Planning my first game

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Hi all,
I'm planning my first game, but in a homebrewed fantasy setting (Big task I know) as whilst I love the systems my introduction to Ars was GribbleTheMunchkin's Nathas campaign and I generally prefer to play this in a high fantasy setting to Mythic Europe (Controversial, probably).

In your eyes though, what are the must have elements or recommendations to ensure are built into my world, setting or campaign?

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Unless you want to totally surprise your players, the most practical thing to do is to poll your players about what they would like to find in the saga.
You can ask for very generic answers like ‘I want an alliance in a volcano’ and have a lot of the work done with the Mythic Projects book, or as specific as ‘mages who act as advisors in the courts of nobles and engage in palace intrigue’.
Both options give options for high fantasy, but that may give you problems to explain why wizards do not dominate and rule the world... which brings us to the third scenario: Wizards dominate the world and there is a higher entity (Order of Hermes) that prevents them from destroying it, as almost happened in the past.
Born from the previous one, another scenario is that the wizards did annihilate the known world, and now the survivors are the ones trying to rebuild the civilisation, but obviously they all hate the wizards.

But my must-have recommendation (apart from choosing what you enjoy) is to play with the consequences, which is one of my favourite things about this great game.
Players can do many great things, but the forces they set in motion lead to reactions they don't expect, know or want. In a high fantasy saga the mismatch can be AWESOME.

I think you're going to enjoy it.

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Thanks man,
I did ask my players and Gribble is obviously very interested in covenant building so i've got some ideas around that - as well as why Wizards don't dominate even though they can!

It's a world of endless rain (for cosmological reasons), of ancient wonders and dead civilisations/cities from thousands of years ago with lost secrets. And I'm going less for true medieval and more beginning of age of enlightenment/exploration

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Player buy-in. :wink:
Anything else is secondary.

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Well, of course your tastes and preferences may vary, but some things you might want to consider:

  • The social effects of The Gift. Why and how? I would take a page from the fantasy trope and have a past of fallen wizard-king led fallen empires, and the people naturally suspicious of wizards as tyrant wizard-kings soon-to-bring-the-second-apocalypse in the making.

Another way to go is to forgo the social effects of The Gift entirely. Wizards can now lead men, and be highly regarded. Companions become less important and many are sidelined, especially if longevity rituals are still allowed.

  • What about the Realms of Power? I would suggest dropping the Divine, and making the Gods be faeries that gain Vitality by worship. I would also, however, alter both Realms to be more standard: faeries exist even when they are not observed and do not try to re-create stories, and demons do not lack all cardinal virtues and can plan and be evil bad guys.

  • What are the Houses of the Order, and is there one? I would suggest limiting the Order to be just a local, regional, order of wizards where the PCs are, and having competing Orders and just plain-old wizards not in any Order as well in distant lands or in the past. I would also change the Houses to better fit standard fantasy tropes and Ars Magica game design, and perhaps reduce their number somewhat. So, perhaps: (1) diviners, perhaps with access to extra options such as the Art & Academe rules for astrology; (2) evokers, aka Flambeau - but perhaps also include the PeCo variety in the House; (3) 'House Mutantes' specializing in shapechanging themselves and others; (4) Tytalus become controllers of the mind, puppet-masters; (5) Tremere become summoners; (6) necromancers, with access to the Necromancy virtue allowing the creation of Magical creatures with CrX Momentary Ritual spells given sympathetic dead (e.g. a victim of cannibalism can be turned into a ghoul).

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Social Effects of the Gift:
History is split into a few Ages.

  • An ancient Age of Wonder that fell to destruction in a war with Faerie Gods
  • An age of magical empires and wizards wars leading to mutually assured destruction in many cases
  • A slow rebuilding of Human society with a huge suspicion of and often violence towards anyone magically gifted that stunted magical learning and growth.
  • The tail end of a fuedal age in which Magical society is rebuilding following A) the sharing of the Parma and B) the magical conference of the divine power unto nobility as part of a pact magic spell to create a counterbalance to magic users and therefore a way for them to re-enter society.
  • An Emerging enlightenment and mercantile age in which this balance may be disrupted by a reduction in nobility influence and balance shifted and society changed forever.

RoP:

  • The Faerie and an indiginous species that worshipped them, telling nature focused stories and creating "Gods" as embodiments of things that has much declined following the first age.
  • Fae have clung on in the modern day by attaching to "Human" stories, which of course focus more on aspects of humanity than nature. I.E The Mariner, who "conquered" the sea, vs the Sea itself.
  • The Magical societies and natural mana/leyline flows of the land for RoM
  • The Infernal and the divine are the least understood but play a major role in the history of the world (and other, ended worlds)
  • A way to "tap into" the divine was established within noble bloodlines by a major magical house in order to create a balance allowing them to re-enter society.

Houses of the Order:

  • The Order is limited to the starting continent and some colonies as of the start of the age of Exploration.
  • The Order base lore is similar, Hermes was a great Wizard of the First Age who ascended to become the god of magic and greed for human society.
  • The order was formed around two events: House Hearthkeeper discovering and sharing the parma (much like Mythic Europe) and House Fayre utilising spells of duration pact and target bloodline to create the divine nobility as a counterbalance to Hermetic power.
  • House Hearthkeeper focus on Ignem and Corpus and gain Duration: Flame. These are healers, preservers and keepers of human civilisation
  • House Stormcaller: In a setting with eternal rains, it stands to reason that the most warlike and combatitive house would focus on Auram. The house encourages the pairing of apprentices to create rivalries and growth.
  • House Fayre: Faerie Magic
  • The Hanseatic League: Seafarers and Merchantile Mages interested in exploring the new worlds
  • The Euclidian Guild: Hermetic Geometery, builders and academics
  • The Bards of Bacchinae: Performance Magic, Gossips, Social Entertainers.
  • The Fettered Ether: A mystery cult about spirits (Spell binding)
  • The Disciples of Cetra: A Mystery Cult about leylines, the land that gain Hermetic Alchemy
  • The Students of Vaakos: A Verditian cult rooted in the ancient stronghold of Vaakos, a mage of the age of wonder.
  • House Ex misc
  • And a defunct "House Nobilis" that was formed from Noble second and third children who had the gift but tried to ally with their nobles to reduce the need for the Order - destroyed in Wizards War for upsetting the balance.
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For a high fantasy world that was set back by some cataclysm, I would suggest taking a look at Earthdawn and seeing if there is anything you want to "borrow". You could get some ideas on what to do with Infernal auras.

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Seconded. Earthdawn was fun, with a well-build setting. FASA did good work back then.

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I'd say to retain something of the spirit of Ars Magica keep in some order of wizards that dominates the magical landscape, with covenants and libraries and trade in magical resources (books, vis, enchanted devices etc), so that magi can be more or less what they are in Mythic Europe, with the same means of learning more magic and becoming wise and powerful.