Okay, lets frame up the internal structure- currently what we have is as follows: the covenant being established as a chapter house 50 years prior has taken in a set of covenfolk, a combination of captives from the Saracen and refugees from other conflicts or bad situations in the region during the Norman campaigns. These people have entered into a condition of serfdom where they are, for all intents and purposes, owned by the covenant, with the cultural gender privilege for males being maintained. There are other ways this could have developed- the liberal policies of the order may have allowed for suffrage, you may grant further rights to your covenfolk, you may have even developed a town charter with the Norman landlords who claim the land the covenant sits upon.
I'm a little confused on the timetable. In 1061 the chapter house was created. 50 years later it's 1100 and the place is a covenant. Should that be 1051? Or maybe 40 years later? Or maybe I'm misreading something?
An expert isn't needed, there's an example spell for this in Transforming Mythic Europe p119:
So if we cast that once per month and we are capable of selling all of it at it's maximum value it would yield us about 720 pounds per year. The greatest problem would be the finesse roll ease factor.
Another option available is InTe4 "Probe for pure silver" which allows the caster to spell silver and follow the scent, this could be used to find a silver deposit, which I think is possible because I believe Sicily/Southern Italy is a pretty resource rich region.
There are also a bunch of great Herbam skills that concern the creation of food for the covenant.
We could probably make an incredibly profitable silk farm via similar methods, I'm not sure on the exact specifics but in ArM p116 CrAn guideline:
This could be used to make a bunch of silk worms, especially since the individual target for animal spells is listed as:
So with a R Touch D Mom T Group CrAn Ritual we'd probably be able to make a massive silk farm and Rego magic would pretty easily convert that to cloth, which sells for between 12.5k and 50k per tonne.
silk worms are unknown in Europe at this time, so that is out.
In terms of timeline it would have to be 40 years from 1061- I originally chose 50 years to connect with the power level I wanted as opposed to the history. I am now faced with the question of whether to keep the build points at 2000 or lower them to 1250 as fits the actual age...
keep in mind that money does not require spell work- if you find silver mundanes will likely mine it, and salt can likewise be processed (much more slowly) by simple skilled workmen. Also income is not solely dependent upon what you can produce but also what you can get sold. The bigger influence in terms of the story will be 1) what can cause fluctuations in your income, and 2)what connections the business implies. If your income is derived from magic then it will not be influenced by covenfolk loyalty. If it is derived from hard work then covenfolk loyalty will modify rolls for income fluctuation.
Well accoridng to this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggling ... ine_Empire Silkworms existed in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th century onwards, so there would likely have been knowledge of the Silk worms, just that there were none available in Europe at the time.
Also more specifically this article that touches on the History of silk and its spread: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... production
Shows that the setting for this campaign would be pretty much perfect for a newly booming silk production operation.
Yeah, as I implied I'm probably going to use InTe to find a metal deposit worth farming. but I find it fun to think of different ways you can generate income in Ars Magica.
Just a personal opinion on this, sometimes it's nice to forgo 100% accuracy to make things work they way you want them to. It is afterall a game based on the Medieval paradigm so you'll certainly be forgiven for taking liberty on a couple of historical facts.
It is still a bit early for silk farming, given that serraculture has only gotten as far as the Byzantine Empire until another 40 years...However there are options for farming, fishing, salt extraction, mining, and any of a number of craft based workshops. The question is which of these do people want to use and for what level of income?
I have been considering making an adventuresome smith as a companion character, someone good at working iron and wielding it.
In lieu of silk we could also have cotton if I'm not mistaken.
Salt extraction, fishing and seatrade are all good ideas based on the setting as well.
Keep in mind that sea trade will bring about alterations to the setting of the covenant, most notably giving it an urban setting of some sort, or possibly the boon chartered town (from city and guild). Any such town would be small, having had less than 50 years to grow (though growing under the auspices of war would accelerate this somewhat). In all sea trade is unlikely as a source of income.
Cotton farming would be possible, along with flax for linen.
Textiles overall seems like a good investment and opens up some additional companions ideas via tapestry and such.
Hmm... I had had a thought about an adventuresome weaver instead of a smith. I thought it would be cool to fill the covenant with extraordinary tapestries and rugs, and then there would be value in witnessing many scenes for inspiration. Maybe I should switch if we're thinking about such a path for the covenant.
At the same time I don't see why were couldn't do both, with pretty simple spells it would be pretty trivial to make a large cotton farm and enough iron ore to last years.
Income does not need to be magic based.
That being said you can easily have an income from cotton farming and a covenant blacksmith who keeps costs down in the covenant. With some of the rules in city and guild they can also make extremely useful tools (especially if they double as a weaponsmith)
Still on the to do list:
We are currently 2 pts ahead on boons and hooks- meaning we can afford a net 2 minor boons, and we have not addressed whether there is a desire to take any residents boons or hooks.
Hooks wise there are a number of obvious possibilities:
Dumping ground- this could be for a number of reasons depending on how the politics has developed over the last 50 years
Fosterage: ditto
Gender imbalance: this has been a chapterhouse with a militant requirement at its founding. Alternately the order is far more benevolent to women than most of war-torn Italy.
Refugee: people dispossessed of their land are plentiful, though it shuld be kept in mind that the Normans to whom you pay rent tend to be the victors, not the dispossessed
Spies: these may serve your enemies or your allies given the intrigues and dangers of Italy
sufferage: this would obviously be an issue of the covenants choosing
Diabolic corruption: The Infernal stalks the Roman Tribunal as the backyard of the church, so they may have infiltrated the covenant. Or not
Divided Loyalty- Byzantines, Saracens, Normans, and Itallians are mingled at the covenant. They may have formed a unified society, or not...
Rebelious covenfolk: the history is short, but this is possible
School: This would be a decision the magi would have made as well
Another question, how much vis income can we expect to have in this game? It might not even be worth creating wealth via magic if our yield is low, among other general things like aegis, and magical enchantments throughout play.
This is where Rego (and some other non-Rego things) can be really, really handy. You can quicken things even if not producing them outright, and it can amount to nearly the same thing. Consider extracting salt from the water, as mentioned, against CrTe to make salt as an example.
In terms of hooks though Gender imbalance would make sense for the setting, also indiscreet resource is something that could be interesting.
Vis income starts with covenant vis income, which is bought with points. You currently have vis stocks and a library with no vis income, but you also have 1912 points left to spend...
as I have mentioned elsewhere, where you get the vis from is rather significant, and may imply other hooks for the covenant...
Ok, well in terms of assigning build points I'm not sure what to do/how that works as in my first game the GM provided us with an existing covenant, I assume the rules are somewhere in the Covenants book but just in general what are the typical things we should be looking at getting with build points? I'm also looking through the book and can't really find anything relating to the build point cost of vis sources or for books.
Also I assume adding various covenfolk at the start of play will cost build points based on the "points of inhanbitants" table on page 63 of Covenants?
I covered this earlier in the thread- covenfolk can be built as characters for free, some are free regardless (servants, those contributing to income, unskilled labor). Those bought with points are more of a position than a character, people rotate through the position and are effectively represented by a constant stat. If you build the characters they can train future characters and will die as they age and the situation is more fluid, but costs no points.
Vis stores are 1 point per 5 pawns, vis sources are 5 points for each pawn/yr. Summae cost a number f points equal to level+quality, tractatus cost equal to their quality- there are limits on these levels in covenants on p. 5.