Domus Parva 790 A.D. - alternate setting

[Heaven_s_Thunder_Ham (Heaven's Thunder Hammer)]

@Argentarium

@Heaven's Thunder Hammer

Interesting ideas it sounds like I was definitely an inspiration so thanks for the mention. Did you just read the one thread of mine or did you hunt down my other posts on this topic in other threads?

Hello HTH!
Yes, I dug a few of your posts, looking especially for the ones about the general setting. Then I got carried away by researching and writing for the new campaign (and I wrote a lot), but I'm sure there is more stuff I still have to find.
Actually I have had the idea of an early Order setting since the 90s. A setting where the Magi were less powerful and more peculiar, the companions more useful, and the Order was much less organized and much more of a mixed blessing for its members.
So when I decided to actually make it real I came to the forum specifically looking for early Order settings that could give me some ideas. I expected to find many, but actually I only found yours. Your posts gave me more than a few inputs, though, both by you and by the other guys, so thank you. I also found somewhat useful the last issue of Sub Rosa (n.16), although not as much as I had hoped.

Anyway, I will post more details next week, I think.
See you around, Hammer

Cool!

The one thread that really ended up defining my campaign was this one, where I decided that the pre history of the order was completely different than canon. I

The Pre-History of the Order is a lie - What is the truth?

In my original thread The History of the Order is a lie. What is the , I asked: And got one answer that has really been rattling around in my head below that I want to use specifically for my game since it is currently in 801AD, not 1220: So. Suppose that the Order of Hermes is fact built not on the ruins of the Cult of Mercury, but in fact built on the pillars of smaller magical orders that were more specialized and likely did not have a fully unified theory of magic, but did have Parma Mag…

Here's all my other threads/ posts I made that were related to my game, I'm guessing most of which you've read.

Queasitor Powers

Quaesitor's Powers Pre Schism War?

In either True Lineages, the Core book, or some other book... There is a mention of something to the effect of "the Quaesitors were given new investigative powers they previously did not have in order to avoid another schism war." Exactly what might these "new" and now standard investigative powers be? It counts, because I'm running a game in 801, and while I think I figured this out before (likely decided something myself and never wrote it down), I can't for the life of me find it. Any sugge…

Orphanages:

Establishing Orphanages?

So, in the early history of the OoH game I'm running (currently 801 AD ) the PCs made a deal with a saint for some help they needed. In exchange, the saint asked the PCs to establish orphanages in the pentarchy: Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome. They'll have to find someone trustworthy to actually directly manage the orphanages, rent/lease/buy land, may have to repair and fix up buildings, and then arrange for funds to be regularly delivered. What I'm kind of sketchy on i…

I also got some ideas from this thread: "The History of the Order is a Lie, what is the Truth?"

The History of the Order is a lie. What is the

Brandon, Korina and Sebastien please don't read any further. As the topic title says, suppose the history of the Order of Hermes by 1220, as presented in the rule book is at best, propaganda, and is mostly outright fabrications. What is the "true" history of the Order of Hermes to you in this scenario?

Asking about Pre Schism War experiences from other players:

So has anyone run a pre-schism war game?

I'm tempted to run a very different kind of Ars Magica game. The game would start around the late 780s, where the PCs are some of the first apprentices of the founder's apprentices. The game would be reasonably fast paced and likely political, where they shape the future of the Order and also start changing mundane history. No worrying about "why hasn't the Order nuked history as we know it?" because the PCs will get to do that. I've spent the last two hours searching through threads and found …

Here's how I ran the grand tribunal of 784:

Grand Tribunal 784?

Brandon, Korina and Sebastien please don't read. Hi All. I'm running a game set in the very early days of the Order of Hermes. The first four adventures have been the PCs in various stages of their apprenticeship and solving problems for their Maters/Paters. (Some of the local faeries will only deal with children or virgins.) The sessions have been good but now they will be graduating. The point of running a game this early on was that the PCs can change Hermetic or Mundane history, and that su…

Goals of the Titanoi

Goals of the Titanoi?

I have a player in my current tabletop game who wants to join the Titanoi Mystery cult - yes his PC is Tytalus. He was reading the book HoH:Societates - nice to see player interest. That said, I hadn't thought about it much. I read the section and other than getting the sense it was an actual religion of Pagan worship, what else? Here's the catch, I'm running a early order game int he 790s, so the ORIGINAL goals of the cult pre-schism war are important. I figure it should dovetail into Diaboli…

Here's some of my standard advice I've given to some people who PMed about running early OoH games from my experiences:

I didn't make a lot of changes at first because I wanted to see just how much mythic europe would change with powerful wizards using the majority of the corebook. In hindsight I should have nerfed things right out of the gate. I did nerf:

i. longevity rituals (half as effective) - most of the founders did not live very long.
ii. removed pretty much all MuVi meta magic
iii. No Stat boosting rituals for CrCo, CrMe
iv. No hermetic books since vis is so plentiful - western Europe at this point had very few literate people and book making skills are hard to come by.
v. few spells are written up, so the PCs have to invent just about anything of interest
vi. Any time a player thinks up something that is too powerful, or uses some obnoxious part of the rule set, I've nerfed it. I think it's a good policy. This is the beginning of the Order, I was very upfront with them that I would be nerfing the rules as written, but was not completely sure where I'd start.

Here's what I think definitely needs to be nerfed, possibly in addition to the above:
i.) A flat +1 or +2 magnitude to all spell levels to reflect the lack of refinement of the magic of the order of hermes. These can be removed slowly over time with major (for a form) or minor discoveries (for a technique/form combination)
ii.) No, or at least very few Major Hermetic virtues for characters not part of a mystery cult. These virtues represent a deeper understanding of the arts that just shouldn't exist in the 700s and represent various half integrated major discoveries.
iii.) throw out a few things from the range/duration/target table that don't affect iconic "magic" spells in the game. (i.e.Room as a target, diameter duration, maybe even sight range)
iv.) Most of the the various Vim spells represent a minor discovery of some sort, especially Muto Vim.

It sounds like you've come up with your own solutions to the 1200s level power that causes narrative imbalances in what wizards can do in the setting, so that's good.