Ars Magica Links

• Ars Magica at Atlas Games, the current publishers of Ars Magica.
• Project Redcap, a cross-linking page for Ars Magica information.
• The Ars Magica FAQ.
• The Ars Magica FTP Archive. This is more up-to-date than the original Berkeley archive.
• The Durenmar Covenant web site contains and links to a wealth of information (many of which, especially rules additions, I link to directly for my own convenience). Have a look at the article index...

• Todd A. Guillory's Astronomical Algorithms web page has cgi forms for easily (and correctly!) calculating moon phases and solstices for a given year.
• Medieval Lecture List is a series of lecture outlines and essays used in a freshman-level survey course on the History of Medieval Europe.
• FAQ for soc.history.medieval
• Joan's Witch Page has all manner of historical information about witches and witchhunts. Especially interesting is the Excerpted Malleus Malleficarum
• The Aberdeen Bestiary contains authentic descriptions of mythical monsters.
• Since the language of the Order of Hermes is Latin, it is not uncommon to use Latin words for flavor. A dictionary or two might be useful.
  • Latin Grammar Aid and Wordlist
  • Foreign Languages for Travelers (also has dictionaries)
  • Latin Word List
  • Non Sequitur - Latin mottoes and phrases for the masses
• On-Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies
• WWW Medieval Resources
• Who's Who in Medieval Europe?A list of real people of importance in medieval Europe.
• Historical maps:
  • Historical Atlas Resource - European Collection
  • Historical Maps - The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Cartographic Images gives you ancient, early medieval, late medieval and renaissance maps.
  • A Political map of Europe around 1120 AD (local).
• Medieval Holidays and The Rite of Exorcism, by Mark D F Shirley.

• Saga Keeper, a state-of-the-art on-line Ars Magica character sheet creator. Allows you to use the web for maintaining a character. Also generates nice, printable HTML.
• Can't think of a name for your character? Check out the following:
  • An Onomastikon (Dictionary of Names), which lists names that were used in a variety of regions and times, including medieval Europe.
  • John Kasab's Ars Magica Names Database
• Add a little color to a PC or NPC with these Toasts, Blessings, and Sayings.
• Philip Tollinton's excellent InstaGrog grog generator. (local - for myself only).
• If you have a problem coming up with pictures of your NPCs, technology comes to the rescue once again:
  • An online face generator that uses photographic material. For an online utility, this is really good. The disadvantage is that it only works with Internet Explorer 4+.
  • Finally, some quality software for this particular gap in the RPG software shelf: ProFantasy Software has released Character Artist. It's an add-on for Campaign Cartographer 2, their map-making software for RPGs. Two caveats, though: if you want a lot of face detail, this is probably not for you. It is meant for making full figure portraits, not face portraits. Face customization support is pretty much limited to eye color and facial hair. Also, the art is not detailed enough to scale well to large sizes.
  • Suspect ID from ImageWare Software, Inc (a demo download link is at the bottom of the page)
  • NBOS Software's Character Sketcher 2 is designed just for this purpose. There is no demo, so no free lunch here, but at least you can purchase it online. The art is OK, but the software is poor. Frankly, you might be better off if they vectorized the bitmaps and just gave you them as a clipart package for PowerPoint. Still, the program is useable, mainly because it's so simple. However, ProFantasy software's Character Artist is probably a better bet. On the other hand, Character Sketcher is more oriented towards face portraits, whereas Character Artist is meant for full figure portraits, so it depends a bit on what you want. When in doubt, go for Character Artist. About same price, and much better quality software - but you do need to own Campaign Cartographer 2. As for map-making, which NBOS also has software for, I'd recommend you check out Campaign Cartographer 2 from ProFantasy Software instead. Especially since you need it for Character Artist...

  • Poser 4 from Curious Labs is a 3D character animation package, which also allows you to easily modify the facial features of a character. Although the included models do not exactly support RPG style portraits, there is a lot of free material available for Poser on the net (see e.g. Renderosity). A neat thing about Poser is that while normal rendering often does not seem really lifelike, you can use a sketch style renderer that produces sketch-like drawings quite suitable for character portraits. It's quite pricey (around $200, less if you shop around), though.

    Note that the Poser 4 demo does not include the same possibilities for facial feature modification, since the included model does not have the necessary morphs. Also, for professional results you would need the more advanced Michael 2 and Victoria 2 models from DaZ3D.

• Online RPG tools by Irony Games. Their link list to similar tools elsewhere is also worth checking out.
• Flat Earth Games has a nice story idea generator.
• If you want to have white witches in your campaign, Wiccan rituals and philosophy might be substituted for true medieval ones. Some of the ideas are maybe anacronistic, but there's a lot of useful source material nonetheless. See e.g.:
  • Covenant of the Goddess - General information about Wiccans.
  • Whispered Prayers - "Magical" goods shop, but a whole lot of free information about spells and rituals. And some product pictures (e.g. athames) might be useful for handouts. And you gotta love the handy spraytop accessory for the potion bottles...
  • Witch/Pagan Resources Many information resources, "Wicca/Witchcraft" is probably your best bet.
• If you need a RPG mapping program, Campaign Cartographer 2 from ProFantasy Software is a good - if expensive - choice. For instance, TSR uses their software. Then again, unless you intend to either publish or frequently modify your maps, don't underestimate pencil and paper. See also AutoREALM below.
• A cheaper (free) alternative to mapping is AutoREALM. I haven't tried it, but looks usable. Nothing like Campaign Cartographer of course, but on the other hand, the price is certainly right... If you can't afford CC2 or have only marginal mapping needs, check this one out.
• Campaign Economics features historical economics data on the Web, various other links that might be useful for your campaign, and the skeleton of a campaign economics system.
• Fantasy Writer's Resources are usually quite useful for roleplayers as well.
• The Encyclopedia Mythica is an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore and legend.
• Gareth Long's Encyclopedia of Monsters, Mythical Creatures and Fabulous Beasts and The Guide to Unbiological Species are on-line guides to mythical monsters.
• The Faerie Encyclopedia is a comprehensive faerie site.
• Land Holdings in Pendragon gives holdings of typical feudal lords.
• A guide to herbs for RPGs.
• The treasures of long-forgotten kings can be illustrated with pictures from the Smithsonian Gem & Mineral Collection, Gaukler Medieval Wares, National Gemstone, DoPaso, GemZone, Silver & Gems and Gemcolor.

• See also Combining Earthsea and Ars Magica under Resources on the main page.
• With Ablative Parma, attacking spells can erode magic resistance even if they fail to penetrate.
• The purpose of Spell Colour is to reflect diversity among Hermetic traditions, and add a more authentic flavor to the use of magic in a Mythic European setting.
• An extension to Aegis of the Hearth
• Aura mutations and Warping Effects of a Magical Aura give guidelines to how auras affect people.
• Apprentice Training Rules
• Ceremonial Magic is magic as an act of worship; Magi with the Ceremonial Magic Virtue can gather together and, as part of an act of faith, combine their magical abilities more dramatically than any Wizard's Communion.
• Gothi, priests of the Viking religion.
• Mercurian Magic details how pre-hermetic magic worked.
• Mythic Alchemy
• Mythic Herbalism
• Weather Witches are Hedge Magicians of the same ilk as Cunning-folk. Their speciality is obviously Weather effects.
• Ars Magica and Demons - Ignoring the Maleficium and On the Summoning of Demons
• The Restless Dead - a treatise on ghosts.
• Ars Arabica - an arabic supplement to Ars Magica.

• See also Mass Combat System under Resources on the main page.
• Martial Arts Companion for Ars Magica
• Hunting Rules
• Warfare and Summary Battle Rules allow you to play large-scale military engagements.
• Alternative Reading, Writing and Study Rules
• Beast Generation Rules details the process of creating animals, whether as diversions, familiars or opponents.
• Simple Economic System is used to simulate a basic economy for the Covenant.

• The Traditions of House Bjornaer
• Workings of House Quæstor (Quæsitor)
• House Diedne and Druids and Diedne

• Spice up your Ars Magica web page with Celtic Web Art