Character Development

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Falling Leaves
101

Marko,

remember that getting 3 pawns vis a year is only when you have been a member of FAlling Leaves for +50 years :slight_smile: Until then our bi-annual yield is quite small. However a personal Vis source gives 3 a year :slight_smile: Such a treat :wink:

Looking forward to seeing the books we get access to, soon hopefully...

102

Hi,

New books in the library, after 20 years, yes. :slight_smile:

Good mundane books are 1 Mythic Pound apiece, though. We should probably buy some!

Anyway,

Ken

103

smile

And now, while waiting to learn more about the Tourney, I'm going to design the giant Dragonfly that Deborah's ally spirit has growing in one of the cells of the giant honeycomb. Think uruk-hai in the slime of Saruman's breeding pits. Mmmm.

Anyway,

Ken

104

Um, oky. What is our bi-annual yeild?
On my worksheet, I just added Vis Source and Haunted to my lab to account for my vis. Took a season to put them in even (or rather, discover an artefact my parens left hidden in the basement). It has caused three spells to comeout Warped so far.

105

Gauntlet to Gauntlet +10 years: 1p of any form every two years
Gauntlet +11 to Gauntlet +20: 1p of any technique and 1p of any form every two years
Gauntlet +21 to Gauntlet +30: 1p of any technique every two years, and 1p of any form every year
Gauntlet +31 to Gauntlet +50: 1p of any technique and 1p of any one form, every year
Gauntlet +51 or highter: 3p of any Art, every year

As sayeth Caelarch :slight_smile:

106

I've worked and reworked the "Adventure" table, but it just can get it to where I am happy with it. So, I'm rethinking the idea and I've decided to just drop the "adventure" table.

Instead, everyone will get an extra pawn of vis each year to replace the vis they would gain in an adventure. This is "abstract" vis, i.e. you're not getting it as a salary or all at once. It just piles up on your character sheet until you decide to use it, then it is treated like you had it in your possession all along (having found it during an adventure, or by way of gift or something of that nature.) You select what Art the vis is when it is used. 1p of "Abstract" vis can be treated as 1p of any Form. 2p of "abstract" vis can be treated as any Technique At the start of the campaign you can trade it in for pawns of vis, but you must state what they are and what art etc...

For example, after 6 years using no vis I have 3p of Aurem (my vis salary, 1p every two years) and 6p of "abstract" vis. i want to make a Longevity ritual that will take six pawns. I use all six of my "abstract" pawns- it turns out it was grave dust from that cemetery adventure in my third year.

In addition to warping for longevity or lab accidents, you gain 2 warping point per adventure- representing in an abstract way occasional botches. If you think you would have gone into Twilight at some point then just let me know and we'll roll out your comprehension and scars.

Finally, I'll be giving each magus books or items, as well as opening up more of the covenant's resources to you as you advance.

107

Hi,

Ouch! Deborah has adventured too much. :frowning: On this basis, she has 12 Warping points from her first 5 years! Ouch, ouch.

Anyway,

Ken

108

Everyone can take 1 warping point per adventure for adventures already submitted. No fair punishing people for my changing mind on adventures.

Also, i'd like to throw out for debate: item penetration +1 per level of effect or +2? My usual house rule is +2 on invested and lesser items, +1 on charged, but I'm pretty flexible and will go with the consensus. Whatever the rule is, however, will be used by everyone in the world.

109

Hi,

(edited for one or two errors)

I love house rules, so if you like, here's my 'adventure table rules.' Note that it is deterministic! No dice rolls to worry about, and so on:

Seasonal Stories

  1. Your character can choose to have a story, and also incurs an obligatory story once every two years.

  2. Decide on the story's value. A required story must have a value of at least one. No story may have a value greater than four.

  3. Your character gains seven experience points for any story.

  4. Your character gains one point of Warping plus one of the following for each point of value in the story: 5xp, one point of Vim vis (or its equivalent value in other pawns of vis) or a 'trophy', such as books or a valuable and enduring contact or something else. A trophy requires SG discretion, but a Tractatus of level 13 of your choice for the covenant or one free season of learning Parma (which occupies a season!) for yourself are reasonable.

Overall Stories

Regardless of whether your character uses stories for experience, he will undergo stories that don't disrupt lab work. That's just how life goes. To reflect this, before entering play, your character will have had Twilight four times before play, earning 20 Warping Points. Two of those Twilights were good and two were bad, with their good and bad effects balancing out.

If your character has Enigmatic Wisdom or something similar, you may change one bad twilight experience to a good twilight experience, at the cost of incurring one extra good Twilight per bad Twilight you transform. Thus, it is possible to begin play with five good Twilights and one bad one (at 5 Warping Points), and 25 Warping Points. It is also possible to begin play with 6 good Twilights and no bad ones, and 30 Warping Points to show for it.

Anyway,

Ken

110

Hi,

Your House Rule works for me.

Charged Items are awesome in any case, and Parmas in this game are low.

Anyway,

Ken

111

It really bites my arse, that I have to adventure so much to raise my Infernal Lore score AND my Mystery Cult Lore!!!!!! Oh well...guess it pays off :slight_smile:

In that vein, is all travelling that at the end of the season gives you 10xp = an adventure? For me, travelling to Rhuys speaking with Father Petreo and Mother CLotilde are still afventures (giving me 2 warping points), because the journey nets me 10xp? Just wanted to be sure :slight_smile:

112

Hi,

grin Now it's one WP. And remember the Wandering Monsters. :slight_smile:

I had a similar thought about Deborah's "adventure" in which she killed a surprised, and therefore defenseless, Criamon magus, and then she killed an unsurprised but equally defenseless Criamon magus. She spent the rest of the season listening to Criamon and Quaesitors talking, and being admonished and.... 10xp, as an abstraction. But I looked it up in the DMG, and the Primus ought to give more xps than a kobold. Just saying. :slight_smile:

Anyway,

Ken

113

Its an abstraction to represent Adventure, Danger, and the like. Basically claiming the 10 XP means you did something out-of-the ordinary that may not have taught you much a about one thing, but gives you a broad base of knowledge. Its that kind of activity that is risk-taking an leads to abstract warping. If you treat your visits to the Rhuys as "adventures" where exciting things happen and you get 10 xp, then you also get the warping (although note that adventures to date only get one). If you read a book but happen to travel a bit in the last few days, then no warping. If you travel and talk to the priest and claim it as "practice" in some skill or other that also gives no warping. i'm striving to get a realistic balance between lab activity, reading, and adventure. I'd hoped to do more personalized reward/dangers for adventures, but I can't make a table that works. I don't want to decided for each adventure separately because it will slow chargen way down.

So my comprosmise was to give warping points (which also helps keep the groups warping around where it should be for their age).

114

My character is in desperate need of Imaginem and Mentem books (I read through our starting library list and we have all of one Imaginem tractatus). What would be the process of representing a character working to purchase a book?

For instance, I'm working through my Years 6-10. In Year 6, I have him attending Tribunal, which gives him ample opportunity to horse trade with attending magi for Imaginem and Mentem books. Up to this point, my character has not spent any of his vis, either salary vis or "abstraction" vis. How about a note that he spends the money and receives the book(s) a year later? (This will require SG calls on pricing and quality of said books.)

Some guidelines here might help others manage their later years as well.

115

I don't mind House Rules of any kind usually, so I'm fine with it, sure.

I'll just wait to see if it becomes official to change the item totals, including the amount of charges.

116

Now it seems after 20 years that our access to books is expanded. However Covenants mention that sometimes books are bought by magi. They mention various prices, the most interesting IMHO being "Good Summae" having Level = from 28-Quality to 31-Quality, costing Lvl in Vis.

Any chance that we might be able to buy books that way?

117

I'll have to make a note here about when my character's books come into the library, so folks have an expanded list to choose from. :slight_smile: I be a book-writing beast!

118

I'm consolidating a number of questions that could use some answers from my character development thread:

  • Does a season writing a book count as Practice or Exposure for the purposes of Profession: Scribe?
  • For the purposes of calculating the Quality of the Tractatus produced through Correspondence, what is the Communications score of the average letter-writer NPC?
  • Adventures: Can they count towards discharging covenant duties? If no, what if I were to do a short write-up for at least some of them and how it might tie together both covenant duties and the research my Bonisagus is conducting? Or, for that matter, can Attending Tribunal on behalf of the Covenant count towards discharging duties? (It is a fairly significant hit on time, between all the travelling.) Also, attending Tribunal is something that Ancel, as a Trianoma magus, would be doing anyways.
  • Can we use our vis to purchase books to enhance our library? At the rate I'm going, before I hit Year 20, I'll likely have exhausted our library and run out of ways to increase the Arts without burning vis.
119

I am still at work so some quick answers:

  1. Yes, you can claim a season writing as Exposure in Scribe or the subject of the book.
  2. Equal to your own, since strong writers are in demand and would naturally seek the strongest writing penpal they can. Although the correspondence must pertain to your work, so unless your doing lots of labwork in the same Art you won't bulild to many tractatus this way.
  3. Adventures can count, if you write it up that way. Going to tribunal does not unless you are sent by the Storygui...Senior Council.
  4. Yes. I'll look at the prices in Covenants tonight, and probably raise them. In my mind a Good Quality book should run around a rook of Vim vis or its equivilent. Suburb books only come at SG approval.

I'm going to go post a house rule on book trades.

120

It's really difficult to wait for this Grand Saga to begin :smiley: