The document provides an introduction to playing a magus character in the Ars Magica roleplaying game, explaining that magi have a supernatural Gift that allows them to perform magic but also makes others fearful; it overview the core magic system involving 15 Arts combining 5 Techniques and 10 Forms to cast spells formulaically or spontaneously; and uses examples to illustrate how a sample character might navigate challenges like crossing a river or dealing with pursuing bandits through spellcasting.

1. An Introduction to Ars
Magica
A very brief guide for new players of the
classic roleplaying game to help get you
started.

2. Welcome!
Many potential players of the Ars Magica 5th edition rpg by Atlas
Games find the idea fascinating but any new rpg can be
intimidating. This simple presentation should help you get to
grips with the system very quickly, Read it a bit at a time, and do
try the exercises and quizzes. Like any game, once you know the
rules and background you will find it all very simple in play!
It is written for people who have no experience with the system
at all, and just want a quick overview. This part focuses on the
magic system and your magus character. Take it slowly, and don’t
try to do it all in one sitting…

3. The Gift
Magicians have something called The Gift; it’s
their magical potential, and it infuses them. The
Gift makes your magus character weird and
spooky to most people. Animals are scared of
you – no horse will let you ride it. Normal
people are frightened of you. The Gift makes
life hard for you, and uncontrolled it can cause
strange magical events outside your control…

4. The Gift: part 2
That’s probably how your character ended up in
the Order of Hermes. The Gift made their
childhood awkward – strange, sometimes bad
things like spontaneous fires, talking toys or odd
visions spooked all around you. And The Gift
puts people on edge anyway: folk with it
emanate an odd vibe that scares, annoys or
confuses others – even others with The Gift…

5. The Gift Part 3
Your magus character will start with The Gift. Most
people have just The Gift: this gives you -3 as a penalty
to social interaction rolls with all other people, animals
etc. Some magi have it even worse – their Gift is
particularly unsettling, in fact downright terrifying. This
is called The Blatant Gift – and gives a horrible -6
penalty to all social rolls. Some have it lucky, and have
The Gentle Gift; this means there Gift has no effect on
anyone, and they are just like a normal person to
mundane eyes. You will get to choose the level of The
Gift your magus has when you design the character.

6. The Gift Part 4
So magicians accidentally spook, intimidate and
grate on everybody, even each other. And for
that reason it was VERY difficult for them to
cooperate, until in the 8th Century AD a brilliant
magus called Bonisagus created a rite called
Parma Magica – literally “Shield of Magic”. This
has the fortunate effect of blocking the negative
effects of other magicians Gift – so you can
tolerate them, and get on!

7. The Parma Magica
So the Parma Magica, a ritual performed every
day at sunset and sunrise (taking two minutes)
made it possible for even Gifted magicians to
live and work together. It has a rather more
important effect – it also acts as a form of Magic
Resistance, blocking spells and powers directed
at your magus. In the game it is an Ability (Skill)
you will need on your character sheet – it will
begin at just 1!

8. Parma Magica 2
Until that point, magicians might have been able
to throw fireballs and toast their enemies – but if
their enemies were faster and could throw magic
back, they had no defence. So Parma Magica
allowed magi to meet and talk and co-operate,
unaffected by each others Gift’s and with some
security against surprise magical attack.

9. The Order of Hermes
So with the Parma Magica Bonisagus and his
friend the maga (female wizard) Trianoma were
able to create an Order of magicians, known as
the Order of Hermes, and your magus character
is a member of that Order. Your Gift still
effects other people adversely though – the
Parma Magica blocks it coming in, not going
out! If they have Parma all is well though.

10. Magic Theory
Bonisagus went further though. Up till then
magic had required all kinds of occult and
astrological and pagan rites. Eye of Newt, wing
of Bat, spin round three times and invoke
Jupiter while the Moon is in Virgo. That sort of
stuff. Bonisagus saw no need for virgin or
pigeon – he created a sort of‘scientific’ (in our
terms) magical system, which is Magic Theory.

11. Magic Theory 2
Bonisagus took a reductionist approach, boiling
all magic down to just 15 basic principles he
called “Arts”. Those Arts have 5 Techniques
(verbs) and 10 Forms (nouns). Combining the
two with one Technique and one Form gives
you the basics for a spell. I’ll explain this next,
but a fireball is basically a “CREATE” +
“FIRE” formula in his system.

12. The Techniques
 There are five basic Techniques, which your character
will try and master. They are
 CREO = “I create”
 INTELLEGO = “I perceive” or “I understand”
 MUTO = “ I change”
 REGO = “I control”
 PERDO = “I destroy”
PRINT THIS PAGE OFF OR COPY IT OUT FOR
REFERENCE…

13. The Forms
 Animal – covers animals and  Ignem – Fire, Heat & Light
animal products: mind &  Imaginem – Qualia/ sense
body of animals. perceptions
 Aquam – water and liquids  Mentem – human minds
 Auram – weather and air  Terram – earth, stone,
 Corpus – Human bodies metals, gems.
 Herbam – plants and plant  Vim – magic itself.
products
 PRINT THIS PAGE OFF These are the ten Forms that
OR COPY IT OUT. YOU are combined with the
WILL REFER TO IT Techniques to cast spells in
OFTEN. Ars Magica.

14. Casting A Spell
So know you know the 15 Arts, you can see how
they go together…
 Creo Ignem = “I create fire!”
 Perdo Ignem = “I destroy that fire!”
 Muto Ignem = “I change that fire!”
 Intellego Ignem = “I perceive a fire!”
 Rego Ignem = “I control the fire!”

15. Casting A Spell 2
 Muto Ignem spells could change the properties of a fire – make
it change colour to bright blue or purple; make it not burn
things, even turn the flames to ice.
 Creo Ignem could light a campfire, or launch a fireball, or just
create a bright light, or warm something up.
 Perdo Ignem could freeze something by draining it of heat, make
a room dark (light is Ignem too remember) or put out a fire.
 Intellego Ignem could allow you to talk to a campfire, or see
through flames, or tell how long ago a fire was lit.
 Rego Ignem could make a fire not approach you (a Ward), or
jump suddenly in to the air, or move at your comand.

16. Quick Quiz 1
 Now you should start ot see how it works.
Time for a test! What technique and form is
appropriate for?
1. Casting a fireball at that Giant approaching?
2. Creating a cute fluffy squirrel?
3. Changing lead to gold?
4. Making your friend forget you owe them gold?
5. Reading your cat’s mind?

17. Quick Quiz 1 Answers
 1. A fireball is Creo Ignem. You are creating a magical
fire.
 2. Creating a cute ickle squirrel is Creo Animal.
 3. Muto Terram. Now you can get rich!
 4. Perdo Mentem. Now you don’t need to be rich!
 5. Intellego Animal. If you thought Intellego Mentem
don’t worry – that would read HUMAN minds. Animal
minds come under, well, Animal!

18. Don’t Panic!
You are probably thinking this is all very complex and
unnecessary. Other RPG’s just give you a spell list and
you are away. If instead you are relishing the potential
good for you – but if not don’t panic the Ars Magica 5th
rulebook has loads of predefined spells. Still sadly you
will need to understand the Techniques + Forms, as
these “Arts” are absolutely central to the way your
magus works. You only need to learn fifteen terms
though, and hopefully you have them printed off or
copied out know as a crib sheet?

19. An Exercise in Spellcasting
OK, your magician is out walking one day when
he disturbs some bandits who give chase. Not
wanting to kill them he runs away, until just
before he reaches safety he is stopped by a fast
flowing river. There are trees by the river, and
plenty of rocks, and some fish swimming in it,
but no bridge. Your character can not swim. He
has time for one spell. What Technique + Form
combinations might be useful? How many ways
can you find to cross the river by your magic?

20. Magic Theory 3
Hopefully now you can see the elegance of
Bonisagus’ Magic Theory. Of course in reality
things are harder. Your magus has t make
decisions about which of the Techniques and
Forms they specialise in. A magus who
specialises in Rego Animal and Rego Herbam is
very different to an Intellego Mentem and Creo
Imaginem magus or maga. You will only be
proficient in some of these Arts to begin with…

21. An Exercise In Spellcasting 2
Still now you have learned how the fifteen Arts
work you can start to think about how you want
your character to work. What will they specialise
in?
Try again now: faced by the river, you decide to
not cross but to defeat the bandits. How many
different ways can you think of to dispose of
them? I won’t give any answers this time…

22. The Game Mechanics
Your magus character has the 15 Arts listed on the character
sheet. When you design a character you will assign experience
points to each to give you a level of expertise in it. Here is
starting maga, Constantina.
She has no skill at all in many Forms, but at least something in
each Technique. She deals best with minds and sensations.
Ignore the Experience column for now.

23. Constantina versus the Bandits
Imagine you are playing Constantina. You want
to get rid of those pesky bandits! Have look at
your Arts. What are you going to be best at?
You can work this out by totalling the relevant
Technique + Form.

24. Constantina vs. the Bandits 2
Muto Mentem looks like a useful combination
with 10. With it you can change minds. So you
could make the bandits “change their minds”
and befriend you, or get bored and go away, or
even decide you are too scary and leave you
alone? There are other options of course. Sadly
it is not as simple as just totalling your scores
though…

25. The Game Mechanics 2
Let’s assume you have decided to Muto Mentem the
bandits to make them decide to give up chasing you.
Your scores are Muto 5 + Mentem 5. You also add a
Characteristic, which in spell casting is always Stamina.
I’ll explain how you design your characters stats later.
Constantina has a Stamina of 0 – she is completely
average. (For now note that Characteristics in Ars
Magica run from -5 (absolutely terrible) to +5 (almost
superhuman).
So Muto 5 + Mentem 5 +Stamina 0 = 10. You roll a
d10 (a ten sided dice) and add that to the total. You roll
a 5, and cast a Level 15 spell…

26. Formulaic Spells
Well if you know a Level 15 spell you do… Your
character only knows a handful of spells, that you
learned in Apprenticeship, the process of training to be
a maga. These spells your character knows are called
Formulaic Spells, because you know the formula off by
heart. They are very easy to cast.
Disappointed? You thought you could cast any spell
you can imagine? Don’t worry you can. You can invent
spells on the fly – they are just harder. We will come to
them next, but they are called Spontaneous Spells.

27. Formulaic Magic
So Formulaic magic runs off
Stamina + Technique + Form +die roll +Aura
Ignore the Aura for now; there is not one here on the river bank. Constantina scored a 15. Let’s
look at her spells.
They are rather disappointing! She does not have a Muto Mentem spell at all. Still we can see that
we abbreviate Arts by their first two letters – so Creo becomes Cr, Muto Mu and Mentem Me.

28. Constantina vs. the Bandits 3
Did you notice the Creo Mentem (CrMe) level 15 spell Panic of the
Trembling Heart? If you already have an Ars Magica 5th rulebook
you can find it on p.148
It creates overwhelming fear in a person, so they run in terror.
Constantina has
Stamina 0 + Creo 5 + Mentem 5 = 10 so roll a dice and on a 5
or more the bandit leader flees, and his men chase after him!
Not what we planned, but teaches something useful – Creo
Mentem effects can create emotions in human minds. If it was
wolves chasing you however the same effect would need a Creo
Animal spell, because Animal covers animal minds.

29. The Parameters of a Spell
Did you notice Constantina’s spells are defined by Range, Duration and Target?
Panic of the Trembling Heart has Range: Eye which means she must make eye
contact with the bandit leader for it to work. Duration: Sun means it will last until the
Sun rises or sets – so depends on the time of day you cats it how long it lasts. Target:
Individual means it only works on one person, hence the choice of bandit leader. She
would need a Target: Group spell to effect up to the bandits with a single spell and a
Group version of this spell would be Level 25, beyond her ability to cast at the
moment.

30. I want to cast a spell I don’t know!
Well we often need to do things we are not prepared
for, and just because you don’t have an appropriate
Formulaic spell you learned years ago does not mean
you can’t try at least! So instead of bandits, let’s say it is
wolves who have chased us to the river. Constantina is
rubbish at Animal with a score of 0, and Mentem
effects won’t work on them as their minds are effected
by Animal not Mentem. So she decides to create a
Ward, a spell that will stop the wolves crossing it. She
needs a Circle of Beast Warding!

31. Casting Spontaneous Magic
Problem is she doesn’t know Circle of Beast
Warding as a formulaic spell. Firstly, what does
the spell do? You trace a circle on the river bank,
and as long as you stay in that ring mundane
animals can’t attack you or the circle. You are
safe, and eventually the wolves will go look for
easier prey. It is described on Ars Magica 5th p.
120 if you have already got the rulebook, and is
a Rego Animal level 5 spell. You need to
improvise it!

32. Constantina vs. the Wolves
The good news is it is only a level 5 spell. The bad news is that
Constantina is rubbish at Rego with a Score of 2 and knows
nothing about Animal. Still even with a 0 in the latter she still
knows enough to try a spell! She works it out exactly like a
Formulaic Spell:
Stamina (0) + Rego (2) + Animal (0) =2 + a d10.
However because this is a Spontaneous spell, she divides
the final result by 2!
She therefore needs to roll an 8 on the dice, for a Casting Total
of 10, so that when it is divided it becomes 5 – just enough to
cast a Level 5 spell like Circle of Beast Warding.