The Build Point pricing for resources in covenant creation have been discussed a lot. I took a closer look at them and came up with a price list that is hopefully more consistent with in-game prices while preserving game balance. All rules can be abused, so as long as they don't do worse than the original rules, I'm happy.
I put the detailed description and reasoning here: Alternate Build Point Costs - Project: Redcap , because it's just too long for a forum post. I hope that's not abusing the hospitality of Project: Redcap.
As a short summary, most price changes are within a factor of two; libraries got cheaper, while vis is now more expensive. The most radical changes are probably:
Slashing the cost of books on Mundane Abilities
Hiking the prices for vis stocks and sources
Adding a free vis source to the baseline
I'm sure many people have strong opinions on this, and I hope for a good discussion.
books on Dominion Lore and Infernal Lore are also available from mundane authors
Perhaps they're available from "mundane" authors, but I wouldn't let them be priced as if that were true.
Per my previous rants, I hold that any in-general-mundane-circulation book being useful for studying an Arcane Ability is a direct contradiction of the whole point of a separate category for Arcane Abilities (and also a contradiction of the very definition of "arcane", which means "mysterious or secret"). If books on Dominion Lore were common in cathedral schools/madrassas/yeshivas, then it would be an Academic Ability. Since it isn't an Academic Ability, but of a more esoteric category, the books for Dominion Lore should be esoteric books, not the same books broadly available to academics.
And, if the books on Dominion and Infernal Lore are rare enough to properly reflect their status as Arcane Abilities, they should be more expensive than genuinely mundane books, no matter who wrote them.
Your argument has convinced me. I was already in doubt whether it was a good idea to have that many exceptions and it was strange to not treat all Realm Lores the same. I removed the exceptions for Dominion and Infernal Lore.
In our saga we never used the BP system for the PC covenant so I really have little experience (I did some NPC covenant in 2010-2011 but not since) but I looked and from what I read in your page, I very much like your ideas: it felt correct.
One question I have, what about the languages of their specialist/teachers etc. ; did you consider that some may not speak the “language of the magus” (by that I mean latin)?
It’s an issue I used a lot in our current saga: the covenant is (now) established in Scotland in y837, during the Damhan-Allaidh war (yeah, one year was very much not possible to keep it realistic as a full time war between orders [of hermes, represented by 3 pc + Pralix + 1 Flambeau] and the full organization of the English/Scottish/Irish order lead by the Hand of 5 powerful wizards lead by Damhan Allaidh) and the PCs had a very hard time to hire locally since basically they didn’t trust anyone on the island and just got ex-slaves from Tunis, but those are speaking Nubian, and no PC did so it was a mess.
Also: do you think that reviewed BP cost you designed can/could be used for simulating trade between covenants, or for a PC wishing to sell/buy material, since you put a better value of vis, which is the “currency” of the order?
I’m glad you like the proposal. I don’t think the language matters for the BP cost of a specialist. It will not impact his effectiveness much.
I would not use the BP system for anything beyond building the covenant. BPs are not very precise, I was happy to have a price within a factor of 2 of what’s expected. Once you’re playing, there are many other factors that should be taken into account.
I’m using it for a NPC covenant, and i see that for charged and lesser items, you have a “up to level 20” condition. What when it’s above? Do you apply the under line (so lesser price for charged item, invested line for lesser item)?
I can't remember my exact reasoning, but the intention was that if you want an item with an effect level greater than 20, you have to get an invested item. Without this limit, nobody would buy invested items at twice the price, unless they need an item with several effects.
We can argue about whether 20 is the right limit, and you can probably change it for your saga. My idea was probably that a PC covenant won't have the resources to buy stuff from a Verditius archmage, but they can reasonably contract someone with a lab total of around 40, which is sufficient for a lesser item with effect level 20, or a charged item with effect level 20 and 4-5 charges. Now a lab total of 40 isn't very high, and you could decide that enchanters with lab totals of 50 are also not hard to find and increase the level.
I also considered that low-powered covenants are limited to a maximum effect level of 25 [Covenants, p. 5], so the limit for lesser items should be below that.