#10: Lion Rampant: 1987-1990

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory10.phtml

Summary:

Ars Magica and the predecessor to the World of Darkness.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory10.phtml) for more information.

[AusJeb]

Very nice history. Great to hear how they figured out how to publish their games and overcome the challenges along the way.

I did want to offer two points of clarification. First, the idea of downtime was included in two FGU games from the late 70s: Bushido and Chivalry & Sorcery. I've always thought of Ars Magica as a playable version of C&S. The other point is that other game from the mid 80s that led in promoting a system of die roll to exceed target number was Ghostbusters. WEG further developed this system in Star Wars.

[YojimboUK]

I believe freeform magic systems existed prior to Ars Magica. Maelstrom (the early 80s gamebook RPG published by Penguin Books) had a freeform system with no spell lists and I'm sure it wasn't the first.

However, Ars Magica was probably the best implementation of such a system and went on to be a major inspiration of subsequent systems.

Jim.

[smascrns]

RQ2 had a break-up of runes into forms, powers, etc. that just screemed "freeform magic system". Unfortunatelly Chaosium completely overlooked the possibilities and never attached game mechanics to it. Worst, it dropped that break-up from RQ3. Since the designers of Ars Magica were old RQ fans, maybe they got some inspiration from RQ2.