Francisco DeFay (development)

Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Light of Andorra
1

Franciso was the child of a Moorish woman, who converted to Christianity to marry a Catholic knight. For many years she had trouble conceiving a child, until finally she went to a dwarven jewler, who traded her for a necklace that would ensure she would conceive and bear a child- however when the child was born he was clearly of strong faerie blood. His father was convinced his wife had been unfaithfull and his mother, with no family willing to recognize her after her conversion, fled to the faerie forest, where she raised him until recently. It was only when she felt she was in danger of becoming faerie that she fled the faerie forest, and as she lay near death told her son to seek out the magi in Andorra, since it would be difficult for him to be accepted in human lands, and given his age at best he could hope for an apprenticeship in a craft he had already mastered.

Int 0
Pre 2
Str -2
Dex 5
Per 0
Com 3
Sta -2
Quick 0

Flaws
faerie upbringing(minor -1)
faerie friend(minor -1)
proud(major -3)
outsider(major -3)
cursed guile(minor -1)
uncertain faith(minor -1)

Virtues
free expression(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
strong faerie blood(major +3) - dwarf
affinity with craft(minor +1)
puissant craft(minor +1)
mild aging(minor +1)
jack of all trades(minor +1)
faerie background(free +0)

Abilities
Leonese 5
area lore -faerie forest 2
survival 3
guile 2
faerie lore 3
craft -woodworking 7+3
wood affinity 2

2

Why did his mother tell him to seek out Andorra? What is her connection here?

3

At first glance:

Pre 2 (3) + Dex 5 (6) + Com 3 (6) = 15 pts
Str -2 (-3) + Sta -2 (-3) = -6 pts

He's at 9 characteristic points, unless I missed something.

Also, there's something wrong with his abilities. What age is he??? He has absolutely no outdoor skill, no awareness, despite having lived in the forest, and an insane level of woodworking, despite having no training.
He should have more abilities, more childhood abilities also (in that they are useful to him and he shoudl have developed them)

What's wood affinity?

Gotta fgooooooooooooo!

4

It is quite a treck from Leon to Andorra. Why Leon? Wouldn0t it be easier to be nearer? And to talk a more local language like Catalan? There is plenty of Muslims in that frontier too :slight_smile:

5

I worked on this character, walked away, came back, apparently thought I had finished characteristics when I had not.
Survival is an outdoor skill...
he is 12, and doesn't know how his mother had heard of the covenant, but he is pretty sure she had never been there, and had only heard of it secondhand, or possibly more removed. It may have been almost mythologized to her.

The woodworking skill is also doubly significant for his background, in that not only was he devoid of human companionship aside from his mother and it was something he was good at (with wood being a plentiful resource) given his virtue of free expression he can also change a faerie's glamor with woodworking, whether in bas relief or sculpture. Given where he was, that was a major incentive to get really good at working wood.

wood affinity is his positive faerie affinity, with some experience pumped into it.

6

The word Duende is a catch all term in Spanish & Portuguese for dwarf/brownie like faeries. I do not know what the Catalan term would be.
I am still leery about the plausibility of the mother telling the kid to go to Andorra when it is so far away and has no obvious connection.
Unless you were told to seek the help of a Merinita magus who no longer resides here (and hasn't for generations).

7

Catalan word would be "follet". "Nan" would be "dwarf"

8

Being sent to a Merinita maga would work fine, probably one she heard of second hand through a faerie who had know the woman. The faerie may have had a poor sense of the passage of time...

Age 12
Characteristics
Int 0
Pre 2
Str -2
Dex 5
Per 1
Com 2
Sta -2
Quick 0

Virtues
free expression(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
strong faerie blood(major +3)
affinity with craft(minor +1)
puissant craft(minor +1)
mild aging(minor +1)
jack of all trades(minor +1)
faerie background(free +0)

Flaws
faerie upbringing(minor -1)
faerie friend(minor -1)
proud(major -3)
outsider(major -3)
cursed guile(minor -1)
uncertain faith(minor -1)

Abilities
Catalan 5
area lore -faerie forest 2
survival 3
guile 2
faerie lore 3
craft -woodworking 7+3
wood affinity 2

9

There is too little information to make an accurate judgment. What is the age? The abilities are a bit to, um, few? And skewed. I would prefer a character a little more plausible and rounded.

10

As I said, he is 12 years old. I understand what you are saying, but I can't see what other skills make sense for his background- yes he is very focused, but he has been living with faeries who can only improve a pretense when someone of equal or greater skill improved the same skill, so for example the faerie woodsman (puts in an appearance at the end of little red riding hood) probably encouraged him to improve his skill even when it was already exceptional...

11

Maybe his background is not viable. And at age 12, his scores cannot be that high. And age 12 is not a good fit for a companion character. And this saga is not too keenly focused on faeries. And there are too many "and"s going on here.
Perhaps maybe put this guy back in the idea hopper and try something else? :smiley:

12

Ok, characteristics are OK... For an adult. Serf's parma, but at age 12, I believe his characteristics are lowered. Unless this is countered by Mild Aging? I don't remember what this one does.

And I understand woodworking is important to him, yet, at age 12, a skill of 7... even with an affinity, this seems too much. Rules-wise, he can, it just seems hard to believe, so you should really, really work on a background that explains such insane dedication.

This is a child that lived in a forest, and he has no awareness, no athletics, no stealth, no outdoor skill at all save survival? Even if his mother did most of the legwork, I have trouble believing it. He looks more like the child of a master craftsman who chained his son to work and trained him from an early age while depriving him of any and all childhood.

Look above for the skills. Given his background, he should have some of these.

Hum...
To gain a woodworking score of 7 plus to develop the affinity (I'm putting the two under the same bag, since they stem from the same focus) requires 109XP (94 + 15).
Add to that the fact that he can only have picked up Faerie Lore as exposure while chained practicing Woodworking for the faerie, this becomes 139XP. Hell, how did he even increase his guile, if not as exposure with the faeries?

This means, over 7 year, almost 20XP per year. So:

  1. Unless Mild aging gives him more XP than usual, his score is waaaay of.
  2. Assuming it does give you a lump 50XP, this still means about 90% of his total XP, which I could bring myself to believe as faerie slavery (but then, how did he escape? Why did his mother allow this? You need to redesign his background)... But then, he has unnassigned experience.

Something seems off here. IMO? you could redesign him as a young man, let woodworking as it is and give him other, outdoor skills.

13

Yes, 12-year-olds take a -1 to all Characteristics (main rule book, p. 29). Characters under 30 have a maximum Ability score of 5 (ibid, p. 31), although an Affinity with the ability allows them to exceed their age-based cap by 2 (ibid, p. 40).

14

The woodworking is a multi-leveled reason-

being raised amongst the fae, woodworking gives abilities it does not normally have-
1)the ability to train fae by training himself (fae gain experience following someone with an ability equal to or higher than their experience who is learning the skill, so by doing 'independent research' he is allowing fae following him to develop this ability.
2) the ability to reshape faeries- they will have to sacrifice some pretenses, but with an ability of 7+3 with a dx of 5 he has a total of 5+10+3 (free expression)+die roll to effect changes in a faerie's glamour. His faerie friend is someone I saw as being a faerie he reshaped repeatedly growing up, before he even realized what he was doing...

So if I add some athletics, stealth and awareness to bring him up to 14... (BTW, with affinity it only costs 95 xp to reach ability level 7...):

Catalan 5
area lore -faerie forest 2
survival 3
guile 2
faerie lore 3
craft -woodworking 7+3
wood affinity 2
stealth 2
athletics 2
awareness 1
carouse 1

Or I can go with a different concept if we don't want to get this far into faerie. Perhaps a weaponsmith who is touched by magic?

15

this SG does not have the faerie book, so you are dependent on the other players for their knowledge. If you can fiddle around enough to make Fixerand Peregrine satisfied, then so be it.
I would also feel more comfortable if you made him a little older and spread out his abilities. A 12 year old refuge on our doorstep is more than likely going to get taken to an orphanage or monastery.

16

That’s better! :smiley:

Yes (94, actually), but, as I said , he's also got a Sympathy with Wood at lvl 5 (15 XP). IMO, this goes right along with woodworking, as he also spent time practicing and increasing it. Thus the 109XP :wink:

Add the 30XP in Faerie Lore, and you've got 139XP he could only have gained through this whole “the faerie and me” deal.

I now realize I forgot the Andorra HR on characters XP (my bad), so the situation is not as dire as I first thought (Please, next time, correct me, as I could have missed this), as he gains 20XP per year of later life..
So, he should have 45XP for childhood abilities, plus (14-5)*20 = 180XP from later life.

Catalan 5 => Free
area lore -faerie forest 2 => Free (Marko HR)
survival 3 => Say, childhood
guile 2 => Say, childhood
faerie lore 3 => 30xp
craft -woodworking 7+3 => 94 xp. Let’s say 95
Faerie Sympathy* with wood 2 => 15xp
stealth 2 => 15xp
athletics 2 => 15xp
awareness 1 => 05 xp
carouse 1 => 05xp

So, for later life, that’s a total of 180XP. This is good :smiley:.

Now, a little more of 61% of his XP (110xp) directly applies to woodworking (the craft and the sympathy).
Do you really think that, unless forced to, a little boy would have spent so much time actively practicing his skill at woodworking? Not crafting a few things, but actively working to increase his skill?
But wait!
If we add Faerie Lore, that becomes almost 78% of his XP that’s directly related to him spending time with the faerie, like a boy training in a workshop would also have gained other, related skills in it, if only through exposure. Does this seem reasonable to you?

I can see a character being that focused, but, to me, this doesn’t go well with the kind of “free” childhood you describe. This sounds more like “this boy was actively trained by a professional from a very young age”. I won’t bother you with it, it’s your character, but IMO, his skills and background don’t reflect each other very well.

Oh, also, just like with Fleur, you forgot the skill specialties. I really advise you to write some: 1 more point is not negligible, and is a nice way to customize a character. You also should write his negative sympathy, even if it's at -0, as it can change over time.

  • please, could you use the right terms? it’ll avoid a lot of confusion, especially as Ars sometimes has virtues/flaws/skills that have similar names T-T
17

Characteristics
Int 0 Per 1
Pre 2 Com 2
Str -2 Sta -2
Dex 5 Quick 0

Flaws
faerie upbringing(minor -1)
faerie friend(minor -1)
proud(major -3)
outsider(major -3)
cursed guile(minor -1)
uncertain faith(minor -1)

Virtues
free expression(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
great dex(minor +1)
strong faerie blood(major +3)
affinity with craft(minor +1)
puissant craft(minor +1)
mild aging(minor +1)
jack of all trades(minor +1)
faerie background(free +0)

Abilities
Catalan 5
area lore -faerie forest 2
survival 3
guile 2
faerie lore 3
craft -woodworking 7+3
Faerie Sympathy -wood 2
stealth 2
athletics 2
awareness 1
carouse 1
Faerie Antipathy -theft 0

18

:open_mouth:
Is this even kosher?
I am placing the entire thing in Fixer's hands. I am not sure of the rules you are using. Follow Fixer's directions, and if he gives the okay, then I am good to go.

19

I keep I it spreadsheet as a 10 for ease, but it is really 7+3 (affinity allows ability 7, +2 puissance, +1 dwarven blood)

20

I feel better now :smiley:
Remember to notate that. Your max ability score is 5, adjusted b Affinity to 7. Even if effectively 10 when you use it, when teaching the score is still considered 7. Meaning you cannot teach someone with a score of 8 even though you are effectively better than they are.