I know we’re used to the “magic is dying” trope, but the rules for magical auras in RoP:M result in a Mythic Europe where magic auras get stronger over time. The more magic magi do, the stronger the auras become. I find this refreshing, a fun counterpoint to all the fading magic stories we’ve had over the last century, in which magi eke out a wretched existence on the margins, barely able to do anything worthy of being called magic. I’d rather have an Ars Magica game with all the houses, plus more, than one with only two. Let’s give players maximum choice of character concept!
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I agree. I have to deal with entropy a lot in my real life. In my RP sessions, I want fantasy!
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There are plenty of "simple" RPGs out there. Most of them hardly worth the (short) time it takes to read them IMAO. Could we at least keep a few solid systems alive, even if they are a little bit complex?
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Speaking of board games, I have two ideas.
The first is a cooperative game aimed for kids at around age 10 or so. You march around the board, visiting different locations represented on the board (Durenmar, Val-Negra, City of Brass, some dragons lair, etc). You face simple challenges (solved with a roll or something), you collect various items (spells, books, enchanted items, vis, contacts, etc). Some stuff builds you up to face bigger challenges, other stuff you are collecting to form a covenant. It would be a cooperative game. As a group, the players have to collect and bank so many points of "stuff" (and maybe some key items).
My other idea is so lame itis awesome. Ars Magica Risk. I havethis variation of Risk, Castle Risk, which is played just in Europe and uses cards for generals, spies, admirals, etc. I have ahalf-baked home brew idea that would involve spell cards and gaining vis instead of armies (which could then conjure armies or fuel spells). Like I said, lame, but so lame it is awesome!
Yeah... but then we have the current ArM-edition.
You know what. I'd play the Ars Magica Munchkin variant.
You can only be part of one house at a time (instead of of a race) and you draw your class (grog, companion, mage) randomly as you go. Maybe throw in Talismans as "you can only have one of these at a time".
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As for ideas for new games set in Mythic Europe, I'd really love an ancient age-themed game. Something taking place before the Middle Ages, in the Greek Bronze Age for example. Or in the times of Babylon. It'd be awesome to see the legends of Mythic Europe unfold as you live them!
Another idea I'd like would be for a Nizari Isma'ili game. You know, the "hashassins". A game where they were the good guys, trying to eke out a resistance-like living while the empires around them try to destroy them. Where they are the ones who use subterfuge and the menace of assasination to avoid the actual bloodshed of war and battle. All the while suffering the bad press of their stablishment enemies painting them as drug addict assasins.
Just my oddball two cents.
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For games set in Mythic Europe I would really like for an actual School of Magic setting to be designed. I think it would be fun and entertaining.
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Certamen card game that can be used in AM to resolve duels or as a standalone "for love" card game, as mentioned above.
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a Redcap board game. Crisscross Mythic Europe or a Tribunal delivering messages, Vis trading, running afoul of interference from mudanes, the Infernal and Faerie.
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Dating Sim/Choose Your Own Adventure style game/app variants that simulate things like apprenticeship or a Tribunal.
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They are covered in the Crescent book. So in principle, you could start such a game tonight... However I think the stealthing rules might need to be tailored/expanded for this.
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Oh yes, I know, I make extensive use of that book in my current campaign. Thanks for pointing it out nonetheless. It might be a cool campaign setting in any case.
I guess it's hard to point out a new game that can't actually already be played with the current rules lol. That's a testimony of how complete and encompassing they are.
As for jason's ideas, the redcap board game and the certamen card game both sound very very interesting. I'd pay for those.
Also, a Tribunal board game? Something akin to the old Republic of Rome board game from Avalon Hill, with the focus on the Tribunal meetings and what action is voted for crisis, trials, etc.
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Overkill-y.
I like it.
I never said either thing. Fighters gain more hit points per level than wizards. Hit points can be "regained" (this is the word the rules use) with spells and potions.
The D&D 5e rules are free and can be downloaded from the Wizards website if you want to take a look at how they handle hit points and damage. If you wanted to make hit points represent only physical damage, you could certainly do that in your campaign. I think some inconsistencies are avoided by sticking to the convention that hit points represent a lot more than just physical damage. But consider that there's a damage type called "psychic damage" that is presumably mental and another type called "necrotic damage" that can damage the soul. Some damage types are more conventional, like bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing which clearly describe physical damage. But what is "force" damage doing that "bludgeoning" isn't doing? I have no idea.
The real answer is that the "hit point" (as a concept) is a mere game expedient that will persist because of convention. The needs of each campaign can determine exactly what hit points represent but according to D&D 5e rules it isn't purely the capacity to take physical damage.
I think you expanded the reasons quite nicely.
I just love Ars Magica and D&D 5e and I'm so curious to see how actual game designers would translate Mythic Europe into D&D 5e terms. I don't think any previous edition of D&D would be a good fit for Mythic Europe, but I think it could be done well with 5e.
Regarding "Hit Points" I guess you can buy a cat if you want a cat or just name your dog "Cat". I really can't argue against that you don't have a cat when you do the latter.
My main problem with ArM is that religion is not working. It worked when you had one religion (ie. Mythic Christianity) and you could make pagans belong to the Magic Realm (although it would not be that correct). But when Islam and Judaism belong to the same realm it seems like a concession to political correctness. I am not saying this is easy as making them opposed reams does not explain why all have Jerusalem as a holy city. I don't have a solution really wish is sad as I like settings with religious wars.
It's a bit off topic for this thread but I've always thought that the divine could do with an extra dose of ineffability. Having saints and angels be beings who verifiably exist in the form an individual religion knows them in is strange and makes for a very schizophrenic divine realm.
I would prefer the divine to be more "in the eye of the beholder". There is a god of some kind and a divine realm but it's beyond the comprehension of mortals entirely. What people experience when they encounter the divine is filtered through their preconceptions as their mind tries to apply mundane senses to something transcendent.
So for example if a Christian, a Muslim, and a Neo-Platonist are all visited by the "angel Gabriel" the Christian and Muslim perceive him as such, but slightly different while the Neo-Platonist sees him as Hermes. None of these experiences are "right" but none are entirely wrong either. Even if he visited a group of Christians they might disagree over what they saw, because each would interpret the angel slightly differently.
Essentially the specifics of each dominion aligned religion should be a way of interpreting something unknowable. All religions are true, but none of them are right and none are any less wrong than any others. I think this allows for a universe where religion is both more logical from a cosmological perspective, but also more like real life from a character perspective with people having to take things on faith, disagreements over how to interpret things, and unresolvable disagreements.
In 2020 I hope to write up Domdaniel, which I'm amazed we have not yet used.
The Scholomance exists, even if it is not detailed much, in Transylvania. The House also exists in Egypt, although it's similarly obscure.
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Originally Ars Magica decided to use real world religion for simplicity, so a new religion wouldn't have to be invented. To be fair even AD&D did this, just with religions they considered dead and where their sketchy ideas they labeled knowledge of that religion would offend very few people and nobody they knew about pre-internet.
If it is all the same divine, why are they fighting? Who makes the cut and who doesn't? Now we don't just have Catholics, Eastern Orthadox, jews, and Muslims, we have Cathars, Waldensians, Berbers, pagan tradition in the Slavic groups which converted "easily" because of similarities. Zoro-astrianism, Mithraism, Invectus Sol, Coptics, etc. etc. etc.
I think returning to the classic fictional religion and fictional landscape would help to simply the situation greatly. Of course that level of redesign on the divine might also wind up redesigning the faerie-magic axis as well...
I'm not really clear on what you're talking about Marko, in practical terms, but I like the idea in theory and ignorance. I think I could get some sort of thing together on pretty regular basis that's not so much article shaped as book shaped. The Cornwall ashcan, if you see what I mean, but tidied up.