If you want a Bonisagus just pledge no bonisnatching before 1220. This makes sense if you are wanting them to do a lot of research for example. If you think it work as well as Jerbiton then that may be the better bet given the amount of urbanization of the Italian Peninsula.
Regarding Evandrus- you need to have 45 of your points into childhood abilities, as described on p. 31 of the primary text. You currently have 40 points allocated into these abilities...
While waiting for Covenant stuff to actually be discussed, I was bored and looking at some of the bacnking history in the middle ages, which according to this wikipedia article a lot of medieval banks cropped up around this time, albeit more in the northern regions of the Italian peninsula.
With that in mind would a trade guild member (or something similar) that goes on to establish a bank be an appropriate companion character?
Banks were not something that were generally established by individuals. Secondarily I don't like the idea of characters being written with a destiny tied to historical events. You can certainly have a merchant character and invest labor points towards something like early banking, but there will be no destiny to found an early bank or anything of that sort.
Fair enough, I'll look more into it. It was just a random idea I had that I thought might work.
Regarding Taurus, his current total spent on arts, abilities, and spells is 1948. After your gauntlet the gathering of the 12 years would happen in 1059, 1071, 1083, and 1095, which is 4 gatherings. You spent 9 seasons otherwise outside the usual parameters of study, though no indication was made of when those were. Optimizing season would be to have these be in of the years you were going to a gathering, replacing the year total of 30 XP with 5 XP from the gathering.
At 50 years post gauntlet your total for abilities, arts, and spells would range from (45+75(childhood) +240(apprenticeship)+120(apprenticeship spells)+1380 (46 yrs @30 pts/yr)+10(2 yrs @5pts/yr)+50(2yrs at 25 pts/yr))=1920 pts. This can be reduced in optimization by 20 pts, leaving optional totals of 1910 or 1900 pts.
Options:
decrease point total by 28 pts
increase age by 1 and point total by 2
decrease age at which apprenticeship began by 1 and point total by 13
decrease age at which apprenticeship began by 2 and increase point total by 2
If you choose to de-optimize a season these become:
decrease point total by 38
increase age total by 1 and decrease point total by 8
decrease age at which apprenticeship began by 1 and point total by 23
decrease age at which apprenticeship began by 2 and decrease point total by 8
decrease age at which apprenticeship began by 3 and increase point total by 2
Since it was apparently thought that Taurs was completed without it being mentioned, I will also note that my records show Camilla, Ouragen, Evandrus, as incomplete, with Anna Romano, Aurthor, Andros, Danton, and Aegis being finished.If you believe someone is finished who is not on this list, mention it here.
Here is Giovanni the apprentice ready to be examined:
http://praesidiumorae.wikidot.com/wiki:giovanni-the-apprentice
I will take the increase age by 1 and point total by 2 as the option for Taurus which requires least alteration.
I get age 11 for Giovani, but otherwise he is fine.
Picking up where I left off ...
I have updated Ouragan, upping his Folk Ken to 2, and adding in Concentration 1 and Finesse 1. (He must look good casting spells, and be able to maintain them while buckling swash! 8) )
I'll post five years advancement and a little more background soon.
Ouragen is good to go
Okay ... Now for Ouragan's filius. I am thinking about making him the offspring of one of the covenant's servants, possibly a Saracen. I think this would give him the flaws Outsider and Covenant Upbringing. I would like him to develop the Elemental Magic and Puissant Penetration virtues, and probably inherit his parens' Puissant Ignem virtue.
At one point (possibly in a 4th edition supplement) I recall seeing the virtue Polyglot, which gave abilities in multiple languages. This might be suitable for someone growing up in the covenant. If I can find a reference (and possibly propose a 5th ed equivalent) would you be okay with this?
My original character concept was for a magus who would pursue becoming a hoplite, but felt conflicted about following orders when he didn't always understand the greater context. As I play with this idea a bit, I am thinking that he might perhaps instead grow into a "bounty hunter" style hoplite, with some investigation and stealth skills. (If I go with this, I might consider Gentle Gift instead of Elemental Magic.) This is a little outside my typical character role, but it is feeling interesting, so suggestions are welcome.
Also, as we create the apprentice characters, how many virtue/flaw points should we include, assuming an age of 10 or thereabouts when apprenticed?
I replaced Duty bound with reckless in Andros' flaws and fleshed out his background a little.
I like the parentage idea, though realistically it also means he is likely to be apprenticed at a younger age. Go ahead and feel free to take all 10 flaws and virtues (if you have apprentices it has childhood virtues and flaws which can be traded out later) as always you are not required to fill all ten. Some virtues may be ones you expect to grow into (for example- venus' blessing probably won't be manifest yet at 10), as long as these are virtues you would be inclined to have due to the situation you are currently in and are not the result of training or other outside sources (unless it is heir or something similar, where "outside" influence is only in the technical sense)
Regarding polyglot- an affinity (or puissance) with living (or dead) language will cover all languages within that category (there is an advantage that gives a .25% bonus for both categories: Lingusit in HOH:True Lineages.
Personally I feel the "bounty hunter" will fit the campaign better, since he has more of an ability for handling intrigue, but either of the ideas would be good.
Thanks. I'll take a look at those. My thinking was that if he was brought up in the covenant, where there are a variety of languages spoken that he could have picked up some skill with each. Possibly Latin as well; I'll check out Linguist.
I'm leading toward the bounty hunter idea myself, but as I said, it's a little out of character for what I typically play, which will make it challenging but fun. I also think that he will have to grow into that role as a magus; can't see doing too much hunting straight out of apprenticeship, although some curiosity and sleuthing would probably get him moving in the right direction.
As I think about this, if the character is being recruited from within the covenant, make them at age 5, we can indicate that the gift manifests earlier, but this will allow us to advance him from the point where he is old enough to advance as an in-covenant character, which should be to his benefit.
At this point we have the following in terms of players and characters:
Quite Possibly a Cat - Anna and Aurthor Ex Miscelania
Darkwing - Taurus (incomplete)
Archemedies - Ourang Ex Flambeau
Crawfs - Danton, Andros Ex Flambeaux
Callen - Camilla (incomplete), Evandrus (incomplete)
KingJawa- claims to be playing but has no characters and almost never posts
It has been 2 and half months since we began, some have been posting consistently during this time, others have not. Quite Possibly a Cat and Crawfs are at a point they could start, though they can also contribute to the covenant design, make starting companions, or additional grogs
I would consider Archedies and Callen fairly close.
I am not certain that Darkwing or KingJawa will actually be in the game with what I have seen so far in terms of participation.
I'm ready to start with Ouragan for the preliminary stories. I anticipate that Farid, filius Ouragan, would not join the covenant until around 1150 or later.
Regarding the apprentice, I will post him at five years old, along with where I anticipate him going. Probably post him this weekend.
I reviewed Evandrus and Camilla and they appear to be fine at this point. We need but finish up the covenant and grogs (and any companions anyone wishes to start with) and we can begin...(and of course Farid)