Certamen House Rules

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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So, I've in the last year toyed with a modification to Certamen Rules. I'm not a major fan of the Technique Form version of the rules as I find the numerical disparities to be potentially quite large. However, I quite like the idea of phantasms created that reflect a Magus's prefered arts as flavor.

The idea is that I've converted Certamen to Ars Magica's Combat Rules:

Initiative: Quickness + Awareness
Attack: Presence + Finesse
Defense: Perception + Concentration
Damage: Intelligence + Penetration
Soak: Stamina + Parma Magica

Addendums:

  1. Vis (regardless of type) can be used for any roll, and is limited to the Ability Score. Each pawn still gives a +2 bonus.
  2. The Tremere house virtue would be modified to: "Puissant Certamen" which gives a +2 to all Certamen rolls.

These rules are probably not for everybody, but some may get value out of this, or have further ideas for rule modification.

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Our house rule:

Simple roll off between the chosen Te+Fo+Aura bonus + whatever Vis was used, certamen focus applies normaly.

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Something I might like to see formalized is the rolls surrounding certamen.

OoH-Lore modified by Reputation to know the best arts of the opponent, Guile vs. Folk Ken to bluff the opponent into vetoing my first chosen art...

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That would be nice and encourage (some) magi players to invest in skills, not just in arts.
How many magi have neither OoH Lore nor own House Lore nor Code of Hermes Lore... As it stands House lore is just a speed bump for the mystery cults.

Obviously some kind of spying adventure using grogs or finding info within the Order to determine what the opponent's best/weakest arts are would also be nice, but that's not just one roll...

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That may also allow people to intentionally deceive others about their art scores.

In my Saga is a Tremere who (at least for his early years) pretended to be an ignem specialist, after a lucky early certamen victory against a Flambeau.

In truth he is a Terram specialist.

In situations like this, a reputation might even hinder the discovery of primary arts.

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