Our covenant in Iberia just got blasted away in a Wizard's war that escalated to a full conflict between 2 covenants. One of our 4 mages survives, but the covenant got mauled away (its resources, its infreastructure...) and 3 of the magi are dead. We have been playing consistently for a year, and we really enjoyed it, so we thought it was a nice way to finish a massively bloody saga. The other covenant did not end up much better, really It is amazing how our sagas tend to die with massive bloodshed Think about Flambeau's last battle to picture the scene. Did you know that there is a nuke-like depression in the middle of Iberia? Well, there is one now. Gonna love communion and cinematics
So it is Spring time for us again. To prevent some of the problems that we had in previous sagas, we have decided to statrt with more resources this time, steamlining the "you struggle to get food" part of the saga. To do so we have decided to start as recent gauntlets from a powerful autumn covenant and build from there onwards. However, the players do not want to have the big dudes steping in to solve their problems, so we decided to be part of an aggressive autumn covenant.
The covenant is founding a chapter house to contest resources from an other covenant (enemies hook) and here is where the players will go. We are not sure of wehat value we should give to the fact that we are a chapter house, though. Would it be a major hook? minor? a boon? Any suggestions will be appreciated
Since the elder magi will look over their shoulders sometimes and give advice, resources and where needed some political influence I would state this as a boon, possible major. But that is to the extent of the help your characters will recieve.
The issue is that I know my players, and as soon as they think they are strong enough they will want to break the ties with their home covenant. This is what makes me doubt about this.
hmm, in that case I'd rule if you're strong enough to demolish your boons you sure don't need any more help from the storyteller.
No serious, they'll use the support to get what they want, so that equals for a boon. There is no obligation to keep using the boon forever and the attitude and determination of the players can strengthen of weaken bonds with other covenants/people. In the same way as they can get rid of hooks, they should be able to rid themselves of the boon if they consider it no longer as a boon. I'd make it a minor boon with the hook enemy, or order of hermes politics. So that they both get the benefits and the drawbacks in one package. If they break their allegiance with the covenant they'll probable will lose the enemy also. Or at least it will become less hostile and might see them as allies who finally saw the error of their ways.
One of the requisites for giving said young upstarts this boon ,
would be if the senior magi (or parens) have a fixed arcane connection (boosted by use of Sympathetic Connections) to each player magus.
This could be a Contractual Obligation thing , to last for 07 years or some mutually agreed upon duration.
It can benefit the players if they are in trouble , but should prevent most treacherous backstabbing due to the high penetration.
Communion?? I am a bit confused - are you having a Mass or...
You could toss in bundle of Tytali in the Covenant leadership. The charter of the autumn covenant might even be heavily influenced by Tytali philosophy. This would give you plenty of rationalization for why the mother covenant doesn't ride into town as the cavalry each time the chapter covenant is in trouble. They might simply see such a thing as wrong and contrary to the chapter's growth through struggle.
Going even further, when they seperate themselves (which it seems they eventually will) this might also lead the majority of the mother covenant's magi to respect it. In the sense that they don't take it personally or as betrayal and that they might even recommend the young magi for their courage. On the other hand this doesnt mean that they won't be gunning for seizing the vis and other ressources of the chapter house - it will just be in a mutual respectful spirit of competitive struggle. At least some of the time...
I think the reference was to Wizard's Communion: after all, enough Gifted individuals piling powers together would equal a nuclear weapon readily enough...
Hmm. Wizard's Communion + a flambeau main caster with his favourite fiery spell and Boosted Casting mastery ability acquired somewhere... ooh, pretty fireworks.
Right on the spot. Helped a quite high roll for the spell as well as burning something like a queen of vis in the process. yes, we sent the requisites and limits to hell for the last battle, since it was clear that it was the battle of the saga, so no limits on the dice Memorable final battle even if not suitable for 98% of the sagas around the world (this saga has been quite silly and hand-wavy when it came to canon, in fact).
Oh. I get it, wierd how I didn't make the obvious connection. Should have my altzheimer checked up. Maybe it was the future sense that got me off track... In any instance thanks for the help.
Must surely have been impressive fireworks. Can't help wonder how a botched queens of vis roll might have ended your saga very differently! What is they say...: I aint over till the fat wizard self-destructs? :mrgreen:
Indeed! We did have fun. The end note of "Take that, filthy Guernicus!" is bound to be a pun sentence around here Specially when the guernicus was trying to mediate between the magi to prevent a pitched battle in the middle of Toledo (my last attempt as a SG to save the situation). He did not suceed.
However, we are starting to worry about our preference for large cataclysmic saga endings. Even my most mad players do so. Our most successful covenant to date was overrun by demons after a PeVi QUINTUPLE (x5) botch that opened a gate to hell right in the middle of our library while casting a DEO. Loads of fun in the ensuring chaos, since magi 70 years out of apprenticeship are a match for a lot of demons, but they were eventually overran. The best part was teasing the verditius player about not being able to DEO a simple Imp for 3 or so years after that, though An other campaign ended in a siege and the magi stating the typical spaguetti baddie sentence of "we will return!" before leaving the covenant. So yeah, we have quite some cinematic big finishes More traditional and settled campaigns have not been as successful.
TRhis is why I am going to design the campaign as a modified LoFaI campaign of Order vs Davnalleus. The covenant is located near Carnac, so the link is easy.
It is amazing how our sagas tend to die with massive bloodshed 
Think about Flambeau's last battle to picture the scene. Did you know that there is a nuke-like depression in the middle of Iberia? Well, there is one now. Gonna love communion and cinematics 
Should have my altzheimer checked up. Maybe it was the future sense that got me off track... In any instance thanks for the help.
We did have fun. The end note of "Take that, filthy Guernicus!" is bound to be a pun sentence around here 
More traditional and settled campaigns have not been as successful.