Appendices

Almost ten years ago I wrote an afterword for Dies Irae in which I said it was "the last book in the Ars Magica Fifth Edition line that I will produce as Line Editor".

Strictly speaking, that remains true: Atlas did not hire me as Line Editor for this book.

When John Nephew approached me three years ago about preparing the manuscript for a definitive edition of the game, it did not take me long to decide that I wanted to do it. While I thought ten years ago, and still think now, that I am the wrong person to create a new edition of Ars Magica, I can claim to be the right person to bring together rules and background scattered across the forty and more books of the Ars Magica Fifth Edition line to create a definitive version of the core rules for that edition. The result is the book that you hold in your hands (or view on your screen, if you have the digital version).

As well as collecting rules, such as those for Mystery Initiation and integrating non-Hermetic magic, that could not be included in the original core rule book because they had not yet been written, it was also a chance to include clarifications and expansions that had been added over the years.

I also took the opportunity to gather errata from the online Ars Magica community, to correct errors that people had noticed over the last twenty years, and clarify things that had proved less transparent than I had hoped when originally publishing them.

If you have managed to avoid impostor syndrome so far, spending months gathering errata for books you were responsible for is a very good way to experience it.

This is not a new edition of the game. The fact that we were making a new book allowed me to spend more words on clarification than would have been possible for online errata, and I have made a handful of changes to better integrate rules with each other, but this is still Ars Magica Fifth Edition. All existing supplements remain fully compatible with it, and if you have the entire line and the errata, you already have virtually everything of substance in this book.

Of course, John and Michelle Nephew's decision to release the whole Ars Magica line under an open license means that you will be able to get the text of the definitive edition free of charge. But that is far from being the main benefit.

The open license means that anyone can now write for the game, and make money from their creations. The definitive edition is most definitely not the end of the Fifth Edition line. Rather, it is the foundation for an unlimited future. Most of the final paragraph from my afterword for Dies Irae applies even more fully now.

"We have created a game line that I think is about as good as we could make it, and it fulfills my vision for Ars Magica. Its future lies with people who have a different vision, and can bring things to the game that I would not even imagine."

I plan to be part of that future, as one creator among many.

— David Chart Ars Magica 5^th Ed. Line Editor Autumn 2024

The text of Ars Magica Fifth Edition and its sourcebooks has been released under an open license: the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (also known as CC BY-SA 4.0).

The new Ars Magica Open License logo also lets third party creators identify their work. You can find fan releases of their Ars Magica material available in places like DriveThruRPG.com, Itch.io, and Patreon.com, marked with that logo.

Atlas Games has had the amazing opportunity to publish Ars Magica for over three decades, supported by our devoted fan community. Fifth Edition is a weighty line of over FORTY supplements, fleshing out every facet of Mythic Europe. As the stewards of this incredible piece of roleplaying history, we feel it's time to give back to our fans, and let them take the game in new directions we haven't had the resources to explore.

This open license release of Ars Magica was just part of our crowdfunding campaign for Ars Magica Definitive Edition. Thank you to all our backers who made it possible!

You're free to copy and redistribute open license material, even commercially. And you may remix, transform, and build upon that material, even commercially. You must follow the terms of the license, though, which requires attribution and that you "share alike" by distributing your contributions under the same license as the original, without placing new restrictions on it. There are also a few trademark limitations. Atlas Games cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

All the open license details, and the complete list of released Ars Magica Open License material, are on our website.

We hope you'll join us in creating this vibrant new chapter in Ars Magica's long history of myth and magic!

Converting from Ars Magica 4^th Edition to 5^th Edition is a good idea, because a lot of longstanding problems in the rules have been fixed. However, that raises the question of what has changed. There are two viable short answers.

Nothing Has Changed

The game is still about powerful wizards of the Order of Hermes, who live in covenants with Mythic Europe, a world where myth and history mix. Hermetic magic is still based on five Techniques and ten Forms. There are the same Houses of Hermes. Essentially, the summary of the game that you would give to someone who knew nothing about it is exactly the same as it was before. This is as it should be; this is a new edition, not a new game.

Everything Has Changed

On the other hand, the revisions have affected just about every part of the rules and background. Again, this is as it should be, this is a real new edition, not simply a republication with a different cover in the hope of getting people to buy the book again.

This chapter provides a summary of what has changed between the editions. It doesn't cover everything, but it should give you an idea of the most important things to look at.

Background

The twelve Houses of Hermes are now split into three groups: four are Mystery Cults, four are True Lineages, and four are Societates, groups of magi with similar interests. They are still the same Houses as before, however.

Beyond that, the background has changed very little. The Order of Hermes and Mythic Europe chapters have been completely rewritten, but the aim was to say things more clearly, not to say different things.

Character Generation

The rules for character generation are very different.

First, Virtues and Flaws no longer have point values; they are split into Major and Minor. In addition, Flaws that create story hooks are now Major Flaws, unless they also have a benefit, in which case they are Minor. This means that a number of –1 Flaws have become Major Flaws, and a number of +1 Virtues have become Minor Flaws. Similarly, Personality Flaws are handled differently.

Abilities now cost five times their (level + 1) to raise by one level. This means that the same advancement rules can be used for both Arts and Abilities.

Characters get a different number of experience points at character generation. The overall result is that characters generated at a certain age, and characters played up to the same age, will be almost the same. This was very far from the case in Fourth Edition.

The rules for Confidence have changed.

Covenants

The rules for covenants have been totally redone. They are nothing like the Fourth Edition rules.

Magic

Spell level is now subtracted from the casting total before determining Penetration. This makes Magic Resistance, and in particular the Parma Magica, much more effective.

The limits of magic have been clarified. The chances are that the official interpretation will differ slightly from your house rules interpretation, given how ambiguous the earlier wording was. The only deliberate change is that Hermetic magic is now incapable of scrying on the past or future.

The scope of the Techniques and Forms has been clarified. In particular, Muto now deals with giving something a property it cannot naturally have, while Rego deals with giving something properties it can naturally have. As a result, spells have moved both ways between the Arts.

Sympathetic magic for Penetration is now in the core rules.

Spell mastery has been completely rewritten.

Certamen no longer has an associated Ability.

Vis boosting of spell ranges, durations, and targets has been cut.

Spell ranges, durations, and targets have been changed and streamlined. The size of a target now has some effect on the spell level. Wards and magical senses are dealt with explicitly.

The spell guidelines have been gone over thoroughly. Many spell levels have changed a bit, some have changed a lot.

All laboratory activities now use the Lab Total. All Lab Texts use the same rules, and learning spells from texts is now a matter of inventing them based on a Lab Text.

There are no separate rules for writing, copying, or learning spells: that is covered by the rules on Lab Texts.

Long-Term Events

The study rules have been completely revised to get a more sensible advancement rate.

Aging has been changed, to give a sensible distribution of ages at death, and to require less book-keeping.

There are now actual rules for the bad effects of living in high auras or having spells cast on you constantly; this is called "Warping." These rules integrate with the rules for Wizard's Twilight, which is now the way that Warping affects Hermetic magi.

Combat

Combat, as is traditional, has been completely rewritten.

Character Conversion

Fifth Edition characters tend to advance slightly more slowly than Fourth Edition. As a rule of thumb, if you want to mix characters, add 20% to a Fourth Edition character's age, and then convert as follows.

Characteristics: Characteristics are unchanged between Fourth and Fifth Editions.

Virtues and Flaws: Convert each Virtue or Flaw to its new status. If this results in an unbalanced character, discuss suitable modifications with your troupe.

Abilities: Leave at the old value, and multiply remaining XP by five. Spread the XP from removed Abilities among the replacements, as desired.

Arts: No need to change.

Spells: Note new levels. Spells a character can no longer cast (some have changed Arts) should be replaced with ones he can, of the same level as the old spell.

Twilight: Divide the number of Twilight Points by three, and use this as the Warping Score.