(click for PDF)

Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen first published Ars Magica in 1987. It was a revolutionary game, including:

• A system of spontaneous magic (allowing you to cast any spell you could imagine at any time).
• Troupe-style play, in which players took on the roles of many different characters (and could even swap GMing responsibilities) in the course of a single campaign.
• Long-term play, in which the group created a covenant of wizards and developed not only their individual characters, but the covenant as a whole.

The 5th Edition, revised by David Chart, was released in 2004 by Atlas Games. When David took over the Ars Magica line he proposed a series of 40 supplements. He then released them like clockwork, one every three months for 10 years, until all 40 books were released. The result is arguably the single most complete and deliberately comprehensive RPG product line to ever exist.

Part of my job at the current RPG Producer at Atlas is to figure out what’s next for Ars Magica. When I got the job I ironically noted that I had played all of Atlas’ current RPGs, but none of the current editions. (This was also true for Ars Magica, which I’d been introduced to via 3rd Edition in the ’90s and did some brief dabbling with 4th Edition around 2001 or 2002.) I’ve spent much of the last year familiarizing myself with these games one by one (and also diving deep into everything we’ve published for them) and the time has come for me to run a full-fleged 5th Edition campaign.

To that end, I’ve developed one of my system cheat sheets for Ars Magica 5th Edition.

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED

These cheat sheets are not designed to be a quick start packet: They’re designed to be a comprehensive reference for someone who has read the rulebook and will probably prove woefully inadequate if you try to learn the game from them. (On the other hand, they can definitely assist experienced players who are teaching the game to new players.)

The cheat sheets also don’t include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). In other words, you won’t find the rules for character creation here.

HOW I USE THEM

I usually keep a copy of the system cheat sheet behind my GM screen for quick reference and also provide copies for all of the players. Of course, we’ll also keep a copy of the rulebook at the table, too. In the case of Ars Magica, I’ve found it even more advantageous than usual to have a copy of the book for EVERY player:

• Character creation features a lot of detailed decisions from rich lists of evocative options. You’ll find that the whole process can be finished in literally a fraction of the time if access to the rulebook isn’t a chokepoint.
• Play in Ars Magica will intermittently see the players break apart into essentially simultaneous solo play (particularly during season-based play), during which access to various elements of the rulebook is frequently useful. Once again, removing this chokepoint speeds things up tremendously.
• The spontaneous magic which is the crown jewel of the game is greatly facilitated by having easy access to the Technique & Form guidelines on pages 116-161. (I’m looking at potentially prepping these as a separate quick reference packet.

Another way of understanding this is that Ars Magica is a game intensely interested in the “character option chunks” — not just during character creation at the beginning of the game, but throughout the entire campaign. Even character advancement is usually not a bit of bookkeeping separate from play, but rather an organic part of the character’s lives. As such, while these cheat sheets will, like my other cheat sheets, speed things up by serving as a comprehensive system reference and cutting down the amount of time required for many rulebook references, I’ve generally found that there many aspects of play unique to Ars Magica (compared to most other RPGs) that will still benefit from easy, frequent access to the rulebook.

The organization of information onto each page of the cheat sheet is designed to be fairly intuitive. The actual sequencing of the pages is mostly arbitrary (although topics are obviously grouped together if they require multiple pages):

PAGE 1: Core mechanics.

PAGE 2: The Botch Table. Kind of weird for this to just be hanging out on a page all by itself, but I haven’t found a better place for it. You can probably also skip this page if you’d like.

PAGE 3: Less fundamental core mechanics.

PAGE 4-8: Hermetic magic. All basic Casting rules on page 4; all the rules for Magic Resistance on page 5; additional rules on pages 6-7. Page 8 has the rules for designing spells.

PAGE 9: Warping & Twilight.

PAGE 10-12: Laboratory. Basics on Page 10, Projects on Page 11, and Enchanted Items on Page 12.

PAGE 13-16: Texts & Books, Familiars & Apprentices, Advancement, Aging.

PAGE 17-19: Combat, Advanced Combat, and Fatigue & Wounds. This includes non-combat damage.

PAGE 20: Realms & Creatures. These two topics are only lightly associated with each other, but they both fit on the same page to round things out.

This cheat sheet includes the Ars Magica 4th Edition rules for movement, filling in what I consider to be a fairly essential bit of utility that got dropped from 5th Edition. These rules are indicated in blue text.

This proved to be the largest cheat sheet I’ve done to date, which I actually found quite surprising. The 5th Edition rulebook is generally so well-organized and clearly presented that reading it and using it belies how much detail is actually packed into the game. You can get some sense of that from the cheat sheets themselves, which — despite their bulk at 20 pages — nevertheless break down comfortably into very clean modules.

MAKING A GM SCREEN

These cheat sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

Personally, I use a four-panel screen and use reverse-duplex printing in order to create sheets that I can tape together and “flip up” to reveal additional information behind them.

Due to the bulk of the Ars Magica cheat sheet, though, even this technique (which puts 12 pages of data at your fingertips) is insufficient. You’ll either want to create an additional “flip layer” (so you have a front sheet; can flip that up to reveal two more; and can then flip up the next sheet to reveal two more) or make some editorial choices. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I haven’t had a chance to actually experiment with this in actual play.

As a newbie 5th Edition GM, my gut instinct is to prioritize:

• Page 1: Core Mechanics / Page 20: Fatigue & Wounds / Page 4: More Core Mechanics
• Page 4: Hermetic Magic – Casting / Page 5: Magic Resistance / Page 6: Hermetic Magic – Casting Options
• Page 8: Hermetic Magic – Designing Spells / Page 18: Combat / Page 19: Combat – Advanced
• Page 11 – Laboratory / Page 12: Laboratory – Projects / Page 13: Laboratory Enchanted Items

If I was going with just four panels:

• Page 1: Core Mechanics
• Page 18: Combat
• Page 4: Hermetic Magic – Casting
• Page 6: Hermetic Magic – Casting Options

But, as I say, these are currently just best guesses. And your mileage would probably vary in any case.

FUTURE THOUGHTS

Moreso than most, this cheat sheet is still a work in progress. You may notice that the sheets are a little more “loosely packed” than similar sheets I’ve done in the past. This is partly in anticipation of laying in additional material from the previously mentioned voluminous library of supplements. Not all of the mechanics to be found therein (that way lies madness), but key stuff that jumps out. (For example, you’ll already find a reference to the laboratory personalization rules from the Covenants supplement. I’m probably going to actually move those onto the sheets in some capacity.) This is likely to be at least somewhat idiosyncratic and a reaction to the immediate needs of the Rhine Tribunal campaign I’m currently running, but I think there’s decent odds you’ll see an “advanced” version of this sheet popping up here at the Alexandrian in the future.

If you’re still on the fence about trying Ars Magica, the 4th Edition of the game is currently available as a free PDF. Although obviously different from 5th Edition in a number of ways, the game is fundamentally unchanged and this can give you a pretty good sampler of whether or not it would be something you’d be interested in.