Order of Hermes (book)

From Project: Redcap
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Order of Hermes
Cover illustration for Order of Hermes
Product Information
Rules Edition: Second
Abbreviation: OoH
Product Type: Sourcebook
Author(s): Jonathan Tweet
Publisher: Lion Rampant
Product Number: LR1020
ISBN: None; Order of Hermes was published by a small press and has no ISBN on the cover or title page
Release date: 1990
Format: Softcover, 126 pages
Availability: PDF only

Subject and Contents

Order of Hermes was the seminal supplement for Ars Magica Revised Edition that defined most of the game's canon for the first time. It was the first book to present the Houses in detail, to enumerate the Regional Tribunals, to discuss the Peripheral Code and Hermetic politics. The influence of this book cannot be over-stated. It laid out the essential elements of the Order of Hermes; later supplements have primarily focused on expanding and elaborating on the ideas that were first printed in this book.

Much of the content of Order of Hermes had previously been developed and published in White Wolf magazine.

Order of Hermes was very well-received when it was published and received a warm review in Dragon issue #170.

Table of Contents

The table of contents gives a clear idea of what the book covers.

Community Reviews

FAQ Rating: **** (21 reviews; 0 *, 0 **, 5 ***, 16 ****)

  • As essential as its Houses of Hermes reincarnation. One needs one of those two books for any saga.
  • The original guide to the Order, now replaced by Houses of Hermes and the WGRE.
  • Ought to be accurately updated. A core element and theme for the game, concentrates on the Order instead of the individual, without losing the individual in the process.
  • Details and background of the Order. A must have.
  • Great stuff about the Order.
  • The single best product for Ars Magica, and the most comprehensive overview of the social and professional lives of magi. Essential to almost every Saga. A 'must have', even if you have Houses of Hermes
  • Superior to the revised edition.
  • Excellent.

Please edit this page to add your own comments about this book.

Availability

Order of Hermes was out of print for a very long time. However, by 2016, a digital version was made available at Warehouse 23. The link is here.

The long delay before an electronic version is explained in this thread on the official forum. In a nutshell, it no digital "master" existed, and existing physical copies were collector's items that no one wanted to sacrifice to produce a high-quality digital scan. It's unclear how this obstacle was overcome, but the PDF is available now.

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The edit history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:order_of_hermes_book.