General Table Talk

My experience with PbP Ars Magica games is that as the number of players involved in a specific story rises, the slower that story gets. Council meetings are hard to do well as they tend to drag on for many weeks before things are resolved and decisions made.

That is why I am in favour of stories with a limited number of PCs involved - 2 or 3 seem optimal. Single-player stories also work great in PbP, though that puts a bit more load on the storyguide for that specific story. Having short interventions by other players can add some variety to such stories, but you need to be careful not to let others occupy too great a place in the story.

That is also why I will not jump in the Ancient Discovery story, even to run grogs. It has already more than enough players involved in it.

I'm sure that is correct. I know it is for table roleplaying as well.

Which reminds me: Is there a thread with an updated list of all the current players and their characters? That would really help me. It's quite tricky to jump in like this.

It's fine if all previous players and characters are listed as well, as long as one can see who is current and who is historical.

http://andorra.wikidot.com/magi

Unfortunately, it doesn't have the name of the players. But I think it is pretty current.

What I find works well is having concurrent stories with a few players in each, possibly with different characters to prevent running into continuity issues.

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The thread "Players and Fortune" mentions both players and characters, but I dont know how updated it is, plus it probably doesn't mention who is still active and who is not.

This post has the most current list that I have made.

  • Carmen of Flambeau is played by myself (Markoko), and is treated more as a background NPC.
  • Arachne Ex-Miscellanea is played by The Fixer. He has been busy and mainly sticks to slow solo stories he crafts as SG.
  • Solomon of Gurnicus is Prince of Boredom
  • Vocis of Tremere is played by Iron Bound Tome
  • Vibria of Flambeau is played by Peregrine of Bjornaer
    *Lucus of Mercere is palyed by Trogdor, who has been mia (I pray he is well).
  • Roberto of Flambeau is played by Marko Markoko
  • Fleur of Bonisagus is Silveroak
  • Acutus of Bjornaer is Prince of Boredom
  • Guiverna Ex-Miscelllanea is Peregrine of Bjornaer
  • The Woad of Flambeau is Christian Andersen
  • Marcellus of Verditius is Arthur
  • Ikelos of Criamon is Jebrick
  • Edith of Flambeau is Markoko
  • Micaela of Tremere is Iron Bound Tome
  • Clotide filia Fleur is Silveroak
  • Lucien filius Carmen is Iron Bound Tome
  • Gabriel filius Solomon is Prince of Boredom.

18 magi. Not bad.

Is there a similar list for the grogs and companions?

That i lost track of. But the important count is players. We have 9.

You mean Clotide Filia Vocis?

mmmmMaybe...
Which one is Feur's apprentice? I know her vullgar name is Belladona, she is the sister of Edith.They are (were) both teenage mothers of the sons of Vulcanus.
There may be some missing and mistaken details. But I think I have a good grasp of players

  • The Fixer
  • Peregrine of Bjornaer
  • Silveroak
  • Prince of Boredom
  • Xavier
  • Jebrick
  • Arthur
  • Iron Bound Tome
  • Christian
  • Trogdor
  • Marko Markoko

And I think that is everyone. Please forgive me if I forgot any names!
There are also "Oracles" and past players welcome to join at any time.

  • Jarkman
  • Jonathan Link
  • Ken K
  • Andrew
  • Names I forget

There are others that have been part of this that I might consider. And there are a few that are not welcome back. No names needed.

Honestly, it is quite rare to have this many active players. But the constant flux and flow has been what has kept this saga alive through the years.

And this is exactly why I need assistant storyguides, and why I defer to troupe discretion. I cannot run this by myself. It is bigger than me. It is virtually impossible to jam everyone into the same story. I tried that with the City of Brass and I couldn't do it justice, and it flopped.

One thing I hinted at was perhaps splitting Sa Dragonera off into a separate covenant. But the players of the characters there are so heavily invested in what is going on here, that this is impractical.

And this may seem counter intuitive, but allowing players to operate multiple characters is actually helpful. If a player has one character that is mired in a slow story, they can stay engaged with a different character. Peregrine is a great example. He has a senior maga, Vibria, and when she is tangled up in something serious, he can play in another story using Guiverna.

The multi-thread system evolved from ideas learned from Jonathan Link in his Birbracte/Mons Electi saga. Fixer, Peregrine, and Jebrick were with me in that one. Fixer and Jebrick knew me from Novus Mane, where I created Roberto. There was talk of using Roberto as an NPC and I asked "Hey! Let me play him." I was sort of invited, and I sort of barged in and imposed myself. I can be a tool sometimes :slight_smile:

To make a point, there is not one set absolute way that this saga is supposed to run. I am open to ideas to improve the system and suggestions on how to fix the problems that arise. Several of you guys are veteran PbP gamers on these forums, a few of you are legendary SG of several sagas! I have only played in two others, and this is the only one I have run as ASG.

I'd also be happy to run something. Long time roleplayer and ArM storyguide, but this is my first PbP. It's difficult to come into an ongoing saga, but by and by I'm getting a grasp of things.
Whatever I run had better be something fairly unconnected to the stuff I know nothing about. Or pick up some loose end, where it doesn't matter where and how it ends.
And if I can be picky, I'd prefer to not have too many players. Around a table I could manage a dozen, but I might drown in posts here.

Micaela of Tremere is probably "retired" as she left the covenant when completing her gauntlet.

I have an idea for a short adventure, but first I want to play a pair of adventures myself to get the feel of the saga.

(Wouldn't that be Summer of 1244, then? Or is Winter 1244 the beginning of 1245 and I'm a year off in my stuff?)

Since we found the owlbear tracks in Autumn of 1244 I think summer of 45 would be about right.

After gruagachan, I knew I needed to make a descendant of Marcellus... He was a gruagach before his time.

Agreed.
Especially if real life gets in. I though I could get back to ars, at least 1/week, and it's been at least 10 freaking since I've come here.
Roberto's story hasn't suffered because of it, but in a story with multiple players, I would have bogged everyone down.

In another forum I have played there is a rule: if you do not post in X days (decided by the SG) your character is assumed to be frozen for the round (if in action) or to have said something inappropriate if he/she needs to interact in a social situation. Whoever posts next (SG or player) can take control of your character and posts whatever you do. It helps to prevent those blocks you are referring.

X tends to be between 2 and 7 days, usually 3

Hi all - as noted, I'm finding it very difficult to respond in a timely manner at present - thank you to MM for stepping in. My apologies to everyone. Real life issues that I hope will settle.
Thank you, IBT

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No worries. Return to us whenever you can whenever you wish.
I just hope I am playing Vocis correctly. I know someone else created the character, but in my mind it is your design. Kind of like in comics or sci-fi. Peter David did not invent the Hulk or the Q. But his versions of these characters are quintessential.

Last night I had an Ars dream. Roberto was telling a story about about Andorra being in a contest with two or three other covenants to try to find and retrieve something in the Normandy Tribunal. The story came complete with a Raider's-esque map. They had the coordinates (which, I know, is post-period, but still). Andorra had ten years' worth of wheat and they came up through Spain and the Pyrenees instead of straight into France from the Mediterranean like the other two. And because (using dream science) wheat doesn't freeze, Andorra had to press on instead of stay for the winter.

I woke up before I got any resolution to the adventure. I think I might have been Vibria for a good part of the dream, but I do remember my real-dream self thinking I should post "Vibria sits there riveted by the story."

So. Yeah. I'm still weird.

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