Ars Magica Definitive will soon be sailing the Mythic Seas, on its way to us here in the New World! Its ship is scheduled to depart on July 4th (our Independence Day, coincidentally).
A neat thing that's new for this trip is GPS tracking on our INDIVIDUAL CONTAINER. Jenae Floerke is our Shipping Coordinator, and she mentioned that in the past we've gotten distraught fan comments about how "IT'S GONE BACK OUT TO SEA!" when the tracking is on the SHIP at port. Not so this time! You should be able to watch our container move across the countryside by rail and truck, straight to our warehouse in Duluth MN.
Check out the latest fan releases under the Ars Magica Open License:
Elder Magi Volume I - Audrey du Verditius: Profiles a brilliant, eccentric master artisan of House Verditius. Alongside her complete sheet, this PDF introduces the Confraternity of Arachne, a brand-new textile and silk-working Hermetic Confraternity, plus it gives full statistics for her customized Laboratory, enchanted Talisman, personal Familiar, and unique magical items, the library of Hermetic books she has authored, and mystic initiations she underwent to attain her power.
Peregrinatores on DriveThruRPG and RPG Trader: Take up your staff and travel the Rhine Tribunal! Supported by ancient legal rights of hospitality, peregrinatores are magi who wander from covenant to covenant, staying a few years at each, performing service or paying vis in exchange for the use of the library or a laboratory. Eventually they join covenants and settle down, but the friends and enemies they make in their wandering years can last a lifetime. This supplement details the peregrinatores, their lifestyle and culture, and the challenges they face. It also includes a guide to the covenants of the Rhine Tribunal, additional rules for itinerant magi, and rules for solo play. The Faith & Flame Toolkit:Jason Tondro is working on a FREE aid for storyguides and players that provides tools for quickly starting a new saga in the Provençal tribunal, based out of the covenant of the Coenobium. This project is still in development, but the initial version available for download now.
In other Open License news, we're thrilled to have just released our Magical Kitties Save the Day RPG under the same Creative Commons license as Ars Magica!
To celebrate, we're giving way a HUGE digital prize package worth $90 to the first 30 people who post Open License content for Magical Kitties on DriveThruRPG, by July 31st! Help us launch this new open license fan community with your own contribution …
Great news, Sodales! The manufacturing of Ars Magica Definitive Edition, plus things like dice and cloth maps, is complete! We have booked the ocean freight. We don't yet have the sailing details, but anticipate 45-60 days for it to get to our loading dock (subject to the usual unknowns of international shipping, customs delays, and whatnot).
When it arrives, we want to be able to turn it around ASAP. For that reason, we need to get working ahead on other deliverables that are already on hand, such as print-on-demand softcovers, so it's time to export all of the orders to our shipping software. That means we need to lock down addresses.
So one week from today, we'll be locking down addresses for final delivery. Subsequent address updates will need to be done manually. If you have an unusual situation (such as if you know you will be changing address in the time frame of August or later), please let us know with a message to [email protected] so we can set your pledge aside for special handling.
Thanks to everyone who has already filled in their surveys. If you have, please do check and confirm that the address you entered is still current. If you haven't, please don't delay!
-John Nephew Co-owner, Atlas Games
ARS MAGICA OPEN LICENSE RELEASES
There's so much excellent Ars Magica content from our fan community!
KICKSTARTER LIVE NOW for Medieval Nights: RPG Adventures from Real Medieval Stories. This anthology of adventures is based on "true stories" and stories from the Middle Ages, for Ars Magica, Mythras or D&D, by Kevin Hassall. Congrats on funding already! Ends June 20.
Of Magic Condensed Into Shapecontains 195 Vis Sources for Ars Magica, one source of each Hermetic Art for each of the 13 Tribunals. All are based on either real places, or folk tales from that area.
We're into the last weeks of mass production, which is a lot of quiet work very far away. Then it's usually a month for overseas shipping. We're getting very close!
Most recently, our printer has been finalizing arrangements with us for protective packaging. We've approved the inner box and carton markings … basically, after shrinkwrapping we're having each slipcover set pre-packed in its own double-walled corrugated box for extra protection, inside the larger carton. That also means we can more quickly ship your set to you, since it will already be boxed for local mailing, and just need a shipping label attached.
FREE GIFT!
While we're all waiting, we have a free gift to thank you! My co-producer Ben Hartfield made a set of digital wallpapers for Ars Magica Definitive Edition. We used Doug Shuler's excellent Covenants and Griffons illustrations, and Thomas Denmark's Dragon. You can download them below. Download Your Free Ars Magica Definitive Wallpapers Here!
OPEN LICENSE RELEASES
These new releases have recently come out from Ars Magica fans like you!
Shadow & Flame, a FREE Ars Magica novel, is now out from Jason Tondro. Joan of Flambeau is a newly-Gauntleted maga in search of her destiny. What she finds is a mysterious threat rising in Iberia and a prophecy of her own death. As she prepares for the regional tribunal of 1221, Joan encounters giants, demons, genies, a covenant of Tremere magi, Michael Scot, and the restless dead.
A Feast of Knights, a social adventure in the Rhine Tribunal for Ars Magica 5th Edition, has been released by Medusa Jank. In the winter of 1228, the young Graf Simon von Sponheim is coming of age. His family has organised a joust to celebrate his dubbing as a knight. In recognition of their growing fame in the region, the mages have been invited by the organisers, some participants are seeking supernatural help to their (not always) mundane problems.
The mass production samples arrived, and look so amazing! We asked for just a couple packaging changes, like upgrading to double-walled individual cardboard boxes for the Definitive sets, for safer mailing from our warehouse. Things are still on track for mid-May completion, and arrival at our warehouse in June.
Previous samples included an unprinted mockup of the deluxe options (leatherette, foil, bookmarks), and separate color copy of the printed book block. This time we got everything in one … the first TOTALLY COMPLETE copy of the Ars Magica Definitive Edition core book! I thought it deserved a special reveal, so here's my video for your enjoyment: https://youtu.be/YTP-_2HGKkM
An easy $1 pledge on our new Kickstarter gets 20% OFF in our webstore! Just look for the coupon code in Backer Update #1 immediately after you pledge, to stock up on gift copies of all your favorite Atlas Games products. The Magical Kitties campaign and the webstore discount both end Thursday at 9pm Central, so don't wait!
Magical Kitties Save the Day is the whimsical tabletop RPG where you play superpowered kitties protecting your humans from trouble. Whether you’re outsmarting a witch or encountering alien invaders, this fast-paced, beginner-friendly game is the purr-fect way to bring magic to your next family game night!
Our printer tells us they've mailed our production sample (one of the final, completed mass produced book sets), and we should be getting it by next week. Once we approve that, they'll pack them into boxes/pallets, and they'll be ready to ship! Their estimated completion date is still mid-May, and we expect it to arrive at our warehouse in Duluth MN in June. We'll send photos when we get the sample.
NEW OFFICIAL CREATIVE COMMONS RELEASE
"Forgotten Magic of Hermes" is a compendium of ALL the Ars Magica spells from all older (pre-Fifth) editions, unless they were carried forward into the Fifth Edition core rules. We've just released it under the Ars Magica Open License. You can download the PDF here, and also find it listed on the official Ars Magica Open License page (in the sidebar).
Line Developer David Chart warns that older spells in this compendium that aren't in Definitive Edition were probably excluded because they're broken, but releasing them allows our fans to do updates without violating our copyrights. Our thanks to Patrick M. Murphy for his work on compiling this!
ARS MAGICA OPEN LICENSE
These Ars Magica Open License titles are NEW from our amazing fan community …
An easy $1 pledge on our new Kickstarter gets 20% OFF in our webstore! Just look for the coupon code in Backer Update #1 immediately after you pledge, to stock up on gift copies of all your favorite Atlas Games products. The Magical Kitties campaign and the webstore discount both end next week Thursday, so don't wait!
Magical Kitties Save the Day is the whimsical tabletop RPG where you play superpowered kitties protecting your humans from trouble. Whether you’re outsmarting a witch or encountering alien invaders, this fast-paced, beginner-friendly game is the purr-fect way to bring magic to your next family game night!
