Faerie Companion

Games Discussion Ars Magica
21

Sorry. I misinterpreted. I'd meant "turn to mortals" as a conscious choice, rather than having a peasant blunder in and stomp on the precious flower on midsummer's day.

Certainly. Specific Magi would be dead, but the Covenants likely survive or are remembered, and whilst his Code of Hermes might be inaccurate, he'll be able to make shrewd assumptions once he learns 50 years are past.

I meant the raven as an example of Fae/Magical knowledge by dint of nature. A raven who knows all in his domain is different from one who knows his domain well. One is a power, one is knowledge and bound by time and learning to change.

Someone theoretically intelligent who can't learn from mistakes. That's the current model for immortals. If you take a group of stoned people and introduce them to new people, then a fair few will forget who they are completely in 15 minutes time and be very happy to be reintroduced. My crude understanding of Alzheimers and senility (different issues, used her as simple, current examples, and not meant in any way to belittle them) is much like that - the little things of the present go away and you lose everything, regressing to a point in the past.

Hence my point about limits in level for practice sources. After tempting Peasants for 500 years, how many new gambits do you actually need? I agree, it's a real issue in the system, but it's one that I think needs a system-related fix rather than a setting-related one.

And having a dragon's knowledge bound up in his hoard is daft in my mind. Having items which remind him of events and are cherished, yes. Having some of his power be from items of power he's accumulated, yes. But having his hoard embody his knowledge, such that without the pile of jewels on the left he can't remember any theology is ... silly. (The Folk Ken, by the way, was an example of a skill increasing, not being gained ex nihilo)

I suspect, however, that we have two irreconcilable views on the separation of nature and knowledge. Still, we might find a happy medium somewhere.

22

Let's go back to the initial question: How to handle a companion with a Might Score.
Examples to NPCs are interesting but to be honset: The SG makes them the way they suit the story with ability scores that seem fit. If one of them reappear later, the SG may or may not grant them new or better abilities. Again: As it suits the story.

So it is all boiling down to the following question: What to do for a companion with a Might Score? I would propose five resulution each troup schould decide upon: (Keep in mind not to unbalance the setting nor the game)

  1. They are not allowed. (Fairly easy)

  2. Thye are created at some ponit with all the scores, Might Points and powers and do not change afterwards. However, they are able to remember those people they have met and the things they have gone through. Just unlike a human this does not result in gain of XP. This may seem strange but may suite some troups better. This way you cannot overpower the character by doing the same thing again and again as she remembers her fault and acts differently though she does not have a better understanding of the ability. This way the character can merely adjusts his knowledge but cannot improve.

  3. You generate a character with a Might Score as any other character and she gain XP as any other character. If you are playing a slowly evolving saga aging is no big issue anyway and game balance is not disturbed.

  4. Characters with Might Scores can learn new things just as any other characters. Instead of aging points this character accumulates points in some ability which finally demands her to leave play let's say for Arcadia or to become Queen of (insert season of your choice).

  5. I love the idea of Jarkman: Faeries gain XP or powers by being initiated into the new knowledge by elder faeries for whom the did some service. This holds a whole lot of potential stoies...

In our saga we introduced a faery smith as a companion. We ruled that she has a virtue similar to "True Faith" granting her 5 Migh Points (and an equally high magic resistance, just like true faith gives you a MR). Unlike True Faith this score cannot be improved (by gaining Faith points or having a relict), so we gave her the unaging virtue for free and a minor power which enables her to soften iron for expending one Might Point for as long as she is concentrating on it. As she is aging (having some human ancestor just like human can have faery blood) she is aging and can do new items. Thus, the game will not be unbalanced in the future, or so we hope. However, should this happen some day, we will have to discuss wether ot not this faery stays a player character. Turning an overpowered PC who threatens to unbalance the game into a NPC is a good option anyway.

23

I see this question from a different point of view.
First of all the player should determine the core concept of the fairie. E.g. she is a little fiddler.
Bookkeeping xp for a fairie sounds silly to me. I would handle experience similarly like reputation. When the character makes remarkable things she may get or lose powers, might or skill levels. BUT the new elements should never change her core concept. Sometimes that sacrifice thing can work, too, but this may change her concept.

24

Just generate the faerie companion like a normal companion (or Mythic companion if you wish) and allow XP as normal. Magical abilities and Might, however, should be tied to reputations and story events - rank within the local Fae court, attention and reverence to some focus representing the character, that sort of thing. And, of course, changes in rank and power should be reflected by changes in appearence and personality as the faerie is in part defined by that as well.

A faerie fiddler who becomes court musician to the local queen who becomes ambassador to the court of the dark fae (whose King loves music) who becomes an adopted member of the second court who begins to participate in the local wild hunt which gains a reputation for being beautiful as well as terrible who overthrows the dark king etc ...

Gaining Might should be hard, and something for all the covenant to be involved with at times.

25

I would actually prefer a different compromise. For me faeries and other immortals who grow into immortality learn hundreds of skills over the years but specialize. As they gain in power the knowledges that they no longer use fall by the wayside and are forgotten.

In game terms the higher the might the less the number of abilities the character can have, but those abilities can be as high in score as the player choses to take them. A faerie who increases in might enough to cause a drop in abilities would have the storyteller and the player sit down together and decide which of the abilities is least appropriate for the character, and that is forgotten.

The logic behind this is that a faerie companion tied to forests, as a youth travelled and experienced the world, seeing much and learning many skills. But as he grew older and more powerful he was drawn back tighter to his forest, and he forgot about some of the things beyond it. He forgot the layout of the streets of constantinople where he had spent a few years carousing, he forgot the mechanics of how to sail ships and he lost track of the prices of commodities he once helped trade in.

In game terms the player decides to drop area lore and profession related skills that are no longer in use. The faerie character has forgotten the detail and depth necessary to perform these skills, but will always have memories of having done them.

How exactly to set the balance I don't know what would be fair, that would need playtesting. But as a suggestion I would say that a creature with 100 might should have no more than 15 different abilities. Wheras a starting creature with 10 might would be able to have as many as they like. But along with the decreasing amount of abilities would be an increasing level of powers along with the might.

As for how might should be increased I would agree with others that it should be only by stories or by rituals/mysteries that were designed for that type of creature.

26

cough
This reminds me of some of the problems I have with Ars Magica's system of advancement.
I like that you need to get experience IN certain things, but that you can only increase one per season? It feels artificial and unnaturally constraining.
We ended up seperating Adventure experience. We only reward it in extraordinary circumstances, still (so it comes up maybe... once every 4-5 sessions? At best) and is always rewarded specifically to a given ability/art used.

It's still peculiar, for example, that you need to specifically practice Language and the (Area) Lore of your region. You can't even do little things on the side. I mean, heck, right now I'm learning Persian, Vietnam War Lore, Mission Viejo Lore, Driving, the modern equivalent of Artes Liberales...
Imagine the New Cult rules, you need to spend decades doing nothing but Practicing your new Cult Lore to get it up to 9. Nothing but.

Still, changing the rules can lead to hugely powerful mages at the end of a number of years, making any house rule regarding it a unanimous decision.

Back to the subject at hand, we're thinking she only gets to change her abilities whenever her story changes.

27

This is why I think a Mystery mechanic (even the Forest Path mechanics) work well for this. A Faerie Lord takes the place of the mystagogue and like a Forest Spirit effectively has a sufficient (Cult) Lore score in say "Bright Summer of the Black Forest Lore" or whatever to guarantee that the initiation script has a high enough total to automatically grant the required Virtue or "Gift" if the required "Sacrifice" and "Quest".

The actually "initiation script" in this sense is determined by the Troupe/Storyguide and presents difficulty, challenge and compromise with the reward at the end.

Eg. the faerie fiddler is sent to the court of the dark lord, accepts the "Quest" of the dark lord to encourage/inspire the work of a reknowned artist to create a beautiful melancholic and brooding masterpiece about the domain of the Dark Lord (Note the faerie inspires, but does not actually create) but must sacrifice both time and an integral part of himself (he must break the ancient fiddle, given to him by the Lady of Summer) as token of his allegiance to the dark lord and takes on. In return, the Dark Lord changes him to reflect his allegiance and nature, his body curves somewhat unnaturally into a poor mimic of a fiddle's shape and his colouration and demeanor become darker and more melancholy (perhaps equivalent to a Minor Flaw such as Disfigured) and a negative reputation as an "Inciter of Gloom" amongst the Faerie Courts etc (a Minor Flaw equivalent to Judged Unfairly etc). As part of this change, he gains the "Gift" of a small amount of power - +2 Might, equivalent to a Minor Mystery Virtue and 50 XP to spend on General Abilities associated with this theme - Music, Charm, Guile etc, itself equivalent to a Minor Virtue.

Other way to prevent the supraXP accumulation by this method is to require that Flaws gained by this process include loss of XP from Abilities counter to the theme of the Quest. In the above example, the fiddler may lose say Academic skills as his nature shifts to focus on more General skills - I think the Divine Gloom rules for Divine Mythic Companions are an example of this. The character approaches perfection in one area but starts losing touch with the profane/mundane world and skills dealing with that "aspect" of his being atrophy accordingly. The result is that you can have a Companion with a fair amount of XP up to a point but then you just start shuffling XP around into a specific focus and have little ability outside this focus - sort of like what was mentioned above about learning and forgetting what isn't used but in this scenario, the sacrifice of these XP/Abilities allows the development/transformation into other ones.

Advantages:

  1. Faerie Companions can gain Might/Abilities but their advancement is heavily Story driven, not Study driven and under the control of the Storyguide/Troupe, creating many interesting Story Hooks/Saga Ideas depending on the "initiation script".

  2. Use of existing available mechanics without building another sub-system into the already complicated ArM5 system.

  3. The potential for "self-initiation" is there, but very difficult (particularly if you rule such a companion can't learn / gain XP).

Just my thoughts.

Lachie

PS IIRC, as Nephilim age (and simultaneously gain Might) they stop learning once they reach a certain point but I can't remember the specifics. Sort of suggests there's a threshold of power / point at which the link with humanity is lost when learning ability stalls.

28

That's mostly how I'd do it, yes. The Hellboy Mystery option as explained by Jarkman.

This could be simulated by having a "maximum total XP" cap, as well as probably a "maximum skill" cap (for game balance only).

And this would be very playable. They'd use the same rules as other players for advancment, without infinite knowledge problems.

29

I'd never quite thought of it this way but yes, the Hellboy Mystery option!

I like it.

Thanks for the nod.

Lachie

30

I have to agree with Fhtagn, really.
Now, some things I can see being static... your physical abilities, for instance. However, if you can't increase your Lores, then how the hell are you learning new names? Do you forget the names of everyone new you meet as soon as you're seperate from them?
Though, frankly, this may be possible for all I know. ;D If it weren't for the fact that faeries have such very long memories.

I might also amend that faeries change not just because of the Court, but because of human actions (indeed, are humans not required for every change that occurs with a fairy? I also haven't seen any evidence that all faeries belong to a court (given the inconsistent nature of the stories, go figure.)

31

This is true, but most minor Faeries will have a relationship with a higher powered figure, so the "initiation" style mechanic still stands - take the Forest Paths as an example (although they're Magic the same principle holds).

Self inititation would be possible but likely harder - requiring human contact to catalyse the changing process.

Cheers,

Lachie

32

I should think a human is required for every change, it's mentioned on page 187.

33

Yes, I agree but I was specifically saying a Faerie should be able to change through human contact alone, rather than always needing a higher Faerie power. Faeries are in some ways a response to human stories and should be able to be engendered/increased through human activity alone.

A faerie changing with the assistance of a Faerie power still requires some form of mandatory human intervention/contact as part of the "Quest".

Lachie

PS this is a very interesting thread.

34

This would follow
And evidently it is! 3 pages, not bad.

An interesting sort of quest would be becoming a Changeling. Imagine getting your friends at the Covenant to agree to that. ;D
Or seek forgiveness instead of asking permission...
Baby left on doorstep, note reads: "Hey, I'm going to be busy for a while. Keep the kid fed and watered and give him good soil or whatever you humans need."