I am not sure if this would be helpful or harmful, but as an idea to manage the open ended nature of magic, since you cannot create a system to reflect all possibilities, there could be something like challenges or obstacles that requires X/Y amounts of different TeFo for the Magi to succeed, so its left to the imagination what kind of spell it was used and you don’t have to program a million possibilities, but I am not sure how sterile this would be or interesting, or get people interested in Ars Magica
I plan to implement magic in two ways: You can have the spell or need to spontaneous a form/tech effect which is pre-determined based on the scenario. Story mode will have a simplified form/tech effect like using Intelligo to learn more about a person, etc with the math happening in the background. With luck, it will get more people interested in how Ars Magica works by trying the RAW mode and then who knows, maybe picking up the books to play like it should be played
If there could be a mode where it runs all the life outside of the convenant. You set the simulator settings and can add/remove active “plots”. Have a resource so that when players visit other covenants we know who is there doing what at current time and what. What can be found in the libraries. Allies/Enemies of all involved. Set it so you can generate an event like a tribunal or a covenant visit, etc. Have a map that shows known Mundane/Magical/Infernal/Fey activity.
Having the tribunal as an active ‘entity’ is part of the design. So magi will have reputations with other tribunal magi, story plots will occur and evolve depending on what the covenant does about it, magi can visit and trade with other covenants (relationships matter). I have not thought much about visuals as yet. Might be something I can do, but no promises
Holy crap yes I would be so on board with this!! So much so that I created a forum account just so I could reply here. I actually just posted elsewhere the other day about how my dream video game would be an Ars Magica adaptation focused mostly on the covenant (with maybe occasional forays into individual characters) that would be something like a blend of Dwarf Fortress, Crusader Kings, and Heroes of Might & Magic. And someone responded to that by linking me to this thread.
As far as this project goes, I have zero programming skill, but I would be happy to help with story elements, tinkering with game mechanics if needed, or anything else along those lines.
Once I am further into development I will certainly be asking for a few playtesters to give feedback and suggestions. That would include more story event ideas, helping me improve the writing as needed and of course, find bugs!
New UI design that I think looks a LOT better than my first draft. Still very much a work in progress, but starting to look more like a game than just a proof of concept.
