1222-1227 OOC

Well, the Writing Books section (p. 165, main rule book) says that the Quality for Summae is Com + 6 + Bonus, and for Tractatus Com + 6. Doesn't say what exactly the bonus is (part of it is, if you write at lower than your maximum allowed, you get a bonus), but I'd be tempted to say that an author's Communication is probably Qua – 6 – 3 (because I'm thinking that most of the widely-circulated books are written by magi with the Good Teacher Virtue),

I agree that the question is much different for tractatus than for summae. But changing one's assumption on the Art score of a summa's author from 30 to 40 can reduce their inferred Com score from +5 to 0 (because of the bonus for writing at a lower level). So for summae it's a lot murkier in my opinion - and much more variance in the Com scores than for tractatus (which I still think have quite a bit of variance, since Good Teacher may or may not be present, as well as the two extra Quality points for resonant materials).

Well, we need to go to the extended rules on quality for covenants, as I presume we are using them, therefore the books we have made use of them.

Covenants is just breaking out where the Com +6 +Bonus for tractatus and summae comes from. It's Com +3 + 1 for each of skilled bookbinder, scribe and illuminator. Are all of the books in ME's possession made with skilled professionals for each step of the process? I don't know. IMO, the way the writing process makes sense to me is that the magus writes, then the professionals lay it out from the magus's notes, and each professional puts a season of work into the final product.

I don't have anything to add, except to say that the higher the total of Quality and Level, the higher the com is going to be, just as a general rule. And I have a gut feeling that writing really falls apart if you look into the book production too closely. This is one of those things that I'd been hoping to avoid. :smiley:

I will say that none of the books have been clarified, except Apollodorus's book on Rego. It is fully clarified and eligible to the +1 bonus, and will turn to dust if removed from the aura...

My hunch is that books in Hermetic libraries are nearly always made by skilled scribes, illuminators, and binders. And for a rich covenant like Mons Electi, I would go so far as to say that every book in our library has those three skilled bonuses, unless we have a specific story about where the book came from that indicates otherwise. (For example, Fiona copied some books from Durenmar. Did those books ever get scribed professionally and all the rest?)

Just for some calibration, to gather our thoughts: our library's Art summae's Level + Quality scores range from 25 to 31. (Notice that it's the Level + Quality that is the relevant stat: you can move a Level point to Quality within certain bounds, but the sum remains constant. So we can just assume that the Level equals half the author's Art score, for this exercise.) Here are some possible ways those scores might have arisen.

Level + Quality 25

  • high-Com possibility: author Art score 28. Com 5 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses.
  • medium-Com possibility: author Art score 28. Com 2 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses + 3 for Good Teacher
  • medium-Com possibility: author Art score 34. Com 2 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses.
  • low-Com possibility: author Art score 30. Com -1 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses + 2 for resonant materials + 3 for Good Teacher.
  • low-Com possibility: author Art score 40. Com -1 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses.

Level + Quality 31

  • high-Com possibility: author Art score 40. Com 5 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses.
  • high-Com possibility: author Art score 30. Com 5 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses + 2 for resonant materials + 3 for Good Teacher.
  • medium-Com possibility: author Art score 40. Com 2 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses + 3 for Good Teacher
  • low-Com possibility: author Art score 42. Com -1 + 3 + 3 for skilled bonuses + 2 for resonant materials + 3 for Good Teacher.

What books is Tranquillina looking to gloss?

Unless you want to go through the whole library, this is a lot of work, for, I think, little reward.

If you're going to go forward, I think you need to start working probabilities, and treat Com + Good Teacher as one overall score (it makes life simpler), making the max effective Com 8. I would think that a Com 3 +Good Teacher could reasonably rewrite a Com 5 standard teacher, too, so it makes little difference, IMO to treat them as a macro score.

Just the summae she actually reads, since glossing can be done simultaneously. That has already included Magic Invictus (Parma Magica) and In Flux Veritas (Muto) and will soon include Twilight’s Inevitable Triumph (Vim), Threading the Hermetic Needle (Finesse), The Grandest Jest (Perdo), and The Stag, The Hound, and The Prince of the Seven Crowns (Rego).

Of course that means that a non-Good Teacher wouldn't be able to gloss as many summae. But I admit it makes sense to combine Com + Good Teacher.

Okay, here's a simple proposal (simplistic?).
effective Com = (Quality + Level)/3 (round down) - 11 + simple die. Maximum 8, minimum -1.
The 11 was chosen arbitrarily so that Q+L 27 summae fit right into the (-1)-to-8 range.

Trying to get a handle on troupe desires...

Roberto wants a dinner with Ariel with all of the Flambeau.
Fiona wants a dance (feast too?) on the last night of the Tribunal.
Rose/Akril is in flux, but it was my plan whether Rose was a PC or not, to try and get her to join Mons Electi, I still want to do that, but due to the Grand Tribunal delegate, she's going to hold off officially joining until after Grand Tribunal.
Alexei is Chief Hoplite, he needs to designate some deputies...probably talk to Celeres some.

Inviting troupe input (really it could be in-character input, for that matter): anything Mons Electi would like Tranquillina to try to do, Intrigue-wise? Probe alliances among major Hermetic players? Influence someone to act to further our interests? ...

First thing that came to mind was to get a gauge on how other covenants/magi feel about Mons Electi being the Tribunal capital (whether Normandy or Lotharingia).

After the vis pay out ( post 1227), Jacques will have to contract with Korvin about a better LR. +5 is not cutting it.

Deputies would be Roberto and from there I'll need to look a bit more. Can I get a refresher on who Celeres is?

Just wanted to alert folks that I put out a call for magi to give input to Tranquillina, who's about to talk with Bilera. Chime in as you like!

Bonisagus from Cunfin, obsessed with the Holy Grail...not so much finding it (anymore), but learning everything there is to know about it. (The Lion and the Lily, p. 110)

I think JL stated that he is moving to Confluensis

I don't have the Lion and The Lily, so I might be a bit off in my selections, I'll welcome any suggestions.

Selections?

Celeres was from Cunfin, he is now at Confluensis. Who knows, maybe now he'll move to Mons Electi, what with Tribunal city being there...

I don't have Lion and Lily (been avoiding getting it so there's at least one Covnenant book that holds surprises for me. So I'm not sure what NPCs are perspective. Maybe I could hold an interview process or something?

I went ahead and randomly determined the effective Com scores of the books in the Mons Electi library. Because that's how I roll. (Speaking of rolls, here are the dice rolls used in these determinations, for summae on Techniques, Forms, and Abilities.) The results are on the wiki. Your friendly neighborhood Bonisagus has even bumped up the Quality of the Muto summa, which was written by quite an average communicator with an extreme mastery of the Technique (a score of 50 in Muto). What could possibly be more captivating than this tale.

I definitely see Tranquillina striking up a friendship with Fiona - not least because of the shared Gaelic heritage. For the first couple of years, we recall, Fiona had that Magic Realm vis inside 'er, and that made Tranquillina uncomfortable without knowing why probably. But over the next couple of years, Tranquillina made some efforts to build a friendship (I remember a thread with a chat in the library), and it makes sense to me that Fiona would reciprocate.

I see Tranquillina as a bit of a prude for some reason; I doubt Fiona's checking-out comments (much less the flirting) will find much purchase there. And similarly, Fiona seems to be a more private person than Tranquillina, so overtures in the reverse direction would also yield only limited results. But that shouldn't preclude a perfectly satisfactory friendship from coming into being.

Now, would Cumhachd's name, and Tranquillina's apprenticeship's first half, have come up in that time? Hard to say. Maybe not, really. It'll be noteworthy to witness Tranquillina's reaction to a Tytalus's petition for membership then.... :smiling_imp:

We have 599 pawns of vis and 426 to be claimed. Do we want to lower that or go with it?

Alexei, Fiona, Jacques, Isen and Korvin get 67 pawns.
Viscaria takes 32 pawns of ReTe (I'll up date the sheet)
Tranquillina has taken 12 and is still owned 24

Korvin can take his last as he can exchange it for what he needs.

If you update the sheet, please follow the same pattern I am doing. Remove the pawns from the unclaimed column and take the vis you want. I did this for Tranquillina.