An amusing prospect, though it leaves the idea of those darn Arab Sahir and how they might be meddling. Meh. Hedgies. Ludovico wins. All Your Genies Are Belong To Us.
I'm going to Qatar. Which isn't at all the 'kicking in doors and searching for bad-men' situation that you may be imagining. My skill-set is as a more organizational/command & control type of person so I tend to work in command centers and the like. Honestly unless you are in a job/position where the military directly expects you to be in a fight, they don't spend a great deal of effort on trying to train you in combative skills. My fighting ability is more from my personal interest and training in martial arts. ( Kung Fu, for the win, every time. )
Ah, but Afghanis are not Arab or even Semites. They are Aryans (the original meaning, not the Hitler tainted meaning). The Hedge Magic of Adghanistan would probably e based on something entirely different.
However, Osama is indeed Arab, and perhaps could be a Sahir.
I do think Marco Polo traveled through Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan & India (& Pakistan) on his way to China; an event which is only 40 years or so away in the future from the year 1225. Persians (Iranians) are also not Arab. Iran is the Farsi pronounciation of "Aryan". Which thus leads me back to contradict my earlier statement, as I do think Persian scholarship and philosophy greatly influenced the development of Arab culture (and I think the concept of the Jinn has a Persian rather than an Arab origin).
Y'know, the Silk Road of the 13th Century would make for an interesting adventure
Can't say that I can Arya. However if you have an effect in question, feel free to ask and I'm sure we can help I honestly only really know the more 'combat' oriented stuff...
"The Road to Cathay" was a Saga concept I worked on a few years back. Figured to start out from the Normandy Tribunal and work all the way across the Levant, through Persia, Kwarizim (Afghanisatna/Pakistan; a major center of trade and learning up until, oh, a few years before the current Saga; right now, it's in the midst of the Mongol Catastrophe) and up into China. Due to the Mongols, as mentioned, I figured it best to work starting in around 1170 or so.
Marco Polo had help FROM the Mongols, but that was after the Kublai Khan had stabilised the region, more-or-less. For those interested, check out "In the Footsteps of Marco Polo" for an account of an effort in the 1990s which successfully recreated his trip, confirming that it was real and not a fiction.
Ah, wouldn't it just....
(think back to what I talked about via iChat for GTA 2010 and extrapolate)
Seriously, Timothy Ferguson's "Mythic Cathay" articles in HP #10 & #11 (ArM4 but probably adaptable) are gold, check them out if you haven't seen them: styren.pagesperso-orange.fr/herm ... ermes1.htm
I have folders of material on the Silk Road for Ars Sagas.
Well, that is in part where I got the idea from. And you know well that I am unconcerned with remaining consistent with 5th edition cannon.
But my germ of an idea would take place decades from now in game time. I mean having some magi travel alongside the actual Marco Polo (who happens to be a Jerbiton magus maybe?)
This discussion is best had over here.
I was thinking of a new idea, based off of what I see developing in some of the newer Ars PbP games here. Everey one pretty much needs a revision and tune up of their Character Sheets; clean up any clutter, standardize the formatting, fix any discprepencies, etceteras. I was thinking everyone should have a separate individual thread for their magus. As the magus develops and adds new things, they can add posts and enteries for items without having to re-edit the whole thing. Only that player will be permitted to post permenantly. Discussion can be had there by others, but it will be only temporary and I will use my Moderator powers to delete these comments after discussion is finished.
Something I was thinking to do for my own saga (which, granted, is much smaller than yours) is to have the first post in the Character Sheets thread to include each character's name and a link to the specific post with their sheet.
The Development Thread always feels 'cluttered' to me because of how multiple things are often discussed there, overtop of each other, and it makes it difficult at times for me to follow it when I am trying to read it quickly with limited time.
I have no opposition to individual threads (except that they might be hard to find, or make others hard to find--can we do sub-threads?). I really don't want to redo three perfectly adequate character sheets, though.
I don't think it would be 'imperative' to transcribe everything over. Just open new threads of development stuff for each character ( in a sub-folder if we can have one built? ) and start using them, to keep everything organized from here on out.
No one would need to re-do their sheets. Mark can use the Merge feature to move the original posts to their own threads.
About being difficult to find-- I recommend editing the original post in the existing Character Sheets thread (which would remain sticky) to have a list of everyone's characters and a link to their threads.
I suggest always keeping the updated character sheet on the first post of the thread. Just edit it as changes are made. This makes it much easier to find. Development posts, and old sheets, can be made into regular posts on the thread, and only the final sheet itself copy-pasted as needed into the first post. Slightly more work, but not by much.
I would just create an individual sticky for each character, and you can copy/past the character there. Or I can do it. Indeed, if I can get people to agree to use my standardized formatting, I would be willing to re-write them up that way (It will force me to focus on your characters and scrutinize the details I prolly glossed over previously)
Just make one sticky for all the characters (perhaps a new "characters" thread) and post links to the individual character threads there, on the first post. That way the character threads aren't sticky so don't clutter up the board, but can be easily found.
As for the character format, I kinda like my own format but I don't care - standardization helps, and writing them up in the standard format would be fine. I'm for it - although I recommended switching to my own, obviously superior, format (The main difference is that mine is segregated into blocks - a roleplaying block, followed by a combat block... and so on).
I honestly only really know the more 'combat' oriented stuff...
Seriously, Timothy Ferguson's "Mythic Cathay" articles in HP 