OK, there's been 3 issues released and a fourth on it's way so I'm interested in hearing what subscribers enjoyed the most, both as a contributor and as a rabid Ars fanzine supporter...
For those needing more explanation of what Sub Rosa is:
Comments on what type of articles you would like to see would also be interesting and helpful both for Alex I'm sure, but also for prospective and current contributors.
OK, so to kick off I voted for the Addendum articles as my favourites (Bjornaer Florilegium, Path of the Circle, Societas Flambonis), although I've really enjoyed Alex's Templar pieces, the adventures and the historical pieces.
I think the Grand Tribunal Report was great also and honestly enjoyed much of the content and ideas presented.
Things I'd like to see:
a regular adventure or 2 along the lines of the easily adaptable ones presented so far
more beasts / characters
more Saga Seeds
more expansions / Apocrypha extending from the canon rules in somewhat bizarre and unorthodox directions
I know I always appreciate the feedback, that's the best way to improve.
Personally, I like the adventures a lot, but I think the cults, beasts, and seeds are great for expanding sagas and are easier to incorporate than estimating power levels for adventures-- though it's something I'm working on.
Perhaps but I can't do ranking in this Poll format unfortunately.
Comments as to why it's a difficult decision or why you feel a particular way about a type of article would be interesting above and beyond the raw poll results.
Jarkman
It's difficult to choose one aspect of the magazine because there's very little that isn't useful/interesting.
Some background: I (try to) run my own Ars game and go into a lot more detail, but the rate of progress in the game is therefore slower, and some of the players express little interest in that level of detail (they will try to turn up to a session but take little part in the between session email discussions, either individual discussions or group ones, that help make the face-to-face sessions more than just a catch-up). The consequence of this situation is that there is a lot of material in the range of books that have been releases for ArM5 that I will never get to use. Therefore, why do I welcome even more of the same in a magazine and what do I particularly enjoy? Well, it’s still fascinating and I live in hope of using some of the material one day.
Issue 3: Looking at issue 3, this was a bumper issue for me- possibly the best so far as I can see use for mist of the material. Perhaps the least useful thing is News from the Line Editor, simply because the information is largely available elsewhere. However, I would not suggest dropping this page.
New cults/mysteries such as The Circle of the Cabeiri are interesting. In my game, I can see one of the mages meeting a member of the cult and perhaps eventually being inducted.
The Societas Flambonis article I prize for the back-history; the material about the necromancers is an idea that I can use to provide a story for the covenant's Flambeau.
Caravanserai - I have added this to my list of covenants - placing it on the border of Thebes and Levant.
Northwych - I may convert this to be located in the Low Countries.
Mythic Zoroastrianism - I do not expect to make use of this: it's just a bit too remote from what I am doing (a game based around Triamore)
Some ideas for the future:
Incidents/cults/whatever that are less geographically fixed.
Some ideas for introducing plots beyond the “direction from on high†or “a villager visits the local scholarsâ€.
Perhaps some suggestions for Tytalus intrigues.
Some ideas for getting mages to travel.
Some ideas on the skills of being a storyguide.
More articles that use ideas (virtues/spells/creatures/whatever) that are already published rather than ones that introduce yet another new Virtue or whatever.
I voted for "community content" as, having attended both the UK GTs so far, I think the game has a vibrant and enthusiastic fan base and anything that shares and encourages that can only be a good thing.
Personally, I'd like to see a full-on letters page, a round up of what people are working on both inside and outside of the Ars world, and other features I probably can't even imagine about the community.
One thing I would love to see is, and I don't know how viable this is, a write up of a saga as it's in progress. I don't mean a set of character journals, or even a set of story outlines written up to impress. More fly-on-the-wall views of Ars sessions mixing a bit of player and character content. A bit of a light-hearted letter from the trenches to pass the time with. It would be nice to lighten the tone a little and stave off the risk of it all getting a little earnest.
All of it appeals to me, but I nearly voted for the adventures and scenario seeds as I have found them consistently excellent. At the last moment I chose community - that however is perhaps unsurprising as I am the primary instigator of Grand Tribunal, the convention. I'll have to think about this more, but having to choose one option is difficult. I must say I found it hard to make one choice - ranking would have been easier.
Apocrypha, for me. I like having someone to send all the little bits and pieces that are good, but don't quite fit into what I'm writing, to, and I like that other authors send it to the same place.
I had this bit that was written for Magic, then reworked for Faeries, but I can't get it to fit either, and so I'm either going to just keep it on the back burner and wait for a book that suits it or find a way to expand it out for Sub Rosa. Its problem is that its a bit "out there" for Mythic Europe, skirting the edge of the paradigm. Sub Rosa is a great place for stuff like that. Fun, but not what you'd want as defined in the vanilla setting.
I like that there's a way to keep all of that in the community that I don't need a blog aggregator for.
I agree entirely (and found it hard to choose), but I couldn't work out how to make the forum Poll reflect this. This online survey site may be a better option I suspect:
but I don't have the time to design an appropriate survey at the moment.
The primary purpose of this Poll/thread is to engender feedback to contributors as a guide to what subscribers are interested in - for instance, I was surprised at how popular the Addendum/Apocrypha segments are. On reflection this makes a lot of sense as perhaps they are the most easily accessible and useable style of articles for "vanilla" Sagas.
I was also very interested in how popular the Community article was.
As a contributor, I have a lot of ideas for articles on various themes but tend to have heavy leanings to writing about hedge magic - this is seemingly not a high priority for many subscribers at the moment, even accepting the limitations of this crude Poll.
I am interested in practicing writing to what is viewed as useful / desired both to develop my own writing skills and to prevent just indulging in my own interests. I hope other contributors and Alex find it useful despite it's limitations.
Looking forward to further comments.
Remember Alex has announced there is a feedback competition for Sub Rosa - the deadline is Oct 1st, so yous till have time to enter and win...