My main idea is a Bjornaer who could go in a couple of directions depending on the interactive process. But there's always a deep bench of backups.
l think, l would gladly go with some Ex Misc, Tytalus or Merinita, however, l'm not sure yet.
I'm usually happy to make "fill a need" characters.
Right now I'm heavily leaning towards a Mercurian mage...with a speciality towards some sort of "minion" magic. Necromancy, beast breeding/training, elemental summoning...etc. I realize any of these requires SGs willing to run appropriate stories so am not letting myself get locked into any concept.
Big fan of Tremere and Mercere if either of those choices checks any SG boxes...but I could go for almost any house as the character takes form.
A lot of us are doing the "I will fill a need, depends on the others, not quite sure". Not calling any out 
but I think we need to move a bit forward.
With that said I will "claim" the Hermetic Ambassador: A character dedicated to keeping good relations with other magi and covenants, travelling to them, keeping abreast of news and information, hermetic politics, and making sure that things are worked out in a diplomatic, commercial, peaceful or if necessary martial way.
For house I am leaning to either Trianoma or Flambeau (To try something different)
As l said, l would like to check mundane relations, peaceful and otherwise. Idk exactly how l'm gonna do that, but still.
A Mercere magus seems an unlikely candidate for this covenant. There are so few of them and the House has so much raw vis available to them that the offered "Vis Grant" for be of no consequence to them. Furthermore, the potential for political conflicts involved in a covenant bordering multiple Tribunals runs counter to the usual stance of House Mercere.
I'm not saying a Mercere magus is impossible, though. Just that the character design needs to consider those elements.
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Looks like we have primary roles of
heir
Hermetic ambassador
mundane ambassador
covered. I was considering pairing healing with something, as healing is always useful but not a great primary role unless it's a very violent game. I do note that someone else suggested a possible Mercurian, which could be headed in that direction. Also, how does the troupe feel about Imbued with the Spirit of Corpus, which I would likely use if making a healer/longevity expert? I have a bunch of ideas in mind outside of a healer, too; just looking at that right now.
Imbueds are fun, so l'm totally into using them.
Is the time right to break out a thread for each of us to open discussion on our actual character ideas? I'd prefer to do it like that rather than have everything in one big thread, it will be easier to keep things organized with who is doing what.
I was thinking of ticking the boxes of mundane relations and general defense (ie combat), but if we don't want overlap in those categories I can adjust away from the mundanes aspect.
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I think that's a good way to do it once we've honed in on primary roles, the reasons the magi were brought on board. I think that is difficult for identifying primary roles because we'll have to jump around between many different threads to sort that part out. So if everyone is good with those four (heir, Hermetic ambassador, mundane ambassador, and your general defense), I would think those three should get going on other threads. In the meantime, there are three more primary roles to sort out, which are probably best done here.
Well, since my first ideas have been locked in on, I'm going to jump in and say I'll take the Explorer role. I'm thinking of it taking it in more of a spymaster kind of direction.
Btw if we want to spread out on magic/Arts - I am thinking of taking teleportation magic, and Aquam as my main foci; using Mentem and Imaginem magic for ambassadorial duties are not really a good idea imho, because you can't cast them at the covenant you visit and if you can oftentimes the magi will have some way of noticing active magics on you or find it odd that you're suddenly a lot more persuasive.
So maybe a bit of "social/political" magic, but relying on Intrigue, Folk Ken, Etiquette etc to get my point across.
I do think it would be perfectly acceptable (and probably a good idea) to have more than one magus that can do each role; as long as all the roles are covered and the ways they are covered aren't too similar. I don't love the first-come, first-served approach. Maybe everyone could pick 2-3 things they expect to be important participants in?
That's probably a good idea. Certainly, I'd started to wonder after having two ambassadors, an heir, a defender, and a spymaster/explorer, what else might genuinely be "needed."
Who was it who was considering a Mercurian before?... Ah, mjprogue... Necromancy can pair well with healing, too.
This is one of the virtues from the RoP books which I often feel is more powerful than a minor virtue should be. It has great potential for abuse, as theorically it can save a boat-load of vis per year.
Consider Personal Vis Source, also a Minor virtue, which in most sagas only provides "about one tenth as much as the player covenant expects to gather per year at the beginning of the saga". In this saga, it would be about 6 pawns.
Consider also Mercurian Magic, a Major virtue that has some important drawbacks, which reduces the vis cost of rituals only by half. It can even be combined with Imbued with the Spirit of (Form), so that a Mercurian / Imbued magus could cast something like The Walking Corpse (ReCo 35) every 5 days at no cost in raw vis. That's the equivalent (in the most extreme case) of 511 pawns of vis per year combined (219 pawns saved due to Mercurian Magic, 292 due to Imbued with the Spirit of (Form)).
It is up to the troupe to decide on this, but I think there should be some sort of limit on Imbued with the Spirit of (Form). What do you think?
If you all say "No problem", then I will accept it. I'm just bringing a potentiel for abuse to your collective attention.
I didn't "claim" the hermetic ambassador in a way where I wouldn't want others to be interested in that part - I hope it didn't come across as that - more that I'd like that role (as well), and if no one else took it, at least we had one to cover it.
Yup. That's why I asked about Imbued with the Spirit of (Form).
I didn't take it that way, Ronni. I'm just trying to work around others interests since I really haven't settled on anything yet.
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I'll add another post in the Notes and Claims for character roles. Everyone can put their ideas for roles, with their name beside the roles they would be interested in. At this point, there could be more than one name attached to a role.
Re Imbued, I feel neutral about it - it's abusable, but we can just agree not to abuse it. I will note that Corpus is the most abusable one, followed by Mentem and Vim, other forms get way less mileage out of lots of rituals (though I acknowledge it's there for all of them). In theory, it also has a built-in flaw of creating enmity with creatures of Magic, though I'm not sure how much that can or would come up. In some ways, it could be a great boon to the covenant, but maybe that's actually a bad thing.
My comment about sharing roles was in reaction to Houlio saying he lost his original character idea - I don't think the roles should limit us in that way. As long as everything is covered, the only negative sort of overlap is when two magi are doing the same thing in the same way (like two Flambeau battle-magi, or two Pralicians, or two gently-gifted Jerbiton magi). I think once we make sure every role is covered by at least one person, we can break out into specific ideas and if overlaps come up, the two involved can sort it out by changing their ideas so they can both feel unique.
We should also consider the stories we're thinking of running, to make sure our characters wouldn't be the ones likely to engage with such stories.
I have a slightly bizarre idea that could fill some gaps well, focusing on being a Certamen specialist. I have two things to run by people. One is core to the concept's bizarreness, and the other is just something that might fit.
I was considering Corpus Monstrosity (RoP:M p.48-49) on a Bjornaer hawk/eagle, resulting in a harpy's appearance. Then take a step further with Mystery of the Chimera, adding in a monkey to end up with an angel's appearance. It would probably bother quite a few Bjornaer. I figure that means Hidden Form wouldn't dodge Corpus, too. (As a separate note, I have spent time combing the books to figure out just how many animals I could merge together through lots of V/F and Mystery of the Chimera.)
The other question is whether Cautious with Artes Liberales would reduce botch dice for ceremonial/ritual magic, as it would pair with using Artes Liberales in debate.
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I do have some much less bizarre ideas, such as a wind-focused Flambeau.