ArM Gurus, lend me your wisdom...

I would suggest having the characters begin as just gauntletted magi or maybe nearing the end of apprenticeship. Then you can drop TMRE and the crunchy parts of HoH:MC for a while, picking those parts up selectively later. You could also avoid dealing with other types of casters, avoiding HMRE. You don't need to involve Ancient Magic and probably won't want to for a while. Choose one of the Tribunals and avoid the other book. Though you could drop ToME and MoH, they don't really add rules and could provide some extra stuff for the storyguides to use.

As for power, HoH:MC, RoP:F, and RoP:M seem to have the greatest power creep. You can deal with HoH:MC by not letting anyone start play with any inner mysteries. Avoid PC faeries and magical beings, and you can avoid a lot of the issues in those books. This is also good because I would say it's preferable to keep those two books. They're fantastic. It's just that with the effort to provide flexibility there come power creep risks.

While the magi might not need the last two books on your list, there are likely to be companions or grogs who would benefit. Plus the flavor those two add is fantastic.

This would be the slimmed down book list I would suggest if you're going to keep a lot of them:

Covenants

0.5: Houses of Hermes Mystery Cults
Houses of Hermes Societates
Houses of Hermes True Lineages

Realms of Power the Divine
Realms of Power Faerie
Realms of Power the Infernal
Realms of Power Magic

Either: Guardians of the Forests: the Rhine Tribunal
Or: The Lion and the Lily: the Normandy Tribunal

Art and Academe
City and Guild

Personally, I'd recommend ignoring the rules for rules for custome labs/libraries from Covenants. I don't really think keeping track of the minutae of the covenant's funding either, since I just don't think it adds much to the game.

The tribunal books are good, but for new players may I humbly suggest Provence instead, it being the default described in the core book. Occasional side-trips to neighbouring tribunals will let you get some use out of your nvestment without forcing new players to learn two or more different settings at the same time.

For the remaining books, I don't see any problem with using them to their full extent provided that a reasonable level of restraint is employed otherwise things can tend to be rather overwhelming...

Houses of Hermes: True Lineages -- rules feel a bit wonky and outdated in places; most importantly, I suggest making certain you understand how original research works before letting any players attempt it. Still a very useful book.

Realms of Power -- the rules for advancing Magic or Faerie characters in play might be a little off, balance-wise, so be cautious and make sure you've looked them over before letting a player play and advance as one; specifically, I recall the ratio of experience-to-virtues advancement being weirdly skewed such that players can get something like five times the experience by taking virtues or qualities that give experience instead of just gaining experience normally.

Covenants -- makes the game more rules-heavy; great fun if you're into that, but otherwise you'll be ignoring about half the book (the Hooks & Boons are still a great resource for starting a saga)

If your players like crunch and fiddling, Covenants can be great. They can also build very powerful labs if given enough time. What I think is very helpful is working with the troupe in picking out boons and hooks. That really says a lot about what kinds of stories they want to participate in, as a troupe. Story Flaws characters take generally hint at the stories they're interested in, individually.

I think TMRE can be tricky, especially if everyone wants to pursue distinct mysteries. I agree with Chris in his assessment of the Houses of Hermes books and starting them at apprenticeship. Original research on True Lineages is unlikely to be an issue if you start with magi fresh from apprenticeship. I would expect few characters, especially new to Ars to be interested in it, so I would integrate it slowly, if at all.

Choosing the two Tribunal books, I generally prefer Lion and the Lily (and I've based my own saga there). I think with the feudal nature of the covenants in that Tribunal can really be useful to limit what players can do, which when they are new to Ars can be a good thing. For example, they could be a vassal covenant and be heavily restricted in the amount of vis they receive, or how much they have to give up to their liege, and as the troupe becomes more familiar with the game, you can explore how they grow or outgrow their relationship with their liege covenant. The also have some built in protections and built in enemies, and it is just more stuctured than the Rhine Tribunal is.

In a troupe style game, limit the number of magi available on any given story. I wish somone had given me advice the first time I ran an Ars story for a saga I was running back in 3rd edition.

This is a very much a personal-taste thing. Here are my personal recommendations for a starting library:

Core Book
Duh.

Covenants
If your troupe wants troupe-style play, they probably will enjoy a session to co-create the covenant and think up the directions they want the future saga to go. So I'd recommend doing just that using the extended Hooks & Boons section of this book. This also serves well to set ArM up as a cooperative game centered on the covenant, quite apart from other genres and games. If such a session would not be interesting to your group, however, I strongly suggest just staying with the core rules or, alternatively, putting the extended list just before the SGs in charge of designing the covenant.

I would stay away from the rest of the book, at least initially. It has some good stuff in it, but probably not stuff you really need from the get-up. Pick it up once the saga gets rolling. Significant points to consider in doing this, however, are:

  • Casting Tablets allow casting spells the casters haven't learned. This is a game-changer, that can change the beginning of the game, especially with Wizard's Communion. I recommend against it, though - convincing a magus to cast a spell for you is much more fun than locating its nearest available copy.

  • The extended book rules mean that their manufacture requires a host of specialists, and the extended economy rules that the covenant is significantly in touch with mundane society. This can be useful if your intended saga includes lots of mundane-related stories.

Guardians of the Forest: The Rhine Tribunal

I personally recommend starting at this tribunal over Normandy, because it can be ignored. Most players won't need to actually read the book, they can just be given a rough description of the tribunal and the covenant can be designed separately based on what they want from the saga and placed in some suitable place. The book would be there, however, to serve the SGs and any player that wants to delve into the tribunal more.

The only thing to state in advance is Gild Training - which is a virtue your magi might want to take at character generation. But I would recommend rethinking the gilds to better fit your saga needs.

Houses of Hermes: X
Recommended - not mandatory - reading for each player in his own house. As each only needs to read one relevant chapter, this is manageable. The books should be read primarily for background material on the House, and you should be prepared to deviate from this depiction if the official take is not to your group's liking. A few points need to be spelt out in advance, though.

  • Tremere receive House help, but would have House responsibilities.
  • Flambeau can have different starting free house virtues.

These books have lots of game-changing rules in them, so I'd recommend accepting them for personal things like most virtues, but postponing the acceptance of all core rule changes and additional rule systems for later in the saga. Well, at least unless a player or SG becomes interested in one - then accept that, with alterations if you feel they are really needed.

Points to look out about:

  • Rock-throwing rules exist in the Flambeau description. You might want to pick those up from the get-go, if someone is going to be throwing stuff around.
  • Likewise, rules for fighting invisibly - though these are complicated.
  • Merinita get to do things, like have a Faerie Magic ability, from the get-go, without need for inner mysteries. I'd just ignore those rules, personally.
  • Bjornaer get rules for changing into animals. Let them use em.
  • The debate rules in Tytalus (especially when it comes to tribunals!), the intrigue rules in Bonisagus, the etiquette rules in Jerbiton - all can be important to social magi, and can structure the build-up of the character. But I recommend postponing accepting them till later in the saga (if ever).
  • Original research in Bonisagus can also mean a lot when constructing a character intended to go down this path. If someone wants to do that, consider the rules carefully - there are plenty of discussion of this on these forums.

Later in the saga, adopt things selectively. Be wary of exploitable inner mysteries, including Merinita Becoming.

Books to Ignore
I'd recommend initially ignoring Realms of Power: X. They're great for those SGs that would like to draw heavily on a Realm, or as a springboard for ideas or opponents - but really aren't necessary to start the game with, especially for regular players.

The same goes for Hedge Magic Revised Edition.

I'd totally ignore Art and Academe and City and Guild unless your troupe likes it mundane stuff. If you really do, the first is essential reading to get medieval scholarship and the latter for trade and crafts.

Tales of Mythic Europe is just non-essential reading for SGs, as is Ancient Magic (initially); these are simply sourcebooks for stories.

Definitely include The Mysteries Revised Edition - but later in the saga, when it develops. I'd suggest players do read it soonish, but only after the game is in full swing.

That's all I have. One last piece of "advice" - have fun!

Yair

I always tell beginners to stay away from The Mysteries, Revised Edition for four out of five of the reasons you listed for avoiding a book:

With all due respect to Neil and CJ, I believe the basic idea of Mysteries is an unnecessary distraction from the greatest strengths of ArM (core setting and core magic system), and the power bloat and amount of new mechanics to learn are both excessive.

That said, I am aware a lot of people think TMRE is the "best supplement ever," and frankly I am happy for them. It would be interesting to hear from some of its proponents why you should consider it, so you can weigh both points of view.

In general, I have found that power bloat is far more a function of player than system. In the case of Ars Magica, I have found that what really informs the power bloat is how the troupe handles the availability of a few specific things: books, lab texts, NPC teachers with high Com, and, of course, vis.

A lot of what books you want to include should probably also be based around how much reading your troupe is willing to do ahead of time. If they already have a notion of what interests them, they can just look at the related books or sections of books. There is a lot of good data that helps avoid anachronism and add verisimilitude in the "medieval life" books, such as C&G and A&A.

IMS, in which I was the only experienced AM player coming in, we pretty much allow all of the splat books. However, just due to the story interests we have, they don't all come up. I almost never need to refer to any of the RoP books, whereas Mysteries Revised and True Lineages are literally nightly items as characters initiate and perform original research.

Covenants accounting definitely does add signifigantly to bookkeeping. I don't find the Covenant Library rules or Lab Customization add nearly as much, and are an area players tend to find interesting, so I consider Covenants a must-have.

The three house books are also must-haves for me, as I find the detail on what it means to be a member of a given house, the history of that house, and the rest of the setting detail that comes with that helps inform what my players want to do and how they consider the houses. The Original Research rules in True Lineages are interesting, especially if cleaned up via the method the original author has posted about on these forums (I can find the link again if you need it).

Ancient Magic is one of those things that I don't think you'll miss if you don't have... it's really about nifty ideas that a player might latch onto as what they want to go seek out. You can come at it from the other direction, I suppose, and leave these ancient artifacts in the path of a character to see how they deal with it. That's how I use the Legends book, for that matter.

Whether the Realm books are a must-have is really a function of how much you plan to interact with that realm. I use Magic the most and Divine a little, but have almost never used Faerie or Infernal. Similarly, whether the tribunal books are useful to you is really a function of where you expect the covenant to be located.

As far as spotlight time goes, I think that's again more a function of the troupe than the mechanics. IMS, magi inevitably spend more time interacting with each other than the system seems to imply normally happens. It's certainly the case IMS that the magi are far more important than the companions. And I sometimes can tell that I, as alpha storyguide, am focusing on one of those characters too much. It's never been the case that some mechanic has led to one character just stealing the spotlight; short of a saga in which the same basic story is told over and over ("what magic beast are we going to go slay today? Oh, look, our penetration expert got through its MR!"), I can't picture such a thing happening.

I totally didn't answer your questions in the format you wanted, but I hoped this data was at least somewhat useful. :slight_smile:

Hm. "best supplement ever" probably overstates my position. I do like TMRE, and I have found that the idea of cross-house secret societies gives this interesting second dimension to magi's interpersonal relationships that I like from a story perspective. But it's certainly "advanced" in the sense that many of the virtues listed require a player to crunch more numbers. (Hermetic Numerology + Geometry being one of the msot agregious examples, as it adds new: targets, ranges, a spell type, several new forumlas one needs to know...)

I have also found that it helps players who aren't sure what they want to do. In the two sagas I've run, sometimes players don't latch onto a Hermetic House... nothing really pulls them in; every time that's happened, a mystery cult has helped them to cement a character concept, whether as a member of one of those cults, or with the expectation that joining one will occur during their character arc. (Ancient Magic has served a similar purpose for me, as well.)

All right, let me try to work through the list of books not to use, and why

The Mysteries Revised Edition, definitely. Particularly if you ignore the introduction where they explain just how much pain and work it should be to progress in a Mystery, and just open all options to players. Divination and Philosophical Alchemy come to mind. The Curious Common Magics at the start are okay.
Some parts of Houses of Hermes Mystery Cults are a bit overpowered. Like Nature Lore finding vis without a season of work, or the Verditius section saying that Wooden Wand counts as a Minor Magical Focus, presumably for whatever you care to enchant into them. Nothing truly game breaking, however. Just be sure to make your players work to get the Inner Mysteries: they should represent a real investment of resources to stay balanced with the other Houses.

Covenants. Mind you, it's fun, but the extended rules for Covenant creation and housekeeping are definitely time consuming. And the extended rules for books are also likely to take more time.

Realms of Power the Divine
Realms of Power Faerie (presumably, I've never read that book)
Realms of Power the Infernal
Realms of Power Magic
Hedge Magic Revised Edition
Ancient Magic
The Mysteries Revised Edition

All these entirely new rules for Non-Hermetic magi... unless both the GM and the involved player know them very well, it's going to demand a lot of extra time handling them; not to mention the situations where Hermetic Magic does not work but the one player who uses another system can just waltz through while the other watch.
The ex Miscellanea section of Houses of Hermes Societates suffers a bit from the same problem, but not nearly as much.

Nothing comes to mind immediately

Art and Academe
City and Guild

Mostly those two are not about Hermetic Magi at all, but about scholars and artisans. Good background reading, but using the rules in them will definitely involve 'areas outside the Covenant'

Really, starting with just the core rulebook is fine. There are plenty of awesome supplements, but none that are indispensable, and the rules are heavy enough that I think it would be better to start light.
If you are willing to add a few books, I would go with Covenants, the three House of Hermes (but only the sections which deal with your players' Houses') and/or the Tribunal book where you are playing (for background)

I'll step up for TMRE. I don't consider it "the best supplement ever" but I do like it a lot, particularly in conjunction with the 4th edition Mysteries. That book had probably "the best atmosphere ever" but the game rules were unworkable. TMRE doesn't provide quite the excitement but the authors have managed to make it a more useful game supplement. Use them together if you can.

Besides the occult atmosphere, I like that TMRE is explicitly set up as a toolkit to pick and choose from. That's the way I use most AM5 supplements anyway. I can see from discussion here in the forum that people use TMRE in very different ways. I use it as sort of a junior level Ancient Magic, with the Mysteries as foreign and exotic traditions to be met in play and/or rediscovered through research. The really high level stuff, like the immortality mysteries, represents ancient secrets that no living Magus is known to possess. I don't think I would make the mysteries generally available to the Order without also doing something to scale back the power of Magi, like arts as abilities, because otherwise the additive effect really does cause power bloat. That said, aside from immortality most of the virtues in TMRE are fairly reasonable and balanced. That's more than I can say for the mystery virtues in HoH:MC -- that stuff is seriously overpowered. The mechanics for mystery initiation itself are also pretty reasonable, but I wouldn't allow players in my game to initiate corebook virtues through their use, despite examples in later supplements that support that.

I second that advice, although it's a case of "do as I say, not as I do", since I have a closet full of the supplements. Really, the corebook is very well written and together with your imagination can probably provide a more playable and exciting game then you'll get by slogging through a pile of supplements. I've thought about doing that myself, to try to recreate the feel of early edition Ars Magica.

Just to throw my opinion out there:

I'd offer pretty much all the books actually. I'd have a decent discussion with the players up front on at least the Houses, probably the realms, and maybe some of the mundane elements too such as Nobles, Scholars, and Merchants. All good stuff.

If you have a Flambeau character that's not so interested in what the book is offering, put it to one side until she's ready to take another look. Similarly, with something like Verditius where the character gets to make some important decisions about their direction later, bring up what the future options are and then leave it to one side until someone is ready to make a story of it.

I do think the realm books are more important than the houses when it comes to building the world and telling stories of demons and redemption, angels and damnation (or the other way round). The presence of the dominion is certain and it provides a low-level power to mundanes that works really well with the sense of the pervasive supernatural that Ars Magica has.

One thing to bear in mind is that characters like grogs and companions can be fleeting. There's no problem with retiring a character off in order to bring in someone new. And when that happens, there's an opportunity to looks at what the other books can do for you. So, if your saga is set in Normandy, for instance, there's nothing stopping you bringing in a Kabbalist moving through northern France to your saga and sending your merchant off to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. You get to try something fresh and bring in a new book that you perhaps didn't need so much earlier on.

Mysteries and Ancient Magic are both useful further down the line, in my opinion, when the players start to see some limitations in what they can do or want to take particular paths.

The most important thing is to have a good view of what the books give you and you can then make a call on what you want to use heavily and what you might only bring in for the odd story or two - if you're going to set a story around a cathedral, then read up on Art & Academe and The Church for some background, for instance.

Welcome!

There are no stupid questions (but those are always the easiest to answer).

And not every "similar" question is asking for the same responses. But only from reading several such threads can one get a "consensus" - that, and there is something to be said for avoiding repetition etc. Additional insight may be gained if you read/skim these:

Just curious - what other games are you considering? How would you characterize your group? Action-oriented? Puzzle solvers? Power gamers? Dramatists? (Nothing wrong with any style, it's just that diff styles would call for diff responses.)

+1

As SG, you can have read some of the supplements without the Players needing to worry about them. Just be reasonable and generous as to what "the Characters" would know vs. "the Players" - some obvious advantages shouldn't be a surprise/secret in-character, and others might not be fully understood by any but the most veteran scholar. :wink: (And that's where something like Mysteries or one of the ROP books can be brought in "later" in the saga if/as that plot element becomes exposed.)

And that also can be one of the problems with it - to have a starting character that custom builds a Mystery for themselves is not to every SG's taste.

Some of the rules and "bloat" can be used as an in-game reward, a "treasure" that is found - or that can be pursued if they like the look of that particular carrot. Doesn't have to be available out of the gate to be useful in the story.

More than a bloated character, I'd worry about a bogged-down CharGen process and an overall dilution of core-rules absorption. :confused: AM Chargen can be tough enough for the newbie - don't add to the overload.

This is the type of thing that is very Troupe-dependent. Some like that minutiae, some loathe it. If you know your group, you know the answer. But as mentioned above by others, Covenants has enough of a variety of offerings to make some of it "a good thing" to any play style.

Good point, and typical of most any of the supplements - each usually has a spectrum of goodies, and there is something attractive to almost any palate.

But I'd agree with (what appears to be) the consensus above - start with the minimal, add other stuff later. Ars has a vast collection of rules which can boggle the new player - no one rule is complicated, there are just a lot of them. Add stuff slowly, rather than all at once. If you like "the Title" of the book, if it calls to your imagination, then it's probably a good thing - if not, then don't bother (for now, at least).

True, but often if it's there the Player will use it, or want to. Even if not, they'll want to read it before chargen - and that alone can slow the game, if only by adding the rules needed for the SG and Players to know. The fewer choices/distractions to start the better; leave the advanced rules for the second mage character they build.

I think the key is to figure out what you are interested in - first "you" as the SG, but also "you" as the Troupe. (If the SG is not interested, the rest of the Troupe really isn't an issue.)

(Almost any Player should read the HoH book/chapter on their House - not critical, but good for colour and inspiration on both sides of the SG screen.)

Ars tends to be more accounting-intensive than your average game. It downplays money and detailed possessions, but library- and lab-texts, creating matrixes to aid in Spontaneous Spell design - anything to streamline it seems a good thing. And the SG will have more work than the Players - if one or more Players can be volunteered to help, jump on it.

Okay, here's some advanced AM game theory to think about, and this will help you avoid a major "spotlight" problem...

The most important character in any Saga is... the Covenant. The story centers around the Covenant more than anything else. Magi come, magi disappear, magi die (for IC or OOC reasons), but the Covenant lives on.

And the Covenant is largely defined by the stories the SG(s) want to tell. So...

Have your Players talk about what sort of theme/focus they want for their Covenant. If it's "independent activity", that's fine, but if two or more can lean in a general direction, then any one scenario can be about more than one Character's goals/desires. Sure, there are always tricks to dovetail multiple character into the same action, but with Ars, there are often so many Characters (at least 2/Player) that any economy of story-telling is a good thing.

If you let your Players build "anything", then either their choices will limit your stories (not always dealbreaker), or one of them will be the "fish out of water" if your story has a specific flavour. Especially if including Mysteries or a RoP book, make sure either that everyone is on the same page, or they don't care if it goes that way.

So... if one mage is interested in the Fae, and another in Demons, and another is a bunkered-in labrat - stories that develop all 3 Characters will be fewer (or just more convoluted) than if they all had something in common. Not that they have to march in lockstep, but they should at least not have contrary/conflicting horizons.

Also, I'd strongly suggest that Companions be conceived and created after the Covenant is formed, for the same reasons. Much better to have a Companion that fits with a perceived trope than one that demands a new plot element be inserted.

There are a number of (not so) obscure rules interpretations that can change the game or game world fairly significantly.

Consider and understand:o The "pink dot" problem.
o How Wards work.
o How Penetration works, and when a spell needs to penetrate in your Saga (and whether a ward needs to penetrate*)
o How the Text economy/trade system works. What is the average text, what are the paragons?
o How/if vis is traded in your Saga.
o How long 'til the next Tribunal, and/or the next Grand Tribunal

(* This effectively halves the strength of Wards against creatures w/ Magic Resistance, which may or may not be a good thing for you as a SG.)
(Any of these can be found on these boards w/ a quick Search)

So, all that said, in short, for the Players I'd recommend:

o HoH:____ - as appropriate to the PC's (and the SG should read True Lineages, and for any major NPC).
o Covenants - the parts that seem attractive/useful
o ___ Tribunal Book of choice (altho' not every mageling apprentices in the Tribunal they end up in!)

and possibly:
o Mysteries - "for later insertion"

IMHO, A&A is a great book for players but only in small parts. If you just take the 1st part of the book where it explains how the world works it is great. Most players will have no concept of the humors or that there is no momentum in Mythical Europe. So understanding how the world works ( since the rules are different from ours) is not necessary but very helpful.

Yes. Just to avoid confusion, my posting on TMRE was in response to Andrew's request for opinions, not to the OP. I wouldn't recommend the book to beginning players, both because of the complexity and because I think the core system and flavor of Hermetic Magic should be savored before moving on to variants.

+1

Part of the fun is entering that alien mind set. Criamons aren't the only ones with crazy beliefs.

My Most Humble and Accurate evaluation of Covenants, chapter by chapter.

I: nice, not revolutionary.
II: You'll probably use this chapter once per saga, but the results are likely to be central to your saga, so well worth the effort.
III: Can be used or ignored, depending on your troupe. Stories can come from this chapter.
IV: Can be used or ignored. Personally I like 'em, but you can happily game without.
V: Some people seems to judge the whole book by this chapter, but again you can use it or ignore it, depending on desired complexity. We use metacreator - it keeps track of everything for you if you want to use ths chapter.
VI: Eh. Nice ideas, but certainly not the be-all-end-all list.
VII: Nicely informative, but ultimatively not essential. The bit about casting tablets needs to be ignored though. Cool spells!
VIII: Not essential, but it's 2 pages - an easy read.
IX: I bought the whole book for this chapter. I would do so again if necessary! So much potential for adding character to your... well, character. What's in your character's home? How does s/he decorate the one room where s/he (possibly) spends the most of her/his time? Show us your home!
Appendix: Eh, nice enough I guess.

(he said, with a straight face...) :laughing:

....and for those who don't have the chapters memorized... (with my own comments in blue)

I: Intro/overview - nice, not revolutionary.
II: Boons & Hooks - You'll probably use this chapter once per saga, but the results are likely to be central to your saga, so well worth the effort.
III: Governance: Charters & Oaths, Loyalty - Can be used or ignored, depending on your troupe. Stories can come from this chapter.
IV: Covenfolk, Rego Craft Magic - Can be used or ignored. Personally I like 'em, but you can happily game without. (Good explanation of how many (non-combat) grogs it takes to run a covenant, and what they might do. In my experience, few sagas run without needing the Rego-Craft rules at some point; some magi are built around these rules; these are extremely useful in most sagas.)
V: Wealth & Poverty; the cost of running/improving a Covenant; some prices for larger expenditures - Some people seems to judge the whole book by this chapter, but again you can use it or ignore it, depending on desired complexity. We use metacreator - it keeps track of everything for you if you want to use ths chapter. (This is a good reference for "builder" type magi and numbers-oriented players, and for a SG when details of construction enters into the saga.)
VI: Vis Sources - 3 suggestions for each Art - Eh. Nice ideas, but certainly not the be-all-end-all list. (Nice examples to get people thinking out of the box.)
VII: Libraries - How Medieval Lib's work; all about texts of all varieties, magical & mundane text prices; scribing; text/scribe/library magic; alternatives to texts - Nicely informative, but ultimatively not essential. The bit about casting tablets needs to be ignored though. Cool spells! (Personally, I highly recommend this chapter, but it seems that for any one SG some details may need personalizing to suit their playstyle and worldview.)
VIII: Sanctums - Not essential, but it's 2 pages - an easy read.
IX: Laboratories; what "a season in the lab" entails; expanded rules for personalizing/customizing one's lab - I bought the whole book for this chapter. I would do so again if necessary! So much potential for adding character to your... well, character. What's in your character's home? How does s/he decorate the one room where s/he (possibly) spends the most of her/his time? Show us your home! (Any labrat's dream. Seductively detailed and alluring. I think the use of the terms "Virtue" and "Flaw" were a mistake, as these work nothing like CharGen V&F's; as a result it might take more than one read-through to understand how it all works. If you don't like papertrails and accounting, shy away. If you don't balk at such, rejoice!)
Appendix: "Play Aids"; sample Charter, record keeping forms - Eh, nice enough I guess. (Personally, I shudder at this Charter - more full of holes than a swiss cheese and twice as stinky, but it is either a starting point or (if used "as-is") a guaranteed source of future plot complications.)

sorry, but neither the [sarcasm] nor the [arrogance] tags did anything useful :wink: