Roleplaying games from historical research
This is a transcript of the most recent episode of the podcast. Travel magic doesn’t work very well in Ars Magica, at least in the core rules. As the line has progressed many of the authors, me included, have found ways to sabotage that and allow your party to get whatever they want to go,…
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A quick note to congratulate Librivox on its eleventh anniversary, and reaching a milestone. Librivox is a community of volunteers with no budget, offices, or paid staff. In the last eleven years we have recorded 10 000 books into audio format and released them into the public domain. You won’t find modern best-sellers on Librivox,…
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I’ve seen a lot of social media about the game’s mechanics, but very little about how to run events, so here are some practical tips based on a quick capacity test I did today. The tips assume you know the basics of the game. Curriculum material is already available There’s no need to reinvent the…
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I was testing Canva for work, and so I’ve put the first ten episode scripts together in a pdf. It lives at http://wp.me/aVOkQ-Xy.
Read MoreThis is a (loose) transcript of a podcast episode. Imagine you are an Ars Magica necromancer. The year is 1220 and you are dissecting a corpse to become more magically powerful. This one has a “sport” which is what you call unexpected extra features like additional teeth or calcified internal twins. This one has an…
Read MoreA bit of a preview of the new podcast. It will take three days to go up on itunes, but the feed archive is http://gamesfromfolktales.libsyn.com/podcast. I’ll eventually integrate it with this blog,. using tags and imbedded audio players and so on, but there’s a sneak peak.
Read MoreAtlas Games have given me permission to go ahead with a podcast. I already record books into the public domain, so I have the gear and software, and I’m working through the hosting details. I hope to go live either this week or next. It looks like I’ll be using Libsyn as my host, and their…
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A quick excerpt from my reading this week. I knew a gentleman, who was so good a manager of his time, that he would not even lose that small portion of it, which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house; but gradually went through all the Latin poets, in those moments.…
Read MoreDeep Ars Magica mechanical nerdiness follows. If you read the blog for the folklore, see you next time, because this is as crunchy as it gets. Might it be possible to realign the two experience systems by making the mundane skill system Verb and Noun, and using the triangular scale? My idea is as follows:…
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In roleplaying games, spellcasters generally make arcane gestures with their hands. In Ars Magica, spells are easier to cast if the character can make sweeping gestures. Spellcasting with subtle gestures is a hindrance, and casting without gestures deepy limits a magician’s power. Your character’s hands are doing something, and that something affects fundamental universal forces: what’s…
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Games From Folktales 