1st Session with Ars Magica

I had passing familiarity with the system before tonight, but I had never actually played it.

Wow, what an obtuse system. Complex, very poorly laid out in the book, whoa. After a few hours of play, I started to understand it pretty well, but man that could REALLY use some organizational restructuring. I think it could be a really great game if it was just reworked in a way that would be easily digestible. Maybe in the future, I will take up that mantle, but not now.

Good GMing, two players that I had never played with before ended up being really great guys, lots of joking at the table, lots of hijinx as a result of really odd situations.

For example, they told me they had talked to this ghost before that cast a lot of illusions. So we go into the room, it looks like we are in a countryside and the ghost has turned himself into a sheep. So I tell him that such a form is not befitting a ghost of his caliber, he transforms into a dragon, I mock him a little more about how I am terribly afraid of his illusory dragon, then he casts flame magic into my face. Apparently, not just an illusionist. Who knew?

At least my stumble resulted in gaining some knowledge.

I survived, but of course I now have a wound to nurse. And it turns out I built a very ineffective character. So I am relegated to trying unorthodox things. When we run into another ghost and try to actually kill it (we didnt kill the first guy, just negotiated after I left with a burnt face), I have no way to damage him. So I leave the room, cast a transmutation type spell to change my appearance to match his, then I go out there and try to pretend that I am him and get him to leave my room. Another ghost in the past was dispelled by finding what was keeping them on earth, I thought maybe I could intimidate this guy out of existence. Well, I distracted him from casting a few spells and became a target myself, but had no actual effect.

Meh...

I guess I need to create a character with actual effectiveness for the next game and see if the GM will let me switch them out. I think if I keep the persona of the character I did use and just change their build around a bit, that may be passable.

We shall see.