Did that just come up on your Facebook feed?

It did on mine

No. I got an email from David Chart on the old Berklist and it was posted on the Atlas forums.

I'm going to have a look at it later this evening.
I've only got the base rulebook (PDF) myself, so if I can afford it ...

In reply to Galley Slave (msg # 43):

I only have the 1st and 4th edition so I might well update.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:43, Thu 24 Aug 2017.

I am one of those that got the bundle. I had heard of Ars Magica here and there. I was waiting to pounce, patiently, patiently. I am looking to play a long-term but casual posting rate. I want to explore perhaps generations of wizards throughout a length of long time.

This bundle is awesome, If I didn't already have all of them. Now... I wish the Character Generator would have gotten some love and they bundle a package for it up, Metacreator Bundle for Ars Magica would have been nice. I'm really hoping someday a new Generator comes out. Metacreator is nice but man its dated. Herolab would be ideal but they think there packages are made from gold. Too pricey.

The price is really reasonable for what you get.  I'd jump at it if I didn't already have most of the books in the bundle already.

Side question, Has anyone ever set Ars Magica in a Fantasy Setting, Instead of a Real world Setting? i.e Not using real world places, etc. Using Fantasy Created ones, or even established Settings from other RPGs? Like Ars Magica set in Forgotten Realms. Or even a Fantasy creation of your own design?

Yeah a friend on G+ mega-reviewed the game as the greatest game he has ever played. His background and dedication to the name made me order it right there.

I was a player in a game sent in Harnworld here on RPoL.

Callen, that was Thruxus' game, I believe.

I don't remember running a game in Harnworld.

I know I tried using the map for D&D 4th Edition once as a setting for Ars Magica. But all my other attempts at Ars Magica have been set in a historical Setting. I've tried running Guardians of the Forest set in the Rhine Valley, and I tried doing one set in England near Stonehedge. I remember I did Calibas a few times too. Oh and a Lighthouse once that was actually pretty good. I think the Lighthouse one was set in the 4E D&D Setting if I'm not mistaken. I know a bunch of you here have played in the very short lived games I've attempted to run on here. Which by the way I apologize, Life always seemed to mess things up.

I've played in many of the AM games here ... and several of Thrux's other games.
One day, when I feel I can give it due attention, I'll run one myself.

I've had thoughts of a '(DnD) Birthright' style game  set in a  Middle Earth setting  ... where each player plays a stand alone wizard (with their own personal Covenant)  +  the leader of one nation.   On the basis of the 10 (based on the Forms) immortal wizards (xx the Gray, xx the Green, etc ... using the Form Vis colours); each Wizard being the 'best at (Form)' ...

That kinda thing.

I think the concept behind a good game is finding the right players, and the right Narrator. Character creation is so open, you have attributes, skills to choose, Major and Minor Virtues, and with opening up creation to all the sources besides the core, You have a buttload of options. I wouldn't mind a game that uses the Archetypes from the book. Instant creation, Poof, here is your character, spells, etc, Now form a background around it and lets start playing! Creation is fun, building your character from scratch is fun, and tweaking them to make the perfect is awesome, But its very time consuming and there is where a bunch of games faulter out. Just my two cents.

One aspect that I've always wanted to delve into with Ars Magica, was the Infernal. Being a Corrupted Character, with Tainted Virtues. Gifted, but with Summoning magics for Demons, the tempting Demonic Imp on the shoulder telling him to do this and that. but trying to hold on to his own humanity at the same time. Or at least hide it from the other Magi around him.

Aye. I'm a fan of playing demon summoners of all sorts, but there are problems with playing for team evil in Ars Magica.

1. The setting as written makes Infernal the Always Chaotic Evil plus Chaotic Stupid. Demons don't make cunning machiavellian plans, they just piss in everyone's cereal all the time, non stop. Because patience is a virtue and demons don't have that so demons can't plan.
2. Divine is unbeatable. Explicitly. You can never win against the Divine, in either short or long term. So there's no point in playing for the Infernal side, the one true way is temporarily allying with them to get temporal power on earth for your personal non-Infernal goals.
3. Ars Goetia is rather broken. It's easy to make a goeticist capable of summoning and controlling Might 30 demons, which is the top peak of demons in RoP:I.

1 and 2 together mean that for a fullfilling and fun Infernal game you have to write your own heaven and hell more or less from scratch. There are options here. You can take Paradise Lost and Demon the Fallen, and have demons be ambiguously evil, with understandable reasons for rebellion, ability to plan, and belonging to all sides of morality spectrum. You can take Shin Megami Tensei and replace Infernal and Divine with Law and Chaos. YHVH is not omnipotent and omnibenevolent, he's very strong, authoritarian and selfish. Demons are not cast down dregs, they are everyone who didn't sign up for YHVH's reign. You can do lots of stuff. But Infernal as written is intentionally bent to being unfun and anti-fun.

Hey so I just wanted to ask a question surrounding pacing. Assuming you have a group of people who are willing to play how long do you typically give for Character/ Covenant Creation? I know there are a lot of factors at work but in your own opinion what works best.

2 Sessions for me.  Half of one of those sessions is in Covenant creation, which we use real-life maps for...

I should have been slightly clearer. I meant on RpoL. Also hey zylphyr.

Oh, can't help there.  Never ran a game here, and nobody's ever let me play in one either.  :P

From my experience, the game tends to die an early death (usually before creation is done or only barely afterward) the more time is spent on creation. I lost one this way myself and have seen it happen to a whole bunch I joined as a player. Meanwhile, the one I joined that survived well had the covenant created by the SG ahead of time. My current one also had the covenant created by the GM, and they players who created characters are at least mostly still with me, enough that the game won't die. This is why I'd earlier suggested somewhere here that it seems best for the SG to set up the covenant ahead of time.

Of course, we lost a game before it really started with the SG using the pre-made covenant. But that was because the SG vanished as opposed to player loss.

Are you thinking of starting one here? Please! Pretty please! There are only two currently running here, and only one is in English. (I might be able to manage French, but it would probably be too much effort for me now that my French has decayed so much - never was fabulous anyway.) And I run that one in English. I'm really hoping to play in one.

I never did reply to this. It was Kilgs's game.

I actually am considering running one. I'm currently lurking in your game as it stands, learning vicariously. I was going to wait for the new year to come and all of the holiday stuff to settle out. I wanted to do a Spring Covenant but it might be too much to put on any novice characters so perhaps Summer. I'm open to opinions on that matter.

I might also consider taking on a Co-SG. I know it's not typical but Ars Magica has a good bit of overhead and it could potentially be better to have someone to fill in when life starts beating me over the head.

Spring covenants can work well with novice players, too. But you can still have it set up in some manor ahead of time. For instance, it's founded by some very senior magus who recruits a bunch of younger magi. Then the novice players don't need to deal with covenant creation. Older covenants work, too.

If covenant creation seems daunting on your own, if you haven't looked at it, take a look at Semita Errabunda at the bottom of this page: http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5/ . You can dump all the younger magi and companions, replacing them with ones the players design.

I am thinking about taking another stab at running an Ars Magica game here. If I do, I would be starting it up in early Spring.

My plan is to take a group of wizards fresh out of Gauntlet and have them sent out to start a new Covenant.

I have two ideas:

• The Curse of the Rhine Gorge from the Rhine Tribunal book.
• The Broken Covenant of Calebais