Character creation discussion

One of the reasons I think I'm going to enjoy Jurata is that her mindset, although seemingly a bit obsesssed / one-dimensional, actually leads into a lot of roleplay opportunities. For instance, how will she react to the Holy Roman Empire, aka Greater Germany? Will she recognize her dreams in those of Charlemagne? Those are all questions I haven't really asked of her yet and I plan to discover in our stories what she feels about such things. It may take a bit of wrangling to get her in the Rhine Tribunal, but I believe it will be a good home to her.

One of the challenges with a Tremere, in this saga, is that you need to shape the House to a very high degree, since it is suggested that Tremere have access to resources of the House, depending on their ranking, and they also have obligations to the House (although, a Tremere wouldn't call it an obligation, per se). So, you have your parens, who does your parens report to? And so on, up the line, up to the Exarch.

If you're really interested in Tremere, somewhere out on the Internet is a work by Paul Briscoe, I believe, called De Domo Tremeris which really fleshes out the House, although it makes some really power gaming choices (such as apprrentices gauntleting with 600+ XP). But the idea behind doctrine and mission, and the different roles available within the House. De Domo Tremeris fits with my vision of House Tremere, which was shaped by Houses of Hermes: True Lineages. That vision is something akin to Heinlein's Starship Troopers Mobile Infantry. Everyone's a soldier. Everyone fights, no one quits. Now, how you fight is going to be shaped by your gifts. If you're gently Gifted, well, then you likely command the soldaten and can infiltrate mundane military structures and organizations easily. And so on, and so forth.

I would offer you my copy (it's a CC license), but sadly I can't find it on my Dropbox account any longer, and I haven't moved it from my iPad. Add to that, my availability right now is heavily constrained. The only reason I'm able to post know is that I'm doing a data transfer at a client's site, and have little to do but twiddle my thumbs while waiting.

I wouldn't mind working out in more detail the local House Tremere and how it all ties together with the global agenda, but wouldn't that dominate troupe stories a bit too much? What makes sense within the game world isn't always suitable for the players, and those come first and foremost at the end of the day.
Having said that, I will start sketching hierachy trees and such and see what of that I can make use of for the stories segments I end up running myself. Once I feel comfortable with it, I don't mind posting it, since it'll be part of the Tribunal we share after all.

In normal sagas, it would. But this isn't a traditional saga...

I'll poke at that tonight, then - I'm doing my librarian thing right now and sneaking into the forms on dull moments :slight_smile:.

Edit: Found De Domo Tremeris. Awesome stuff. Now I need a week to read it. As a librarian/historian, I've got to say I'm happy so far with the snippets I've browsed. Author seems to have a decent grasp of things.

Indeed, it is a good source of inspiration. Personally, I found the house as described in it to be a bit too rigid and organized to my taste. Some of the spells and effects are also questionable. Not in the sense that they are bad as such, but rather that they are based on some assumptions that may not be true in all sagas.

But as Jonathan wrote, this is not a traditional saga. :smiley:

BTW, I've been less resent than usual because I'm at home this week. Temporary lack of work, which probably won't last long. But it means that I am spending less time at the computer.

Eh, I haven't gotten to any crunch yet - as always, I gorge on history and geography first :slight_smile:

Here is a first pass at Brother Clement, the Librarian at Laach Abbey. I thought writing him up as a companion might be a good idea, although I don't know how much of a recurring role he is likely to have. If someone wants to flesh him out further, feel free.

Brother Clement

Characteristics: Int +1, Per +2, Pre 0, Com +1, Str 0, Sta +1, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 33
Decrepitude: 0 (0)
Warping Score: 0
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Faith: 1

Virtues and Flaws: Clear Thinker, Educated, Intuition, Priest, True Faith; Monastic Vows, Noncombatant, Obese, Optimistic, Pious

Abilities: Native Language, German 5, Limburg Lore 2, Awareness 1, Charm 2, Folk Ken 3, Artes Liberales, Canon Law, Church Lore, Concentration, Latin, Medicine, Music, Philosophiae, Profession: Scribe, Profession: Illuminator, Theology,

Brother Clement joined the monastery at Laach Abbey at the age of 10, convinced he had a calling from God to take up the cloth. His family was not wealthy, and realizing that having one less mouth to feed might be helpful, sent him to the abbey. His lack of nobility and his apolitical dedication to God have prevented him from moving very far in the ranks of the monastery, but his happy, clear-headed outlook allow him to get along well with the other monks. Much to his surprise, he has recently been promoted to head librarian.

Clement first met Brother Abelard in 1180, when they worked together in the scriptorium. While Clement thought it a little odd that the other had been released from his monastic vows to join a convent of scholars, he appreciated Abelard’s dedication to the faith, as well as his stories about growing up in an abbey.

Nice, although I'm a bit surprised by the Obese flaw for brother Clement. Not that it is impossible, but to see it in a monk that is so young is unusual. In period, being obese would be linked to the sin of glutony, and thus a monk would be looked down upon for over-indulging in food.

But as I said, it is only surprising. It would only require some explaining. :slight_smile:

I'm not committed to the obese flaw; I wanted to give him something that would keep him a little grounded. I'm open to suggestions if you think something different might be more interesting.

Possibilities that I can see: Low Self-Esteem (Major), Arthritis, Clumsy, Fragile Constitution, Lame, Motion Sickness, No Sense of Direction, Poor Eyesight, Poor Hearing.

Looking closer at the mix of flaws, I notice that he has 3 Personality Flaws - Noncombatant, Pious and Optimistic. So one of them should be dropped in favour of something else as well.

Reworking the V&F mix depends very much of what your vision of the character is. If you already have an idea of what he is like, let me know I can take it from here and detail him. Meanwhile, I'll start thinking about two or three possibilities. :smiley:

EDIT: I created a page on the wiki for Brother Clement.

My concept for him was a true "man of God" who was completely comfortable in his own skin, with little patience for the politics of the Abbey or the Church in general. Not that we would go out of his way to antagonize his superiors, he would be more inclined to live by "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, to the Pope what is the Pope's, and to God what is God's." I think the virtues fit this pretty well; the only flaws I thought would be really appropriate were Monastic Vows and Optimistic. Low Self Esteem probably does not fit quite right. Poor Eyesight or Arthritis might be damaging (or interesting) given what I was thinking in terms of his abilities as a scribe and illuminator. Ability Block for Martial Abilities may be a way of working in the pacifist feel I was thinking of with Noncombatant, but this is not necessary to the overall concept.

I've fully statted out a new version of Brother Clement on the wiki. He's a bit different than your initial version, but I hope you find him satisfactory. Let me know if he works for you. :slight_smile:

I'll try to post an answer to your letter to him tomorrow. In the next couple of days max.

Having both Afflicted Tongue and Lame seems surprising, but not unworkable. Now I want to know more of Clement's backstory! :slight_smile:

Peregrine Bjornaer is interested in joining. Peregrine is a great writer, and so I think he would make a fine addition.
I'm still having writer's block with Praxiteles and to a certain extent Ailips it doesn't help that I've killed him in Bibracte. :smiley:

I'll try to write something about it tomorrow. :slight_smile:

No objection from me. Even if it's simply as a visitor at first (at least in character), it will be nice to have another player IMHO.

Hopefully by the time Peregrine has a magus ready to introduce to the saga, we'll have had time to move forward by a year or two. :stuck_out_tongue:

On a related note, it's been a while since Makarion has posted anything, so I wonder if he's still interested in introducing a magus to the saga.

Since you were kind of busy these last few months, I've left Alips out of the scenes in my current story. Let me know if you want her more involved after the current tavern scene.

Fine with me.

Thank you all for having me. All I have so far is a name, a concept, and a scrap of backstory. I'll have to look to see which House fits her best.

Morticia of (House tbd) is, basically, obsessed with death. Ever since she saw her family killed before her eyes, and knowing that it could have been her if that magus hadn't showed up when he (or she, haven't decided yet) did, she would have joined them stood in queue at the Pearly Gates.

I picture her as a necromancer. Early on, she would learn the healing spells, to know exactly how the body works. She would also be strong in Mentem, for the conjuration of spirits. Her eventual, long-term goal, possibly a life-long quest, is to conquer death. Not necessarily to keep them from dying, but to ensure that they don't have to stay dead. By far her strongest Art would be Corpus, though.

(eta) By the way, I'm off Wednesday, and we're expecting scattered thunderstorms, so I'll probably be staying in, which would (theoretically) give me time to work on Morticia.

Provided Tellus has no objection, welcome to you. :smiley:

Have you considered that perhaps her strongest Art may not start as being Corpus? Depending on what her pater or mater's specialty was, her teaching may have had little to do with death and Corpus.

One twist on the concept might be a Verditius necromancer -- she wants to build automata to host the spirit of the dead, instead of focusing on their body. Just a wild thought. Hubris and all that can make for a Frakenstein-type maga. :smiling_imp:

(Of course, feel free to ignore this idea. It's your character, but I just thought I'd share this idea that just popped into my head.)

If she wants to keep her work private from the other magi and/or the covenfolk, the secondary site (a partially-restored Roman tower) might suit her well eventually (once she is accepted as a member) for her sanctum. Sorry, the basement of the main site is already assigned to my magus. :laughing: