The experiment, and i must say that i love the cover.
This is bad news. I don't like soft-cover 
Maybe that's why I expected it to be combined with Companions or Grogs for a full hardcover book...
I don't even like the illustration on the cover. A bit too purple and overly magical (what's with that Jameroquai hat?) for my taste.
Don't get me wrong, both the composition and story of the drawing is great... I just prefer the more plain, raw and mystic medieval feel - over the cute teenage girl fantasy setting 
Don't mind me though. All that new material is great news all in all.
Maybe I'll grab my first pdf versions of these books then. That would also save me from waiting for them to become available in my local RPG store.
Sure. This forum is all about sharing isn't it 
I'm not sure how to do that though. I've got the stuff in a word and an excel dokument, should i opload that through some website and post the link here?
It's not rocket science though. We play with a deck of cards in plastic covers and just put a small note of paper into each, that includes a set of virtues and flaws. Basically I have spend some time sorting the virtues and flaws of the core rulebook, in order to make them more or less suitable for the job. I have then grouped and categorized these virtues and flaws under various themes, and connected them to a regular deck of cards. I've was originally inspired by 'Whimsy Cards' that we use to provoke additional roleplaying, and my cards could easily be combined with these. Also i've been in love with cards in roleplaying ever since i played the original Deadlands RPG - if only for a single session. It was so incredibly satisfying creating my gunslinger character that I didn't mind him dying after just 2 hours of play - or seeing the hustler draw his poker hand for using cantrips or drawing initiative whenever things got rough 
Recently, I've been thinking about designing a more fully-fleshed deck for this, with card symbols and a cool Virtue/Flaw layout. Pershaps also with a small qoute or cath-phrase under each virtue or flaw for quick inspiration. I've also toyed with the idea of adding a Personality trait on each card (seperate from the listed Virtue/Flaw) to use in those situations were you just need a quick hint or direction for an improvized character (and want to make sure, you don't just portrait the same four stereotypes that comes easy to you). Ah, but it is hard to find time to do all the things, so for now it's just really basic.
I've just put the system op for download (as a pdf) in this thread:
[url]Simple tool for improvisation and roleplaying in ARS]
Enjoy
What are the GTUS dates?
Lol, just because you wrote that i just have to state what my first thought actually was when seeing it...
"not very cute"(i got the feeling it tried but didn´t really succeed) :mrgreen:
And a minute later i read your comment...
Either way, looks like a book with some potential.
Still one of those darned .xps files in the only link i can find?
I'm glad at least one other person felt that way 
I'll try oploading some other format later today, if i get the time.
Don't use the old link, just check the newest post in the thread.
@DW and others: I converted the archive to PDF. Send me a PM with your email address and I will forward it to you.
Done
Thanks Xavi for exporting - thought everyone had seen his post about a pdf version through a PM (but maybe people don't want to get to personal with Xavi )
Anyways, there is no need to bother Xavi anymore - I've put up a new link, for a PDF-download (in the other thread obviously).
Xavi hides his bloody chopping knives under the table and kicks the hand of the last victim to the corner of the room
And I still wonder why. :mrgreen: 
Xavi
Nope.
Now i DID find a new link, and it worked just fine. thumbs up
Anybody ever think of doing a pdf file or netbook about the various skills for ars magica?
What sort of thing do you mean? What would you like to see in it?
I mean a combination of homemade skills & skill from books in one convenant place basically.
I think any publication which was reprinting material from the official books in bulk would not be allowed to distribute it freely. If I owned the IP I'd certainly not be too happy about it. I find the 5e rulebook to be fine, and having metacreator helps greatly too.
Although the spell and virtue indexes are truly useful. Having such an index for abilities would be nice.
yes it would be nice indeed.
It seems we have a cover for Grogs:
(Yes, this is some blatant threadomancy...).
I'll reserve judgement until my copy arrives, but my only disapointment so far with Apprentices (after reviewing the ToC) is that gauntlets only get 2 pages. My PC's will be creating their first magi soon. The gauntlet seems like such a significant experience - a test that is the culmination of 15 years of training, resulting in the apprentice graduating to full mage-dom couldn't but be significant - just ask someone who has passed the bar or completed medical residency.
So I thought a great way to introduce their characters would be to role-play through this experience, rather than start with them as freshly-gauntleted magi. I understand that this is my game and I can do what I want, I just would have liked a bit more fluff and or rules about what a typical gauntlet looks like. Still, the ArM writers sometimes pack a lot into two pages, so perhaps I'll get what I'm looking for anyway, and if not, it still looks to be chock full of useful stuff, as usual.
Sure, you can play out the apprenticeship, it can be a great roleplaying experience. I would caution about doing the whole thing with the strengths of different magi playing into things. Combinations of Good Teacher and Apt Student can really skew the XP allocation. Someone recently laid out what the arithmetic of the apprenticeship looks like.
Assuming a full apprenticeship of 15 years that's 16 xp per year for the apprentice. Assuming 3 seasons per year assisting the master in the lab that's 2 xp per season of exposure. The rest, 10xp[1] is presumed to come from teaching. If you tinker with that by having the parentes of the magi fully developed with virtues and flaws, and the player magi/apprentices you're going to quickly deviate from that norm. That's not a bad thing, it's just something you need to be aware of.
I had a character for a defunct saga with 3 Constant+ Com 3 + Teaching 4+1 (apprentices specialty) + Good Teacher 5 + single student 6 you get to 22 source quality. If the student is an Apt Student, add on another 5 for 27. This blows away a very good virtue Skilled Parens. If you project it out: (22+6)*15=420 or 495 for the Apt Student, whereas the skilled Parens virtue gets one to 330 total xp from the apprenticeship and Apt Student actually doesn't add anything (one could argue it should add 75 xp for the magus choosing it, if you assume 1 season of teaching per year).
[1]The 10 xp ignores the season spent opening the Arts, or provides experience points in addition to opening the Arts, it's a quibble to be resolved by the saga.