Tabletop RPGs

Okay, so I'd suggested in the chat that we do the occasional session of tabletop gaming as a way to get away from all the game-creation and just relax, while learning to get along a bit better. This thread's going to go into its own section soon, but for now I'll just plop it here. Suggest any games you'd like to play(AKA: Be willing to DM!), and respond to the suggestions before you. Once we have a section ready, we can make threads dedicated to a certain game as an interest check/OOC for the game itself. I'll start us off:

Ars Magica

Basically, Ars Magica is a game centered around a group of mages living in a 'covenant', or communal-type home along with their non-magical companions and various servants and other types. Due to this, most of the storylines involve either trouble in the covenant itself or in the surrounding area, and typically have the mages and their companions fixing the trouble through whatever means they can. Complicating this is the fact that their magical ability also causes others to feel ill at ease when around them, in keeping with the Mythic Europe setting that the game authors created.

The setting itself is, as I said, Mythic Europe. All those folk tales and such are real in the Ars Magica world, and feared deeply by the normal folks. Faeries, ghosts, witches, and everything else can be considered fair game in the world. Add onto that the typical medieval Europe intrigue plus Church politics, and...things get interesting, especially since the Church actually does have the mandate of God. So do the Muslims and Jews, for that matter.

The saga(total story) itself spans several years, with adventuring being something that periodically breaks into the mages' life of studying and magic-ing and whatever else they and their companions do. As such, characters die of old age, new ones come in, and it becomes a sort of legacy as life carries on. This, and the fact that the game encourages 'troupe' play(having multiple characters, though not in play at the same time) allows the players to have a real impact on their world. This pace can be as slow or as fast as needed, and it can cover anything from politics to typical adventuring to just about anything else imaginable. It's a very flexible setting. Besides that, anyone who misses a session isn't in danger of falling behind, since their character can remain behind, studying or working on magical projects so they don't become underpowered. For an online gaming group, that seems like a godsend to me.

I really can't get into the actual details, since it's a remarkably intriguing setting. I can provide the rulebook for anyone who wants it, though. The only major downside to this game system is that it requires a good bit of record keeping, since the characters span decades and there are a lot of things that any single character can learn. There's a good bit of reading for the 240-page book, but I can highlight certain pages that players need to read. Most of it is for a GM's consumption.