Like a Hermetic House that gathers miscellaneous magic into some kind of affiliation, this update is going to hit a disparate mix of topics united by my need to put them somewhere. Enjoy!
Dice and the Hermetic MagusAs we were working up this campaign, we originally had a single die included in the Hermetic Magus tier. This seemed like a neat idea (Yay recycling! Let's call attention to our
Replay Workshop project). But then we realized that this was not so much a gift as a burden for a big chunk of backers. You see, if you include dice, customs authorities like to say something is no longer a BOOK but a GAME, and for some of our backers that would mean a +20% or more increase to the total pledge cost due to taxes, on both the goods and the cost of shipping. Shipping dice separately is one way to address this, but the cost to ship a single die by itself starts near $4 even in the USA. Which is silly.
So we switched dice to be an add-on for a set of six, to let everyone choose for themselves if they want them, and allow a price where we can handle shipping calculations reasonably, even if in most cases we need to ship the dice separately.
Unfortunately, we missed ONE place where we still had a die listed as part of the Hermetic Magus tier. That has been fixed. But if you were one of the astonishingly large number of backers who pledged today, we want to make sure you're aware of this and why. (Conversely, if you did NOT back the Hermetic Magus tier because you were worried you'd pay an extra $30 or more due to a single die, please reconsider.)
Sorry for any confusion! And thanks to the backers who brought this to our attention.
A Word for Our Friends: The Expanse RPG Transport Union EditionI'd like to take a moment to mention
The Expanse crowdfunding is running right now and has a about a day left to go. You should check it out quick because it's awesome, based James S.A. Corey’s award-winning science fiction novels, and it includes sweet dice and minis. But I also hope you will because Nicole Lindroos is one of the principals of its publisher Green Ronin.
My friendship with Nik goes back to the days before Atlas Games even existed, and we (including Woody Eblom, who is Atlas' warehouse manager today) worked at Lion Rampant, coaxing Ars Magica 2nd Edition into print and distribution. Nik moved to Georgia with Lion Rampant, which then merged with White Wolf. Then I lured her back to Minnesota to work as sales manager for Atlas Games. I can't even list all the people whose efforts brought Ars Magica through the years and up to this Definitive Edition, but Nik holds a special place as a builder of both Ars Magica and Atlas Games.
I fondly remember her magus with spittle-laden, incomprehensible speech (and negative Com score), who would loudly declare that he was a "People Person" while muscling out the companions and ruining sensitive discussions with the mundanes. Only in Ars Magica!
Open Gaming!Fun fact! Green Ronin and Atlas Games were the first two companies to release commercial d20 Open Game License products for sale, at Gen Con 2000. So that brings me to the topic of
open licensing Ars Magica — something that you, our backers, have just made possible! As I write this, it seems clear that we really might unlock the text of the entire 5th Edition product line, and more, for licensing under
CC-BY-SA 4.0.
When will they actually release? Well, now. As far as we're concerned, whenever we unlock a stretch goal, the text of those books is now officially licensed. So get to work making new stuff! And tell us about it! You can comment here, and on the
Ars Magica Open LIcense Announcements thread on our forums, where people are talking about projects and plans already!
Thanks to YOU!Thank you again, everyone, for supporting Ars Magica Definitive Edition and sharing the campaign far and wide. This is breathtaking. On behalf of all of us at Atlas and on the Ars Magica development team, we are so grateful, and humbled, and thrilled about the future of this game we love and its devoted community.
-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games
