An owl or a fox could make good low-key familiars. An eagle, falcon, weasel, dog or cat are all easy to bring along for mundane stories.
RoP:M officially classifies them as some of the more powerful worms, itself a subset of dragon-kind.
Yup. I was debating the mundane story issue, which could easily include a pony as well. Nothing's just jumped out at me yet, though. I've had other ones that I saw from the start (horse for a knight-styled mage, dragon-revenant for a necromancer, etc.
I did some studying. It looks like small, companion animals were a sign of status among women and clergy, while men tended to have hunting animals like horses, dogs, and hawks. So a small, companion animal would be very fitting.
The polecat (the wild ferret/weasel) also has a few traits that will be particularly fitting. It sometimes pierces the brain of its prey to immobilize it but keep it alive for eating later, which is somewhat akin to the PeMe and PeAn spells Mariana will make later. They're polygamous as well, which fits her raising in the Cult of Heroes. And being Cr/Pe + Me oriented regardless of powers is appropriate. The longevity ritual would make it less musky, too - bonus.
There is plenty written about Weasels of Virtue to throw together something fairly quickly for a low-power Familiar.
Hello! I have a couple of ideas to pitch for the campaign. I am happy to work with the troupe.
I have: A verditious who is a weaver. They are coming from Flanders to the covenant because they are trying to get away from some trouble from their home region (I am thinking some sort of problem with a local weaver guild or fae). I want to pay a verditious, and I like the idea of being a verditious weaver.
The world's friendliest Tremere: This Tremere's pater has decided that the rest of the order will not currently accept the Tremere's vision. Unlike the rest of the house, he is working on it, by starting a century long charm offensive. Part of this is that he has sent the character to go and build resources and make friends in a far-off tribunal. This tremere wants to help build resources against the day of a crisis, and make friends by being the best worker a covenant could ask for.
Hey Stephen! I think either of your ideas should be be pretty easy to work with. We talked earlier about intentionally filling in certain roles or positions. I believe that the enchanter/maker and the Hermetic diplomat were both players that dropped off, and those seem the most fitting for your character concepts to me.
I think there is a covenant somewhere around the Rhineland that specializes in having magic weavers (I think some family of people descended from faerie spiders iirc) if you want to go with the Verditius. I think the Tremere idea is interesting too. What kind of magical area would you focus your Tremere on?
Hullo there.
I see that it has been quiet here for some time, and for a newcomer, it is impossible to see who have committed to what, and who has dropped out. Could you, oldtimers, please give us an overview of the concepts that are in play?
For my own part, I would be interested in playing a magus for whom house interaction is important, but this depends very much a beta-SG who is interested in that House. In order of preference,
- A Tremere, with some role in the Tremere scheme to build its presence in the tribunal.
- A Guernicus investigator - no fun if he is not commissioned with investigations for the greater good
- Mystery Cults, with an emphasis on the Cult part. Criamon, I find tricky, but I could develop ideas for Bjornar, Verditius, Merinita, or a non-house Cult, I think. I have thought less about this than the other two.
If I do not play a Tremere myself, I would volunteer to run the Tremere plot for another Tremere PC.
You want to do the tremere, and I will look at my verditious then? I am not sure two tremere rocking up to a covenant at once will be strictly welcome!
Well, that's not up to the Tremeres, is it?
It is a fair point though.
OTOH, running a Tremere plot line for only one player may be a little bit heavy-handed. I think this should be more up to the prospective beta-SG.
That said, I am happy with your proposal, but we need to hear more about the rest of the concepts before we call anything settled. I think @Arthur said he needed two voluntary beta-SGs per character concept ...
Would your Verditius be a mystery seeker? Or just an independent craftsman by the core book?
I am torn. I would love to seek the mysteries and have in my head someone trying a lesser breakthrough of finding another of the elder runes, but the hubris flaw that comes with having an inner mystery ends up meaning inevitably walking down a similar road of character development, which is a shame. I love the inner mysteries and would love to focus on them, which would probably end up with literal hubris and challenging Athena to a weave-off in the distant future, but it does do a lot of shoving your character down a particular path.
Indeed. What I wanted to say, is that I would be happy to run stories based on house and cult interaction, if you embrace the hubris. Otherwise, I need to see more of the character concept before I know if I can come up with good ideas. To me, hubris is an interesting story line, worth telling once, but it is not necessarily the story line a given player wants to tell ...
Well, if I have someone willing to run stories about it then the hubris would be more interesting, and certainly lean me towards being a more cultish type mystery cultist.
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You can see the list of the current magi, with a one-line summary of their concept, in this post. The name of each character is a link to the character sheet, including detailed background and stats.
Splendid. Thank you. Is their a similar list of beta-SG commitments?
BTW. Have I understood it correctly that you never started playing? Or has there been some evolution in game?
BTW2. It would be useful to list the story flaws in the character overview (list), for quick reference for story planning.
Not at this time, but I could create one in the Notes and Claims topic.
Are you familiar with the "Wiki" posts? When you use the function "Make wiki" on a post, everyone can edit it from then on.
May I ask? How does failed gauntlet (dark secret) fit with having a score in Parma Magica? What does the dark secret really entail?
I moved your post here because we do not put discussions in the character's stats topic. It is only for the final result.
Parma Magica is usually thaught as part of the Gauntlet ceremony. Remember that House Tytalus considers that if succeed in killing your master, you just passed your Gauntlet. The Dark Secret is that Perion didn't actually kill his master...
No, I was not familiar with the make wiki. Thanks. I'll look into that.
There was sort of a list, I saw, but not really matching character concepts, story concepts, and beta-SG duties ...
Speaking of which, I could tune a Tremere concept to @callen 's Lotharingian tribunal and/or to the old/hedge magic line of @Plot_Device . Then I could develop mystery cult intrigue and vendettas for the Verditius of @StephenFleetwood . Is that enough, and sufficiently balanced, links to move on to develop the characters?
I have to run some errands here quick, but I'll post what I recall everyone has so far for you in a bit:
Magi:
Clusius of Jerbiton, the Heir, played by Arthur
Wolfgang of Flambeau, the Champion, played by Plot_Device
Mariana of Flambeau, the Steward (mundane interaction), played by callen
Perion of Tytalus, the Explorer, played by Houlio (me)
Early on we talked about filling out a number of different roles/titles at the covenant for our Magi. The two players who dropped had: (1) a character more geared towards Hermetic diplomacy/relations with other covenants and (2) a character focused on mundane interactions that callen later slid into after they left. I believe callen previously was going for some kind of ritual spell-caster/lab rat type of character, leaving that style of role open as well as the Hermetic Diplomat.
I don't remember off the top of my head for beta-SG duties, I know I was going to handle the Telsberg family stories (and have a companion from that family).
Hello and welcome to the new folks!
And Hi @loke, it's been a while!
I think people have a range of takes on House Tremere, so interested to get your interpretation. I think the only thing that's universally agreed-on is that it's the one House that's actually somewhat monolithic, and moves as a House.
Yeah, how have you been?
Yeah, that pretty much sums up my take.
I think the range of takes represents a historical development, in the history of the Order and the history of canon editions. I think 5ed is pretty clear in that the house tries to be a military branch of the Order, for its common Good, and they organise to be that. They believe that the Order would be better off if everybody organises as they do, but see no other way of change but slow persuasion. How that pans out in game depends as much on the SG and the NPCs representing the house as it does on the PC.