Ars Magica Review

This Ars Magica review is part of my “Best Tabletop RPGs of All Time” article. If you want to check out more TTRPGs and see how other top-tier tabletop RPGs are ranked, visit that page.

My Review – 57 / 100

Ok, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t super thrilled with my first impressions of Ars Magica, so that probably set me up to give the game a lower review. Just remember reading through this review that Ars Magica still made it to my top list of TTRPGs. Even though its score is not impressive, the ratings I gave it are in comparison to the best tabletop RPGs of all time. So, even with a lower score, I still think Ars Magica is a great game.

Back to my overall impressions though: there really wasn’t anything in my initial read-through of the rulebook that grabbed me. The experience was also a little arduous from the immense amount of reading required to grasp the game’s core concepts, which was not a good sign. Normally, for reference, the read-through of any RPG rulebook is a pretty fun experience for me as I’m a major tabletop RPG nerd.

Ars Magica has a very long rulebook, with a lot of very intense details about what I would consider to be fairly non-important elements. As with any game, if you ignore all the rules you don’t like, you can still have a lot of fun with Ars Magica.

Why do people play Ars Magica? It may just be the most complete wizard’s roleplaying game experience in existence.

Uniqueness of Ars Magica: (3/10)

In Ars Magica, you often have the chance to play (or at least create) multiple characters, who are all spell-casters of some nature. Everything about this aspect of Ars Magica, I really like. To be honest, I’m surprised more TTRPGs don’t go for this approach. In video game RPGs, for example, it’s uncommon to have only one character. Most of the time, you have your own entire party of characters that you control, with perhaps one character – or only one character at a time – who takes the lead role.

My assumption is that the practicality of tracking Exp on multiple characters, tracking items, remembering spells and abilities… all the stuff that RPGs entail, is the real reason most tabletop RPG games don’t offer multiple characters as part of the normal gameplay experience. Which, of course, you run into playing Ars Magica, as well. But to me, it’s not that encumbering.

Other than that, the most unique part of Ars Magica is the depth of the game’s magic system. There are a massive number of spells in the game, and much of the game’s rulebook is dedicated to spell details. As I’ll discuss a little more in following sections, however, the magic system – to me – is encumbering.

Overall, I give Ars Magic a pretty low score on uniqueness because though I really like aspects of the game’s system (multiple characters, roleplaying a wizard, in-depth), there really aren’t too many unique parts of the game, when compared to other tabletop RPGs. I don’t get the feeling that Ars Magica is substantially groundbreaking for the tabletop gaming genre.

Ease of Learning Ars Magica: (4/10)

Ok, so Ars Magica – straight up – is not that easy of a game to learn. There are character templates at the beginning of the rulebook. If you’re going to play Ars Magica for the first time, you should stick with a template for your character.

To really learn the game enough to build your own character and play successfully, you need to read close to the full 237 page rulebook. There are lots of complexities in Ars Magica. And while I like games with depth, I wouldn’t say that Ars Magica is very new person friendly.

To successfully do things like cast spells (very important to the game), for example, you need to read something like 30-40 pages to really understand how spell-casting works. Each player needs to read and understand those 30-40 pages too, not just the game master. Those 30-40 pages are also just the introduction to magic, and are not the spells themselves.

Ars Magica Presentation: (5/10)

When compared to games like Dungeons and Dragons, the overall layout of chapters in Ars Magica is a little odd. For example, the rulebook starts out with an introduction to the game, followed by dice and how they’re rolled, an introduction to the game’s lore, then into a glossary.

When getting into character creation, the “hermetic house summary” (an aspect of character building) comes after an introductions into stats for each hermetic. In my mind, I was thinking, “how can I choose a hermetic until I understand what the hermetic is about? And if that’s the case, why would I need to see hermetic stats, first?” Hermetics made way more sense about 20 pages in, when I finally found an overview. Basically, the game would have been easier to understand if that order was reversed.

One thing I do really like in the rulebook, however, is how starts of chapters and major sections have a spellbook-like aesthetic. Honestly, the fonts and feel of reading a wizard’s tome make up for a lot in Ars Magica when it comes to the game’s overall presentation.

Ars Magica Lore: (8/10)

Ars Magica is about “the order of Hermes, mages, and religion.” The lore is pretty in-depth, and cool. There’s certainly a lot to work if you want to play an entire RPG campaign.

Of every aspect of Ars Magica, the game’s lore is by far the best part. I would enjoy reading through the entire rulebook at a leisurely pace, almost as if it were part novel of some sort. It’d be fun to learn about each hermetic house, spell, and path of wizardry.

My honest thought when reviewing Ars Magica through virtually every step of the process was that I wished it was a campaign setting for DnD, rather than being its own game system. I think as a campaign setting for DnD, I would absolutely love Ars Magica. In fact, I’d probably play in a Ars Magica DnD setting quite a bit. I just think that the Ars Magica game, on the whole, is not nearly on the same level as games like DnD.

Combat in Ars Magica: (3/10)

The Ars Magica rulebook states that combat isn’t a big part of playing the game, which is fine. The rules for combat seem to reflect that idea, as well. When it comes down to it, combat in Ars Magica is basically just a hit chance, with damage-minus-defense-kind-of-game.

Ars Magica is all about magic. So, going into the game, I was sort of expecting some hardcore wizard duels like when Albus Dumbledore fought Voldemort in the the 5th Harry Potter book. Sadly, that wasn’t to be. In fact, I think it’s pretty much impossible to emulate a battle like that, in Ars Magica.

When you get down to it though, there’s nothing wrong with combat in Ars Magica. It just isn’t an important part of the game, and so doesn’t provide anything particularly special. It didn’t meet my expectations for what combat in a wizard roleplaying game might be.

Game “Flow”: (5/10)

Let me preface this section by again mentioning that Ars Magica – on the whole – is a great game. It also has a small but dedicated group of hardcore gamers. I will say though that you would have to be among the most hardcore tabletop roleplay gamers to give Ars Magica a shot for a full campaign.

The game is like living a life as an actual wizard. Cool in some ways, tedious in many others. The amount of depth provided by Ars Magica into magic and what it means to “be a wizard” is staggering. I think of Ars Magica as being on the same level of detail as Zweihander. In fact, you might say that Ars Magica is Zweihander in this regard, but for wizards.

This game intimidates me, and I’m a pretty hardcore tabletop roleplayer, myself. There are rules and situations in Ars Magica to play out virtually every aspect of magic you could possibly imagine. There are apprentices, laboratories, magical experimentation, familiars, enchantments, and so much more.

For anexample of the depth and complexity of Ars Magic, consider this excerpt from the “Creo Aquam Spells” a Level 5 spell called:

“Footsteps of Slipper Oil”

(*actual text taken from the game. Anything in [these symbols] are my sarcastic additions).

“R: Touch, D: Diam, T: Ind

From each of the next ten footsteps the caster of this spell takes, nonflammable grease spreads out, leaving a slick area 10 paces wide. Dexterity stress rolls are required to remain upright whenever a character on the oil does something more than challenging walking.

A roll of 6+ is needed for the average maneuver, with rolls of up to 15+ needed to (for example) make a right turn at full speed on a smooth, greased surface. The duration is the length of time that the oil lasts [umm… duh?].

This spell was invented by a rather good-natured magus, and the gestures associated with the most common variations of the spell are as comical as the effects themselves. You can stand first on one leg, and then the other, vigorously rubbing the bottom of each upturned foot, as if spreading on a salve. (Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Diam)”

{Not all spells are just like this, but many are. It’s a lot of text for a spell that makes people slip and fall. Damn dude. Too much for me.

Artwork: (3/10)

There’s not a lot of art in the Ars Magica rulebook. Not really a consistent theme. It’s also simply not the best artwork I’ve ever seen.

What I will say though is that some of the artwork has a very old, medieval sort of feel to it. Like something you would see reading through an ornate religious text from that time period, which I really like.

Ease of Purchase: (10/10)

Ars Magica can be purchased on the Atlas Games site, and on Amazon. At both locations, the game is very easy to find and purchase. You would be surprised how many tabletop RPGs, even among the really great ones, are not as easy to purchase as Ars Magica.

Price & How Many Books Do You Need to Play: (10/10)

You just need one book to play Ars Magica. The price is only $35 for the hardcover rulebook, which is incredible value (hard cover books often cost publishers almost $35 to print a single full-color book).

Fame & Availability of Supplemental Material: (6/10)

There is lots of supplemental material for Ars Magica of all kinds. You can find supplemental books on lore, and that expand on core mechanics of the game.

In 1996, Ars Magica was ranked by Arcane Magazine (now out of print) as the 19th most popular tabletop roleplaying game of all time. I think Ars Magica was very popular at one time. Nowadays though, I don’t think there are many people playing it. I’d still say that it’s probably better than most – like nearly all – tabletop RPGs out there. It’s just not as well-known.

If I had to summarize why I think Ars Magica is so complex for today’s standards, it would be that back in the early days of tabletop gaming, gamers liked very complex games. It gave them something to dig into even when they weren’t gaming with friends, almost like it doubled as a sort of novel in the in-between.

It also provided gamers with specialized information they could glean, then bring to the group and use during a gaming session, like their own secret knowledge or power. These were the days before the internet after all, when it wasn’t super easy to get any sort of information you wanted, at any time.

It was part of the mystique of those early days to play games that were highly elaborate and complex. And for that – what Ars Magica was to that generation – I love the game. I also love the mystique about it and the immense immersion into what it’s like being a wizard.

I just don’t think that today’s tabletop crowd games for quite the same reasons.

Ars Magica is Produced By:

Atlas Games

30 Years in the Making…Our Tabletop RPG Is Finally Here!

September 4, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP5OwjeAVBE Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube, where I go over things going on in the tabletop role-playing community, um, from D&D to Crooked Moon to other games that we see. And this might be, for me, my most exciting one that I've gone over to date. Um, we have some very exciting news. I know if you've watched our channel in the past couple weeks, in the past couple months, um, you've seen videos talking about this card game, Battler, and we even did, um, a bit of an interview style talking about this game and its origin story and why it's so important to us. And the short version of that is my husband has been working on a tabletop role-playing game for 30 years at this point, you know, since he was a boy. And now here we are at the point where we have [00:01:00] something manufactured, published, and ready to sell, and it showed up at our doorstep this week. So we had this 750-pound pallet with 28 boxes of our game show up. Here it is. Sparks of Eternity Emanation. It is here. It is just-- It's better than, you know, we imagined it would be with just... It's just amazing. You know? You always talk about these things happening and these dreams coming true and, like, making a product. And to finally have it is an amazing experience. So, you know, we of course took the time this week to revel in that a little bit and, you know, we took the pictures. We [00:02:00] did the time lapses of everything. We just-- We got to see our dream come true this week. And, you know, this was his dream first, and I got to join in with it. And especially in the past year, um, this game was, you know, an idea from me, and he made it come true with his game. And it's just been a great experience getting to work together on it and play test it and everything. So let's go ahead and get into what is in the box. The guide, of course, you know, the how-to manual, how to play, what everything is, what all the symbols mean. And then of course you have the credits on the back with our artist on there as well as, you know, my husband and I's name, which is pretty incredible getting our name on something. And then you go into the box, and you get to see that there are six dice because it is a six-player game. [00:03:00] It can be up to six players, and you can obviously have more if you have more of the, um, uh, class decks. And then you have your life sparks, the red and the yellow, the red depicting, um, five hit points and the yellow depicting one. So, you know, some characters will start with that five hit points, and some will start with six or seven. And then I've seen hit points get all the way up to twenty-one if the healing ends up going super well. And then jumping into each of the classes that you see in this box, you are going to have the judge, the druid, the oracle, the, um... Oh, gosh You have all these different classes that we decided to put into what is considered the base game. And that is just amazing to see all of this artwork and getting it put together. And then on top of all [00:04:00] that, you have, um, the different effect cards. So your dazed, your blinded, your charmed, um, as well as some additional rules and details and your turn overviews to help you with the, like, getting going and your different turns. So that way you don't have to reference the how-to guide as often, the, um, instruction manual as often. So between my husband and I, because, you know, we've been play testing this for a year at this point, it has been a full calendar year, we have gotten to the point where we can play games in under 10 minutes. Um, however, this does state that it can take up to 30 when you are just learning this game. Um, of course, when you're just learning, you take a little more time with your turns and making sure everybody understands what is going on. Because the goal is to get to play faster [00:05:00] and to dive into this world a little bit quicker, you know? You want to be able to really enjoy this class that you're taking a part of and understand like, hey, this is why the druid is the druid. The druid gets to use these different shapes, the wolf and the griffin, to do more powerful attacks. Whereas the assassin, of course, has different things to help his assassin hit harder and guarantee that it hits and it can't be blocked. Um, so there's just all these little nuances about what you're playing with to see how it goes. So, you know, it's here. We are getting the final touches on everything for shipping, getting the sales page up, um, getting, you know, the different tiers because we are gonna offer a couple different things. Like, yes, we do have the box game, [00:06:00] but we also have a PDF version that has other classes available that you can just print off at home without having to have the box. Um, the other thing is we're looking at putting together a higher tier that is gonna have the box itself, but also a dedicated art book with all of the art that, um, has been used, we intend to use, that our artist has done. And there are a few other things with that tier that you're just gonna have to check out. But with all of that being said, we should be available to ship these within the next week. So we're gonna put that link below and if you don't mind waiting just a little bit longer, you can go ahead and order. However, once we get past this first week, we are gonna be shipping on a more regular schedule and we're excited to see the, uh, demand that these games will have. Of course, we have family and friends that want to see this, but we also want to grow the community with everyone else. So any support that you want to [00:07:00] give is greatly appreciated and it helps us achieve our dreams further and hopefully we can support others on their dreams. Um, so with that, comment, like, subscribe, let us know how we're doing. If you have any questions on the game, please let us know. And if you really would like to, please, uh, hit that button to order now. Thanks so much. Bye.

D&D Started it, but Where does Table Top RPGs go from here?

August 28, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t2a-i3pyRk Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Eternity TTRPG channel, where I discuss different happenings in the tabletop role-playing universe, as well as talk about the game that my husband and I are actively creating. So one thing I wanna talk about this go around is a bit of the origin story of tabletop, um, as well as where it could be going and what's different about it and all those kind of things, right? So to start this off, when To start this off, I always thought of D&D as just D&D, right? D&D is [00:01:00] the premise of all tabletop role-playing. It's the genre itself. It's what I use to define the genre, is D&D. Because I think it was the first thing, right? It was the first thing where you could sit at a table with this book and go through a campaign and a dungeon and play this way. And then other creators said, "Hey, what if we take this thing that was created, and let's try it this way and go through this dungeon instead and this dungeon instead? And what if we add, you know, other universes now, like Star Wars and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and explore those worlds?" And the way that I look at it is that D&D was a way for people to come together and this singular person to lead you through their imagination, right? And now we come into today's day and age, and everybody has a lot of different ideas and imagination [00:02:00] going on. And with that, you have all of these different tabletop role-playing systems coming out and all these different campaigns coming out. But what are we trying to do, I guess? And how does D&D today translate to all of this? So the way that I'm starting to look at it is that these other systems could have just been, you know, the group of friends in the basement that was like, "Hey, I wanna try it this way." And it caught on and they're like, "Hey, my friend's like this. Let's make this an actual thing." And here comes all of these other role-playing games now. And the thing that we hear so much when I hear people talk about their other tabletop role-playing game is, "Oh, well, it's different than D&D. Oh, it does this that's [00:03:00] better. Oh, this is, you know, an easier system." And, you know, that's great and all, but the second you say tabletop role-playing or you say the words D&D, I just think D&D because D&D is the foundation of this entire genre, and it's going to continue to be, even with all of these different tabletops coming in and trying to change the system and all these different things. So when I realize this and everything, and I start to think about the game that my husband has been working on for 30 years and started in a basement, right, with a group of friends, um, I start to think, well, what makes it different? And the thing is we tend to use different in a way to make it seem better than what's already out there, right? And I don't think that's what [00:04:00] we're trying to do, but it's how it comes across in normal society. So with that being said, right- Just because we're different, it doesn't, you know, make us better. It just gives us other options in life. So the thing that I'm seeing the most when people say things are different is you're just getting a different campaign style. You're just getting a different, you know, way to play the game, perhaps a better entry point into tabletop role-playing. And I think in the end, all that we're trying to do is grow a community, right? You're trying to get to be more than just, you know, those 30, 40, 50-year-olds that were growing up playing it in their basement, and you're trying to get the younger generations to continue it. And I will say Stranger Things did help with that. Thank you, Stranger Things, for, you know, bringing it to light a little bit [00:05:00] more. But this thing with imagination is starting to gain so much popularity because we're starting to see so much more of the world, right? So I feel like I'm on a soapbox with this whole news channel because it is just my thoughts right now with this video. But let's just think about this for a second. We really hit... Actually, let's go back When we were in, you know, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, '80s, '90s, we were using libraries and books, encyclopedias, and it was, you know, kind of difficult to travel the world and have the money to do that, and you didn't always know what you were getting into. And it's like the world itself that we lived in held so much imagination [00:06:00] that we didn't know what to do with it, and we were able to go and do these things and strive for these things and just let it all explode and experience it realistically. Now, you hit the 2000s, the '10s, the '20s, and we had technology hit. We had social media hit. And we had access to these places just expand, and now we have everything that we want in this world in the palm of our hand, you know, in front of our faces. We can see it. We can hear it. The only thing we can't do is tangibly touch it unless we actually go there. But with this greater access and faster time to this greater access, w- I feel like our imagination has gone [00:07:00] down. So now, here's where we come into tabletop role-playing and why this connects, right? So we have this big push for tabletop role-playing, other systems, the original D&D system, because that's all the imagination we really have left. Now, I know that's a big statement, and you can rip me apart for that later. But take a moment and think about that. We have everything we could ever want in the palm of our hands except for this world that we can create and never actually see. And now, this is where imagination is coming back, the tabletop role-playing is coming back, because we've already encountered everything else. So now we have to make up these [00:08:00] stories in our heads to create a boost in our brains to just get something else that our phones and our computers and our technology can't give us And that is a lot to take in and think about So with that happening, I know that was a bit of a long soapbox, but with all that happening, we have these people once again that are trying to share their imagination, but they want to be different than the original D&D. But different isn't bad and options aren't bad. So with that in mind, I challenge you to go try a different RPG than you are used to. Get out of [00:09:00] your comfort zone and just give it a try. Because with the world being in the palm of our hands, we have to be exploring different worlds. We have to try these different things because that is the only way that I think we have left to grow. So I know that is some interesting thoughts and I don't know if I'll ever actually post this video, but if I do, comment, like, subscribe, give me your thoughts below and we'll catch y'all next time.

The Creepy Side of Crooked Moon: Silkborn & Threadborn

August 23, 2026

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-H39bG14JM Transcription [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Eternity TTRPG channel, where I talk about different tabletop role-playing things in the universe, as well as the TTRPG that my husband and I are making and releasing products for. So this time, I want to continue, uh, the Crooked Moon series, talking about the different races, and I'm gonna cover two more. So this go around, I want to talk about two characters that are a bit creepier than what they usually look like or what you expect, right? Um, so the first one I'm gonna go on about is the Silkborn race. So the Silkborn, if you don't like spiders, is immediately creepy. However, um, the lore behind them is what makes me stop and think, "Are they really that creepy?" Okay, so the idea of the Silkborn in Crooked Moon is that they have a whole [00:01:00] underground cave system covered in webs, gemstones everywhere, and they harness their power from these gemstones, which I think is actually a really cool idea, 'cause you get to take this, you know, thing that is, in my opinion, kind of creepy and turn it into something beautiful. I think about, like, g- going on walks and seeing spiderwebs out on my walk, and I'm like, "Wow, the architecture of that is really cool." But imagining it in a cave system, it becomes just another world, right? So with that, I think when you would build a Silkborn race character, you'd really lean into their idea of what's beautiful, what's not, and how would that structure society around them, right? What would they worship? How would their family dynamic be? Because this idea of [00:02:00] this character is that they would just emerge from a cocoon, a web cocoon of sorts, right? And then they emerge, and here is this city built of just webs that is creating these nets going back and forth and these glowing crystals. And then you start to wonder, well, where would their social hierarchy be maybe, right? Is it based on the size of the spider or perhaps the color of the spider? Or if the spider has X number of gemstones or X number of eyes, how do they compare in the world to others? So then we start to wonder about different character concepts that you could go on with these, right? So let's say you have this spider race, the Silkborn, join your D&D party, and they are an architect in their normal underground city, and they come to a human city, and [00:03:00] they're just bored at looking at it, and it feels very sterile, and there's not much natural beauty. Could that be a storyline, right? Or could we talk about maybe the gems and why they're so important to their race, and perhaps the spider is just wanting to collect gemstones, um, to better harness them, right? And then the other perspective you could take is that the spider Silkborn is an alien of some kind, right? So they could be, of course, the we don't know if we want to accept them into our party, but they have this information. Maybe they aren't so evil, so let's try and, you know, use them or accept them and how does that go, right? So the Silkborn is definitely a very interesting idea on a race that I don't think we've seen before and some people could find [00:04:00] very interesting Real quick to interrupt. Eternity TTRPG is releasing a card game battler which emulates combat from the D&D tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity: Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities, which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our pre-sales page live now, packed with details. No payment info needed. Just let us know if you want an email when the product becomes available. Now, back to your video Switching gears, um, I'm gonna talk about the second race that I found, which is definitely a play on cute and creepy. Um , and that would be the threadborn. [00:05:00] So the threadborn, in what I'm finding, is this doll that is created, and they come to life. So I start to think of the classic Pinocchio, "I'm a real boy," and stuff like that, right? Because all Pinocchio wanted was to be a real boy and be living and, you know, work in the workshop and explore the world and all these different things and whatnot. So with that in mind, with the idea of the threadborn, I start to think of, of course, who created them and what are they gonna be like in this world now that they're created? Right? So this gives you a couple of different ideas for character concepts and where to go. The first one being, um, that, of course, as I mentioned, they're made not born. So what happens when the doll that's made outlives its creator? And [00:06:00] are they going to become super heartbroken and always on the search for this family that they lost? Um, and this could go into a whole thing of like, how long do threadborns actually live, and do they decompose after time? Because, you know, I think everything decomposes eventually, even if we don't expect it to. Um, so there's definitely that side of it, and do they meet younger generations of their creator, right, and make that their family? Um, another idea is that they're very helpful because if you're creating something like a doll, you're creating it for companionship, right? You're creating it to help you feel better about the world around you, that companionship, and with that companionship does come helpfulness. And perhaps the character concept is that they're too helpful. They're too willing to jump in. They're just [00:07:00] gonna go straight into battle without thinking because they know that's the thing that needs done. That's where we have to go. So that's definitely another side of it, the too helpful side. And then the other thing is that to some people, and I start to think of when I was younger, and every birthday up until I was eight, my grandmother got me a certain doll, and the doll was like a part of a set, and it was those porcelain dolls with the eyes that I swear would follow me, right? And I had a shelf of them to display them because that's what my parents wanted. I could not wait to take those things down because when you have those eyes following you in the dark, it's actually pretty creepy. Um, but that's the thing is dolls wouldn't know that they're creepy. They're just happy, smiling, eyes always open, watching you, and it becomes a whole question of this is normal for [00:08:00] them, but how does this translate to normal society? And it sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me, no matter how cute they are. So with that being said, I'm gonna wrap this up here. And what do you think? Would you rather play a spider or play a doll? And what kind of character concept would you go with? As always, like, comment, subscribe, and we will catch y'all next time. Thanks