Ars Magica, Fifth Edition (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Average customer rating:

The Best Edition of the Best Game

Finally, the One True Edition

Fantastic new edition

New Design
Ars Magica, Fifth Edition (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Jonathan Tweet
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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The Mysteries, Revised Edition

ASIN: 1589780701

Book Description

Ars Magica ("The Art of Magic") is the award-winning roleplaying game that focuses on wizards who are as powerful as the ones we know from legend and literature, and the land of Mythic Europe, where those legends are real. The rules encourage players to develop their characters over long periods of time, and make the covenant, the home base of the characters, as central to the stories as any individual character. Troupe-style roleplaying allows players to take on the roles of different characters in different stories, so that the players have equal access to power even though the characters do not. This new edition is rewritten to improve the rules for existing players, and to be more attractive and accessible to new audiences.

Customer Reviews:

The Best Edition of the Best Game.......2006-02-28

This edition is, for me, the best edition of Ars Magica. It is more consistent, includes various developments and ideas from the fanbase and past line development, and is Well thought out and just good. If you are a fan of Ars Magica, you owe it to yourself to buy it. If you are not familiar with Ars Magica but are interested in an RPG with a mythical, historic, or political bent (all valid Ars Magica play styles, amongst others), it would be well worth your time to give this book a read.

The production is stylized but the art mostly poor and the pages thick but feel somehow chea. Regadless the book is durable and seems to endure harsh treatment with grace, and the stylized design pleasent.

Finally, the One True Edition.......2005-12-23

Bravo to Atlas Games for producing what I believe is the best edition of the best roleplaying game of magic.

Ars Magica Fifth Edition is a game set in a fantasy Medieval Europe (called Mythic Europe), a mirror of our own history where all the legends and myths that people in the Middle Ages believed is true. In Ars Magica, demons stalk the streets of London, angels stand guard over shrines in the Byzantine Empire, dragons lair in the Italian Alps, faeries make mischief in villages in the Holy Roman Empire*, and powerful wizards make their homes in fortified towers.

The fantasy is formed in layers over the historical. When playing Ars Magica, you can add as many or as few layers of fantasy as you want.

When playing Ars Magica, your chief characters will be a Magus, who in turn are members of a fantasy organisation called the Order of Hermes. The Order of Hermes is a magical society of Magi or wizards, formed in the Dark Ages to put an end to internecine magical warfare that had raged since the fall of the Roman Empire. Wizards in the Order of Hermes divide themselves between twelve magical Houses. The Houses fill archetypal roles, such as warrior, academic, bard, mystic, messenger, shape-shifter, and noble, amongst others. However, while membership of a House accords a system benefit (called a House Virtue), there is little restriction on the kinds of character you can play from a particular House.

The key of Ars Magica's cult-status is its magic system (described in more detail below) which allows for both off-the-cuff magic and ritualised spells. Ars Magica's magic is based off a verb and noun combination, such as Create, Destroy or Control, and Fire, Water, Mind, or Animals. To give it a medieval feel, the verbs and nouns are in Latin, so Create becomes Creo, Destroy becomes Perdo, Fire becomes Ignem and Mind becomes Mentem. There are five verbs (called Techniques) and ten nouns (called Forms). If you want to cast a fireball, then you use your Create (Creo) and Fire (Ignem) abilities. If you want to control someone's body, then you add your Control (Rego) and Body (Corpus) abilities. Each combination has a set of guidelines to allow for spontaneous (free-form) magic, and a pre-made spell list.

Ars Magica's innovation in the late 80s was the idea of each player having multiple characters, which they would be able to play at different times during a campaign (called a Saga in ArM). There are two other kinds of characters you can play, in addition to a mage: Companions and Grogs.

Companions are less powerful than mages, since they have no real magic (although they have access to supernatural powers) but are the equal of mages in terms of story importance. They are the friends and allies of the mages.

Grogs are minor characters, servants, guards and peasants: the redshirts of Ars Magica. They aren't very powerful at all, but can be fun to play, since they can be a bit less serious than mage or companion characters.

Note that Houses are not classes, and neither are the three different types of character. ArM5 is a class-less game, where characters are defined by their abilities and traits, rather than a set Class. Houses are in-character groupings, and magi, grogs and companions are categorisations of how important or central characters are to the Saga.

Physical Appearance and Art

The book is a hard bound, 235 page book. The binding looks good. Interior pages are two colour: black and a rusty-red. This combines at various stages to give a sepia or crimson hue to many of the images, while insets and text-boxes are a light pink; chapter headings and text-titles are a kind of brownish red. The overall aesthetic is a book that manages to look like it has more colours than it actually does, giving it an antique tone and feel.

The text is divided into three columns and is frequently interspersed with text-boxes and artwork, although there is less art in ArM5 than in earlier editions such as Ars Magica Third Edition, but only slightly less art than in ArM4 in my opinion.

There was a lot of discussion on the BerkList (the ultimate Ars Magica email list) and RPG.net Open regarding the artwork. It is a mixture of new art by former Atlas Games artistic director Scott Reeves, and old, recycled artwork from previous editions.

There is not much to say about the art. The artists attempt to approach a medieval woodcut feel or illuminated manuscript feel. The art is adequate, but could have been more colorful.

A nice feature however is the medieval-style portraits of the Hermetic Founders (the mages which founded the Order of Hermes) on the bottom of each page. These are a neat addition and really add to the feel of the book as something medieval or ancient.

Starting with a very short piece of fiction (well written and thankfully concise), the Intro gives the basic premises and themes of Ars Magica. The system is quickly explained, being of the Stat + Skill + Mod + 1D10 variety, where you aim to get over a set difficulty. A short glossary concludes the 4 pages of introduction.

Describing the history of the Order of Hermes, it goes into the various crises of the Order, a brief description of each House, the role of Covenants (the quintessential wizard's towers) and how the Order of Hermes organises and governs itself (the Code and Tribunals). It then deals with how an Order of wizards interacts with Medieval European society, how magic items affect this relationship and the existence of other wizards who are not members of the Order of Hermes.

Briefly, the Order of Hermes is the largest and most powerful order of wizards in the Middle Ages, due to its invention of a powerful magical shield called Parma Magica, and a flexible and powerful tradition of magic, called Hermetic Magic. After it was founded in 767, the Order grew by forcing other mages to join, or killing those that didn't. In 1220 (the standard start date in ArM5), only a small handful of non-Hermetic mages exist in Europe, although there are Islamic mages in the Middle East and pagan mages in Eastern and Northern Europe.

This chapter is comprehensive and much better than the almost non-existent information in Ars Magica Fourth Edition (ArM4). It gives the game master (called a story-guide in ArM) enough information to imagine life and society within the Order of Hermes, and enough information for players to use to make up their own characters.

An explanation of the three character types starts the Character chapter. Basically, magi and companions are the two kinds of characters that players will play most. Companions are important characters that are not magi, and who are controlled (like mages) by a single player. Grogs are characters than any player may play, and are communally created and owned; they are minor or support characters.

Characters in ArM5 are made by selecting Virtues and Flaws (mages and companions may choose up to ten points of Flaws, which then allows them to purchase an equal number of Virtues), allocation of Characteristics (each character has seven points to spend on Characteristics, such as Strength, Intelligence, Quickness or Presence), determining of Abilities (characters receive a number of experience points determined by their age, so older starting characters are more experienced) and the deciding of Personality Traits (descriptions of you character's nature and personality). Additional traits are the character's Size, any Reputations they may have (through Virtues or Flaws) and their Confidence Score (like Willpower). Mages also choose spells.

Characteristics are rated from -3 to +3, with zero being the human average. Gone are the specialisations, which my troupe liked (but which never had a system effect), and gone is the random option for determining Characteristics. Now, you may only spend seven points between the eight Characteristics, on a pyramid scale, so to buy an Intelligence of +2, you would need to spend three of your seven points. By lowering your Characteristics, you gain as many points as you would have had to spend if it were positive (if your Intelligence were -2, then you would gain three points to spend elsewhere). You can only increase your Characteristics above +3 or decrease them below -3 through taking a specific Virtue or Flaw.

A number of character templates are included, and it is advised that new players use and modify these templates. Templates are for grogs, companions and one template for each Hermetic House.

After the templates, there is a more details character creation option, with an example. The sample character (Darius) is not a very imaginative or intriguing character, and I feel that a better attempt could have been made.

Virtues and Flaws are the core of a character in Ars Magica, and they have been substantially re-worked in Fifth Edition.

Older editions had Virtues and Flaws (VFs) rated from +1 to +5 or more. Each character was allowed up to a total of ten points of Flaws and an equal number of Virtues. VFs were divided into different categories, such as Hermetic, Supernatural, General, Status and so on. One of the common problems with this system was costing the Virtues and Flaws. There were a lot of errors and questionable decisions in the past as to whether something should be a +1, +2 or +3 Virtue (or a -1, -2 or -3 Flaw).

In ArM5, VFs are now divided into Minor and Major. Minor VFs are rated 1 and Major VFs are rated 3 (either positive for Virtues or negative for Flaws). This solves the costing problem, since now all VFs are either Minor or Major. (The issue that will complicate this in the future is whether certain VFs should be Minor or Major).

There is also the inclusion of a new category of VFs, the Story Flaw, which is Flaw often only in so far as it gives the story guide (gamemaster) a way to force your character to become involved in a story. For example, the Mentor Story Flaw gives your character a mentor who will help the character, but will also require the character to perform tasks or go on quests, etc. Players only take the Story Flaws they are interested in, so stories for your character will tend to be tailored for your character. If you take Enemies, it's because you want your enemies to be an element in the Ars Magica Saga, not just to score some cheap points. For old players of Ars Magica, this will cause some confusion, since many of the old Virtues have been changed into Flaws, such as Mentor and Visions (a Flaw which gives your character the ability to see glimpses of the future, or important plot clues, etc).

All of the VFs are listed in alphabetical order, rather than in their own sections as in previous editions. This caused me some troubles, but I've quickly gotten used to it.

A number of Virtues and Flaws have been excluded from ArM5, while a number from old Fourth Edition supplements and even one from ArM3 have made it in. Excluded Virtues include Alchemy and Herbalism. Upon investigation, it appears that most Flaws have made it into ArM5.

The new edition has also changed how many Virtues and Flaws work. Knacks have been replaced with a Puissant (Ability/Art) and Affinities have been reworked. Most Flaws have also been altered to work differently. There are no longer any variable VFs. Resurrected VFs include Unaging, Diedne Magic, Magical Memory and Mercurian Magic. Missing is Magical Device, which used to allow characters to begin the game with a magic item; the closest replacement is Relic, which doesn't allow you to have magical powers. Another noticeable Virtue that is MIA is Mythic Characteristic, which was greatly appreciated by my troupe back in the day.

Troupes which are converting their characters should carefully read how their VFs work now. A major change which has caused controversy is that Gentle Gift (Virtue) and Blatant Gift (Flaw) are now Major VFs. In earlier editions, they were +1 and -1 VFs; they are now the equivalent of +/-3 or greater VFs. An easy houserule would be to simply make Gentle and Blatant Gift Minor VFs.

On the whole however, I feel that most of the changes were warranted, and the new VFs are sensible additions.

One of the problems that ArM5 has (and earlier editions have it as well) is not explaining adequately the idea of resources and how they compare between classes. Just how rich is a noble? How rich is a priest? What does a merchant have access to? How much money could a peasant muster if he or she needed to? This is something I feel that White Wolf's Backgrounds deals with quite well, as well as GURPS.

There is also the issue of only ten Major Hermetic Virtues (nine if you discount Gentle Gift), which will limit the number of combinations available. As new books come out for ArM5 however, this will be solved.

Most of the missing Virtues and Flaws from ArM4 can easily be added into ArM5 with some adaptation.

Abilities, or skills, have also changed slightly in ArM5. Basically skills are rated from 1 to 10, with three or four being average, six being highly skilled and 9 or 10 being near-perfect.

In earlier editions, Abilities were divided between Talents (innate capabilities), Skills (learned and trained capabilities) and Knowledges (studied education and learning). That division is gone, with all Abilities learned the same. The further division (from earlier editions) divided Abilities between a number of categories, such as Academic, Hermetic, Arcane, General, Performance, etc). These divisions have been simplified to General, Academic, Arcane, Martial and Supernatural. All characters have access to General Abilities during character creation, but must take a specific Virtue to learn other Abilities during character creation. Any character may learn any Ability (unless otherwise stated) during play.

A no-brainer which was not corrected or changed from ArM4 to ArM5 was the idea of Specialisation. Each Ability may have a specialisation, which is like an ability focus, an area that you are particularly good at. If you took the Single Weapon Ability, you could specialise in Axes or Longswords. This gives you a +1 to your Ability when used in that area of specialisation. However, there is no system to ever change or gain new specialisations, or even gaining them in play.

A number of Abilities have changed or gone missing in ArM5, such as the Certamen skill (magical dueling) and Legend Lore. Certamen has gone because the way certamen is resolved has changed. Legend Lore and similar Abilities have been bundled into other Abilities (in this case, Magic Lore). A lot of Abilities, such as Story Telling, Jongleur, Siege Weapons and Wagoneering have been rolled into the Profession Ability or just removed altogether. If you are converting from ArM5, then this may cause a few problems, but it really just needs common sense.

As is traditional, this new edition of Ars Magica completely revises how Covenants are made.

This chapter goes into the four different types of Covenants, the home of the Order's wizards and their followers. Covenants are supposed to be places of mystery and magic, housed in strange locations, or hidden amongst the mundane inhabitants of Europe through powerful magic. While other characters may change or die over the course of a Saga, the covenant will remain the same, and for this reason is considered to be like a character that is made by all of the players.

The four kinds of covenants are based on the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn (Fall for you Yanks) and Winter. Spring covenants are the weakest covenants, inhabited by young mages. Summer and Autumn covenants are powerful covenants, hundreds of years old with powerful wizards and lots of magical resources. Winter covenants are very old covenants which are now declining in power and prestige.

Like with characters, there are template covenants to use, which are easily customisable. A more detailed Covenant creation system is included, which uses a Virtue and Flaw system called Boons and Hooks. This system is a lot less complicated than the ArM4 edition.

There is no system provided for changing your covenant during play, other than the events that occur during your saga. If you want to increase the number of magical grimoires or its population of skilled professionals, then you need to do so as part of the game, rather than just spending "covenant xp" or whatever.

This chapter, along with the Spells chapter, is the meat of Ars Magica.

Beginning with an explanation of Hermetic magic's history, it gives a run down of the Gift, the spark of magic which allows wizards to cast spells.

The Gift has been slightly altered from earlier editions. All Gifted people create unease and nervousness in normal, non-magical people. This manifests as a -3 penalty to all social interaction rolls that the wizard may make with a normal person. For this reason, most wizards have servants (the Companions), who are used to the effects of the Gift, to interact with non-magical people, such as nobles, clergy and merchants.

In ArM5, the social effect of the Gift is explained in detail, whereas in earlier editions, it was left quite vague. The effect of the Gift has always supposed be have been considerable: the Gift is the reason that mages have Companions to assist them. In any case, the effect of the Gift is explained with a list of examples of how certain types of people in Mythic Europe would react to a person with the Gift. Furthermore, the language used is more explicit. For this reason, this section has been subject to a series of criticisms on the BerkList. For new players, this will not be a problem, and the criticisms in my view are not serious enough to warrant any change. Basically, things are a bit more defined now in ArM5 when compared to previous editions.

Each of the fifteen Hermetic magical abilities (called Hermetic Arts) are detailed. There are some changes and clarifications here, in particular between Rego (Control) and Muto (Transform). Old players should re-read this section, since some of the changes can be significant (although they are mainly in areas that were confused or unclear in ArM4).

Hermetic magic theory and its limits are also explained, which again, clarifies what magic can and cannot do (it cannot travel to the moon, for example, or make people younger, or determine whether a demon is lying). This section, like the Arts section, is clear and concise.

The spell system fills out most of the rest of this chapter. There are three different styles of magic: spontaneous, formulaic and rituals; all Hermetic wizards (unless they have a Flaw) can use all three types of magic. Spontaneous magic is free-form magic, and is the weakest but most adaptable form of magic. Formulaic magic is the classic spells, where the mage has memorised the words and gestures necessary to cast powerful magic (unlike in DnD, formulaic spells are not forgotten when cast; once you memorise the spell, you know it forever). Ritualistic magic is the most powerful kind of magic, and the most costly, in time and resources. It can take hours, but the effects of rituals can be very powerful indeed, certainly more powerful than formulaic or spontaneous magic.

To cast a spell, you generally add your Characteristic (Stamina) to a Technique (such as Creo/Create) and a Form (such as Ignem/Fire) and then roll a D10. You aim to get over the level of the spell, which can be as low as 5 or as high as 70. A weak spell is level 5 or less, an average spell level is about 15, a powerful spell level is 30, and superdooper spells have levels of 40, 50 or more. There is no real upper limit on how powerful spells can be, but there aren't many spells with a level above 75 or 80.

There are five changes here from ArM4: Penetration, Magic Resistance, Spell Mastery Twilight and Certamen (magical dueling).

Penetration: Penetration is determined by a wizard's casting total (so their Stamina + Technique + Form + 1d10) plus their Penetration Ability minus the spell's level. To affect someone with magic, your Penetration total must exceed their magic resistance. This means that Penetration has decreased dramatically from ArM4. The result of this is that powerful spells are unlikely to have high penetration totals, but low level spells will have high penetration totals.

Magic Resistance: Magic resistance is now very powerful, for the reasons above. Even a small magic resistance is now significant. A detailed explanation of how this works in practice, with a long list of examples is included.

The whole magic resistance change is a thorny one, and was the subject of a bitter flame-war in the BerkList. The basic contention is that according to the altered rules, a mage with even a low magic resistance can magically make the sword of an attacker a different colour and be defended entirely from any attack by that sword.

Since the vast majority of people in Ars Magica have no magic resistance, this is not really a problem, but it does mean that magical battles between mages are likely to devolve into physical attacks, since they will be effectively immune to each other's spells.

Certamen is a system of magical duels, created to allow mages to fight without the possibility of accidental death. Certamen is entirely altered, since the certamen ability is removed, and is now similar to combat (except you don't add a combat Ability). Furthermore, the Certamen section is now more detailed than earlier editions, with clarifications on the in-game role of certamen, and there is an extensive and detailed example.

A new part of ArM5 is the House Mysteries, an integration of The Mysteries into the core of Ars Magica. Basically, four of the twelve Hermetic Houses have special magical secrets known only to their members. The most basic of these magical secrets are included in ArM5, with, no doubt, expansions and more powerful secrets included in the various House supplements to follow.

Of particular interest is the change in the Bjornaer Heartbeast (the Bjornaer are a House of Germanic shapeshifting wizards, and the heartbeast is the kind of animal that they can change into). In ArM4, the Heartbeast was an Ability called Will Over Form, which allowed Bjornaer mages to resist magic that altered their shape. This Ability is now called Heartbeast and is only used when someone tries to stop them from changing form.

Faerie Magic is also significantly different from that in ArM4 and the Fourth Edition Wizards Grimoire. It is, like Spell Mastery, based off an article from Hermes Portal, and basically allows Faerie mages to have access to slightly different types of magic. This is a big departure from the Wizards Grimoire version of Faerie Magic, which fiddled with your Hermetic Art scores.

I'll be brief here, since in my many years of Ars Magica, the lab chapter was the one I used the least. Basically, things have been streamlined, so that creating a new spell, crafting a magical amulet, brewing a longevity potion and binding a familiar uses the same basic system. From the BerkList, it appears as if a there have been a number of unwelcome revisions. Rituals cannot be enchanted into a magical item, so most healing spells (which are now mostly all rituals) cannot be made into magical items. This means that healing potions are, strictly speaking, no longer possible (although fast-healing potions are possible).

There are rules for learning and creating new spells, training apprentices, and for conducting arcane experiments. The rules for interrupting laboratory experiments have been altered, so you can now go on an adventure in the middle of brewing a potion or learning a spell.

This is by far the longest chapter, as it is the rules for making and casting magical spells.

Because of the flexibility of the magic system in ArM, there are almost unlimited numbers of spells possible.

The rules for the basic guidelines of spells, their Range (how far away the mage is from his target, Duration (how long the spell lasts) and Target (who or how big an area the spell can affect) are clarified, with some minor alterations. The Permanent Duration is gone, replaced by the Momentary Duration. There is a new Range (Voice), and a new Target (Part). Targeting a very large thing can also make a spell harder, and there are now rules on the Intellego (Perception) Technique granting magical senses to people.

The new spell guidelines are made easier to read, as the base guidelines are put into text-boxes. All of the spells now also include level explanations, to show players how their level was determined. There are some new spells and some spells have been dropped, and many spells have had their level changed and their description altered. Troupes who are converting will need to double check all their character's spells

This chapter deals with Experience and character advancement. There are a number of ways to increase your Abilities or magical Arts: Exposure (the least efficient way, where you learn just by being around the area of the Ability), Adventuring (this is to allow for roleplaying XP and encourage characters to go out and have stories), Practice (the character studies and practices the ability), Training (on the job training like an apprenticeship), Teaching (a professional teacher instructs you on the Ability), Books (you study magical or academic lore from books) and Vis (vis is magical energy which wizards can study to learn arcane insights).

Advancement occurs in seasons (that is, three month blocs), so to gain the benefit of advancement, you must spend an entire season undertaking that kind of advancement. However, most people cannot afford to spend the entire year training, so generally, only two seasons out of any year can be used for advancement (the other two seasons are considered to be Exposure Seasons).

In any case, there are also rules for interrupting your advancement, so you can go on adventures or deal with distractions (like a war or an attacking dragon or whatever).

Also included are rules for writing books (which can then be studied), and for learning supernatural abilities.

The book rules are extremely simple compared with those from ArM4, which were needlessly but thematically complicated. There are now only two kinds of books to learn from, Summae (general topic summaries) and Tractatus (specialised treatment of a subject).

Mages or characters with The Gift can now learn magical abilities, such as Enchanting Music or Animal Ken (speaking to animals), but to do so can damage your Hermetic power.

There are also expanded rules for Reputations, detailed rules for generic Warping and completely revised rules for Aging.

The Aging rules are included because most Sagas are supposed to take place over decades, so as to allow the mage characters to grow old and powerful. This is significantly different from ArM4, so troupes converting should take note. However, the new rules are, in my view, better than other editions.

This chapter deals with Combat, Wounds, Fatigue, other forms of damage, and travel.

Combat, in great Ars Magica tradition, has been completely revised from earlier editions, the result being a much, much better system than the one in ArM4. It is simple with a number of combat options to make things a bit spicier.

A new innovation is rules for Group combat, where you have small squads of combatants facing off against each other. I haven't played it, but it reads well; from conversation on the BerkList, the results of Group Combat will differ greatly from individual combat. However, it allows for warriors to be trained to fight in units, and finally allows for the Shield Grog (a soldier who protects the mage from being attacked while the mage casts spells), long-time part of Ars Magica, to actually work.

Additional rules, which are more explicit than those in ArM4 are included for falling damage and for heat, deprivation, starvation, suffocation, poison and disease.

This chapter deals with the three other types of supernatural power in Mythic Europe in addition to magic. The Four Realms are: Magic, Faerie, Divine and Infernal. Each is detailed. There are no great surprises here, but it more concise and coherent than other editions.

True Faith, a Virtue which grants the character a personal connection to the Divine, has been changed, now granting magic resistance rather than the possibility of complete immunity.

Regiones, pocket domains are re-explained to make more sense, however, Atlas Games has reused old artwork from ArM3 and ArM4, which, with the new description, now makes no sense.

After ArM3 and ArM4 recycling the same old sample monsters, ArM5 has finally come up with some new supernatural critters. In doing so however, ArM5 neglects to include a mundane bestiary. For a game with wizards who can shapeshift into wolves and deer, it is rather remiss not to include stats for wolves or deer (etc). There are also fewer critters in this Bestiary than in other editions.

The new creatures are, however, quite interesting, and there is a helpful Size table, something which has been missing in ArM5.

Conversion of old ArM4 monsters will be made difficult because of the change of the combat system. Soak and Powers in particular will need to be checked. The Ars Magica Developer announced very recently that a free web-supplement bestiary would be released in a week or two (so it may be out by the time this review makes it to the front page of RPG.net) that would include mundane creatures.

One of the main hindrances to new players coming into Ars Magica is the fear of the historical. Ars Magica has a (perhaps deserved) reputation for requiring a degree in Medieval History to play.

Well, the truth is, it doesn't. It is a game set in a magical version of Medieval Europe. History is optional, and only required if you want it. This chapter deals with how to add history or remove it, from your Saga.

It explains Medieval Europe in simple, plain English and really is akin to the setting chapter of Forgotten Realms, Warhammer or Deadlands. Each piece of historical information has a text-box which states game-uses for the history, such as saints, feudal society, markets or medieval towns.

The Church, the nobility and the peasants are described, and is completely re-written from ArM4 (as far as I can tell). There is also a section on how to use or include anachronisms in the game, so you don't need to follow history if you don't want to (and if you do, the information is included for your use).

This chapter is a Game Mastering 101, which explains how to run a role playing game that focuses on narrative and stories. It also includes a number of story ideas, which is a Good Thing in my view.

A Saga is what a series of stories becomes. It includes useful advice on how to run the Church interaction with wizards, how organised and authoritarian the Order of Hermes can be, and how fast time should flow in your saga.

Ars Magica Fifth Edition is the best edition of Ars Magica I own. Next to 3rd edition, this is the best you can buy.

It is much more stylish and elegant than ArM4, although the art standard is not quite up to ArM3 (published by White Wolf).

The rule revisions and re-writing of the background and setting are excellent, making things more concise and coherent.

Fantastic new edition.......2005-04-10

I'll keep this short. If you are already a fan of Ars Magica this is an amazing update. Combat is simplified for large groups, but there is still plenty of detail. The magic system remains the best in the RPG world, and is improved upon with better guidelines for creating new spells. Finally, the Virtues and Flaws section is presented with a handy table at the begining that makes it easy to find the ones you are looking for.

Great update for a great game.

New Design.......2005-02-15

This Design won't please you at all. Indeed I have the feeling that I am presented with a low budget copy made by an Inkjet Printer. The pictures aren't in a consistent style, medieval art is shown together with some very unprofessional draft.
The quality of the printing is low. You won't boast with this book at you next gaming session.

As for the content... as stated on atlas games homepage, some things have been simplified, and combat has become more deadly. The only way to decide if it fits your playstyle is to read it. Sorry that I won't discuss the changes in detail, my review should help those people that also want to have a well designed RPG manual - which this isn't.

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

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Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Erik Dahl , Timothy Ferguson , and Matt Ryan
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1589780868

Product Description

There are those within the Order of Hermes who transmit secrets of magic incomprehensible to outsiders. Pre-eminent among them are the four Mystery Cult Houses, gatherings of magi Initiated into the same Mysteries. This book details the Mystery Cults, including full details of their Inner Mysteries.

House Bjornaer venerates animal ancestors, and strives to perfect the form. Their Mysteries enhance the heartbeast, ultimately allowing the magus to unlock mythic forms.

House Criamon follow ancient teachings and seek escape from time itself. The many paths that they walk to this end grant powers that can include immortality.

House Merinita move among the faeries, ultimately joining them. Their spells can draw on faerie glamour, awaken the fay slumbering around them, or inflict curses on those who break their promises.

House Verditius crafts the greatest items, putting a little of themselves into their finest creations. Pride in their creations is often their downfall, and these magi are terribly prone to the most deadly sin.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-04-02

I really liked this book, though I'll end up converting its mechanics to D&D. It was fascinatingly detailed about each of the 4 houses, their histories, their subdivisions, their magic, and more. A well-edited and entertaining read with some really cool virtues and mysteries!

Realms of Power: The Divine (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Average customer rating:

Realms of Power: The Divine (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Niall Christie , Erik Dahl , Matt Ryan , and Alexander White
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1589780752
Release Date: 2005-08-15

Product Description

God is the patron of the Jewish people, his chosen people, guiding them through history and ultimately back to the Promised Land.

God is three and one, incarnate in Christ His Son, and offers salvation to all equally.

God is pure unity, with no parents or children, saving all who submit to His Will.

God is beyond human understanding, and all the above statements are true.

But the Divine Realm is not completely beyond human comprehension, and this book explains the power of God in Mythic Europe. From descriptions of each of the three great Divine religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to rules for Divinely-empowered wonder workers and angels, this book contains everything needed to include the Divine in your Ars Magica saga.

Average customer rating:
Realms of Power: The Infernal (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Erik Dahl , Timothy Ferguson , and Mark Shirley
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Mysteries, Revised Edition

Ancient Magic (Ars Magica)

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Covenants (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Realms of Power: The Divine (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

ASIN: 1589780876

Book Description

Demons work to corrupt all the people of Mythic Europe. They take on attractive forms, but ultimately they seek to drag all of humanity down into damnation with them. No matter the nation, the creed, or the race, they are the true enemy.

The thirteen chapters of this book cover all of the manifestations of the forces of the Evil One. The purest appearances are the infernal auras, regiones, and vis, all of which taint those who merely come into contact with them.

Almost as pure are the demons of hell. The central section discusses the nine Orders of demons, providing rules for creating your own demons, as well as examples of demons from every Order and with different motivations. Some demons seek to corrupt, others to deceive, and still others simply to destroy.

Finally, there are rules for human characters caught up in Hell's plots. Whether demons have shaped their lives since before birth, or they have foolishly bargained for infernal powers, these chapters show how to use them as foes in your saga.

Book Description

Come to a land of adventure and mystery, of falling empires and rising nations, of legendary creatures and incredible myths. This is Ars Magica's Mythic Europe, where the power of magic is real and exists alongside historical figures and locations.

Stories revolve around the covenant: one part mystical college, one part magical laboratory, one part Hermetic fortification, one part bastion of secrecy.

Your Role: Grog, Companion, Magus

You'll take many roles. At times, you may be a grog, a stalwart guard of the covenant, well-paid for your labors with a life far more exciting than that of the common folk. At other times, you may be a companion, a respected friend of the covenant, using your professional skills for a share of the glory and the reward. You'll also take on the role of a magus, a wizard of legendary power, a leader of the covenant, a member of one of the Houses of Hermes. With each role you play, however, you have knowledge few others possess. You know of Ars Magica, the art of magic.

A Magical Game

The first edition of Ars Magica set the benchmark for magic in fantasy roleplaying. It pioneered the storytelling style of roleplaying that has become so popular today. Its setting, Mythic Europe, sparked the imaginations of fantasy fans and history enthusiasts alike.

The fourth edition of Ars Magica's core rulebook introduces improved systems in several key areas such as combat, character advancement, and covenant generation. This version of the game retains and improves upon Ars Magica's powerful and flexible magic system -- widely regarded as the best rules for magic in all of gaming. Ars Magica Fourth Edition also remains compatible with the game's previously released supplements.

Ars Magica won the Gamer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Roleplaying Game of 1988; the Fourth Edition was nominated for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1996.

Customer Reviews:

Curse of chronos.......2002-12-28

A quirk of many Ars Magica players is that they have a particular edition they value above all others: mine was third edition: to my mind, it was the apex of the games origionality. At its best, Ars Magica was an intensly colourfull game that gave modern players a filter through wich they could percive a fantastic medival world. It was a mix of judith tarr and prof. umberto eco, and propably the best thing mark rein . hagen ever made.
Unfortunately, the current owners of the game do not get all that. They seem to think that its supposed to be a "realistic" simulation of the middle ages: not that the middle ages are not intresting enough on their own, but that just wasnt the point of Ars Magica. Its name means "the Art of Magic", and it was supposed to focus on what was OUTSIDE the medival world: its cosmology was one never thought of in medival times. The main characters are outcast wizards, not, say, knights.
Also, i have a terrible suspicion that the current owners overuse of historical material is due to a lack of ideas of their own. Even the colours used in the game - books have become more grey.
One last thing: the rules have always been a bit heavy - going (even a simplified version of rolemaster can manage to be quite complex), but the basic dice system is easy and logical enough, so with a bit of practice a storyteller should be able to manage with a few general rolls. The fourth edition people should have kept most of them unchanged, i understand.

My favorite RPG!.......2001-04-18

Before Jonathan Tweet moved to Wizards of the Coast, and before Mark Rein-Hagen created the WW's World of Darkness -- they created Ars Magica. This is a wonderfully detailed, and realistic medieval roleplaying game. The magic system is the best there is! The fleshed-out combat system, and the fact that you play 3 characters from different social strata are also wonderful features. The first RPG to have troupe-style play, and it's quite a treat for gamers seeking substance. Minor complaint: I wish there were a few clear and concrete examples of the rules being used during play; in some places the text is dense and a bit hard to digest. But don't let this fool you, the rules are really quite simple -- the presentation just needs to be streamlined.

A simple and brillaint RPG.......2000-06-28

My background is in Medieval History and the Arthurian legends. While I have enjoyed RPGs in general over the years, I have never really felt fulfilled by them. Ars Magica changed that.

This is a grand game, not only in terms of system, but also in scope. You are not slogging around odd underground defense installations finding monsters sitting in room with a king's ransom in gems; instead, you are part of a community and your interests are first in foremost in the esoteric study of arcane lore and magic. Assuming you are a mage. The Companion and Custos (Grogs) have a slightly different take on life, but they are lower down the Great Chain of Being.

This game assumes that in the Middle Ages the world was what people believed it was. Demons are real. God is above all else. Faeries are around every corner. Within this context, you, the player, are an anomaly -- a mage with great power, socially shunned (at best), but in the end subject to the world around you and the constraints placed on your magic.

The system is elegant, requiring only 10-sided dice. The magic system is magesterial -- huge, flexible, yet limiting the lesser magi until they have a chance to learn. Most of all, the game puts you within a real world and makes you feel enmeshed in it.

If you are looking for a truly fine RPG, this is it, hands down.

One of the Best Roleplaying Magic Systems ever!.......2000-01-14

This is one of the coolest roleplaying games I have ever played. I have played Traveller, Gurps, D&D, Twilight 2000 etc...

This system is one of my favorite Magic systems ever. The game world is rich and the whole concept behind covenants and mundanes in mythic europe is an exciting one!

The final stage in RPG evolution is here........1999-08-21

A grand game for the true hardcore roleplayers. Ars is a system once owned by White Wolf, and one can draw many comparisons between the two, that has only gotten better in the two editions between. You play three characters at once and each is quite detailed. The magic system is the ultimate in imagination and personalization and the combat system is realistic,deadly, and exciting. You need no supplements to have a great time but each adds more detail. Pick it up and get lost in Mythic Europe.

Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

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Guardians of the Forests: The Rhine Tribunal (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Mark Shirley , and Andrew P. Smith
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1589780728

Product Description

Guardians of the Forests details the birthplace of the Order of Hermes, Mythic Germany. From the sinister faerie heights of the Black Forest, home to Durenmar, through the prosperous and venerable cities of the Rhineland, to the fog-ridden Harz Mountains, to the lowland plain and Crintera's island retreat on the Baltic coast, the northern Holy Roman Empire is a diverse landscape of countless magical and faerie forests, interspersed with a patchwork of powerful realms, where prince-bishops vie with dukes and merchant gilds for temporal power. This is the land of the epic Nibelungenlied, the heroic conquests of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa, the miracles of St. Boniface, the splendour of the Imperial Cathedrals, the gifts of minstrels and wood-wives, and the curses of witches and the Wild Hunt.

Guardians of the Forests reveals the many unique traditions of the First Tribunal, its archaic politics and lost glories, its reverence for its founders and its woodlands, the workings of the Great Library of Durenmar, and the secrets of those who pursue obscure wilderness paths in search of the primal power of the Forest. The richness of the German landscape is fully explored, replete with numerous story and saga ideas. The region of the Rhine Gorge receives a special focus -- its lost covenants, vis sources, sites of legend, towns, castles, inhabitants, and a mysterious curse are all detailed -- providing a perfect location to jump-start an Ars Magica 5th Edition saga.

Average customer rating:

Much anticipated, but a disappointment
Covenants (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)
Timothy Ferguson , Mark Shirley , Andrew Smith , and Neil Taylor
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Realms of Power: The Infernal (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

The Mysteries, Revised Edition

Realms of Power: The Divine (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Houses of Hermes: True Lineages (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

ASIN: 1589780833

Product Description

The covenant is the home of magi and the heart of an Ars Magica saga. Much more than just a base camp, its prosperity determines the power and safety of the characters who live there, and the challenges faced by a covenant shape the whole saga. The Covenants sourcebook includes:

New Boons and Hooks, for a wide range of saga styles

Guidance on governance and covenfolk

Story-based rules for determining the covenant's wealth

Rules for developing libraries and enchanting books

Rules for personalizing and improving a magus's laboratory.

Everything you need to bring your covenant to life is here!

Customer Reviews:

Much anticipated, but a disappointment.......2006-10-02

Ars Magica is an interesting line for a rpg. On the one hand the game is set in 13th century Europe; therefore there is a historical basis to the game. On the other hand the major characters are wizards, and that of a not particularly medieval stripe. This being said, Ars Magica is, after 30+ years of gaming with various sets of rules, my single favourite system. I looked forward to Covenants because it was going to be the first serious attempt to nail down the "metacharacter" of the game, the covenant itself, since the 2nd edition. Sadly, it did not live up to my expectations.

The current notion of how to create a covenant is different from in earlier editions. Previously the creation of a covenant was an absolute endeavour -- you created all of the parameters of the covenant, top to bottom, with the notion that there might be rules within the covenant itself that might restrict access to certain sections. Under the 5th edition rules, however, covenants are designed stritcly around the players. Thus a covenant may actually have more goods and materials available to them than the created ratings suggest, at least in terms of magical volumes. This creates an odd situation. If, as I have had happen in various sagas, the players go over to the second generation (apprentices who become magi and take over for the primary magi, who are themselves more or less retiring to their laboratories), the covenant statistics are no longer valid. In simple terms, the statistics created for the covenant only work for a given group of players, not to older or young NPCs or subsequent apprentices. This is a failing.

In Ars Magica money has never been of central importance. Characters have very broad, generalized "wealth levels". This has worked well in that no one has had to really think about where the money comes from. For covenants in the past this was a good idea -- how is a covenant able to support itself? A handwave would suffice. With this supplement, however, the covenant must know precisely from what source its monies derive. This creates a major problem. As most wealth in the 13th century derives from land, and land is not a saleable commodity, the covenant must come up with some sort of plausible reason for why it owns the land. In addition the supplements list a "typical" holding of lands for a covenant to be equivalent to "a large tract of wheat fields ... with a half-dozen villages." This is more than a standard knight of the 13th century would hold, closer to a small barony. Such a covenant, therefore, is not simply a landholder, but a considerable one. Certainly such a group, assuming it could even persuade others that they have actual rights to the lands, would be drawn into the mundane conflicts of the day. Prices for various commodities are provided, yet not how quickly such items would be used up, so the costs versus needs are impossible to calculate.

Now while such sections seem to balance more towards the mundane, concrete, and historical side of the equation, the supplement also has material that, quite improbably, leans heavily towards the fantastical, bordering on the Moorcockian. There are options for mutable and flickering auras, pattern Warping, predetermined natural disasters, fantastical cavalry, death prophecies, and other bizarre environmental factors. Of course this is all intermixed with hard-and-fast rules on realistic fortifications and maintainence, so it is hard to tell precisely which direction the authors meant this books to jump.

There are also rules in here that make it much harder to run your covenant. The rules on prevailing loyalty are horridly broken was written; there are fixes to this over in the errata section at Atlas Games, but they do not go far enough. Instead of merely adding flavour to the game, it is now nearly impossible to have loyal covenfolk. The Extended Rules section on the writing of books, while appear to add extra options, instead takes the core book writing rules and declares that the only way to achieve the levels of Quality found in the core rulebook is with a greater expenditure of money and time than the core rules call for.

There are also a great number of spells of questionable use in this book. The Scribal Magic found in Chapter Seven, while quite charming, has no use or application. While each of these spells seem to be useful to the game there is again the problem of we do not know just how much is needed materially to create books, thus the spells, while at first glance useful, cannot actually be sued in the game. They create specific amounts of material needed for writing and copying books; since we do not know how much of this material is needed, the spells provide no benefit.

The book is not without redeeming features. Chapter Six, which deals with Vis Sources, is both imaginative and charming, the sort of thing that provides great colour to any saga.

Overall this book could have provided great material for Ars Magica sagas. Instead it provides minutiae that confuses many players, dwells on mundania that ultimately confuses the issue of the place of covenants in the Mythic European landscape, creates extra rules that limit (rather than adding to) options, yet also provides fantastical elements to add into a realistic setting. I cannot recommend this volume for any serious saga.

Ultima Thule: Mythic Scandinavia (Ars Magica)

Average customer rating:

Superficial
Well written, but out of time

Ultima Thule: Mythic Scandinavia (Ars Magica)
Einar Wry-Mouth
Manufacturer: Trident Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Welsh | More Languages | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1887801758

Book Description

When the universe began, there was only a chasm so immense that even the gods would become dizzy looking into it, known as the Ginnugagap. It was here that Yggdrasil — the World Tree — would lay down its roots.

Ultima Thule: Mythic Scandinavia is the sourcebook of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. It describes the denizens of these lands, delving into their culture, rulers, customs, calendar, myths, and deities. It talks about their often-violent relationships with Mythic Europe's other nations — England, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia, to name but a few. Scandinavian mythology is covered extensively, from otherworldly places to gods, creatures, and races.

Ultima Thule is more than a background manual, though. It provides exhaustive rules for Norse character creation. In addition to rules for grogs and companions, new mystic companions are introduced. The vitkir are runemasters who draw their might from chiseled and drawn characters of power. A completely new system of magic is presented that allows these characters to loose the power of the runes. Finnish wind wizards are also presented; they provide a new twist on weather magic.

Any roleplayer with an interest in Mythic Scandinavia should have Ultima Thule!

Customer Reviews:

Superficial.......2000-08-17

This book is imho quite superficial. To my regret, it doesn't really cover the order of Odin (because, as the book says, the Order of Oding is only rumors). Another thing I really hate about the book is the front cover. It shows a man with a hornet helmet - no viking helmet with horns has ever been found... A bit too 'mythical' for me! Apart from that the book is quite boring.

Well written, but out of time.......2000-06-28

I love Ars Magica. I have also been fascinated with vikings for quite some time. This supplement tries to bridge the knowledge gap concerning Scanadanavia and the Order of Odin for Ars Magica, but as is common with so many games along this line, the vikings seemd to last for hundreds of years after their prime.

Ars Magica is nominally set to begin in 1220 AD. By common scholarly acceptance, the last gasp of the viking era was the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066 AD (about 2 weeks before the Battle of Hastings). Most of the information given in this book would be more appropriate to the 9th or 10th centuries, rather than the 13th. With this proviso, let me say the information is wonderful.

The background information on Scandanavian culture is, as common with Ars Magica supplements, superlative. Social strata, mores, pasttimes, cratfs, and the Old Beliefs are handled in an intelligent and engaging manner. This is by far the best system I have ever seen for handling runic magic; while it may not be accurate (how do you judge such things in a game?), it gives a real viking FEEL to the power. In addition there is a fascinating section on Finnish Wind Wizards which, while brief, is intriguing and quite useful.

Overall this is a fine book, with the one caveat of being somewhat misplaced in time. Barring that, however, it is a wonderful addition to any Ars Magica library, especially if you favour early campaigns.

Average customer rating:

Nine interesting non-Hermetic magic systems

Atlas Games does it again.

too few rules
Ancient Magic (Ars Magica)
Erik Dahl , Timothy Ferguson , Jeff Kyer , Richard Love , John Post , Paul Tevis , and Alexander White
Manufacturer: Atlas Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

City & Guild (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

The Mysteries, Revised Edition

Realms of Power: The Infernal (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Houses of Hermes: Societates (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (Ars Magica Fantasy Roleplaying)

ASIN: 1589780949
Release Date: 2007-01-02

Product Description

Legends tell of the mighty wizards of the past, sorcerers with powers that dwarf those of the magi of the Order of Hermes. Hyperboreans whose spells lasted a generation, necromancers of Canaan who could summon any of the dead, rune magic that brushed aside Magic Resistance like cobwebs; all these stories circulate in the Covenants of the Order. Other forms of magic are so ancient that even the legends have become rare. The Seekers are those magi of the Order who search for these secrets, aiming for the glory of being the one to bring the power to modern magi. This book contains descriptions of nine forms of ancient magic, and rules for integrating their secrets into Hermetic theory. From the frozen north to the westernmost edge of the world, from humankind's earliest homes to grand temples of the classical world, the quest can lead your characters anywhere in Mythic Europe, and even beyond. How far will they go for knowledge?

Customer Reviews:

Nine interesting non-Hermetic magic systems.......2007-07-14

This book covers nine non-Hermetic magic systems, all of which predate the Order of Hermes. They can be used in a campaign as models for powers of rivals to player-character magi, but since by the era of the standard game setting they have no living practitioners, their main point is as a set of magical practices that magi might try to learn to expand their own powers.

The introduction offers a set of rules for learning new powers: discover a source of information on an ancient magical tradition (typically through adventuring), investigate it to discover an Insight, invent a spell or magical device that uses the Insight, and repeat until the Insights amount to an extension of Hermetic magic theory. (The Insight rules are a variation on the original magic research rules in the Bonisagus section of True Lineages.) If one makes a breakthrough, it may be taught to other magi or recorded in writing.

Chapter 1 covers the Language of Adam, the language spoken before the Tower of Babel -- the language of true names, more or less. For a Hermetic magus, it grants a penetration bonus to spells equal to the magus's skill in the language. The chapter mostly covers adventures one might take to learn the long-dead language. No Insights are necessary to use the language.

Chapter 2 covers Canaanite Necromancy. It includes a Major Supernatural Virtue, Canaanite Necromancy, a Minor Hermetic Virtue, Canaanite Magic, a list of example spells and items, and a few special powers. It also includes an infernally tainted variation on the power. There are also some adventures one could use to seek Insight into this magical tradition.

Chapter 3 covers Defixio Magic, a tradition that allows its practitioners to perform magic beyond sight range without an arcane connection, and cast spells with built-in triggers similar to Watching Ward. Triggered spells require enough Insight for Event Duration, a Minor Breakthrough. Spells without arcane connections require enough Insight for Unlimited Range, a Hermetic Breakthrough. Much of the chapter consists of mini-adventure descriptions for defexiones that a magus might find and use as sources of Insight. There is also a Major Supernatural Virtue, Defixio Lore, which most most magi would be unable to learn because of conflicts with Hermetic learning.

Chapter 4 covers Fertility Magic, which includes the Arcane Ability Fertility Lore, the Minor Hermetic Virtue Fertility Ritual Magic, the spell target Unborn Child, a few example spells and items, and several adventure seeds.

Chapter 5 presents Grigori Magic, a type of magic originally known to children of angels. Spells developed with Grigori Insight allow magi to substitute different sorts of vis when casting vis-boosted spells, and possibly avoid use of vis entirely. Grigori Minor Supernatural Virtues allow using some types of vis interchangeably; Grigori Minor Hermetic Virtues allow that and bypass some requisites. Much of the chapter is adventure seeds.

Chapter 6 presents Heron of Alexandria's Legacy, a type of magic that allows its practitioners to create Mechanica. With a Minor Hermetic Virtue or Major Breakthrough, magi can create magical devices with mutable powers. With a Major Virtue or Hermetic Breakthrough, magi can awaken a magical device, giving it intelligence and personality. The chapter includes numerous example devices and adventure seeds.

Chapter 7 describes the Hesperides, a simple skill that allows a place's longitude and latitude to be used as an arcane connection to it. Since such arcane connections depend on the Law of Names, they may be copied freely. The skill can only be used if one visits Longitude Zero, in today's Canary Islands. Most of the chapter deals with adventures involved in visiting Longitude Zero.

Chapter 8 presents Hyperborean Magic, a tradition based on hymns to Apollo. It includes the Minor Supernatural Virtues Hyperborean Hymnist and Hyperborean Descent; the latter is also a Major Hermetic Virtue. Also included are the Supernatural Ability Hyporean Hymn, the dead language Hyperborean, the new duration 19 Years, numerous hymn-powers, special Insight rules, and adventures to seek Hyperborean knowledge.

Chapter 9 presents Rune Magic, which includes the Duration Rune, the target Inscription, the Major Hermetic Virtue Rune Magic, and the rune wizards' Rune Magic. Rune magic has the advantage that it can be performed without vis. There is also some information about runes and rune magic, and a few adventure ideas.

If a magus is happy with Hermetic magic only, the player doesn't need this book. But this offers a lot of additional options that might broaden a magus's powers -- and add adventure motivations to a campaign.

Atlas Games does it again........2007-04-10

I've always loved Ars Magica and this recent supplement is just great.

It has lots of material that could be brought into many campaigns. Each type of Ancient magic has it's own section with history and rules on researching. In fact the books primary purpose appears to be to provide research opportunities and goals for your magi. A character could have his life goal to pursue norse rune magic and incorporating it into standard Hermetic theory.

too few rules.......2007-04-02

This one was alright in my opinion, but a little lacking in the rules dept. I feel they could have developed some of the specifics of the various forms of magic much more. I found the book to be more like a collection of adventure ideas. Not bad mind you, but not up to par with the rest of the excellent Ars Magica line.

Average customer rating:

Wizard's Grimoire (Ars Magica)

Manufacturer: White Wolf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1565040635

Product Description

1st edition of this sourcebook for Ars Magica.

Books:

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