I agree that we should avoid turning the school into a source of teaching for covenant members. It is indeed a hook, not a source of income nor a boon.
We could have additionnal teachers already, without them being able to add additional students to their classes. For example, if they only have a Teaching score of 2 or 3, then they can only teach 10 or 15 students at a time. If it just happens to be the number of students currently coming to the school, then that would be that. It would also mean that the current teachers are not very good, and that we'll need to invest efforts in either them getting better, or hiring better ones. Even one additional teacher would allow us to have the equivalent of 3 seasons per year covered (1 from Christophoros and 2 from the other teacher) for a full teaching year (September to June).
We could also push this farther, having 2 other teachers being trained by Christophoros (his yearly season of work) for part of the year and teaching for the rest of the year. That way, Christophoros would not be teaching the students directly, but rather working at improving the capabilities of the teachers on top of managing the school. That would avoid having Christophoros teaching students 1 season a year, when his capable teaching would allow more students to be added.
Those were the numbers I needed. What may have confused Arthur is that I type MuTe when I meant ReTe.
So with a 10% loss rate I could do it now. Or when I get 2 more points of Finesse, I could do it with only the risk of Botches.
If the casting level is 5 for each of the 78 casting, I can do that without any spell botches, only finesse failures / botches.
Sorry to quote at length, but I wanted to be clear that I really like all the pieces of this. Have some mediocre teachers, and have our expert turn them into good teachers.
What I would like to do is make an adventure out of Christopheros going to recruit the initial teachers, from there we will have a good idea as to number and quality and can handle their advancement as NPC's in the background. Since he is teaching I the spring that can be done in the summer or fall.
I could live with that, although it dos mean that Christophoros would be essentially working 2 seasons for the school this year. How would you see the "story" happening? From my perspective, he would first write some letters to publicize the opening of the school amongst teachers of the region, then visit those would might be interested.
How many he would hire depends on how many students there is to be in the school, and how much money the magi are ready to invest in this. Personally, I think that a ratio of 1 teacher for each 10 students is reasonable. Considering that they teach only 2 seasons per year and that each teacher probably specialize in a specific subject, having 2 additional teachers (at first) mean that the school could support about 20 students. Then, if the magi want to plan some additional room for themselves, apprentices, companions and specialists to receive additional teaching, then additional teachers would have to be hired.
EDIT: Since he has Social Contacts (academics), locating a fair number of potential teachers shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
Some of this will be your responsibility as headmaster to determine. I'm assuming the school has an operating budget independent of what might be allocated by the covenant of 1/5 of a mythic pound per student for 2 seasons of study, so a teacher with 10 students will give the school an income of 2 pounds, though the students will need to be attracted as well, you can't simply hire 20 teachers and expect a 40 pound/yr income. Your class in the first season was packed to your capacity to teach with a waiting list of at least 20. (so at least 45 students interested at that point in time)
as for time usage, I will assume you wrote letters in the spring, and will set up a thread for interviews in the summer, which should take less than 10 days and be handled in Patras.
If my merchant was going to go do some trading, what are typical times in 1222 for a trading voyage to various places? Venice, Alexandria, and somewhere on the Spanish or French Mediterranean coasts would give me a sense of what his choices are? Thanks.
As written your character would not be able to make such journeys on his own- he is a merchant yes, and probably a traveling one, with a specializationin markets- markets in the middle ages are not like the markets of today, it refers to an event, not pricing trends. Which means your character is one who travels from market to market within a fairly small geographical area buying and selling goods- he is good enough at it to only have to work one (nominal) season a year (considering most markets are only open one day a week and most on sunday this season is likely spread over the entire year.)
If you are wanting to transform the character into a merchant adventurer this will require either accumulating a great deal of funds or a backer.
As things currently stand you have an income of 20 pounds of silver a year above business expenses, and earn 36 labor points per year as a merchant- all of which are necessary towards the maintenance of your business. If you raise your merchant ability by 1 it will provide 6 additional labor points per year which can be invested into expanding your business interests.
If you find a backer then the season you would want to go on a trading adventure in would depend heavily on what sort of merchandise you are wanting to trade in, as would your destination.
Like I tried to explain during character creation, social status virtues for merchants are very important, as they define the level of trade that they do. If we change your merchant specialization to something like spices then you could easily be the lead in a regular spice route. I also notice you are at 9 and 9 for virtues and flaws, if you want to add "employed by a company" as a minor flaw (or any other minor flaw you prefer) and increase your social status to "merchant adventurer" that would allow more of the stories that I think you are looking for.
Could the "company" be the family business run by his father?
I did not want to specialize in a particular kind of good, because I was hoping he would be useful to the covenant over time.
I am also more than happy to work towards raising his "merchant" ability, but I can not find that skill in his list. When I looked, it did not look like Merchant was a profession, but rather just a social status. So I am confused.
I was looking at merchant lore- my field width made it look like a merchant ability, which should (looking again) be bargain- which means you would have 72 labor points a year, 36 of which would be required to maintain the business..
A company is a large organization, not simply one owned by a single family- they are essentially the early version of corporations. The other suggested flaw for merchant adventurers is favors, to represent what you owe to the creditors who have invested in your venture. This would also, I should point out, raise your individual income to 100 pounds per year.
Even if you don't want to specialize in a commodity, I would recommend some other focus than markets, given the nature of what that means- perhaps speculation or long distant trade..
I'm sure that the covenant as a whole would be interested in being an investor in that company. It's always a good idea to look for more sources of income, and to diversify.
Yes, it is spelled out in cities and guild. If you work for a company you get a salary instead of profit from your trade, or with a smaller cut of the profit, but it is less risky. You also do not need to keep track of labor points if you work for a company...
Still here by the way. Just wanted to let everyone know I haven't disappeared or anything. Still trying to figure out something for Iosif to do in his one season I haven't figured out yet.
I will try to get something editted in today. I will mark one season as "working", and leave the details for later years when I have had a chance to read C&G carefully.
While I do not consider the numbers in seasonal activities thread to be official advancement totals, one thing did jump out at me-
Joel, hoes does studying leadership with family net you 7 xp?
I was not sure what number should be marked for the study experience for either character. I therefore simply copied numbers that seemed to be used on several companions and gold-shirt grogs. If there is a reason I missed that differentiates them, and I should use a smaller number, I am happy to do so.
(My reading would in fact have been 5, if it were not for seeing the 7s.)
Practicing a language in a community where it is the native tongue: SQ of 8 until your score reaches 5, SQ 4 after that.
Practicing Area Lore by traveling around or living in the area: SQ of 5 (living there while working) to 7 (using a free season or working as a messenger in the area)
Practice a trade or craft in an environment with immediate feedback: SQ of 5
Practicing a spell for mastery by casting it repeatedly: SQ of 5
