*** THIS IS A LOW RESOURCES SAGA ***
Campaign Title: The Price of Freedom.
System: Ars Magica 5th Edition
# of Players: 3-4 players.
Deadline: Aiming to start play before the end of October, provided enough player are interested in such a saga.
Starting Level: Shortly after Gauntlet.
Advancement Rules: Standard apprenticeship. Advancement during play may be slowed down by the scarcity of resources.
Combat Rules: Mostly narrative, but combat will not be commonplace.
Dice-Rolling Rules: Storyguide will make all rolls.
Special Rules: House rules to be agreed upon by the troupe. Starting characters must be built using only the 5th Edition core rules.
Posting Rate: I expect players to be able to post once or twice a day most times.
Absences: Players who disappear for more than 2 weeks before prior notification may see their characters wander away from the covenant (or meet an untimely end).
Writing Expectations: I don't expect professional writing skills, but text should be writting clearly with a minimum of abbreviations.
Text Formatting: Colored text for in-character speech, italics for thoughts. Out of character quesitons/directions clearly marked (such as "((OOC: This is out of character.))"
Plot- or Character-Driven: Mostly character-driven. The most important character of the saga is the covenant. I will try to integrate historical elements into the saga as much as possible.
Focus: Survival, growth and collaboration.
Character Types: No power-hungry maniacs or would-be gods.
Campaign Description: A low resource saga. A small groups of newly-Gauntleted magi looking to build a home.
The Order of Hermes is made up of magi suspicious of each other and jealous of their power. They keep their secrets close, for knowledge is power. So they don't share books easily. Good books will be rarely copied (deals are usually made to gain access to them instead). Sources of raw vis are slowly disappearing throughout Mythic Europe, so they are guarded jealously and smaller sources are more valuable than in the early history of the Order. This forces younger magi to seek out places where vis can be found, even when such locations are less than ideal, so that they can secure them.
In this context, young magi looking for freedom must strike out on their own, for established covenants require obedience and service in exchange for access to their libraries. Sometimes, these young magi join forces to establish a small covenant, pooling their resources.
Your magus is such a freedom-seeker. You just completed your apprenticeship and want to be free from the many rules of your pater’s covenant. Your pater (or mater) will try to help you, but for the most part you are on your own. Fortunately for you, a friendly redcap has found a site where you and a few others like you could set up a small covenant. It has only a single confirmed vis source, but he thinks there might be some other minor sources in the area but you’ll have to discover those. There is a price to be paid for this knowledge, in the form of one-fifth of the vis you harvest.
Starting Resources: This is a low resource saga. Forget about the build points system from Covenants. Forget about money.
A typical newly-Gauntleted magus might receive a book or two (about 30 bp total) and a few mundane servants. Another might get the equipment needed to set up a lab, plus a few lab texts. Another gets a small turb of grogs and a minor magical item.
Expect it to be a small covenant, with many challenges set before the magi. These will be discussed by the troupe before starting play, as will the precise location of the covenant and the details of the resources.
Is your young magus up to the challenge?
TYhe mood of the saga can vary heavily depending on those circumstances, and the expected type of adventures, so I find this important. At least it is in my real world troupe.