Talk:Welcome to Ars Magica

Recommend Migrating to "Learning to Play"

The comments about the muddled purpose of this page, below, are still accurate. I looked over the content and I think we can make an introductory page that's a lot more useful. I've created a Learning to Play page that will have a more clear purpose. I plan to migrate the content of this page into either Learning to Play (for tutorial information) or Ars Magica (for general information about the game). Andrew Gronosky (talk) 05:45, 1 January 2016 (MST)

Older Discussion

I'm not sure I understand why this page is separate from Ars Magica. Would it make sense to combine them?

Well, this page is intended to be a primer for Ars Magica, a reading guide and companion to the core rulebook to help ease new players into the game. This is quite a different role from the standard "Ars Magica" page, which in my opinion should include general information about Ars Magica, including some details about its history, publisher, and so on, for the casual viewer. I think these goals are best served by having two distinct texts, so that the two pages are justified.

I can see the "Ars Magica" page expanded with a more in-depth explanation of Ars Magica, that would touch on many issues raised in the "Welcome to Ars Magica" page. However, that would still be a very different article from a primer. I can also see the primer incorporated into the main "Ars Magica" text and the "Welcome to Ars Magica" page deleted, but that would only be confusing for most readers in my opinion. I think it's best to leave a link to the "Welcome to Ars Magica" page on the "Ars Magica" page, as I've done. At least - that was my thought process. Yair 19:42, 20 August 2012 (MDT)

Having thought about this a bit more, I think we're in agreement that there's a need for two separate pages: one that's an overview that describes the major features of the game, and another that's an introduction to how to get started actually playing it. At this time, this page serves a mix of those purposes. So I would propose moving the paragraphs that describe the game onto the "Ars Magica" page, and letting "Welcome to Ars Magica" be the introduction to the game. Also, before I forget, we need to get CJ's PowerPoint slides linked to the "Welcome" page.

Improve "Creating a Character"

The section on "Your first covenant" suggests (and I think it's a good one) stealing^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H borrowing freely from another Saga, or one of the pre-published official / semi-official online/print covenants. The character-creation section merely points to the rulebook-templates (which look a lot to me like impenetrable stat-blocks; I can only imagine how an ArM-n00b would view them!) or that you get a character from a more-experienced player in your Saga.

Can I suggest that the "Creating a Character" section also explicitly link to some other online sample characters (such as the PC's for Semitae Errabunda, Sabrina's Rest, etc). Ideally, a few sample PC's hosted right here with the Redcap would help in case external resources move. I'd gladly contribute sme PC's to such an endeavor, if it were deemed desirable...