Ars Magica - review, retrospective ?

 Imagine a medieval Europe where everything that people believed then existed or could exist. Magic is real, Dragons are real…

No wait… come back… this isn’t Game of Bloody Thrones.

This is your actual Europe with France and popes and all that too. Welcome to Mythic Europe.

I heard Adrian Tchaikovsky (off of books) talking about Ars Magica the other day and, with the imminent release of the definitive edition, thought to myself, why not spew forth a load of pixel words on the subject.

So Ars Magica (which as we all know is Latin for Anus Sorcery) is commonly held to have the best magic system of any TTRPG. The deceptively simple combination of 5 verbs and 10 nouns that allows you to define pretty much any spell you could think of.

But there is much more to it than that.

Much like Traveller, it has a fairly simple dice mechanic that is then used to power a range of sub-systems adding complexity to the game, from researching spells to improving your covenant (i.e. base).

And you are in for the long run. Pendragon may have campaigns that run for generations but your wizard can live for 300 years. Typically the game will start in the early 13th century but I am aware of campaigns where the mages had relocated to the new world.

The setting does pretty much cover everything that people thought was real in Medieval. So your wizards will have to deal with petty nobles, malevolent faeries and the church. And yes, God is definitely real here but similarly so are demons. And both are likely to be bad news for mages. 

There is a wealth of setting material covering Iceland down to Africa and from Iberia to the Middle East (albeit some books are nominally for earlier editions).

Another thing that makes the game out is that it pretty much invented the idea of troupe style play, where each player has multiple characters to play - a mage, a competent non-mage companion or one of a shared group of red-shirted soldiers and servants called grogs.

So why play these non-magical characters? Well Ars Magica is a fairly unique RPG in you don’t really get more powerful from doing adventures. You get more powerful from doing research. In fact, going off on adventures just wastes valuable experimentation time.

In most scenarios I played, much of the first session would be the mages bickering about who would have to go and do the adventure. Once that bit was settled, the unlucky mage plus the other players companions and a bunch of grogs would head off to do the adventure.

Furthermore, nobody likes mages much - this is an effect of the magical ‘gift’. So you tend to need companions and the like to help with interactions  with normal people.

When I played we took the troupe style play to its extreme and rotated the GM role too. This had the advantage that everybody got to play all the roles but the downside was that… well I was pretty terrible at GMing it.

So what about the downsides. Well some of these may turn people off.

Well it is quite a daunting game. There’s a lot of setting (albeit one you are likely to have some idea about) and there’s a lot of maths involved - some dice can double and there’s a lot of point buying with numbers that can get quite high. I think the latest edition (5th) is slightly less complex than the 4th edition I played but it’s still likely to be an issue for any maths-phobes.

It’s also fairly easy to make yourself a Magus who is a load of crap. Particularly, if you are a new player. I think the 5th edition character creation helps with this and indeed many disadvantages you pick up can drive the story forward.

There’s a lot of Lore too. The 5th edition is “complete” covering almost the entirety of the setting in 40-odd books (with any exceptions covered in earlier lore books). However, I found a lot of these to be fairly dry reads. On the other hand you can ignore it - we played for over two years using only a core rulebook, an AA roadmap, a couple of errata printed from the internet and what we knew about the Middle Ages.

The game is designed for campaign play so a one-shot is unlikely to show it off in its best light. 

None of those issues were big problems for us. In fact, Ars Magica gave me many of my favourite gaming moments.

So in summary, should you meddle in the affairs of wizards and play Ars Magica? Well yes… if you have the time to play a campaign.  The new revised rules are pretty pricey but there’s a lot of game there if you want.

As for me… well,  it would be good to GM it properly. Maybe I’ll play around with the rules a bit.

Hey, if you’ve got any questions or comments get in touch.

Maven Mayhem Part 2

(Part 1)

We resumed the investigation into Albert Krause’s death after a brief recap and a flashback to a dream that Daisy had about a bridge between two Brindlewood Bays and dead fish saying the word “Void”.

Daisy and Rosemary were visited by Emily Krause as expected but also her annoying brother David (dressed rather improbably in the hind legs of a pantomime horse and a shirt designed to look like it was made of straw).

The Mavens spotted the David was carrying a concealed gun and that Emily was engaged in an intimate text conversation with an illicit lover. Daisy was also convinced that one of Emily’s Pokémon tattoos had evolved into another one.

Meanwhile Margaret and Laura headed to the yacht using the ploy of delivering some sympathy flowers from the townspeople. This seemed to work and a number of clues were discovered from snooping and talking to Alison Krause (Albert’s wife) before the butler became suspicious and politely asked them to leave.

The Maven all met up and compared notes. The clues all pointed to David being the culprit - Albert had discovered he was involved in an art scam and had died following a confrontation.

Then they gathered the suspects at the fish market. David tried to escape but fell into a fish cart and was promptly arrested.

Afterwards they had a rather strange encounter with the yacht captain who said his family had been living in Brindlewood Bay for many years and gave the Mavens a warning (threat?) that people in Brindlewood keep dying or mysteriously disappearing…

GM notes: the players seemed to want to track down every clue imaginable so I had to encourage them to Theorise. I struggled a bit this week with role playing all the suspects but we seemed to muddle through.

We’re going to play Starfinder next week but the Mavens are likely to return…

Maven Mayhem

So I ran my first session of Brindlewood Bay: Dad Overboard

Cast:

Rosemary, Margaret, Laura and Daisy

After a pre-credit dream sequence involving a masked figure, Daisy woke with a start. Then the Maven’s got on with their cosy day.

But later Sheriff Dalrymple interrupted the Maven’s book club to ask for help proving the death of a financier was foul play (although he specifically told them not to solve the murder or interfere with the body) otherwise he would have to release the body.

It turned out one of the victims daughters, Emily, was a friend of Daisy’s daughter. She phoned her up and invited her around for cake the next day.

Rosemary and Laura went to the tourist fish market where the body was being stored. Using the ruse of looking for Rosemary’s cat they managed to make their way into the cold storage. Inside the body’s suit pocket they found the results of a paternity test suggesting somebody had a different father than expected and also overheard some locals saying they had seen two of the siblings arguing violently.

Margaret went down to the seashore to inspect the sight where the body washed up. The area was cordoned off but nearby she found a dead cod with a dead rat in its mouth. Strange…

Daisy tried to get one of her late husbands political contacts to pull some strings to stop the Krause’s yacht from leaving. Unfortunately, the contact was a close personal friend of the Krause’s so would help with that but did reveal that somebody had been uninvited from Allison Krause’s big charity fundraiser party.

The next morning, Daisy was telling Rosemary how to make flower decorations for cakes when the phone rang… Emily had accidentally redialled Daisy and they overheard something that led them to believe Emily had other issues on her mind apart from her father’s death.

Meanwhile, Margaret was in the process of preserving the cod and rat explaining to Laura the process. Comparing notes from the evening before, they realised that the person who found the body said he was still alive when they phoned the police and ambulance.

With that we wrapped up for the night with a mid-credit grisly scene sting of some mysterious eye gouging cultists.

Keeper notes: it took us a bit of a while to get the hang of this. It took a while for the players to understand that I wouldn’t give them more details on the existing clues but instead give them new ones. I had a bit of trouble distinguishing day/night moves from meddling moves.

May Ramblings

Just an update on what’s been happening lately

Gaming

So I’m back to being a player now.

My Monday online group has been playing 5e - I’m a Firbolg Nature Paladin. We’ve been fighting demon cultist nobles. We’ve sorted them out so we’ll be back to Doctor Who and Hero System Space 1888 for a bit. Then maybe Starfinder.

On Fridays I’m playing pathfinder 1e - specifically a half-orc fire oracle called Keef. After some encounters with some elves and kobolds he’s decided he really hates elves.

Current plans - try to persuade one of my groups to play Brindlewood Bay. Possibly try to run some Pathfinder 2e. 

Good News

I was lucky enough to win a box of technical paints from Moonhopper games!

As a thank you here’s a plug for them… they do a wide range of basing materials, paints, minis… loads of useful stuff if miniature games are your thing.

Willow inspecting the paints

https://moonhopper-games.com/products/big-box-of-technical-paints

Bad news: now I’ll have to paint something.

Kickstarters

So a few kickstarter things have arrived in the past month or so (drivethru links are affiliate ones, sorry)

Darkened Hill and Dale. A great collection of system-neutral English folk horror scenarios.

Outgunned Adventures, the Yahtzee pulp game from Two Little Mice (and Free League).

Bit odd init - a one-dice game from Cakebread and Walton. A game about teens living in a weird English village.

Chill air by Blue Fox Comics, I heard about this via Julian Simpson’s Cartoon Gravity/Pleasant Green community. This one surprised me with how rapidly it delivered. I ordered a load of other stuff as part of this and have read Clodagh (a dark fantasy series) and the mountains of madness so far - good stuff.

I’ve also have a huge pile of preview pdfs from other things: Shadowlands games CoC scenarios, Handiworks game 5evil, Lemurian Chronicles, sanction…

Reading

After deciding earlier this year that I would not buy any books until I finished off my too read pile… I decided to sign up to a subscription to the British Library’s Tales of the Weird. So far I’ve read Medusa, which is 18th century sea-faring tentacle-y horror adventure that was originally published in the same year as Call of Cthulhu, and also ploughed my way through Return of the Ancients, which is a collection of stories about ancient gods and myths breaking their way into the 19th-20th century. 

Conventions

I managed to spend a couple of hours at Portsmouth Comic-Con at the start of May. Lots of people seemed to be having a good time and I picked up a few interesting bits and pieces.

I would like to get to a RPG convention later in the year but it looks like I won’t be free when any are on so maybe next year…

Nights Dark Terror - Review, links and thoughts

Review 

At long last my run through of Night’s Dark Terror is over.

36 sessions over 10 months. Each session around two to two and a half hours long. YMMV - I thought I’d be done by Christmas when we started. 3 PCs and many monsters dead.

I think it went quite well given my lack of experience behind the screen. I made a few mistakes along the way and I was lucky that my players knew the rules so could help me out.

But is the module actually any good?

I still think so. There’s some great set pieces, the first half is particularly good as there is the siege and then loads of places to explore.

The second half is more of a railroad and I think my players struggled with the plot - we were selling horses but now we’re looking for treasure somewhere.  Why is this NPC tagging along again? And why are you killing off our mules?

There is such a variety of stuff in this module that with a bit of work you can fit it all together. And there is a lot of adventure for your money as can be seen from the number of sessions.

In comparison to modern adventures, the short descriptions can be a bit of a pain but on the other hand they give you hints to improvise - I could play up the trader aspect of Fyodryll (and also decided she was the half-sister/black sheep of the family of Prestell in Riflian).

 From a 5th Edition D&D point of view, some of the fights are a bit unwieldy. In particular, there was a fight between the PCs and their allies in the Lost Valley that ended up as me pretty much playing against myself, which was no fun for anyone. 

I do have some ideas for some changes to make the whole thing more cohesive. I'll stick the at the end of the article as they'll likely include spoilers.

I do heartily recommend this adventure. I’m not sure all the encounters are needed when you run the adventure but there are a lot that would work as short standalone encounters or adventures - elves tormented by pixies, strange tombs, gnome mines and even with a little expansion the Threshold bits that I didn’t run.

 

 

Useful links  - Note that DTRPG/DMs Guild links are affiliate links (sorry)

 

The complete module can be purchased here as pdf and/or POD:

 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17119/B10-Nights-Dark-Terror-Basic?affiliate_id=307673

 

 Some  5e conversions are also available to buy, which I found very useful:

 Classic modules today (DMs Guild)

 Iconic Encounters (DMs guild)

There's lots of useful free stuff on the Vault of Pandius, including:

https://pandius.com/B10_Nights_Dark_Terror_5E.pdf - a free conversion document

Maps for VTTs in Italian

Many other maps...

And it's also worth checking on The Piazza Forums

 Mystara forum at the piazza

Possible changes to the adventure... (probable spoilers ahead)

From the module as written, several months before the adventure starts, the Traldar defeat the Hutaakans and force them from this temple. It is implied that this prevents the Hutaakan from conducting the rituals required to stop the dead from rising in the valley.

The majority of the undead are not dangerous - instead just mindlessly repeat actions they carried out during their lives.

Now what happens if this doesn't just occur in the lost valley - there are sightings of strange undead activities in the wilderness regions of western Karameikos. Now the authorities in Kelven may not be too bothered but the homesteaders (possibly also gnomes and elves) are concerned and ask the adventurers for help.

Meanwhile, Golthar is also interested. I've got this vague idea of the Iron Ring's goal is to unlock the forbidden secrets of the Nithians or maybe they're all ghouls and thouls. Maybe they only have half a tapestry and think Xitaqa is where they need to be. 

Anyway, they need prisoners for some purpose and trick the goblins into attacking the homesteads to get them. And then the PCs arrive at Sukiskyn...

NDT session 36: This is the end

 Int. a cavern below the temple.

The battle against Kartoeba (totally not a Shoggoth)

The party descended down the pit into thaw cage to the cavern below. It smelled foul and was ankle deep in slime.

They decided that they just would leave but before they could find an escape route, Kartoeba emerged, all oozy and tentacly.

Ham was swiftly grappled but despite this was able to cause significant damage to the beast. However, others were also restrained by the tentacles and Han was badly bitten in return.

It became apparent that attacking the tentacles was futile as it seem to have an endless supply. In the end, Ham, aided by healing from Xianti caused most damage and the creature was slain.

A key was found in it’ remnants - it looked like it would fit the secret door in the temple. In another cave there was a trapdoor in the ceiling with a ladder leading up. And up. 

Eventually they emerged in a room they hadn’t been in before - full of treasure. The stuffed as much as they could  in their bag of holding, and another magical sack they found , then left. (Unfortunately, the second sack was a bag if devouring but they still had a sizeable fortune).

They emerged from the temple, blinking in the noon-day sun. Stephan was outside, he had fetched the Hutakaans to help free the PCs from the Traldar but the adventurers ignored him and left.

After travelling a few hours, it still seemed to be noon. And even when they felt tired it was still noon. They found some shelter to sleep and the next day they reached the edge of the valley. The statues allowed them to pass but outside the gates… things were different.

After following a pass for a short way they turned a corner to behold a stunning view. Below them was a lush jungle but more bizarrely the horizon wasn’t there. Instead the world seemed to curve up around them until all was lost in haze…

The End.

The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French -review/inspiration

Over the past few months I’ve been reading the excellent Dublin Murder Squad novel series by Tana French

Unlikely most crime fiction, each novel is told in a first-person point of view of a different detective (except The Secret Place which is half flashbacks told in third person). However, the protagonists aren’t isolated - for example,  the main character in The Likeness is the partner of the lead in Into The Woods. And the lead in Faithful Place has a significant role in a couple of the other books.

Each story has a crime that has a personal connection to the detective - they all end up changed in some way. And the stories don’t have happy endings that are tied up in a neat bow.

However, the main draw is the writing. I really felt engaged with the characters and plots and have read them all at a rapid pace (at least rapid for me lately).

Finally, from a Role-Playing Game point of view most of the books have ideas that you could steal for investigation or horror scenarios. Why is there a large animal trap in the attic of the house where a murder occurred? What actually happened to those kids that disappeared in the woods? Why does the murder victim have the fake identity of an undercover cop?