Arni Bjornaer aka Aquilas

[loke]

@IonianD

What? what are you talking about? Who cut anything out?

Card & Board Games ARCHIVE & LINKS

For reference, the old Atlas Games Delphi forum's read-only archive can be found at atlas-games.com/forumARCHIVE/index.html. Many basic questions about our game may already be answered there. You can find a link to the official webpage of your favorite Atlas Games product at atlas-games.com/productinfo.php. Just look in the left column.

Mainly the last post on the page.

Trial and Oath of the Prophet were not changed. Its a major Virtue versus a Trial, an Oath and a flaw. There is a Mystagogue with the Virtue and you receive a minor initiation bonus from prior ordeal (loss of familiar). The target number of the script is 21, the bonus is +3x2 from the flaws and +6 from the trial itself, the prior ordeal is a +3 (thats a 15, the mystagogue needs a 6+). We are still good on that.

The details of the trial and the oath are described in HoH:MC p 25. The trial itself is not +6, but there is a list of other script components for the oath and for the trial. I didn't think I got a bonus from ordeals before game start.

[tab][/tab]c) Make a new script for yourself (pending STs approval). Spend a season making the script, plus experimentation etc. Number is 18 again, -3 prior. Your Pre+Lore=9 so you need a 6+.

Am I missing anything? Please check.

Is the time taken to develop the script stated in the rules? Or is it your interpretation?

Ignes has a point about the philosophy of Bjornaer and religion and piousness. I am also trying to find if they would actually write the script. On one hand they are Hermetics and trying hard to appear civilized. On the other, the tradition was oral and the Ilfetu are wilderists. I could argue that the Ilfetu specific mysteries were not written down, but the outer ones may be, provided they are encoded in Gothic. They would eschew Latin on the mystery scripts I think. Thoughts?

You could also argue that the standard scripts are passed down as part of learning HB lore, so that every Bjornaer with a decent HB lore score knows the most important one. Or that it can be explained verbally with little time. There is no indication in the rules as to how complex a script «lab» text would be, and thus nothing to say that it cannot be memorised during a 15 minute chat with a senior mystagogue. On this point, the rules seem open to interpretation.

The tradition being oral also suggests that variations of the scripts should be fairly common. Maybe the mystagogue should always roll to see if he remembers the script correctly to within a working mutation. That's not RAW, but it makes more sense in an oral tradition.

I agree that piety plays a role in how scripts are designed, but this, in itself, does not contradict experimentation and modification. Designing a script the mystagogue seeks advice from the ancestor spirit, and depending on his skill and luck, this may be more or less helpful.

The rule mechanics is not based on fixed traditions and scripts, but on lore scores and extra benefits from past ordeals. If you cannot minimise initiation scripts, the benefit both from high lore and presence and from past ordeals is voided. It simply does not make sense with the rule mechanics as given. For instance, in Ignes' example penalising a +1 script. The script being weak (+1) is totally independent of the appropriateness of the script components. Why would you apply a sympathetic penalty when there is no inappropriate component? The script is already weak because it is weak.

I do not have a problem with requiring even an +0 script to have to be developed through experimentation. The rules are ambiguous, I think, but such interpretation is reasonable. However, if minimalistic scripts are frowned upon, there is little point in boosting HB lore and presence to the extent that we have done in character generation. The point of the character design was to be able to bring down the cost of initiations by designing minimalist scripts.