all of that stuff I've been thinking about in regard to water magic for this project. Then again, we would not have fit it in. The Nile's packed to the gills with fun stuff.
I want that Nile book so much. I even put a backdoor in our covenant in Novgorod so I can use it. Their Mercere Portal malfunctions one day in January and opens up into the Serapeum of Saqqara, though the PCs need to grow a bit before they're ready to root around in Egypt.
For lack of Lands of the Nile, I am looking at The Cradle & The Crescent and muse, what I would have to add to it to make it stand alone.
Just something like the ArM5 chapters Introduction, Characters, Virtues and Flaws, Abilities, Obstacles and a part of Long-Term Events? That would be under 50 pages.
Such basic rules, a bit cleaned up and streamlined, could perhaps even be provided separately: also as downloads to save paper, generate interest, and attract players like those described by Dunia?
Yes, I think this is a feature. While I realise that "magi casting/optimising spontaneous spells" really slows down the pace of play --- it really does feel like what academic wizards with a systematic method of magic would do. It feels authentic.
I think it would be a disaster to attempt to totally get rid of this (although it could be changed).
I don't think Spontaneous magic grinds the game to a halt...not anymore than stopping to discuss positions on a battlefield, melee stances, or angles for gunfire in other games and systems. And I'd hate to not have this in Ars Magica. After all, whenever a player thinks "my magus has absolutely no relevant spells for this situation" then you may need to improvise.
What you need is tolls to aid you in this! Back when I played 4th ed we had written down all the Tech/Form guidelines on a list, plus a list of the Range/Duration/Target. So we all got used to quickly working out the Spontaneous magic. We have the same for 5th ed, but some of the players still need to be potty trained. Having such a reference sheet allows you to quickly look up the TeFo combination you want, add up any extra parameters and work out the level. What would be really nice would be if Metacreator made a summary of your Tech+Form+Stm for all 50 combinations. A printed MC sheet works out your Lab Totals for these, but I really think such a list for Spont magic would be much more useful. This would speed things up. But if you for some reason decide it is too hard and time consuming then it'll never work for you.
I really like GURPS it's the game I've played for the longest time. And I may even have played more hours of GURPS than Ars magica. Playing a covenant of magi in Mythic Europe could theoretically be done with the GURPS platform, but I don't think I'd like to. I'll keep playing 5th ed and what little things I find suboptimal I'll change or work around. A 6th ed may need to be a little simpler, but I don't feel the core mechanics need changing - IMHO it's more a matter of limiting the add-ons. If you really don't like homework, then unless a fantabulous and detailed yet simple system for handling the long term projects ans scope of ArM as we know it is developed, then you may be better off playing something else. And that is not good for the potential economic viability of a new edition.
In my experience, there are two kinds of ArM5 spontaneous casting. I wouldn't wish to miss either of them.
(1) Casting those simple spells a magus just does not bother to learn. These many players record on a sheet just like their formulaic spells. Thus they were optimized for the magus casting them before the adventure, fit with his formulaic spells, don't take any more player time than these, and are at hand to be cast in tactical situations requiring quick decisions. Having a list of such spontaneous spells might even be considered the sign of a well prepared and tactically minded magus.
(2) The really situational spontaneous spells used for no-holds-barred problem solving with magic. An example I fondly recall is moving valuable pages of books on Hermetic magic safely out of a giant owl's nest in a regio, and through the stone vault of a tower, into the arms of the waiting magi. This took an hour or two to plan and execute. Every magus provided input on how to determine the right time of the casting, how to target the pages, how to save vis and related risk to botch on the needed effects, and, finally, who best should work them. There was a lot of "Ars MATHica" and "magical engineering" involved indeed. Some was discussed in character, though we do not play-act. And the final, successful, approach was not trivial at all.
This is exactly my proposal in the A Future ArM6 - what is essential.
We have all the books and rules to play in 13th century Mythic Europe. Sure, some polishing and streamlining could be done, but I would rather see ressources dedicated to other periods or part of the world: Nile is one, but China, India, Persia, Central and South America...
To me making sponts faster has some obvious tricks:
remove the division for sponts: instead double for formulaic.
Arrange the arts on the character sheet so that they are on a grid, with the Techniques on one axis, the Forms on another.
Provide a counter table. For those of you unfamiliar, imagine a grid which you slide counters across to help you calculate. One column is range, one is target, one is duration. Using a sliding table you don't need to remember hoe many steps you have gone up and then multiply by five.
Another interesting thoughts it that once you are using PDFs as native, your character sheets can be live, so your numbers can add themselves up. Your TeFo spell menus can grey themselves out based on your numbers.
You also don't need to work to foolscap/A4. If you want a character sheet that's effectively placemat in A3, more power to you.
I was trying to work on a D20 style sheet for Ars where all the numbers naturally flowed into the various totals. But then powerlifting happened and my time kind of disappeared a little. I should give that another go.
Just use magnitude casting, no roll. So your TeFo is 26, if you gesticulate rolling 2 is enough. Therefore you can do spont lvl15 spells, no more. Is it useful to try every 2 minutes until you roll 6+ when it's only 22? Just spend some gumshoe point or a Confidence.
Reverse guidelines into lvl10 spells, then adjust magnitude because you want Group but Touch. Gets rid of 1-4 magnitudes which are hard maths. I thought the way Amazons were done was easy.
But then how would people botch? On a related note, why do people ALWAYS lose Fatigue when casting spontaneous magic or when exerting in combat? Shouldn't there be a Stamina roll or something? Mind you, the same logic could apply to any spellcasting - chance to lose fatigue even with successful casting might make magi hesitate to casually toss spells and use more magic items instead.
Thanks, that was me, although I don't remember what I did to make it easy.
Seriously guys, your solution to make spontaneous magic quicker at the game table is to bring some form of calculator? Yes, that would make it faster, but is sure as hell isn't a sexy or fun solution, and its not going to bring in new people. I think the solution lies outside the box, and I think die roll + Technique + Form is deeply entrenched inside the box.
I don't have a solution, I should add, I just see a problem. Sure, this might not be a problem for other folks and it might just be my issue. I think Ars' greatest mechanical liability is all the nickle and diming it does with modifiers. Oh, all the separate ways to do things, what Timothy calls mini games, are also a huge liability.
I agree with Christian. Spont magic isn't terribly hard - especially with a list of base guidelines.
I did write a piece of html/javascript to calculate my casting totals for all 50 art combinations, but I rarely use it anymore.
You just need to do it a few times, and it becomes really easy.
No, it's not hard. But it is time consuming and distracting from play. And it happens often enough in games that it is an issue. Your troupe may be great at arithmetic in their heads, but not everyone is.
I used to think that Spontaneous Magic was a feature of Ars Magica. I'm closer to believing it is a bug, it's just not that great.
Spontaneous Magic's divide by 2 or 5 is the thing which I see newer players have an issue with, not that spont is a problem of itself. To me its still a feature.
