Ars Magica vs Pendragon

Compare Ars Magica and Pendragon side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Ars Magica	Pendragon
Genre	Fantasy, Historical	Fantasy, Historical
Tags	Crunchy, Freeform Magic, Collaborative, Simulation, CC-Licensed Rules, Roll to Cast, Domain Management, Social Intrigue	Character-Driven, Domain Management, Lore-Heavy, Deadly, Simulation, Crunchy, Social Intrigue
Core Mechanic	Roll a d10 + Characteristic + Ability against an Ease Factor. Simple die rolls count the result at face value; stress die rolls on a 1 double the next roll (cascading), while a 0 risks a botch by rolling additional botch dice. Magic uses Technique + Form (five verbs like Creo, Perdo combined with ten nouns like Ignem, Corpus) to define any spell effect. Formulaic spells are pre-learned, spontaneous spells can attempt any Technique + Form combination by halving the casting total, and ritual spells handle large-scale or permanent effects.	Roll d20 against the relevant skill or attribute: a result equal to or under its value succeeds, a roll exactly equal to the value is a critical success, and a natural 20 is a fumble. Opposed actions have both sides roll under their value, with the higher success winning and a beaten-but-successful roll scoring a partial success. Personality traits and passions use the same numeric scale and are rolled the same way when a knight's character is put to the test.
Dice	d10	d20
Complexity	High	High
Availability	Paid	Paid
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	CC BY-SA 4.0	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Not yet researched
Publisher	Atlas Games	Arthaus
Year	2004	2005
Languages	English, French, Spanish, Italian	English, French, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want a deeply researched medieval European setting with the most flexible magic system in tabletop RPGs and troupe-style play where multiple characters share the spotlight across seasons of game time.	Long-running Arthurian campaigns where a knight's aging, death, and dynastic succession are part of the genre, and where playing out a character's traits, loyalties, and passions matters as much as winning fights.
Highlights	Technique + Form magic system allows freeform spell creation by combining five verbs with ten nouns. Troupe-style play rotates magi, companions, and grogs so every player has multiple characters. Covenant management adds strategic play between adventures. Mythic Europe setting blends historical accuracy with medieval folklore and theology.	Thirteen opposed pairs of personality traits and a set of named passions are rated numerically and rolled like skills, and a passion roll can leave a knight inspired to heroics, disheartened, or maddened beyond the player's control: the heightened behavior that drives Arthurian drama. Every chivalric act (combat, generosity, romance, piety, holding a title) feeds a single lifelong Glory total that sets social rank and rewards embodying knightly ideals over simply winning fights. A yearly Winter Phase resolves aging, estate income, and family events between sessions and passes the line to an heir on death, so a campaign can span generations from Uther's court to the fall of the Round Table.
Considerations	Core rulebook is dense at 240 pages with extensive magic subsystems that require study before play. Laboratory rules, seasonal advancement, and covenant management demand significant bookkeeping. The troupe-style format requires buy-in from the whole group. Combat is deliberately secondary to magic and social play.	Core rules restrict player characters to knights, with no mechanics for playing magicians, priests, or commoners, which narrows the cast to the warrior aristocracy. The Winter Phase's multi-step annual procedure adds meaningful between-session bookkeeping to every campaign year. High-damage attacks such as a couched lance or great sword can end a fight in a single exchange, making disadvantaged or improvised fights disproportionately dangerous.