And I was working on a spirit-centered mage, though I was thinking mostly ghosts and the Order of the Worm. I suppose really more of a necromancer than spirit-centered in general. Maybe that would still work, though maybe that's too similar. Of course, my other thought was combining faerie wizardry with Hermetic magic, so between the three of us we're thinking a number of similar thinks even if quite different characters.
My other idea was a male Tytalis who would either attempt to pass as a female in the Covenant or just be a male in a openly hostile Covenant. Either would work of a Tayali looking for a challenge.
OK, I have a non-overlapping idea that maintains much of the background I wanted but is totally different magically. I'm looking at a Flambeau specialized in daggers and iron who will head toward being a sort of champion for women and girls.
I don't plan to focus specialy on ghost and my character is not planned to be a necromancer (not even a ghost necromancer) although most ghost are aligned with magic and I can summon then too, this is quite useful to get information, but not really the kind thing my character really likes to do, he's more interested in airy. I think If you plan to go the Mentem route for ghost there won't be a lot of superposition : ReMe20 Coerce the Spirit of the Night,ReMe40 Incantation of Summoning the Dead, are very similar to Coerce the Spirit of Magic ReVi, Summoning the Spirit of Magic ReVi( I can't find the equivalent for binding spirits to objects in ReVi guidelines though) but the other spells as for exemple If Igo the Vim route then I think we I might consider PeVi might strip, ReVi intangible tunnel, ReVi aegis, ReVi wards, InVim magic detection (possibly using theurgy versions) and a few utility rego spells from other forms, If you go the mentem route, then you might consider different utility spells like ReMe10 The Call to Slumber or ReMe20 Aura of Rightful Authority etc. I also like to take a bit of corporem when playing necromancer to take care of corpse etc...
If you're really set on a ghost necromancer and you fear there will be too much similarities (specialy if you want to go the vim route) then let me know, I can still play something different. I prefer to make sure we all agree on the character before we start to avoid any player feeling generic and dropping the game.
@ Jebrick I'm leaning towards a tomboy to challenge the essence of gender or some trick based upon a cursed woman (or pretending to be cursed 
) with a spell like incubus trick so that she periodicly changes gender... Still Work in progress.
On a different note concerning the trinunals i'd say :
-Thebes
-Iberia
-Greater alps
I don't really have any tribunal I want to avoid at all cost.
I figured between Summoning, a decent amount of Vim for Summoning and metamagic, and Leadworker, we might well have a decent amount of overlap. I doubt the Flambeau idea will overlap others so much.
Where are we putting our character sheets [in progress], and is there an accepted format for them? Might help everyone if we can see where people's characters are going / discuss concrete details. I may or may not also want a few more sets of eyes to look over mine. I think I'm doing it right, but first characters are prone to error!
If I'm not mistaken, character sheets are usually in the pbp campaign thread is a dedicated topic (Never-Ending Winter can ask such a thread to be opened when he sees fit). As the campaign has not started yet you might wanna use the sticky topic Ars Magica CHARACTER DESIGNS in the general ars magica thread.
I've been thinking about switching my concept towards a character whose magic focuses on speaking with all kinds of things as per the intellego guideline speak with [body of water, air, stone, etc]. Would this be a minor focus in your opinion? It covers only one guideline but from a number of Forms. It could be formulated as Minor focus: Translation
This is perfectly legit as a Minor Focus. Go ahead.
Subforum will be requested when I'm done ironing out setting details.
My character is more or less finished just have to hear more bout the setting.
Shrin is a very talented craftswoman was a specialty in tailoring.
Hmmm... My Flambeau idea seems particularly close to that Ex Misc in many ways. I'll keep thinking.
I'm looking at the astrological cyclic bonus for female, from the mysteries book, does this take up 2 consecutive whole seasons or are they littered through the year?
Also the yearly rate for a personal vis source in this saga?
Female Sings (TMRE p. 56)
end around the 20th of the month given below
Capricorn (Jan)
Pisces (March)
Taurus (May)
Cancer (July)
Virgo (September)
Scorpio (Nov)
So, they do not grant any boni to labwork. But they are very atmospheric.
I'm afraid we might again have a lot of overlapping again (which is expected with up to 8 players) with Wit's character this time, basically even If they have very different ways to do It we can do the same thing : by using a Boulder, a fire, a pond etc.. I can summon It's elemental spirit and basically do the same thing as you do using intelligo....
Tell me If you think this is a problem...
I'm settled on the spirit based character but I can change It a bit to accomodate the party : If that's a problem I can still do a classic Tremere Leadworker or a more twisted benevolent ghost necromancer from House Criamon (based on Vulcano's Idea 3 years ago path of seeming) Both would be based on mentem so this would avoid overlapping. If Greater Alps is selected this would probably be the Criamon...
waits
There's definitely going to be overlap with 8 people in the game - magically at least. To an extent, we'll have to differentiate characters based on their interests and likely activities as well as their magic. I'm looking at authorship and seeker-style stuff.
So as long as people's interests don't overlap with people who they also magically overlap, we should be good! Magical overlap won't matter too much if our mages aren't doing the same things.
I agree that magic ovelapping is inevitable and not allways a bad thing. Common interest is usually a good thing actually, For example I'm pretty sure If you play a seeker we'll have similar interest in old magical places, well that's sweet, we can simply go together even If I'm not interested In learning their Old magic crap and more interested In the Ghosts/spirits/Daimon/virtus or simple challenge.
Even If I agree with you Cannonball, I find It disappointing when I realise after the game has started that a player can do the things that are my magic focus that's why I call It beforehand. I actually don't mind It myself.
Although sometimes having the same focus is completely appropriate, like that famous all-Bjornaer saga, "The Three Little Bears."
I should probbly mention the verditus's bread and butter is mentem, a dose of imag and a lil corpus for posterity. Though the mentem focus is social fuckery and making life more comfortable.