Ars Magica Definitive Edition, Chapter One: Introduction

On the day the faeries came to burn the village, Walter was repairing the thatch on his roof. As he worked, he kept half an eye on the strangers who had arrived the previous evening. Walter didn't like the look of them, particularly the woman. She looked like the sort who sold watered ale, then robbed and killed men while they slept.

The group seemed to be waiting for something, and when the faeries rode out of the woods Walter thought he knew what. The grass blackened and smoked in the hoofprints left by the shining crimson horses, and the hands of the faerie nobles were swathed in flames, as always. Menacing storm clouds gathered in their wake. Walter shouted the alarm, and the villagers ran for the church. He shifted to get off the roof, and his leg went straight through the damaged thatch, trapping him. His warning shouts changed to cries for help, but the other villagers knew the rules.

Run straight for the church. Stay in the church until the faeries have gone. Do not come out to help anyone, no matter who it looks and sounds like.

Helpless, Walter watched his death approach as the priest began to ring the church bell. The strangers split up, the woman moving forward by herself and calling to the faeries in a language Walter didn't understand. For a moment, he thought she was a spy for the faeries, but then the leader threw a bolt of flame, and Walter thought she was merely dead. She wasn't. The fire that could destroy a house in a moment had left the woman completely unharmed. She spoke again, more loudly this time, gesturing at the faerie leader's horse as she did so. A moment later the horse shrieked, a dreadful, high sound that went on and on, and bucked its rider off. The faerie got to his feet as the horse rolled, still screaming in agony, igniting small fires as it writhed.

The woman spoke again, and this time the faerie listened. Walter couldn't understand what they were saying. The discussion went on for some time, as the horse got to its feet, seemingly unharmed, and the woman's companions came forward to join her. In the end, some sort of agreement was reached, and the faeries turned and rode back into the forest.

Walter watched the woman, clearly a witch of some sort, approach his house, looking up with an unpleasant smirk on her face. She spoke and gestured again, and Walter felt some force grab him. He was lifted off the roof, but then placed gently, standing, on the ground in front of the witch. She spoke to one of her escort, who then spoke to Walter. "My mistress would like to talk to the priest and bailiff. Please bring them here." Walter did not feel like arguing, and ran to the church, shouting that the faeries were gone.

Welcome to Ars Magica

Dragons lair in the mountains, angels watch over the Church, faeries dance in the forests, and demons tempt men and women to their ultimate downfall. The magi of the Order of Hermes live in a world of mythic power, the world of Mythic Europe. Welcome to that world.

Welcome to Ars Magica.

Ars Magica is a roleplaying game, wherein you and your friends tell the stories of a group of powerful wizards, magi of the Order of Hermes, and their allies in the world of Mythic Europe. Mythic Europe is much like the Europe of 1220, the middle ages, but dragons, demons, angels, and faeries are all unquestionably real, and no aspect of society is untouched by myth.

Ars Magica is a game about magic, and its rules for magic are widely regarded as the best in any roleplaying game. They combine flexibility and rigor, allowing you to create powerful wizards who can do almost anything, while providing clear guidelines on just how powerful a wizard needs to be to do anything you can think of. The rules also cover the creation of enchanted devices, binding familiars, and training apprentices to carry on your magical legacy. The time an Ars Magica magus spends in his laboratory is at least as important to him as the time he spends on adventures.

This book is the core rulebook for the Fifth Edition of Ars Magica. Some of you will have played previous editions of the game, and will find much here that is familiar, although improved. For others, this is your first encounter with Ars Magica, so everything will be new and wonderful.

Basic Ideas

In many ways, Ars Magica is very similar to most other tabletop, or pen-and-paper, roleplaying games. Players have characters, who are defined by a set of numbers, and control their character's actions by telling the other players what they do. One player, called the storyguide in Ars Magica, handles most of the world, deciding what antagonists and extras do. Conflicts, or tasks that might be beyond a character's capabilities, are resolved according to the rules described in this book, and a die roll.

There are also a number of differences. None of these features are unique to Ars Magica, but they are rare enough that you can have played roleplaying games for years without encountering them.

First, the available character types are not equal in power. Hermetic magi are more powerful than other possible player characters, far more powerful in many cases. Power does not necessarily correspond to how interesting a character is to play, and The Gift that allows magi to work magic also causes them problems in most social situations.

Second, most players have more than one character. This is called troupe-style roleplaying, and is discussed in detail in the Sagas chapter. The role of storyguide may also pass around the group, or troupe, and player characters are divided between central characters (magi and companions) and supporting cast (grogs). A player would normally only play one central character at a time, but might play several grogs at once. This means that every player can have one of the powerful characters, but that those characters need not all be involved in every story.

Third, the game is normally centered around the place where the characters live, called a covenant, rather than around a wandering group of adventurers. This opens up a whole set of new story possibilities, and the covenant is as much a character in the game as any of the human beings.

Finally, characters in Ars Magica improve over years of game time, and most sagas cover at least a few years of game time. Adventures are occasional interruption in their lives, not everyday activities, and consequences that come years down the road can still have an impact on an ongoing series of connected stories, called a saga. Characters gain experience depending on how many seasons they have lived, not how many adventures they have been on. In many sagas, families grow, children grow up, and characters die of old age. Ars Magica's rules provide plenty of support for the ways that characters can study, learn, and improve over time.

Ars Magica is particularly well-suited to long running sagas, but it can also be played as a one-off, one-session game, or a mini-series of connected stories. Similarly, although the official setting is very similar to historical medieval Europe, apart from all the mythic power around the place, the rule system works well for a magic-centered campaign in any fantasy setting. The Mythic Europe, Stories, and Sagas chapters discuss ways to run the game, and provide hints to help you do whatever you want with it.

In the last analysis, Ars Magica is a game. If you have fun with it, you are doing it right.

Structure of the Book

This is a big book, as it needs to be to explain all the rules and background for Ars Magica. The first chapter, this Introduction, provides a quick overview of the game, and explains the basic die-rolling mechanic.

Chapter 2, Order of Hermes, describes the order of wizards that is central to the game.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5, Characters, Virtues and Flaws, and Abilities contain all the information necessary to create a character. Chapter 6, Covenants, deals with creating the place where the characters live. Chapters 7, 8, and 9, Hermetic Magic, Laboratory, and Spells, describe Hermetic Magic. Chapter 10, Long Term Events, covers things that happen to the characters over months or years, including character improvement, aging and death, and Warping by supernatural power. Chapter 11, Obstacles, details the things that might harm the characters, most notably combat.

Chapter 12, Realms, explains the four different sorts of supernatural power in Mythic Europe, the Divine, Faerie, Infernal, and Magical Realms. Chapter 13, Bestiary, provides a sample of creatures from each of these Realms. Chapter 14, Mythic Europe, provides hints on making your game feel like it happens in the mythic world.

Chapters 15 and 16, Stories and Sagas, provides advice on using the preceding material to actually make a game that the troupe enjoys.

Glossary

The following terms are some of the more important in the game, and they come up repeatedly in what follows.

Bonisagus: The brilliant eighth-century magus who developed the Parma Magica and, with the help of the other Founders, the whole of Hermetic Magic. The founder of House Bonisagus.
The Church: All Christians, whether priests or not. Also used in this book to refer specifically to the organizational structures of the Church in Western Europe.
companion: A game term, not used by characters, referring to central characters who are not magi.
Code of Hermes: The laws governing the Order of Hermes.
Covenant: Strictly, a group of magi bound together by an agreement going beyond the Code of Hermes. By extension, the place where those magi live, and all the other people who live there with them. Almost all Ars Magica sagas center on a single covenant.
The Divine: The greatest power in the universe, generally believed to be the creator and sustainer of all existence. It backs the Church, the Jews, and the Muslims.
Faerie: One of the four supernatural realms. Faeries always care about humans, sometimes in the way a torturer cares about his victims.
filius/filia: A magus trained by a given magus. Only used after apprenticeship. After the Gauntlet, a new magus becomes the filius of the maga who trained him.
Formulaic magic: Spells that have been worked out in detail ahead of time. They have one effect each, but allow magi to use their full power.
The Founders: The twelve magi who founded the Order of Hermes in the eighth century: Bonisagus, Bjornaer, Criamon, Diedne, Flambeau, Guernicus, Jerbiton, Mercere, Merinita, Tremere, Tytalus, and Verditius. In many modern accounts, Diedne's name is replaced with Trianoma's.
Gauntlet: In full, the Apprentice's Gauntlet. The final test administered to an apprentice to determine whether he is ready to become a magus; it differs significantly between Houses.
The Gift: The ability to use almost any form of magic, with proper training. All magi have The Gift. The Gift makes people around a character uneasy.
grog: A game term referring to supporting player characters. Characters also use it, but mainly to refer to warriors employed by a covenant.
Hedge magic: A contemptuous term used within the Order of Hermes for any magic other than Hermetic magic.
Hermetic magic: The extremely powerful and flexible magic practiced by the members of the Order of Hermes.
The Infernal: One of the four supernatural realms. Infernal creatures seek to corrupt and destroy people.
maga/magus: A member of the Order of Hermes who can use Hermetic magic. Used by both players and characters. 'Maga' is the feminine form, 'magus' the masculine. The neuter is ‘magum’, while the plural form used in the Order is ‘magi’.
Magic: One of the four supernatural realms. Magical creatures often do not care one way or the other about humans.
Mythic Europe: The world of Ars Magica. Much like medieval Europe in 1220, except that the myths are true.
Order of Hermes: An order of wizards stretching across the whole of Mythic Europe, bound by an oath that keeps them from fighting each other or trying to rule the mundanes. One of the most central organizations in the game.
parens: The magus who trained another magus. This title is only used after apprenticeship; at Gauntlet, the master becomes the parens of the new magus.
Parma Magica: A ritual learned by all Hermetic magi at the conclusion of their apprenticeship, which allows them to resist magic. The first of Bonisagus's great discoveries.
Quaesitor: The investigators of the Order of Hermes, they find Hermetic criminals and present evidence of their crimes at Tribunal.
Redcap: One of the messengers of the Order of Hermes. Most do not have The Gift.
Ritual magic: Particularly powerful spells that take hours to cast and require the use of vis. They allow magi to use their full power.
The Schism War: A war in the early eleventh century in which House Diedne was eliminated, and which nearly tore the Order apart.
sodalis (pl. sodales): The normal term used by magi to refer to other magi. It is a term used between equals, and emphasizes that all Hermetic magi are equal within the Order.
spell: An individual use of magic, generally Hermetic magic. There is no real limit on the number of spells a magus can cast in a day, although casting too many in quick succession is likely to exhaust him.
Spontaneous magic: Magic created by a magus on the spur of the moment, to meet an immediate need. Generally much weaker than Formulaic magic, but much more flexible.
Trianoma: The maga who met Bonisagus soon after he invented the Parma Magica. She took on the political mission of bringing Europe's wizards together in a single Order.
Tribunal:

One of the thirteen areas into which the Order of Hermes divides Mythic Europe.
The meetings of the magi in one of those areas, normally held once every seven years.

Vis: Raw magic. The most valuable thing to most magi.