A new game, a new covenant

Minor Boon: Unnatural Law: Wthin this particular arrea magic is not penalized by the dominion.

Yes yes, everyone expects a decent Divine Aura here but it is held at bay by the surprisingly strong magc aura - why is the magic aura so strong here?

Or perhaps you simply have a lacuna.

Why don't you just have the magi being neighbours or tenants of the clergy? A small manor house on the edge of town, possibly on the site of an ancient pagan holy place so that there is a small area of minor magic aura resisting the dominion within the town. Playing local 'scholars' hiding their magics except from a select few allies is always funny.

I would also seriously recommend against having the players roped into jobs teaching or tending the sick - take a look at the Magister in Artibus virtue, which demands 2 seasons a year in the teaching duties as a normal teachers workload. That is a substantial amount of time not improving their magical abilities. If players chose to spend their time helping out that's cool, but don't write it into the script as a given.

A thought for you: just because some people are paid to say Masses every day does not mean they are devout, or that they generate a Dominion Aura. The Chantry could be run by clergy who do not care and merely go through the motions: saying Masses is an easier job than shoveling manure, after all.

So the local Church has dumped its unenthusiastic clergy when they won't do any harm, in this Chantry, where they put on a good show if there are visitors and rush through the Masses if there are not. And I mean rush through, as in possibly don't even leave their bed. And in their copious free time they... do whatever you need them to do to generate a good story and possibly justify a Magic Aura.

Could lead to an Infernal Aura if they are too outrageous in their worldliness.

Very valid and good points indeed.

No reason any devotion has to be real.

"And why are we serving the First of the Fallen again?"
"Because it beats shovelling shit , thats why."

So, I keep working on the game. Amusingly, Milton Chantry is a National Trust house in the UK now -

english-heritage.org.uk/days ... n-chantry/

This covenant is built on Milton Chantry Manor. It is near, but not quite within the town of Gravesend - a major route between London and the coast. It has a hospital and hospice on the grounds which is open to the deserving poor and those who can afford it. The Covenant itself is in a large manor house built as the home for clergy and doctors. The Hospital/Hospice itself is a seperate building, 200 paces from the manor house. The grounds are surrounded by green lawns and stone wall. A gatehouse and stable are set at the main gates. The back of the manor is bounded by the Thames. About 7 miles away is a faerie wood, shunned by the locals.

One of the Covenant specialists, Healer John Durham runs the hospital. A German, Doctor von Pimm is a lawyer who helps maintain the Covenants rights in civil and church courts. Vicar Braithwaite attends the sick and dying in the hospital and gives Last Rites.

In the Magi's sanctums and labs and cellar the Magic Aura is 3. (for so long as no clergyman or True Faith source enters them) In the rest of the manor house its Magic aura 1. The grounds have a Dominion Aura of 1 (zero at night) due to the church bells of Gravesend being heard daily. In the hospital and hospice, Dominion of 2 due to the regular prayers for recovery heard there.

The fields outside are Dominon 1, local villages Dominion 2 and Gravesend is Dominion 3. The local church and Monastrey are Dominion 4-5. Dominion generally rises by 1 on Sundays and falls by 1 at night.

The Dominion causes any magic to be cast in its area to be reduced on its roll by Dominion rating x3. (Magic auras boost by its rating). This means that magi in towns generally cast spells at a whopping -9 penalty to the die roll. The house rule is that the Gentle Gift also reduces the impact of Dominion rating on the Magi by 3. So a Gentle Gifted Magi can cast normally in town, but may struggle if he tries to do so in a cathedral or holy place of a saint. Infernal and Faerie auras still impact you normally.

Once you are out in the wilds, on the sea (out of earshot of church bells), in faerie woods or the like then you wont need to worry about Dominion auras.

By this reasoning, would Blatant Gift add 3 to the Dominion aura rating?

Although your house rule will certainly make it possible for players to build characters who can function well in your covenant, this will simply means most of the magi will have Gentle Gift. The virtue simply becomes too attractive to pass up. So your house rule risks limiting character creation by making it less likely that other Major Hermetic virtues will be selected.

Since you are going with a Huose Rule anyway, I would suggest a few other ways to fulfill your goal for the covenant:

  • Simply lessen the Dominion penalty in your saga in general (from -3 per aura point to -2 or -1);
  • State that the particular flavour of the local Dominion is less inimical to magic (for a less saga-wide impact);
  • Have the magi discover relics that reduce the penalty for using magic within a Dominion aura (or this one specifically) -- generating story ideas as other magi covet the relics for their own use, to investigate them, or simply to make trouble. The covenant might decide to keep the existence of these relics hidden to prevent trouble, which can generate stories by itself. :wink:

Just ideas!

I quite like this as a House Rule and will probably use it , though i doubt it will overly tempt my players away from other Major Hermetic Virtues.
(just noting that i rarely house rule anything and find this one very applicable)
Considering the rarity of magi getting into a Divine Regio of 07 or higher , not very game unbalancing.

Only concern might be if you had an Infernalist with the Gentle Gift.
If the HR is tied to the Dominion , no problem , because the False Gentle Gift would not be able to emulate it.

My reasoning is that in the same way that the Gentle Gift doesnt offend mortals, then neither does it offend God. I dont have a special rule for Blatant gift because no one is taking it. At the back of my mind that I'm an old school Mage player (I came in with AM3) so I like that the Dominion is the mediavael paradigm, and if your magic doesnt offend the masses, then it doesnt trigger the Paradox/Gauntlet smackdown.

Plus its a small game and the mass of Jerbiton players voted for the 'live in a town option', so I've let the other players (a Merinata with GG in the style of Xenophilius Lovegood) and a Guernicus to keep an eye on them from interfering with the Mundanes. One of the Companions will be a Redcap.

Incidentally, how do enchanted devices (the Redcap has a Cloak of Invisibility with PeIm20) work in the Dominion? They dont need to make a casting roll, so would the Dominion impact it and stop the Redcap stealthing up)

SJE

No roll needed= no impact. The penetration of the cloak will be affected by the dominion, though, so if the redcap had magic resistance using the cloak in the dominion might not get any effects. If he doesn't, it is not a big issue :slight_smile:

Looks like you are setting a cool game. Keep us informed on how it goes! :smiley:

Cheers,
Xavi

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

I found this absolutely, irresistibly, devastatingly funny.

Incidentally here is the non-Magi Redcap I created with Metacreator. I really struggled with the Enchanted items (the main rulebook really doesnt explain them well- would it kill to give us step by step examples throughout?) but the idea was a Cloak of Invisibility when she needed to hide, a Rope she could lay in a ring around her camp/bedding to keep away wild animals and magical quilted armour to give her some soak if she gets into trouble.

I'm aware of the Redcaps in Heirs of Merlin, but figured she would make a better companion attached to the Covenant- perhaps responsible for ferrying inter-Tribunal messages to the Normandy Tribunal across the channel. She's got Sense Holiness/Unholiness as a plot hook detector ("Your Redcap reports sensing an infernal aura in the village of Wickford- what do you do?"). And she's a she because we mostly have a sausage-fest at the moment and didnt want another male PC.

SJE

And one of the Jerbiton- Hugh de Neville. Who I describe as "Casanova as a Hermetic Magi"

Generally speaking, he's quite a social person, a real sponge for information and gossip, who gets on well with everyone. Trouble is he seems to attract all sorts of ladies that could get him in trouble and has a tendency to fall in love with married women and had to jump out of more than a few bedroom windows. Think Casanova as a Hermetic Magi.

Magically, his great advantage is that he can cast spells without saying a word or making an arcane gesture- a lot of spells are "Eye" range, so if he meets their gaze and makes his roll, he can make someone fall asleep, see their motivations or surpress their memories. But yes, a ninja Magi who can cast spells under peoples noses.

He is a little weak academically, but fairly strong socially, and definately more a lover than a fighter.

Nice starting characters.

Another potential item for the redcap, a rope that you can control, so you can make it stick to or tie around something and then untie/unstick on command and also make it as rigid as you want whenever and wherever.
Essentially the classical "rope trick" with some extra flexibility of use. This would allow much easier access past cliffs, walls, lesser waterways etc etc...

And if you want to, you could even make it her weapon. A rope that you can control the movement of and that can go rockhard partially or fully, with enough practise that is a fearsome weapon. To make it useful as a weapon you probably need to make it an invested item though, to allow direct mindcontrol of its effect.

Of course, your Casanova mage might want the rope as well. :mrgreen:

I think I've nicked enough from LotR for now - I almost named the Invis Cloak a "Hobbit Cloak" and gave it the effect of Invisibility of the Standing Wizard- just like Frodo/Sam had at the Gates of Mordor.

The players who are creating their characters are slightly more Harry Potter based- essentially with Xenophilius Lovegood and a more sane Madeye Moody as the Quasitor.

SJE

Neat. Ill just have to add that my suggestion had no connection at all to LotR.

Does this look reasonable for a starting library

You might want a lower starting Aegis. I haven't scoured all three pages so if you're using older magi then disregard.

Got any player with PeVi casting total of 50?

Even a DEO10 requires a PeVi casting total of 20 to be useful because you need enough penetration to exceed MR. To kill a MM25 demon, it's easier with DEO10, 2 point mastery (multicasting/penetration), and a PeVi casting total of 33.