19 thoughts on “Wizard World update.”

  2. Do you have any highlights / change log of things to look out for in particular? I’m playing tonight and will probably just use the existing rules (as that is what I have) until next week, but if there’s anything key or notable I might fold it in.

  3. The primary changes are:

    – Hack and Slash reworked and renamed to Resort to Violence. The move now focuses less on dealing damage and more on forcing the players to identify what they want to accomplish in the melee.

    – Volley had similar changes but I couldn’t think of a better name 😉

    – I removed Defend as a basic move. Fictional actions that would trigger Defend can be easily covered by RtV or Defy Danger. (I’m not questioning its value to Dungeon World, I just don’t see a place for it in Wizard World).

    – Vulnero was streamlined and brought into line with RtV.

    – I removed most instances of ‘hold’ from the arcane moves and replaced it with “choose X”. Hold creates a sense of delayed decision-making that was not my intent. Choose X seems to convey more immediacy.

    Clarifications:

    – Triggers for RtV and Volley

    – Spell design and use of the spellbook move (including an example of spell design)

    – Parameters for the Utilis arcane move

    – Using hermetic magic for healing

    None of the above are critical changes – especially since the first session will focus on character and covenant creation and establishing the world.

    Have a great session! I look forward to hearing how it went!

  4. Say, how does spending XP for mastery work? It’s implied a few times, but I couldn’t find it.

    (Otherwise, it seems quite hard to improve an art beyond it’s starting amount – you can only master based on the library, and you can only improve the library up to your mastery.)

    I guess I could ask the players to do some work to purchase / loan from another library? Or just Twilight experience and Familiars…

  5. Excellent points!

    To my embarrassment I’ve realized that the only place xp for mastery prices are listed is the back of each house playbook. For reference:

    Raise to / Cost

    0 / 1

    1 / 2

    2 / 3

    3 / 5

    Steps have to be taken one at a time (you can’t go from -1 to +3 by paying 5 xp)

    I did update the Master an Art lab move so that instead of complete coverage it’s now:

    Basic coverage = max +1

    Advanced coverage = max +2

    Complete = max +3

    This puts it in line with several of the other lab moves and overcomes the issue you mention. Developing relationships with other covenants with better libraries is still a fine option, but the PCs can do it themselves now too. Sorry I missed that in the summary above.

    Other than that, how did the first session go?

  6. And is updating stats covered too? Or can only companions improve stats (I don’t have the docs in front if me)

    As for the session, I’ll say more later, but the short answer is: great! 🙂

  7. Each playbook has an advanced move called Worldly Training that allows them to improve one mundane stat. The playbooks also have advanced moves that will let magi increase Book and Orthodox.

    Glad to hear it went well! I look forward to hearing more details.

  8. Oh! Somehow I missed that one in my memory.

    Anyhow, we ended up a bit short of time, so we only did introductions, rules overview, and character and covenant creation (plus some Q&A). Everyone seemed to grasp the rules (with the caveat that we’ll have to reference specific moves on-the-fly), including two people very new to RPGs.

    Two issues I saw (not that they became problems, but I did notice)…

    Why do companions and wizards assign stats differently (as opposed to, say, use the wizard stat method with an additional -1 or +0 for companions)? These doesn’t hurt anything but it was a speed bump as it confused a few of the players.

    And I think there’s room for improvement on bonds. At the least, I’d like to see 1-2 more “flavorful” options (probably assigned to playbooks). Alternatively, have you considered a strings variant (ala Monsterhearts)? That might be better for politicking and shifting alliances, which seems like it might be a thing.

    Overall, we had a lot of fun coming up with the characters and covenant and I think we’re off to a good start! I did fudge some and allow one wizard to have a secondary lab, which I don’t think is entirely “canon”, but I expect it’ll make for some interesting play (and it resolved a potential stalemate issue).

  10. Good calls on both points Alexander Davis. I think the only reason for the different stat selections between magi and companions is that I did the playbook layouts several weeks apart. It’s likely I mimicked whichever AW I happened to be reading at the time 😉  I’ll add that item to the next version.

    Bonds/Strings/Hx/Links have been an ongoing struggle for me. There are aspects that I really like about all of them, but of course none are exactly right. The first play test version used mechanics very similar to Strings and you might be right that they are the most appropriate to the tone of political infighting that can arise through the council moves. At the very least I’m going to add a couple of questions to each playbook to beef up the existing Bonds system. We’ll see if it sticks around or not.

    Two labs, you say… very interesting. I don’t see any reason why not. It just gives you more ammunition 😉  I would certainly require any security measures to be purchased twice, but other than that it shouldn’t have much mechanical impact.

    What houses and companions did you end up with?

  12. Jared Hunt : I think more indepth questions would definitely go a long way, even if they follow the same rough format as the existing one.

    For example, instead of “Which one is your rival?” (for a companion), “The same magi brought __ and I here together. I will prove that I am the most useful to the covenant!” (or something).

    Yeah, he was a new player with some pretty cool ideas. Everyone mostly wanted a covenant in a forest but he wanted his lab to be a hidden safehouse in the city (so he could capture and experiment on people easily). So, we compromised and set the covenant in a forest near the city, with his backup lab hidden in town.

    The backup, I don’t think, has any security beyond maybe a lock and the fact that it’s moderately hidden. I expect the other magi might get curious if he starts carting tomes from the library to work with them, though… 🙂

  14. A compendium class already! I love it. I haven’t even finished writing and the hacking has begin 🙂

    Still curious about the mix of houses you’re starting with.

    Also, in response to your comments about Bonds, I rewrote the section and stayed up way too late and wrote a couple of questions for each playbook. New PDF incoming tomorrow.

  15. We had Criamon, Bjornear, Merinita, and Flambeau (the spelling might be off!). The companions are a merchant, courtier, knight, and forester. I can say more, later, when not mobile. I really appreciate all the thought you’re putting into this, we’re all very excited for session two!

  16. So, the knight and Merinita are played by the same player and are brothers. The Merinita had tried some (unspecified) fairy magic which twisted both brothers. The Flambeau is the one doing the weird experiments, and his player also plays the merchant (who works with the forester sometimes). The Criamon and courtier share a player, and the courtier probably works for Frederick II in a deviation from real history. The forester and Bjornear share a player and a love of nature.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ryflcypvPcrXYfTClKe4OlRGQJ6zfU__N-gTTKWsdYM/edit?usp=sharing

    There’s the necromantic thing if you’re curious. I guess there’s actually a necromantic cult in ArM, so I might tie that in (I know very little about ArM itself so I’ve been wiki-ing and google-ing :)).

  17. Very cool. I like the way your class diverges from the standard hermetic principles. I’ve been sticking as close as possible to Ars, but there’s really no need.

    Also, in case you didn’t see it, I posted a new version of the rules and playbooks/reference sheets.

  18. Hello there! With the end of Ars Magica 5th Edition, I’m interested in this hack. Are the rules, playbooks, and reference sheets available at new links? The one above seem to not work. Thanks in advance!

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