Added build points breakdown for Calpurnia. I found that I had incorrectly built the Automaton, so I changed it to an item built with Build Points, and changed Calpurnia's development a bit.
Calpurnia wants to have a child, and then undergo her Longevity Ritual, this drove her selection for Library and Lab Texts. (And why I stopped development after 23 years.) She wants her child to be Gifted, so the father needs to be a relatively young magus. I suppose if that I found an apprentice that was acceptable, I would politely inquire of the parens, and set up a legal contract absolving the father of all responsibilities for parenting.
Group Effects. A maga hits a bunch of grogs with a MuMe effect, such that the group is wondering around dazed. If another magus wanted to cancel the effect, he'd have to hit each of them with a PeVi spell to cancel, unless he had a PeVi spell with target of at least Group, right?
Verditius runes and vis. Calpurnia has a Magic Theory of 7 when making items, and has an effective Craft of 5. Verditius runes allows her to deduct her Craft skill from the amount of pawns necessary to open a device. Does this increase the size of the device that she can open for enchanting? For example, a silver sword requires 18 vis to open, can Calpurnia spend 13 pawns and do this?
I think you are correct. A Wind of Mundane Silence might also serve if the target area allows.
It doesn't increase the enchantment space, just reduces cost. Although a Verdi would likely pick items which allow a maximum space based upon their Craft skill, so they would tend to have more space than other Magi.
Nice! I'm mucking about with a similar sheet to do that too, Agnarr' sheet the calc sheet grabs values from the TeFo totals sheet and helps calculate how and how long for items - the "Spell and Item worksheet". Next but is to get the yearly advancement tab hooked into the overall sheet.
You could, but the rest of the characters have at least 20 years development. The challenges we'll have will be tough, and may be frustrating for someone who can't do much to respond. As it is, my happy crafter isn't going to be in good shape in a medical emergency.
On another note, if you don't know how you want your character to develop, maybe you should rethink what you're doing. For a character who's really good at Vim, I'd suggest the Alchemy mysteries in TMRE, there's one that can get you cooking up oodles of vis, unattended.
@pyrale, if you don't want post gauntlet development, you don't have to take it. Some concepts do what they need to do right out of gauntlet. Some do not. The idea was to create a place where characters can do what they want to do immediately at the beginning of the saga, because the pace of PbP can be maddeningly slow. So, if you have something you want to do with your character eventually, and he doesn't do all that much well right now, that's a good reason to advance the character to the point that he can do it, or begin doing it. Make sense?
Ok, with Batholomeus' focus on resizing, I have some questions to guide the effects he will develop after Gauntlet.
Let's say that he crafts a box that makes anything put inside smaller:
Guidelines: I assume it is easy to reverse the MuTe Level 4 guideline "Make something grow to eigth times its previous volume" (meaning twice as heavy) in order to make an object smaller. Would this also be one-eight of its previous volume? Note that the MuAn and MuCo example spells seem to indicate that it is easier to make things smaller than larger, as they allow a 2-point reduction in Size vs a 1-point increase. That means a 4-fold reduction in weight vs a 2-fold increase. It would seem reasonable to assume that MuTe Level 4 "Make something smaller to one sixty-fourth of its previous volume" (meaning one-fourth of its former weight).
Further increases/reductions: If I want to ramp up the guidelines, am I correct in assuming that each additional magnitude would further increase the Size of a creature by 1, or further decrease it by 2? How small can they be made? The Size table in HoH:MC p.39 goes as low as -15, so I think this as a reasonable limit. What about objects?
Stacking: I am assuming that further casting of the same spell on the same target provides no further reduction in size. However, what about an enchanted container? Say I enchant two boxes that makes things put inside of them smaller. What happens when I put stuff in the first box, then put the first box into the second one? Is it a valid way to work around that limit, or does the first box explode because it is no longer large enough to contain what is inside?
Bigger on the inside: Is it possible to make a Tardis-like effect so that a container is "bigger on the inside" (instead of making anything put inside smaller)? It might be described as changing the properties of an object in a highly unnatural manner. If not possible initially, would this be something that can be discovered by original research? Would Bartholomeus' focus on resizing apply to such a research project?
Although he will not realize it immediately, his reputation will make it hard for him to become a permanent member of a covenant. So he will probably need to move from one place to another quite a few times. So my first idea of an enchanted item is that of a box to store his personal lab texts and scrolls, so that they are easy to carry (make them smaller) as well as safely (protection from fire and water, making the wood harder).
My second idea would have been something that allows him to carry his laboratory from one place to another. Thus the question about making something (like a cart) "bigger on the inside". If this is not practical, he may settle for chests that allow him to pack it up so that it is easier to transport.
Good questions on the Muto resizing which I think have been debated before and raw isn't clear on some aspects but clearer on others. Here goes (all imho):
Reduction is easier than expansion, and I agree based upon the same material. Go for a one eighth reduction. There might be an argument that An and Co material have different size mods when shrinking to other materials but I think keeping it internally congruent to the existing sample spells makes the most sense.
Further reductions and increases are based upon the general rule that one mag add ten times the weight, so when translated to size ranks it equals +3 size per mag.
Meaning a size +3 creature probably has around ten times the mass of a size zero creature. I mocked this up in a spreadsheet to test the increases a few years back.
Reductions should be easier, so I think it was more like -6 size per mag, (ironboundtome.wordpress.com/201 ... ion-magic/) .
As far as limits I don't think there are any except what will be practical in spell level. Getting a house and contents to a grain of sand is possible, but probably difficult.
Magic does not stack. You will need more mags. The outside box would shrink and perhaps stop when it is restrained by its contents? Or break apart? Not sure, but the material inside would not further reduce.
I've never read about extra dimensional spaces except as regios, and it seems very different from size changing to me.
If you are reducing everything in size dramatically instead of creating a new place that is interesting- be aware of what that will mean for warping when you study in your mini-lab. So plausible but it has some fun story hijinx.
As a breakthrough? No idea. Probably but not as a Muto effect, more like magic involving the auras and region from RoPM.
Last point - I've had an SG say that the increase and decrease is +2/-2 per mag beyond the first and ignore the evidence from spells and my character still played fine. The steps are important to set early but the actual choice of how far seemed more about how crazy the environment might get.
If we follow the example of Magi of Hermes, p. 69, an virtually unlimited size reduction is possible, with just a +1 modifier. If this doesn't apply, I'd say that you could put reducing chests inside reducing chests. If they cost 3 vis each to make, you could make a better chest by spending 4 vis.
Your big problem is that you need to cover many forms - if we wanted to put a grog in it, we'd need Te for the arms and armor, Co for the person, and An for the leather undergarment or other clothes. You probably could keep it down to An and He if it's just going to be food storage.
Creating a room that's bigger on the inside: My gut says that's a regio, which means the mystery of Hermetic Architecture. If that's not applicable, research could do it, and it would be at least a Major Breakthrough. However, making it a spell effect means the inhabitants would be subject to warping, with a constant magical effect.
Your reputation is as bad as mine: I chose to gain the Verditius mystery of Craft Automata without initiation.
good find. a +1 for excessive reduction might still be a 10x reduction in mass or very close to it, depending on the objects in the spell. The terms in that item are a little loose. Or we end up with different forms following different rules.
Agreed. That is why I'm asking those questions up front. That way, I know how hard to achieve each effect will be. It only becomes a PITA when you make assumptions which prove incorrect and need to rework everything.
I know that "bigger on the inside" is traditionally done via regiones. As a potential original research (and I am unsure whether Bartholomeus will ever go there), this would be a completely different tack.
This would approach the space inside a container as a property of the container. The goal of course is to provide a regio-like effect within an object, through MuTe (perhaps with a Vi requisite) without warping what is inside. Imagine it as something similar to Hermes Portal -- it links two distant locations in such a way that things and beings can cross through without suffering from Warping nor being targeted by its magic.
I know this is a stretch ( ), but it might be fun to try it this way. If not, then so be it!
That may work in our favor. It would give us common ground and explain why we would be on good terms when we meet before the saga starts. I will try to integrate this into my character's background, if you agree with this.
Shortly after we start play, we will need to relocate, and we've agreed to go to Turku, in what is now Finland. Our mages all need reasons that we'd be willing to go to a new place, found a new covenant in the midst of the Odin worshippers. I'm at some covenant now, and about five years ago I learned Craft Automata from someone here. I'm fairly repulsed by the sniping and vendettas between members of the House - my parens was notorious in that regard. I don't feel bound by the House conventions, and see no reason to cripple myself to show fealty to its ideals.
Please feel free to put in my character in your back story.
How could my magus learn some of the Mystery virtues described in TMRE, for which there are no Initiation Script detailed?
I'm thinking that it might be interesting for him to pick up Hermetic Alchemy and Philosophic Alchemy (maybe Great Talisman as well) at some point, but none of these have initiation scripts detailed anywhere. Do I simply design one that look appropriate for each virtue and spend the appropriate seasons pursuing these? Do they need to be picked up as part of my magus joining a Mystery Cult, or are these common enough (see TMRE p.25, first paragraph) to be learned by themselves for a price?
I'd suggest sending our StoryGuide a proposed cult and initiation scripts. Philosophic Alchemy is a really nice virtue, and in the example cult (Green Cockeral) it's one of the last learned. We've had some discussion about initiation scripts in threads before.
Indeed, I read those discussions, but they seemed to be about Mystery Cult initiations that already had an initiation script. It was more about whether it was possible to change the script.
In this case, there are no scripts in any of the books. Even in the description of the Order of the Green Cockerel, it doesn't mention anything about the initiations. And as you mentioned, Hermetic Alchemy is gained on the fourth level of initiation while Philosophic Alchemy is only gained on the sixth level.
Hence my question about getting initiated "à la carte" (i.e. without joining a cult) for a price, considering that Hermetic Alchemy is one of those arcana listed as being "kwown within the Order generally" (TMRE p.25).
There is also the fact that both Hermetic Alchemy and Philosophic Alchemy are probably fairly well known within House Verditius. Chances are that not all of those Verditius magi are part of the Order of the Green Cockerel. So what happens if Bartholomeus learns the virtue from another Verditius? Would that mean getting Hubris just like he would for a House Mystery? Or would it be considered to be outside of the regular Verditius initiation process?
BTW, I know that most of these questions need Jonathan's attention. Just thinking out loud here. Unfortunately, I can't really begin advancing my character before I have answers to them, since they may change a lot of those advancement plans.
), but it might be fun to try it this way. If not, then so be it!