I always thought that the True Jerbitons are carefully and successfully hiding rock-hard (Hermetic, mundane and mixed) politics behind their dealings with arts, literature and scholarship.
They once started that way in Byzantium and continue it e. g. in the Arelat. But this is only the tip of the iceberg that Quaesitores not even suspect ... 
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Not gonna lie, the idea of a Jerbiton using enchanted paintings with like 20 Penetration and hidden from magical scrutiny with Muto Vim and is using his paintings to start some conspiracy sounds incredibly fun as an antagonist.
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Consider also Jerbitons as Troubadours or their patrons:
Perhaps people like Bertran de Born and Neidhart von Reuenthal were actually Jerbitons or Jerbiton protegées?
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I can definitely see that argument. You're not wrong, though I feel that's more of an issue than Jerbiton. I tried to solve it by having my Jerbiton painter planning to go on every single adventure if he hadn't been to the location before. For inspiration. new vistas. Wait, you're travelling by flying? I definitely want to see the Mediterranean by birdflight.
We're not biased, we hate every Transylvanian House equally.
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All do, but some do it with negative values of hate.
**House:*jerditon
Reason: they suck. either they make social companions uselesss or are juste boring social machines
**Concept: tthe gandalf: they espouse TH Traditional attire of wizards ( pointy hat, staf...)usu little to no magic, pass themselves as wise old fools easily deprived of their magic by all kind of superstition. Flout the line of court wizards,/ interference ( uit's only advise, yiu seee!,) but IN see them being quite useful in smooothing tensions all oveer
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I don't. I find the 5th edition attempt to rehabilitate the House quite interesting. I often find the knee-jerk reaction of many players who see them as "the bad guys" of the Order excessive. The exact perception and goals (both the official and real ones) of House Tremere should vary from saga to saga. I find it disappointing that they seldom do.
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I don't think they are bad guys of the Order, I think they are just bad guys. Yes the "being authoritarian for the right reasons" is more interesting than previous conceptions of them but they are still the group of authoritarians in the game world. I don't like nobles or the Church hierarchy either and when I play them I play them as jerks as well, usually. For me, it is a "those (authoritarian, anti-democratic) means are never excused by the ends" sort of thing.
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House: Jerbiton
Reason: Wine-and-cheese art snobs and elitists, overly focused on a narrow section of the mundane world and underusing their House characteristic, the Gentle Gift.
Concept: Artisan of a practical to-be-determined craft, interacts with the lower classes on an accessible level. Possibly a public performer.
Reason I like this concept: The Jerbiton can interact with any mundane; this one engages with the 99%.
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Hi,
I also very much like the reflavoring of House Tremere in 5e. As with much of :TL, I believe the game mechanics need reconsidering, but I see that more as an issue of implementation than House identity, aka fluff.
The funeral oration for Tremere is perhaps the most emotional offering in AM5, setting the tone for something more, or at least other, than a cold, calculating, authoritarian cabal plotting a re-emergence into its rightful place in the sun.
Anyway,
Ken
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I also really like the reflavoring of House Tremere. My real problem with it is that the strict authoritarian teachings make it difficult for me as a storyguide to have one as a player.
Hi,
Please say more about that, because I'm curious about the difficulty.
I think it can be akin to good and bad managers in the workplace. There is room for 'light authoritarianism', less like a military hierarchy, less formal even than ST:TNG's 'military light'. Yes, the House has an org chart and magi periodically get assignments for which they are judged. But some middle managers are happy to stay out of the way, offering only as much management as is requested except when necessary.
Since the loss of 1 season per year is no longer explicitly required, the relationship between a Tremere PC and his parens/manager can be reflected in many ways. One player might choose to have a Tormenting Master and Dark Secret, reflecting a parens with tight reins on the PC in service of an insidious Tremere conspiracy. (Ok, only one story flaw, but these might go together well, as in the core rules' knight stat block.) Another player might have Mentor, Good Parens and Vis Source, because House Tremere has his back, and every now and then sends him on important and worthy quests.
Anyway,
Ken
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Sure. The problem I ran into before was the Tremere in my game had story flaws that had nothing to do with the House. This means that in addition to the normal story work I had to do, I had to also generate stuff for the house.
I need to decide what the house wants, how they're getting it, and what the Tremere player is going to do with it. If the Tremere want things in line with the Covenant, that's okay. If they want something very different, that's tricky.
But that can happen even in other Houses.
In one of the games, our covenant is based on the site of an old Bjornaer covenant. My Magi was instructed by Crintera to report on any findings
If something is uncovered that might be detrimental to the House, what could happen? Would my Magi align with his House, or his sodales?
The Core Rule gives archetypal view of what is each House, so it is easy for a ST to build stories and find antagonists. After that, it is all a matter of flavours.
For example, Tytali are depicted as troublemaker that will pester and plot against somebody, just for the sake of it. You could also see that as the one driving improvement: if it is well-designed to resist a Tytalus scheme, it will stand the test of time - I was thinking of a love/hate relationship between an Ex Miscellanea trying to organise part of his House with some hedge magicians and a Tytalus constantly interfering. But after two decades of organisation, litigation, fights and what not, when the Ex Misc presented his project of Peripheral Code amend, no objection, nor weakness was found at a Grand Tribunal. And he gave credit to his "Nemesis" for helping him built a better House - to the surprise of this one, with the unwanted benefit of making him member of House Tytalus since he finally understood what House Tytalus can do for the Order.
If the Order had been described as a well-oiled, benevolent organisation, there will be much less for PC to do. So my take regarding Ars as proposed: there is lot of room for spell and Arts improvement, for House improvement so PCs have room to grow and shape it as they want. There is enough simulation done in this forum threads to prove that very powerful magi, with long life and very high level of Arts could be able to exist, producing amazing books to help next generation to be even stronger. It is not part of the background because it will be boring and it will make PCs even less meaningful until much later in their lives.
From an organisation prospective it is the same: if the ST wants to make an oppressive machine that quenchs any initiative, he has all the tools, but he can tune the dial one way or the other and make PCs challenges more or less difficult to change the status quo.
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I had a Tytalus (Titanoi cult) magus some years back. He basically qualified for 3 major Story Flaws or so. Or maybe it was 2 major and 1 minor, I forget, it's been at least a decade.
We ended up giving him a new story flaw: Tytalus Magus. We felt that covered his situation the best.
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Hi,
I see what you mean. If a player didn't take flaws related to Tremere, and the GM doesn't have any particular plans for House Tremere, it's always reasonable to just punt on developing the house until it becomes convenient, such as initiating a story, bringing them in as a deus ex machina, for which the magus and covenant will naturally owe them a big favor, or explaining a few months of player downtime.
Having a Tremere around can become a solution for the GM rather than a problem.
Some of the work of developing the House can be foisted onto the player, simply by asking "What is your relationship to your House and parens" during character creation. That might help to decide the extent to which House Tremere is like old-timey real-world Freemasons, which has a hierarchy and ethos but largely serves to promote social connections and opportunities, versus evil culty Freemasons who demand total loyalty, obedience and service to the new world order soon at hand, any time now.
Anyway,
Ken
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On some level, all problems with design can be corrected with implementation, of course. Ovarwa has a good summatary of the issues I had run in to. Any House can be more or less present in the game's plots and politics (as Itzhak stated). It CAN happen to any House.
The way the Tremere are written and presented, they will give direct guidance to their subordinates. Whether or not the player chooses those story flaws, every Tremere has someone telling them one to do. They have help in completing their tasks, guidance in how to solve their goals, and support in times of trouble.. but in return there is a very strong pecking order and constant direction written right into the House's core.
(In my home game, I somewhat circumvented this by saying there are never enough middle managers to handle all the things they're trying to do, so younger Tremere often get left to their own devices by over-burdened Archons.)
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We use a very similar approach.
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House: JTremerr=e
Reason: People see^to b having hard time with the house's structure, or be stuck on 3rd ed.
Concept: A-Team Leader
Reason I like this Concept: Tremere magi ar few and far between. sometimes, he right specialist is also unavailable. Also, some discretion an plausible deniability is always good.So, you've been put in charge of an equip of specialists, either mundane or edge wizards, and get missions such as "ensure the barpon'daughter doesn't marry the count's son" or "recover the stolen statue and deliver it to the legate".
All kind of "impossible misions" which you must carry with your wits and specialists alone
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