Actually, hold that thought: just how aware are the PC's regarding the book trade at Tribunal, and just how useful it would be for everyone to put everything on hold for a year and do nothing but write books and script things?
Because I just reviewed the book-trading rules: this is the one time every 7 years where the covenant can get a 3/1 trading deal on anything we have. (In terms of multiple copies of a book, that is.) That is, quite frankly HUGE - to the point where I'm seriously tempted to just put all St. Avery's research on hold, and have him instead write a Root and a Magic Theory Summae, then send them off to the book-makers to have 3 copies made of each.
My only concern is just how in-game viable this is. If it's understood that "no, seriously: we need books, and we've got a year and a half to get our stuff in order" - then I'm fine with delaying his research. It would fit the character to do so, and it would seriously benefit the Covenent - but I'm just wondering how in-game appropriate it would be to actually do this.
EDIT - the actual schedule would like be something like the following:
Write 5/15 Rego root
Write 5/15 Vim root (get 3 copies made of the Rego Root)
Write 9/11 Rego summae (get 3 copies made of the Vim root)
Write 9/11 Vim summae (Get 3 copies made of the Rego summae)
Write 4/20(?) Magic Theory summae (don't have the non-magical text rules memorized, so I can't recall the Quality on this one - Get 3 copies made of the Vim summae)
Clarify and scribe as many spells as possible. (Get 3 copies made of the Magic Theory summae)
I agree with Kevin that we don't really have time to write much books for the coming Tribunal, which is why I am proposing the use of raw vis to obtain some starters.
This isn't something that is mentioned in Pralix' post about book trading, but I figured that since this will be an in-character story, we might have a shot at obtaining at least one decent book in an Art none of us currently covers. A summe would be best, but even a few decent tractatus on a variety of those Arts would help get us started.
I think the issue is a question of just how much the PC's are aware of the benefits of book-trading at Tribunal, for that sweet, sweet 3x deal you can get there (ie, once every seven years, you can trade 3 copies of a book; otherwise, you can only trade it once). So, one season of work now is worth 3 season's of work next decade.
For Bonisagus, they get major cudos from their house for writing books (in the form of House Reputation.), so it's certainly a viable thing for either of the Bonisagus magi to do; while the scenario I post above is a bit extreme, it may very well be something that every Bonisagus that has the potential for writing would be tracking in their own minds. ("OK, I'm gauntleting a year and a half before the regional Tribunal. That'll give me 5 seasons to really make my name, which can really launch my career!" etc.)
But frankly that's just in-game justification for me - do folks WANT St. Avery to do that? I was planning on having him do that sort of writing over the next 7 years (Root, Root, Branch, Branch, MT Root, MT Branch) - but it's WAY more efficient if he does that now. Or is there some middle ground we can use to take advantage of the 3x trading bonus?
Depends on how much time you want your character to invest on writing books right away. My magus certainly wouldn't pressure you to do this right away, even though it might be the best deal to get us started on a reasonable library. But you are correct that it seems a much better deal to trade at Tribunal then not. I would tend to think that the rules reflect the in-character way of doing trades, so it would be reasonable for us to know about them.
These rules seem to assume that the Cow and Calf ruling doesn't apply to the books we create and trade away -- once we have traded them once, they become worthless for further trades because they instantly get dissiminated by the buyer before we can get any other copy out. But because Cow and Calf isn't in effect, those books that we manage to acquire are worthless to further trades because everyone has them -- even other Spring covenants, apparently.
Seems relatively unrealistic, but if it's the way Pralix wants to do this, then so be it. Hopefully it will be possible to also purchase some books using raw vis.
Because otherwise my magus will be able to provide very little help in building up the library. His Com score is simply not high enough to make his tractatus very valuable. He can only write four Q7 tractatus -- provided that we have the mundane craftsmen to raise them there.
I'm OK with the rules as an abstraction of Cow/Calf. From what I've done in previous campaigns, it's easy to get caught up in the library rules, even though you don't get a lot out of them.
At the least, I'm fine with changing a season or two to Root writing.
Pralix - how long does it take to contact a book-making company in Paris to make 3 high-quality copies of a book sent to them? I THINK it takes only a season per book (they are professionals, after all), but I'm not sure.
While I'm fine with the PC actually going full-in on the bookwriting business (instead of my original plan; either would fit the character) - if we end up draining covenant resources to get it done, or there simply isn't enough time for the whole project to be complete, I'm fine with only writing 2 or 3 books (rather than 5 plus lab texts).
One problem I see with the plan to use mundane craftsmen from, say, Paris , rather than covenant-trained ones, is that they might report the esoteric subject of the book they were asked to finish/copy. Plus, since they don't have a score in Magic Theory they may make mistakes along the way. Unless you propose travelling along with the book to proof-read the copies as they are being made?
Starts getting expensive time wise. And complicated. But maybe it's just me seeing giants instead of windmills.
Pretty sure that reporting esoteric subject matter isn't an issue - magic is well-known to exist, after all, and it's study is understood to be going on. I mean, Gentle magi have occasionally taught "Intro to Hermetic Theory" in universities, to see if anyone is interested in a career with the Order (that's a plot point in Covenents, I believe - in that particular example the issue was that the magi in question was doing it in another covenant's territory, not the fact that the class itself is being taught.)
But for the scripting itself: yeah, I was thinking about that...I think if we send them the texts themselves, they can add on the Binding/Illumination/etc (+2, as opposed to +3) - but that would require that we copy the texts multiple times locally, then ship them off to be finished. Depending on how the rounding works when writing Summae, it might be worth it to simply not use the scripting bonus.
Or St. Avery could travel to proof - It depends on how much time it takes to get them made, to be honest. If they can be made all in a season or two, that's actually do-able. Or if he could travel there just once, to proof the final works, that would also be fine. But having to proof every copy as it comes out would get unfeasible, honestly. I'd be fine spending a season of travel, if it means getting (say) 9 or 12 books instead of 3 or 4. but if he'd have to make separate trips for each book? Not so much.
...And I just realized (due to Serf's Parma) that I was doing all the numbers wrong, and that the +6 for book writing in the Core rulebook is actually +3 in Covenents, with the additional +3 coming from high quality bookmaking.
So, St. Avery's ACTUAL book-making ability is less than I thought. Still, It's OK. Also, in actually reading how long it takes to make a book...he can write a so-so primer in Rego and Vim in a season each; that's pretty much it. So, rather than "who-hoo! books!", it's more a "hey, I can write something...kinda."
Com: 2
Base: +3
Bonus for Ingredients +2 (no scripting)
Base Skill: 17/2 = 8.5 (round up for books); reduce to 5, for a +4 bonus
Quick Copying: -1 Quality
Total = 3 L5/Q10 art summae - kinda junk, but better than nothing. This actually feels like something even a hyper-specialist like St. Avery would produce a day out of gauntlet: good for a beginner, but not actually good enough for serious publication. However, it can be traded with others of equal quality (ie, in the low-end primer trade).
Note that I would personally house-rule that anyone who reads a L5/Q10 book essentially takes 1 1/2 seasons to get through it, and can start in on another L5/Q10 book halfway through; so, in taking 3 months, they can get 30 xp (15/15) in 2 arts. Otherwise, you're stuck learning 5 xp from a book, which kinda sucks.
If she can read and write, she's a scribe (specialist). How about taking the one from Covenants (p. 45).
I object to her seasons.
Where does she get the books from?
Did St. Avery spend time to make his lab notes useable by others?
@kevin: Just saw the books and clarified notes on your sheet. Please remove them.
Spell is way too powerful. If you are not certain about creating spells of an acceptable level, please use spells that already exist in the books. Sorry if I missed that before.
DO you believe a summa on occitan would be worth the cost ?
A summa of occitan written in latin L5Q15 (that would bring a beginner to full fluency in 5 seasons) would cost 6 silver pound. I believe 4 of us could use it (Elisabeth, St Avery, Clovis and for a less extended time Cornelius).
It seems like a fair investment to be but that's probably something to be discussed in council meeting normally.
All rightie - would you prefer we just not write books for the first year (Arthur and I were discussing the practicalities of doing so), or is it just too late to change our minds regarding our seasonal activities? The general conclusion we came to was that, in-game, the Tribunal trading opportunities would be a huge incentive for any character to try to set up their own library.
And as such, if there was an opportunity to write a book, it wouldn't be unreasonable to spend a few seasons to do so.
If it's just the last minute changes, no worries - I can go back to the previous one I had proposed.
@Pralix - the spell itself is a mcGruffin - it doesn't actually work: if St. Avery attempted to cast it, it would fail due to his non-holy-magic nature. Any Hermetic who learned it could cast it once, at which point they could never cast Hermetic magic again, (because doing so would be sinful) or else if they did the ward would immeidatley fail, and they couldn't cast it after that. As such, it's really just 6 level's worth of Integration points for Holy Magic. I can write it as "horribly successful gauntlet project" if you like on his character sheet, though. (For this reason, I also didn't consider it part of his 120 levels of spells.)
EDIT - this was the whole reason for why he's choosing to look at low-level, basic magics: his first attempt at a magnificent project failed horribly. (Technically it works, but it only worked once.) Note that this is a legit Integration (it's an actual Abjuration effect - Abjuration lvl 15 base effect, +1 Touch, +2 Circle/Ring - whoop, miswrote it in the above quote) - it just integrated everything about Holy magic, which includes "you have to be a Holy mage" - which he isn't.
EDIT II: Actually, I suppose a Holy mage could learn it. They'd have to Roll an 18+ on a Magic Theory roll to do so, though.
The numbers are in the post above; St. Avery can make a pretty crappy Rego or Vim summae in one season, at L5/Q11. He did one of each (for 2 seasons)
I was assuming a Scribe skill of 2+1, so Emily (his neice) could copy quickly, and make 3 in one season. (-1 quality, for a L5/Q10). She did this for 2 seasons (the season after he wrote them)
He also clarified 100 levels of lab text (His Latin is 4+1)
Emily's 3rd season was to copy 180 levels of those spells.
So, the seasonal activity was as follows:
Study at Duremar
Write a Rego summae (Emily sets up lab)
Write a Vim summae (Emily does 3 quick copies of Rego summae)
Clarify lab texts (Emily does 3 quick copies of Vim summae)
Study the local region for supernatural stuff (Emily copies lab texts)
Improve his lab
Technically this was 4 seasons of work for Emily in 6 seasons, which you didn't care for. No biggie - I can have Emily not set up the lab in season 2, and instead switch his season 6 to "Study one of the things he finds in Season 5" - it's not considered a lab activity.
Note that if we're using "Old Emily" (ie, the template from Covenents), then her Scribe skill is 5+1, rather than 2+1; so, she can do twice as much copying. I'd probably make it so her seasonal activities would be
Midway through Spring 1221, during one of the council meetings where the magi discuss the planning for the coming Tribunal, Cornelius informs the others that he was asked by Magvillus, the domus magnus of his House, to establish a mailbox near the covenant outside of the Aegis. A fixed arcane connection to the mailbox is to be sent to Magvillus, so that they can contact him quickly for assignments as part of his Quaesitorial duties.
"I would rather have you all be aware that the arcane connection exists, but I would prefer the mailbox to be left alone by our mundanes. Tempering with Quaesitorial correspondence would be a Low Crime in most Tribunals, so it is better for you all to know about it."
@ kevin: I apologize. I thought you had wanted to start at gauntlet with several books. I didn't realize those were the books you had written in 1220.
As for the spell, I still feel major uncomforable about it. No one has yet commented on your ideas for research, which is a shame. I dislike folk magic (because of the exotic systems it uses). Anything mainstream is fine with me (like second sight, enchanting music). So is any research project that will completely destabilize the order, as long as it takes several decades to accomplish and can be expressed in simple terms (stop aging, heal warping, ignore dominion auras): It would be something to keep the magi busy who will be incredibly powerful by then.
No worries. I'll add them back onto my character sheet, then.
Re: the spell itself: well, I can switch it to a standard Adjuration General ward (ie, a lvl 30 vim ward, basically) - which also won't work, if you like.
Just to be clear - are we talking about the same Folk Magic? The one I'm referencing is fully described in a small sidebar in The Sundered Eagle. (As opposed to the Hedge Magic book.) - or is it the fact that it's simply in TSE (and you'd prefer just straight core rulebook)? If so, OK.
The research I'm envisioning for him for the first 7 years would likely be entitled "the Folk Magic of Provencal" - and would include a number of minor breakthrough integrations - after which he would start in on something major: something like:
"no penetration required for Intelligo" (from Second Sight),
Non-fatiguing spontaneous Intelligo magic is now cast at TeFo/2+simple die roll, instead of /5. Fatiguing Intelligo spontaneous magic is now cast at base TeFo+stress die roll. (Integrating Premonitions and/or Way of the Land.)
"Instantaneous MuCo(An) can now be cast (by Integrating Shape shifter)
"Anyone (including non-Gifted) can cast Ceremonial Magic using Magic Lore instead of TeFo's" - (This was the long-term justification for integrating Folk Magic, actually. Power to the People!)
