Ars Magica ("The Art of Magic") is the award-winning roleplaying game by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen that focuses on wizards who are as powerful as those we know from legend and literature; in the land of Mythic Europe, 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 -- central to the stories. Troupe-style roleplaying allows players to take on the roles of multiple characters, 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. It features all-new graphic design, two-color interior printing, hardcover binding, and a special introductory price.
Line Developer David Chart worked on the new edition for the two years. It went through extensive playtesting over a year; this has easily been the most playtesting any edition of the game has received before publication. Playtest groups have included seasoned Ars Magica veterans as well as players who had no previous experience with the game. We are confident that the game appeals to both.
Veteran Ars Magica players are clamoring to know what's new and different about 5th Edition. Here are some of the rules change highlights:
Magic resistance has been changed so that the Parma Magica is actually the defense it's always been said to be.
The Laboratory rules have been streamlined and unified around a single core mechanic -- the spell invention mechanic from earlier editions.
The spell guidelines have been cleaned up, clarified, and made as consistent as possible.
The combat rules have been completely rewritten so that armor and shield grogs are more useful.
The introduction to Mythic Europe has been rewritten to provide information that's immediately useful in play.
Character creation has been revised to create characters, including magi, at any age, and to create characters of similar power to those advanced through play.
Supplements & Support
There is already an enormous library of Ars Magica supplements in our catalog, and we will continue to sell them. As a rule, we expect older sourcebooks to be usable with the new edition, and we expect them to continue to sell (just as many 3rd edition books remained strong sellers throughout the life of 4th Edition). It will be some years before there are 5th Edition replacements for many of these books.
Roughly speaking, we plan to release four major supplements per year for Ars Magica. Most of the first year of support for Fifth Edition is already written and in playtesting or editing. Here are some of the books in development.
Houses of Hermes: True Lineages (expected April 2005): The book Houses of Hermes, published by Wizards of the Coast, has been one of the game's top selling supplements as long as we've owned it, but it will soon be out of print. Since the Order of Hermes is at the heart of the game, we need to replace it, but we want to offer players something meatier. We are thus planning a series of Hermetic sourcebooks for players, each one focusing on several houses with a common theme. The first, True Lineages, covers houses Guernicus, Mercere, Tremere, and Bonisagus.
The Divine (title not yet determined): Our intention is to publish one Realm book each year, covering one of the major powers of Mythic Europe -- the Divine, the Infernal, Magic, and Faerie. First up will be the Divine -- the most powerful force in Mythic Europe -- covering such topics as saints, angels, miracles, holy powers, relics, and much more.
The Mysteries (Revised): The Mysteries was one of the most popular books we published for 4th Edition, and is being revised for the 5th Edition.
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