Calebais - power level / premade characters?

Hi, I want to give game mastering and ars magica a try, and hope to do so with calebais. Sure, I won't be able to finish it, but even a part of it should be fun.

In general I hope to have a rather lower power campaign at some point, i.e. mages out of apprenticeship (age ~25, 10 years youth + 15 years apprenticeship, max +5 years as a mage) - but I wonder if that would be strong enough for the adventure. Has any here run calebais and can give some advice?

Also I hope to prepare some premade characters, any other recommendations beside the power level on what to include or exclude? I want to be fair to the players in generating a useful group plus some backups. But also I don't mind to exclude some stuff that is way harder to understand for new players and new game masters (e.g. lets not have that diedne export with incredible powerful spontaneous magic). Any recommendations e.g. the templates from the book (boosted? shrinked? adjusted to which power level?), or the members of the example covenant from the web page or have been some good examples posted here that should be roughtly the same power and fit the adventure?

Thanks, Andreas

Calebais is fine for relatively inexperienced magi provided that:

  1. they've got someone who has at least a passing interest in necromancy. magical focus not required, but certainly helps!
  2. they have someone who has enough terram magic to deal with the kind of hazards that happen underground
  3. they are prepared to run away, study up and return at a later date. Or potentially set up a small 'camp' covenant at the top, and slowly move in over time.

If they're expecting a dungeon that they can 'clear' in one expedition, they're going to be in for a rough time unless they are probably ~20 years post-Gauntlet. Developing magi of that age is tricky, though - if you're starting out, I'd go with the younger magi simply because older magi creation requires a degree of understanding of the game system that you won't have if you're trying Ars Magica for the first time. :slight_smile:

The temptation for younger magi is to 'go easy' on them with some of the traps, etc. My advice? Don't. Calebais is supposed to be dangerous. The first time a magus goes squish will be the reminder to the players as a whole that they should be utilizing grogs, etc.

A nearby base of operations is certainly useful, unless the intent is for Calebais to be one of a number of different options.