My problem is that I understand the ArM Rules far better than I understand the innards of MC templates and macros (which is next to none!) so some things that I "want" are actually already there but I don't know...
However ---



Patrick Murphy wrote:

Salve y'all,
A few months ago I shot a few emails back and forth with Bruce over some new mechanics that have been introduced to Ars Magica over the last several supplements released by Atlas Games. Metacreator is a wonderful tool and I don't know how I did without it playing ArM...with the downside that now that it doesn't do certain things I want to use from the new rules, I...don't know how to do without it, I guess. :^)
So I have like a million custom data sheets corresponding to the various supplements that haven't been covered by Bruce and Peggy. Some things I haven't implemented because I don't how, but there are other things which I believe can't be done until Metacreator is updated to handle them, which Bruce has in at least one case confirmed.
Let's all hope we can convince Bruce to update the ArM template to handle the newer rule types, even if the supplements themselves aren't "done." To that end, I'd like to start a thread on "what Ars Magica needs" to allow us to create data sheets for the newer supplements, which hopefully would help Bruce...and maybe convince him to hold another "hostage" drive!
So off the top of my head, here are some bigger changes that need to be implemented. Please augment and/or correct this list.
Character types are now:
Magus
Companion (split into Gifted/unGifted?)
Mythic Companion
Grog

some of the RoP:M characters are very hard to shoehorn into the above - they get more or less points on that scale, but it is more important to recognise them as Beings Of Magic, and the split into Magical Person/Animal/Spirit/Place...

Also more rules are needed on beasts in general, as I have found that it is very difficult to "Build" a beast from scratch rather than using the listed beasts - things like the modified Size rules (where Size *does* change Str/Qik)

Ability types are now:
Abilities (including supernatural abilities)
Accelerated abilities
Arts
Difficult arts

each of the Realms has introduced more groups of ability-like things, keyed to the nature of the character, so Divine has Methods and such - they improve like other ability-types but only certain types may have them freely. (Others have unique single examples from some Virtue).


Powers, Qualities and Inferiorities - per RoP:M - which cost like V/F but are from a different pool (and can be used to purchase V/F to some extent...)
Note that Qualities break into 2 kinds  - the natural sort which flesh out the nature of Beasts, per the Mundane Beasts freebie and the Bjornaer chapter, and the Magical (or more generally Supernatural) Qualities in RoP:M
A Magical Beast may have *both* and only "pays" for the Supernatural ones...

Also Qualities & Inferiorities are purchasable within play; *and* XP for Abilities etc are subject to new rules for in-play acquisition when applied to Immortals (either TMRE or RoP:M).

it's unfortunate that TMRE Immortals differ from RoP:M but TMRE is much less concerned with "lesser" characters and their need to improve (slowly) vs the need to cap ultra-powerful ex-magi...

Also Beasts have "required Virtues" and "required Abilities" which  a magical being must purchase first before spending on anything else.

There are plenty of little rule changes which need to be addressed, but it seems like without the above distinctions even customizing a data sheet to cover them is futile.
Maybe once Faerie comes out and all the Realms of Power books are done, we might see an update? <smiles and looks encouraging>

I'd hazard a guess that while faeries are not Magic, they are more like RoP:M than not... since I expect to see Faerie PCs and RoP:M has good rules for Magic PCs which give a basis for the previously ad-hoc "Powers", I expect all subsequent supplements to respect the new scheme for Powers.
(We didn't really get build-a-demon or build-an-angel rules from RoP:I and RoP:D)

As always, thanks to Bruce and Peggy for a great product!
Cheers,
Patrick

-- Neil Taylor "Creo Imaginem Mente"
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