Ars magica 5 game - Hiddenhall

Play by Post Discussion Recruitment: GMs Looking for Players
81

Just looked a bit trough the craftmagic and it turned out my char, if he get trough, can also do Glass via craftmagic as stress free spontan.
But the saving he can do if my math is right is 4 pound for Glass and 3 for Blacksmith but be not aviable the complet time (Adventure, do not disrupt Lab work ect.) and the 20% limit per craft will reduce this.

Edit: Stonemason might even also possible as the spell is probably the same as the one for Glass only replaceing +1 Glass for +1 Stone unless +1 for flexibility is needed.

82

These are fine. I'll let you know about the favours when they come up. Mwah-hah-hah! I don't mind people doing a bit of stuff with their 10 years that isn't just spending previous xp. I'm not desperately hung up on play balance since you're unlikely to be attacking each other (unless you're VERY dim!) but everyone seems to be sensibly building their character for interesting stories rather than gross power/munchkinism.

83

For combat, what I do is post what the situation looks like at the start of the round and you each post what you want to do. I then resolve everything and let you know (in dramatic fashion) what happens over the round. If something happens that voids your declaration then I will probably make a Quick+Int roll to see if you can change your action. It is possible to be caught flat-footed. It is more sensible to declare contingencies in case something goes wrong e.g: "I'll shoot the big guy threatening the kids with my bow unless he's dead by the time I act in which case I'll run over and see how the kids are doing." Try not to write massive paragraphs of contingencies as I'll see that as dithering. A couple of days gives me time to confer with individual players e.g. "The dragon's head explodes all over you before you act. What do you do?" and then post the proper response. It works. Trust me.

84

I'd like to get a handle on vis resources and individual magi rights to those resources. Reason being, most of us will be not too far from aging potion time. This many mages that all need their potion around the same time will create a vis scarcity. OTH vis isn't supposed to be so hard to come by in Loch Leglean.

So next question, I've got my mage all fleshed out in .xlsx format. Where do I put it?

85

You guys can decide that in your covenant purchase and charter.

Umm. I'm not sure. Anyone? You can pm me a copy for review unless you've already done so.

86

OK, try this for now. I seriously think you should give obsidian portal a look.

drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

87

I was hoping people could use that link to download the xlsx file. Instead google drive makes it available as a pdf. Anyone know how to use google drive to actually make files available for download?

88

It displays as a pdf, but there is a download button on the bottom right side (at least in Chrome), and it downloads as an Excel document.

Also, I wouldn't be afraid to send a PM to Michelle or someone about setting up the game, in the event the email to forum hasn't been reviewed. She's really good about responding to these requests for setting up a PbP forum.

89

On the lack of vis:
Perchance a good reason to take personal Vis source? Or one of the many ways to delay your aging process sans ritual. Let's see what can I all think of:
Transformed Human-eh I already stole that shtick.
X blood - that's a good 15 year delay.
Consumption+Incantation+Unaging - No decrepitude+no non-death penalties=who the cares about age?
Binding - Its a longevity ritual made at level infinity. Except better.
Ablation - Not exactly a great method, but its still a point or two. (Note: Ablation+Binding is probably the most virtue efficient way to freeze the clock.)
Stamina - A few more points
Healthy Lab - A level 20 item will add a bonus to the lab's health. You can also nab the virtues: Palatial, Superior Heating, and Spotless. There are also a few other virtues that are more difficult, but still possible to acquire. Especially if you have a few years to pull it off.
Fae Wizardry: Weal+Method. Its about triple the magnitude of the spell. And you thought your longevity rituals were cool. (P.S. They suck!)
The Becoming Mystery: It protects from both age and warping.
Other fun stuff: GM doesn't have these books so I'll neglect to mention them.

P.S. The infernal powers can be learned from books, and with but a bit of sin! No need to deal with demons, so you don't violate the code! "Hello Mr. Quaesitores I'm not dealing with demons, I just found this fancy book on utilizing the power of Infernal. Everything you need to call upon the Dark and Terrible Powers of Hell is right here. Want one? I made copies! There 100% demon free"

90

OK. I see it now. Feel free to download / cannibalize the spreadsheet.

91

We just have to make sure we get plenty of vis store/ vis income. We'll need Creo, Corpus and/or Vim vis; the last may be the easiest, as it can be extracted from auras, and is a logical one to be gifted to a covenant researching a regio. But we'll need around 7p per magus, soon, and then there's the Aegis, 3 to 6 more per year depending on which version we cast (I have a lvl 30 version that will cost 6, Ryu a lvl 25 that will cost 3).

So our options:

  • make sure we start with a large Creo, Corpus and/or Vim vis income
  • personally extract some when we need it for our longevity rituals
  • trade other vis for it with the Merceres

As for the individual magi right, that should be in the Charter that we'll have to draft. Options include an automatic vis stipend for each magus, vis salaries for specific actions, or simply leave it to specific councils to grant specific vis amounts for specific needs.

92

Within 4-8 years the parent of Quendal will initate him into The Becoming Mystery so my char also drops out in needing to do the longvity Ritual as his Lab totall will be high enough to stop the aging of the body afterwards.
Edit: Some Question
Do we start with the Labs set up alread or start with setting up the Labs? (The question is if we should do it in our story of the 10 years or then ingame)
Do we start with personal Vis/Money from the time we spend at a other covenant?
Do sonmeone have statts for a Private or Public Teacher to learn the local language? (Who can speak enough Gaelic or Lathin to teach my Char and his wive in this language)
As I have 1 year open right now to get the 10 years full I thinking right now about 2 saison to set up Lab + learn Language from said teacher

93

One method of vis distribution would be "need before greed". Especially for Creo or Corpus vis. Save those flavours and distribute them when needed to prevent aging crises or cast longevity rituals.

94

Would't this end in a huge conflict potential if the mages who did look for a lasting methode to live longer and payed a price for this get only a fraction of the vis the other got?
I.e. Qendal will probably lose a complet year and the ability to use fatigue through The Becoming to make his body ageless, not to count that he probably also gain a new flaw.
(1 Saison travling, 1 Saison doing work at the covenant for his parent, 1 Saison initation, 1 Saison spending in his lab)

95

Are you'll want to pay the penalties for that so soon into the character's life? It becomes so very expensive to progress after Becoming (or any other form of immortality, actually). In that particular case, the restrictions on spontaneous magic seem especially painful to me. Also, when speaking of vis, remember you'll need to power the three rituals with something. They won't necessarily be Creo, but you'll need to come up with something and, if that's your goal, it might be best to start planning for the TeFo combo you'll be using now and start securing the resources.

FWIW and pending SG approval, I was planning to start with a Personal Vis Source (Creo). I hadn't really given a thought towards a Longevity ritual when I added it; it actually just made the most sense with the source I had in mind, but it should definitely cover my needs in that area.

I'd like to see a reasonably diverse collection of sources for our covenant. As has been pointed out, with Merceres in the group, we should be able to trade at reasonable rates, but it is still nice to have a nice range available natively, as it were.

It might be a conflict but the concept of need before greed would state that those who were still looking at aging issues have a greater need than those who are looking for Cr vis to, say, whip up some better lab equipment. If an immortal magus had a need just as pressing, I'm sure it would be considered with equal weight, but I think he'd otherwise be waiting for his turn, just like those who had already completed their conventional Longevity Rituals.

In the same vein, I'd expect my magus, with his own source of Creo, to be bypassed when it comes to handing out the Creo vis from covenant sources unless he was doing something for the entire community that was pressing enough to warrant the allocation.

Al that might imply that I lean towards a distribution-by-Council-approval method. I'm not really sure that I do, although I don't think I'd argue against it either. I think we'll have to plan out other details of the covenant first.

A vis salary and/or stipend is a nice, orderly, and conflict-free solution that can save problems later. The difficulty is establishing what those rates are in the first place, and it relies on there being enough to share that everybody's equal portion is really something meaningful, in terms of both quantity and type. 2 pawns of Perdo vis a year isn't going to do my magus (with his Pe of 0) much good at all.

If we don't end up with enough vis of sufficient types (and given that there are 7 magi, I don't think we can assume we will until we get further along into covenant design), we may have to go with a council-driven, project-based allotment scheme just to make sure everybody with an important project has enough to work with.

96

Regarding covenant creation, here's a start (keeping in mind that each of us by default start with one laboratory).

30 points Intelligo summa (a first quality summa is around 30 build points, we can nitpick the exact quality/level later)
30 points Vim summa
30 points Magic Theory summa (assuming magic theory includes the theory of regios while Magic Lore covers their location)
This assumes that the Tribunal gave us the means to study the regio, and went to the trouble of getting the best summa available on the three subjects

40 points 8p Vim vis grant (a yearly grant taken directly from the Tribunal's stores)
10 points 2p Intelligo vis grant (a yearly grant taken directly from the Tribunal's stores)
10 points 2p Creo vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
5 points 1p Rego vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
10 points 2p Aquam vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
10 points 2p Corpus vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
10 points 2p Herbam vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
5 points 1p Terram vis source (a source deeded to our covenant)
A good mix of the most useful/needed vis types and of the ones most likely to be abundant near our covenant

15 points one retired bard (Comm 2, Teaching 6, Highest Ability 7, scores in Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots, Area Lore (Scotland), Music, and anything else appropriate)
6 points one magically competent scribe (Magic Theory 5, Latin 5, Prof. Scribe 5)
6 points one book binder (Craft.6)
6 points one illuminator (Craft 6)
6 points one percamenarious (parchment maker, Craft 6)
6 points one brewer (Craft 6, and we already have an inn).
With 8 magi, Crepuscidor, the Dead Librarian, a scribe, a binder and an illuminator we're paying 12 pounds of silver a year for writing supplies, the percamenarious will save us 6 and is thematically very appropriate for a covenant deliberately looking to set itself up for the book trade. We're also looking at around 150 points of inhabitants, which means 150 pounds a year in related expenses (provisions account for half, then consumables, wages, and building maintenance). We could save some with the appropriate craftsmen, but that's not really significant, so I'd rather go for the thematic: a brewer, since we have an inn. He will save all of 4 pounds a year :wink:

5 points 25 points of vis in store
5 points 100 pounds of silver (or tradeable goods) in store

That accounts for 245 points, less than half. We can either fill up with more books, more vis, and so forth, or we can start looking into individual magi's desires (bigger lab, magic item, specific books...)

97

The vis grants from the tribunal assumes that the tribunal functions in this way, so we definitely need GM buy-in on that, I think.

98

If not we can always fall back on standard vis sources, or individual grants from other covenants. But since this is a Dedicated Covenant it seemed appropriate.

99

Right not be able to spend fatigue is painfull (bether sayed to have to pay confidence instead of fatigue) but that works for this char.
But the complet transformation to a fearie is split in 3 steps that don't have to be done in following saisons (for most its not even posible to do so), at last to my understanding of the Becoming.
So my plan is actual instead of the first time to use the longvity ritual he makes his body immortal and keep the next 2 steps for be done in a vew hundred years later when it looks like it becomes necesary from warping.
Beside its new to me that the labwork for this need vis as it is not mentioned in Transforming the Body or the Becoming.
But if you have expirience with the Innitation in Becomming and the following 3 step Labworks that in it self sounds in some things similiar to initations please post here:

100

There are still ways to learn post Becoming especially if you don't go the whole way through. You can even learn new abilities if you try hard enough. Similarly, Binding allows for continued learning. Transformed Human allows for continued learning.