Just curious. I'm finally digging into Ars Magica, loving it, but am very curious what the direction for the game is (if one exists)
It’s a complex challenge. The fifth edition is about as complete as you can get. Everyone will find their own gap (new versions of old Tribunals, for instance), but the game genuinely supports whatever style of play you want to adopt in Mythic Europe - Hibernia supports high conflict games, City & Guild supports town and city focussed stories, Lords of Men supports more mundane politics and progression, there’s a ton of support for non-Hermetic takes on Mythic Europe, and you can use RoP:Divine and The Church for stories and whole sagas with those kinds of characters.
So what would a sixth edition do?
Does it even need a sixth edition?
Can we tell other stories in Mythic Europe using other game systems? Can we provide adventure paths through a saga instead of just providing the framework in which to play? Is Kickstarter the way to explore and produce future books?
I think all of those things are in the air at the moment. And I know that there is a desire to look at the property from the perspective of what gives Ars Magica its core character.
So whatever happens next, it will be well-considered and it will be interesting.
In the meantime, Ars Magica Fifth Edition is glorious. It is my favourite collection of RPG books. It is incredibly well researched, masterfully constructed, and it gives you everythin you need.
And we’re continuing to support it through Sub Rosa, podcasts, Grand Tribunals, active forums, convention play... I hope that gives you enough to keep you going for a while. And if not, let the community know what you want to see next and there are enough clever and dedicated people here that you just might see it happen.
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Everything you said resonates. There is so much good stuff -- it's an incredible game with a surprisingly big community, given the time investment it can represent. I personally don't feel 5th edition is lacking or anything, I'm just curious what Atlas wants to do with the property. With such a compelling and storied IP, it's hard to imagine them not doing something.
For me personally, I'd love complete coverage in metacreator (or some other more modern tool!!), and more sourcebooks covering the rest of the world. I know how hard that would be...these books are so well researched and well considered. But I want mythic China so so bad, I think want the level of care given to the treatment of Hermetic magic and medieval philosophy given to Chinese magic and philosophy. It'd be so cool! Of course the lack of that is not any deficiency of Atlas haha, that's just the sort of stuff I think would be cool. I love how th we books strive to give troupes tools to tell stories that to beyond the anachronisms (where desired). Europe is a pretty well understood place, relatively speaking. Heck, mythic South America would be downright amazing as well. Of course, most Europeans in 1220, gifted or otherwise, are never ever going to mythic China, so I get why stuff like that probably hasn't been worth the effort.
Kickstarter seems to be a great way to find things because it shows that the demand is there. Of course, I imagine ars books can take quite a while to put together.
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There's a bit of China about in 9ne 9f the magazines.
I would love to see a sourcebook bringing the Mythic Europe setting to D&D 5e. I'm imagining that it would be like Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle-Earth (which is The One Ring for D&D) or perhaps like the upcoming Arcana of the Ancients which will detail Monte Cook's Numenera for D&D5e. There's even Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for D&D 5e. The point is - a lot of settings and properties are being described in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition terms. Why not Mythic Europe?
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Did they make money last time? (The Black Monks of Glastonbury)
I'm with chuangdangjianghu. I'd like to see Metacreator finish the books.