Hello,
I'm a newbie in the Ars Magica world and looking for nice beginner- adventures. What do You think about "The Bishop's Staff"? Something else?
Welcome aboard! 
What edition of Ars are you working with?
Hello,
I want to buy the new 5th edition. Is it a big problem to convert 4th edition-adventures to the 5th?
Bishop's Staff was written for the 4th edition and would need to be converted to 5th. Conversion is not too complicated, but you need to have an idea of how difficult you want things (e.g. combat) to be. The 4th edition rules are available for reference anyway.
As far as pure 5th edition adventures go, you got The Broken Covenant of Calebais.
Welcome aboard, friend. Calabais is indeed a wonderful adventure, full of sessions and sessions of adventure, hand outs, interesting opponants, and eye-popping magic items.
You also might try the Stormrider Returns, also for 4th ed. This has pregenerated characters, hand-outs, and a step-by-step guide to playing the game.
The "official saga" is on the main page of this fine site, and you can find the basic set up here:
atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/Semita.pdf
Also for 4th Edition (sorry about the lack of good 5th pre-mades) are two jump start adventures, which also includes characters:
atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/promises.pdf
Finally, here's a mini-saga, for free off the website.
atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/nigrasaxa.pdf
While I've never actually played any of these free ones, I've looked through them and they look good.
Hope that helps!
Hello,
thanks!!!
Hi Sam,
Welcome to the Forum. Nice to have you onboard. I think that Calebais is exellent, but personally I would a be daunted by its size, volume at the many things involved (I know I was so even when I ran it as an experienced Ars SG).
Beside the many good ideas already here, I also think that you could a lot of different idea from glosing over the last parts of the rule book. It is ripe with socalled Story Hooks that are very inspiring. I don't think that a starter adventure has to be very advanced - taking what might seem as a quickly handled and simple story on the other hand leaves more time to get to know the setting and the rules. And I think most of us have experienced how something seemingly simple can take much more time to play through than expected.
Some of the first stories I have used have been about going to fair at a larger town of the shire - gives plenty of opportunity to introduce the setting and to make entanglements along the way. Or having to go into the woods searching for mint for a tea to cure a very obnoxious hickup (especially since the "sufferer" was an enraged Flambeau caught in a rage of fiery spells in the covenant library). If you have already planed to make a longer sage out of this, I'd personally prefer to not have any full-fledged magi in the first session or so. It can be quite an handfull, plus it gives you all the benefit to feel out the system before getting set on your main magi characters.
Hi and welcome!
I highly recommend "promises promises" (mentioned above) as a starter adventure. My first storyteller used this story, set at Nigra Saxa (also above), and it proved to be a wonderful entrance into mythic europe and what it meant to be a mage within the Order.
While I have not run "Black Death" from 3rd ed., it does seem to be well constructed, with fun encounters.
I also like the "tales from the dark ages" supplement from the 2nd ed. There are some nice shorter adventures in there.
eric
That makes me wonder: has anyone thought about updating those online adventures to 5th edition? I don't imagine that it should be too tough, and it would be nice to have sometime to refer to as a starting adventure. I know that those two stories were how I originally lured my players into trying the game: the premade characters were especially useful in that regard.
I seem to remember that there was some talk about it, but I don't think anything came out if it. If we get Atlas's blessing, it would make an interesting project for the forum folks to work on.
It's a great idea, seems silly that the old system is better represented than the corrent one. I'd be willing to help.
Since the Atlas staff checks this board often, perhaps one of them would be willing to comment on this particular issue?
Yeah, I definitely see their point with the publishing angle-no money means no product produced. But, as we said, I am wondering if there would be any legal problems with remaking the online adventures into 5th edition, and, if such was allowable, if Atlas would host them on their site.