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Like any roleplaying game, playing Ars Magica combines both rules and setting. You will need a passing familiarity with both in order to participate effectively. There is no need, however, to know the entire Ars Magica Fifth Edition core book cover to cover. Let us be your guide to the world of Ars Magica.

A Mythic World

The setting of Ars Magica is known as Mythic Europe. It is a medieval world, rich with fantastic elements drawn from real-world myth, legend, and wild imagination. Some plot-points actually used in published Ars Magica adventures include...

A cult of diabolists collecting shards of a fallen star to conclude the vile ritual that will summon forth an infernal army (Fallen Angel)
Saving the faerie queen of Winter Bright from the king of Summer Dark who captured her in his castle, to restore the balance of seasons to the land (Faerie Stories)
A Karaite leader, working miracles in the service of God, seeks out the aid of wizards when his community comes under threat from an angry mob (The Bishop's Staff)
Appeasing the great dragon Pan Caudarax, gaurdian of Iceland, lest he destroy thee land in revenge for his destroyed unhatched egg (Land of Fire and Ice)
A count is healed at a magical pool that is contested between the Church and two groups of wizards (Ordo Nobilis)

At the same time, Mythic Europe is also founded on real-world history and allows immersion in the rich world of medieval Europe. Some other points from published cannon...

Bargaining with the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Glastonbury (The Black Monks of Glastonbury)
Trading blows and diplomacy with the Rhine League, formed by Mainz and Worms to combat the robber-barons on the Rhine (GotF)
Exploring the Seven Deadly Sins (The Festival of the Damned)
Taking sides in the Albigensian Crusade
Discussing the university of Montpellier and how the Cardinal Legate Conrad of Urach is planning to increase papal control of it (Art & Academe)

Different groups place the emphasis on different elements. For some, Ars Magica is a game of wild fantasy totally removed from any historical veracity. For others, it is a chance to learn more and immerse themselves in the rich world of medieval Europe. Most groups try to strike some sort of balance, enjoying the fantasy while also taking the opportunity to learn something about what the past was like.

You do not need to know anything more about Mythic Europe in general in order to play Ars Magica. The important aspects of Mythic Europe, that you do need to know are detailed below.

The Order of Hermes

The major player characters in an Ars Magica game are wizards. All wizards of power in Mythic Europe are members of the Order of Hermes, and it is assumed that your main character will be one as well. This is one of the fantastic elements that sets Ars Magica apart from an historical reenactment game.

All members of the Order take a vow to uphold the Code of Hermes, also known as the Hermetic Oath. This is a detailed oath that sets the obligations of the wizards towards each other and the world at large. Although there are several finer points, there are two critical aspects to the Oath:

The wizard swears to accept the judgment of others in Tribunal. The Order is divided into regional councils, called Tribunals, in which every magus (in the region) gets an equal vote. By establishing the authority of a Tribunal session, the Oath unites magi into an Hermetic Society. All wizards are answerable to the other wizards in their region, which can vote to punish them for violations of the Oath.
The Oath has many parts, but it essentially comes down to something like "don't interfere with the magical growth of other members of the Order". The result is that your player character is limited in his actions when these may impact or anger other wizards, lest they turn on him in Tribunal. There are several powerful factions in Mythic Europe that he must be especially wary of:

The Church is a powerful social institution, wielding Divine power and aligned with saints, angles, and other Divine beings. You must take care not to turn the wrath of the Church on your peers.

The demons of Ars Magica are corrupting, vile and dangerous beings. They are so abhorred, that wizards are prohibited entirely from bargaining with them. You must avoid doing so - or at least, avoid getting caught.

There are many powerful faeries in Mythic Europe. While you may generally deal with them as you wish, their great power means that you need to be careful not to cause enmity between them and other wizards. If your dealings with them causes them to lash out against other wizards for some reason - you are in trouble.

History has taught the Order that it is necessary to refrain from creating affiliation with mundanes (those lacking in magical power, such as nobles and the people they lead), too, lest one court wizard turn on the other. Members of the Order are therefore prohibited from "meddling in the affairs of mundanes". Of all the prohibitions of the Code this is the most dire, as no one can live in Mythic Europe without relying on the toil and craft of the mundanes. Still, you best be wary of undue meddling, especially of overtly aligning yourself with one mundane faction.

When dealing with other members of the Order, two issues are often the most important. First, wizards like their privacy and resent someone else peering into their affairs. Refrain from scrying on your peers, or entering their private sanctums. Of course, more basic morality - like not stealing their property - is also expected.

Secondly, the one natural resource wizards covert is Raw Vis. Literally "raw (magical) power", these are rare magical things like the tooth of a magical wolf or the dew collected in a pristine meadow on the autumn equinox. A wizard can do much with raw vis, and so sources of raw vis are valued and contested. Much of Hermetic politics revolves around managing ownership rights over raw vis.

Troupe Style Play

That was enough about the setting - time to think about your character. Or rather, characters.

One of the things that sets Ars Magica apart from other games is its use of Troupe Style Play. This is not obligatory, but is common in most Ars Magica games. The idea is that instead of having playing one character only, the players are combinely in charge of playing an entire "home base", a stable of characters.

Most often, each session or few deal with a single adventure, featuring a few wizards and some supporting cast. Each player has one main, wizard, character he is personally in charge of - known as his Magus. He often also has one major supporting cast member (A Companion) that he can play when his wizard isn't involved in the session's plot. Further background characters, known as Grogs, are played by the group as a whole, or by players without either a Magus or a Companion in the current adventure.

All these different characters live in, or are in some way affiliated to, the Covenant (think "coven of witches"). This is the "home base" of the characters, and the adventures revolve around its interests. As all characters live there, its interests are the interests of all characters and the interests of the characters form the covenant's interest.

The covenant typically houses a handful of magi (one for each player), an equal number of Companions, and a larger contingent of Grogs and various other Covenfolk (servants, craftsmen, and so on). The conditions and facilities of the covenant can form the heart of an Ars Magica game - from the contents of the library that the wizards use, to the lavish (or miserable...) living conditions that the covenfolk enjoy.

Game Mechanics

To play a character, you need to understand how the game mechanics of Ars Magica work. There is no point in going over all the mechanics here - we recommend reading the relevant parts of the core Ars Magica Fifth Edition book. However, we'll provide a brief primer, to help ease you into play.

There are three types or rolls you need to understand in order to play Ars Magica, as well as the concepts of Fatigue Level, Wound Level, and Defense and Soak.

All rolls are made using a 10-sided die. Any roll can be either a Stress Roll roll or a Simple Roll. You can learn about these by reading ArM5.

The most common roll for a character might make is an Ability Check. An "Ability" is some acquired skill, like the ability to lie well (Guile). You make an ability check by rolling the dice, and adding the Ability and the most appropriate Characteristic, as determined by the Storyguide. There is a fixed list of Characteristics and Abilities to choose from, as seen on any Ars Magica character sheet. The higher you roll, the better; you need to pass a certain number, known as the Ease Factor, to succeed.

A second type of roll is used to case a spell. To create any magic effect, you make a roll and add your Stamina Characteristic plus one Technique and one Form, and possibly the supernatural Aura you are present in (as determined by the Storyguide). The Technique and Form are set by the type of effect you want to create, and again are limited. See ArM5 for details on how to cast Hermetic spells.

Finally, you need to understand how to run combat, including wounds and how to calculate whether you hit and so on. Read ArM5.

Other Guidelines

The following are only here to be incorporated into the Spell Guidelines page:

Covenants: Spell Guidelines regarding Rego Craft Magic are given on p. 49-50. Further guidelines involving various topics (used in "agriculture" spells) are given on p. 50-51.

Societas: New Spell Guidelines and rules are provided. Rules for firing projectiles using Rego are given on p. 35 and p. 38. Guidelines for rego and creo Craft Magic are given on p. 60. Rules for Flourishes (flourishing your sigil) are given on p. 60-61. Guidelines for illusion and mental magic are given on p. 61-70. A suggestion on how to treat Aura of Ennobled Presence and similar spells in combination with the Gift is given on p. 96. A new healing guidelines is given on p. 100. A new ReVi guideline is given on p. 129.

TL: Ones related to investigation magic are on page 72-75.

TMRE: New Spell Guidelines are the numerical guidelines (open to all) on p. 93. There are also the spirit summoning/control guidelines, on p. 28.

The above list does not include guidelines available to magi posessing a particular Virtue (e.g. theurgic guidelines), and was composed before City & Gild, tLatL, and so on.

Styles & Classes

There are multiple classes that can be chosen from to make a portion of text stand out more clearly.

Yair: Errg, isn't a QUOTE something along the lines of 'and then Bonisagus said, "Let us Grow Hale as One... errggg... no... wait a minute..."', whereas a cite is something like ('see Peripheral Rulings of the XII Grand Tribunal, Section VI, page XVII)' ?

Pitt: This makes sense. It suggests to use quote in continuous text, like {{quote|Let us Grow...}}, while class cite is used for dedicated paragraphs and entire text blocks.
Yair: No, the opposite - a cite is always brief, just a note where to find the discussed resource; a quote can be extensive, quoting several paragraphs.

Preamble

This is a preamble environment. Use it for brief summaries at the beginning of a page.

Citation

This is a cite environment. Use it for brief citations. (The difference to quote is that cite should be used for brief text passages only.

Quotes

This is a quote environment. Use it for verbose quotes.

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