Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neonivek]

I figure it is a lot like the Fantasy Flight "engine" so to speak

They are a company that makes a LOT of boardgames that all secretly use the same set of rules except rearanged differently and altered slightly... but to such a degree that playing Arkham Horror versus DUST for example can feel and play entirely different.

My issue ndkid is that there are several things that are part of what I seen in Academimagia (and I never seen the "Year two engine" though if it gets rid of some of the TERRIBLE redundencies such as needing to spend hours eating a kit kat bar... then it is a step in the right dirrection) that I liked and I didn't and my biggest worry is simple

Simplification. I've seen how their system works and simply by reading "Every spell can be cast spontaniously even if you arn't aware of it" instantly hits all the right alarms. This very much feels like "Academimagica except with Covens instead of Cliques and death" with just how I picture the game.

I can just picture it. You are on an adventure to find out why the crops arn't growing and the prompt pops up and it includes an out, two skill rolls, and two magic rolls. In otherwords the "We are going to include all the spells in some way" feel a lot less substantial. Sure they will "all" be useful but only so much as most of them will be included in one mission, or as buff garbage.

It will be a very great game to be sure but I am not expecting anything approaching the complexity and wonder that Ars Magica offers.

Heck after reading the 4th edition rulebook... just hearing "Including the kiss of death" I just go "Who cares? The Kiss of Death was the least interesting spell."

I cannot remember if you can grant non-familiar animals intelligence admittingly (Checking the rules it is more then within the spells abilities but it lacks a specific spell)... but that right there has potential for coolness that won't occur.

---

In otherwords buy it because you love Black Chicken Studios games

Do not buy it expecting a strong Ars Magica game. Just a strong Ars Magica setting game.

[ndkid]

I cannot remember if you can grant non-familiar animals intelligence admittingly (Checking the rules it is more then within the spells abilities but it lacks a specific spell)... but that right there has potential for coolness that won't occur.

I thought there was a CrAn ritual in 5th ed core to grant an otherwise mundane beast intelligence. But after doing a dive into the core book and metacreator, I cannot find it. Which is odd, because I can't believe I'm making this up in my head.

[Neonivek]

It is specifically mentioned in Mage: Ascension.

Mind you the issue is that without a specific mentioning I have no idea if it would be considered a "Major change" or a "supernatural change" for animals.

[ScriptWolf]

Personally I think that is it is anything like kings of dragon pass with that sort of style it will be amazing

[Neonivek]

Personally I think that is it is anything like kings of dragon pass with that sort of style it will be amazing

Kinda very unrelated ain't it?

Mind you King of Dragon pass is probably the best Celtic game I ever not played. Plus the "Magic" element is implimented in such a ingenius way that magic could very well exist or not exist depending on your view.

So I guess there are some similarities. The "Adventures" will be similar. Albiet with less substantial rewards then in Kings of Dragon Pass.

[Pakhawaj]

I enjoy video games based on RPGs and I love Academagia, this looks promising! People in these forums always seem to have information about games I'm interested in, it's fantastic.

Is Ars Magica more of a social RPG or a battle one? I hope for the former.

I'll look forward to this one!

[ScriptWolf]

Personally I think that is it is anything like kings of dragon pass with that sort of style it will be amazing

Kinda very unrelated ain't it?

Mind you King of Dragon pass is probably the best Celtic game I ever not played. Plus the "Magic" element is implimented in such a ingenius way that magic could very well exist or not exist depending on your view.

So I guess there are some similarities. The "Adventures" will be similar. Albiet with less substantial rewards then in Kings of Dragon Pass.

Well I remember someone putting that the style it was going to be done in was how KoDP so if its anything like KoDP then we have a winner

[Neonivek]

Ars Magica is more of a social RPG to my knowledge. Mages actually have an investment to not getting in battles themselves, they get a penelty for doing so in the form of magic failure which can kill them on its own, with more then enough ability to get out of situations without dirrect confrontation.

Heck killing people is probably some of the less interesting aspects of the game. (To put it in perspective... Killing people dirrectly is a small aspect of the game. The ability to know, see, control, and change make up a much larger number of the spells)

At the same time I'd be fooling myself if I didn't say it didn't have a focus on combat. The vast majority of magic item examples I saw were all combat related... and Demons who would be more subtle with mortals are more then willing to bring their full powers out against mages.

[RedKing]

Hmmm...color me interested. Not familiar with this studio, but I'm a huge fan of Ars Magica (though I have not seen any of the rulesets past 2nd edition). Some of the best campaigns I ever played were ones where the PCs were all Companions (skilled non-mages) and the mages were more there to send us off on hazardous errands and whatnot. Very little overt magic, and lots of medieval folklore spun in there. Best campaign of them all was racing to recover Judas Iscariot's thirty pieces of silver before a diabolist group could....only to find that putting them all in one place was a bad idea. Epic final battle was epic. 

[Tilla]

For those who weren't all about Academagia but were interested in the idea of it at least, try Scheherazade from Black Chicken, their newer game.  It is a lot better implemented, although it is designed around a specific premade character rather than roll-your-own. I liked what I played of the demo anyway, and they definitely did far better in UI/design.

[Neonivek]

For those who weren't all about Academagia but were interested in the idea of it at least, try Scheherazade from Black Chicken, their newer game.  It is a lot better implemented, although it is designed around a specific premade character rather than roll-your-own. I liked what I played of the demo anyway, and they definitely did far better in UI/design.

They advertise it as almost a weird dating game >_<

[Tilla]

For those who weren't all about Academagia but were interested in the idea of it at least, try Scheherazade from Black Chicken, their newer game.  It is a lot better implemented, although it is designed around a specific premade character rather than roll-your-own. I liked what I played of the demo anyway, and they definitely did far better in UI/design.

They advertise it as almost a weird dating game >_<

I think that's a failure at advertising honestly. Academagia is as much a dating game as Scheherazade.

[Neonivek]

But first years arn't allowed to date

[ndkid]

For those who weren't all about Academagia but were interested in the idea of it at least, try Scheherazade from Black Chicken, their newer game.  It is a lot better implemented, although it is designed around a specific premade character rather than roll-your-own. I liked what I played of the demo anyway, and they definitely did far better in UI/design.

They advertise it as almost a weird dating game >_<

I think that's a failure at advertising honestly. Academagia is as much a dating game as Scheherazade.

Scheherazade is much more of a canonical dating sim than Academagia, which is a little more toward the life sim side. They're both heavily influenced by the interactive novel genre, but I think Academagia has a much greater set of statistics for defining a character than most interactive novels, and certainly more than Scheherazade. And, as noted in a previous post, while social aspects are important in Academagia, and you develop a circle of friends, you don't date. Whereas, in Scheherazade, you have men in the protagonists life to interact with, and which one you build the deepest relationship with has an effect on the ending you get.

[Shadowgandor]

I don't get it why people are excited about Black Chicken Studios creating this; I bought a very overpriced Academagia and was promised that the game would get expensions to year 2, 3, 4 and I thought 5 but I'm not sure. They stopped updating it in november 2011 and there's not even a second year...Who says they'll do a better job with Ars Magica?