Also as a complete aside, please feel free to jump into any character creation thread and ask questions, offer feedback (or in my case, entirely unsolicited advice) etc. Better to clear up any misconceptions and the like long before play after all!
Huh? I think you misunderstand Stalwart Casting. You still have to roll. It doesn't change the chance of botching at all, except that you have a level of Mastery. Nithyn is correct here.
Also, for Rituals you still lose Fatigue, but you can recover faster.
The problem to my eye is that the overwhelming majority are found with only one Cult, making the Mercurians in some ways a gamist choice in order to have access. (Though one could argue some people would join the Cult for such a reason anyway and still be perfectly in character, but I digress.) Though the counter argument here is that ... Mercurians are the ones who are into Spell Mastery as a thing. That is why they are the ones who are good at it. The other Cults teach/do different things, and not so much Spell Mastery.
Yet this is generally a less than satisfying answer to many (as you can see) people, though not all. I have mixed feelings and think the problem is that they are almost all essentially in one place.
It would be better if we had some more examples of differing grades of magical secrets (mastery abilities, spells, guidelines, virtues, whatever) that different Cults or other types of groups had select access to in the setting.
It seems directly intended as one of the primary avenues of character advancement. Not compulsory, I wouldn't go so far as to say it is compulsory and everyone is doing it as it were, but if you want to do anything nonstandard vanilla hermetic magic ... you are either initiating or you are doing Original Research/Integration etc.
I think we could use a few more examples of Cults that are aimed at Hermetics in-play/in-world and are tied more directly into the setting in some way. Part of the appeal say of the Cult of Mercury is not just what they can do but who they are, for example. Same for say the Legion of Mithras.
There are a lot of avenues for further expansion of the Houses in general in that way (they all should have their own magical secrets, for sure) and there are definite pros to going with a House that already has a developed set of possible initiations etc.
Well, only to the point where the Neo-Mercurians can initiate a lot of virtues and also have access to the spell mastery options. While TM:RE tries to make the Cult of Mercury and the Neo Mercurians two separate things, I feel like it ends up failing, so you indeed end up with one group having everything.
Fully agreed. A missed opportunity.
Something that can be done for a particular saga, or that a SG can enforce on his sagas based on his head cannon... But something that is likely to be too much work for what could be treated in an ad hoc manner.
I was imprecise earlier: yes, you still roll, botches can still happen, the key effect of the mastery is the changes to the fatigue (and as for any mastery, 1 less botch die). What I alluded to is actually only a particular case, not the whole picture. I won't fully expand on my arguments, since I don't really want to drag us down this rabbit hole for what is just a matter of personal perception.
Suffice to say, Stalwart Casting (as a game mechanic) is a game design choice that caters to a playstyle I don't usually enjoy... But that's just me. I'm not advocating for it to be removed from this saga, and the saga is not being designed for my personal playstyle. =]
1 Like
I personally like them as sort of the catchall group for overtly pagan magic/Magi. The fact that I also like their magic style/abilities in general, and they have lots of cool things to teach certainly also helps. 
I checked the numbers. With small redesign I could start able to fly a wooden boat with a capacity of 20 tuns. The stone is probably in the ballpark of 18 tons, so in the ballpark of 15 tuns. That leaves enough space to bring magi and grogs. But could we get a hold of a knarr by tribunal? And could we move the menhir on board? I havenât checked yet if I could spont a ReTe to lift it with this redesign, but it could be possible.
Itâs worth noting that for the canonical numbers to work, something like 200ish magi are in the Cult of Mercury. While Redcaps are surely over-represented, that still leaves a lot of Gifted magi. So itâs not that uncommon for magi to be in it.
The book says the Macgnimartha grants a reputation. How strong is it if you take no further virtue to strengthen it?
One if I remember correctly.
1 Like
On p.25, near the bottom of the middle column it says the MacgniĚmartha results in a
Reputation of level one among Hibernian magi appropriate to his behavior. This reputation may also extend to faeries, giants, and hedge wizards where appropriate.
1 Like
I read that sentence without reading "one". Stupidity can be an art. Sorry!
I have now double-checked. Aoibheann (pronounced EE-vyÉn) will be able to ReTe enough to move the menhir onto a boat, and she can start with spells to fly a knarr to Tribunal carrying the menhir as well as all the magi and grogs. I had to start off a bit Rego-heavy and with only a few high-level spells, but these are very much in line with where she is headed and it actually feels much better than doing any Mentem right now.
A flying ship. We shall be travelling in style.
Oh, and someone was talking about bees above, right? I'm doing a lot of ReHe, which was likely to eventually include causing plants to flower (and grow, and fruit, etc.). That could pair well with bees, providing them with lots of flowers of chosen types. I had been considering using fruits to make wines anyway, but it wouldn't be so different to work with mead. I see plentiful honey and mead in our future!
Should we start a separate thread for spell design and the like? I've only got one truly different spell, and that was approved ages ago, but it should still be posted over here.
I think I am going to settle for the Tytalus in the end. I have detailed a few more things that I can already share about him, or should I leave that for his development topic? I'm looking at the following spread of (confirmed/desired) V&F:
Virtues: Persona (HoH:S), Social Contacts, Life Boost, Sanguine Humor's Blessing (HoH:S)
Flaws: Weak Parens (his apprenticeship ended earlier than usual), Warped Magic, True Love (Tytali magi can also find love, did you know!?!).
I'd also be midly interested in exploring the rules for agencies from HoH:S, but OTOH agencies can be developed narratively without all those rules, so that is not really necessary for the concept or for me.
2 Likes
Is he going to be Gently Gifted? Or is he more of a meddle-from-afar puppetmaster kind of personailty? Or does he embrace the fact that nobody trusts him - like Garak from DS9?
Huzzah! Toss me a name and I'll get you a thread open.
I think you may have missed this, @Nithyn , since you responded to so much but not this. Thanks!
1 Like