One of the specialists I purchased with Bartholomeus' build points is a glass-blower. So we should be able to produce glassware locally. I also purchased a weaver and a carpenter.
But I don't think the overall goal is to be completely self-sufficient. If we establish some kind of trading as our source of income, or at least establish some kind of trading of whatever we use as a source of income, then we should be able to obtain most things that we can't produce on our own, IMHO.
One real question I have on a longevity specialist is what relevance that has on stories for the magus. Yes, it's an important role to have. Everyone needs a longevity ritual at some point. But generally they need one only once, or perhaps, decades later they want to upgrade to a better one. Aside from allowing that one glorious moment in the spotlight when the magus devises the longevity ritual, how does the specialty in aging contribute to stories? Yes, the magus can devise LRs (a season of work in the lab), and he can cast spells that age people (a decent attack, I suppose), and resolve aging crises (a ritual spell being cast). But most of what he does only comes along once in a blue moon. There's no doubt the build up for each action (e.g., someone negotiating for an LR) or a denouement (a grateful older person being thankful for being saved from an aging crisis). But what stories does the mMF really generate? When you need an LR specialist, he's aces. But in between those times, his mMF doesn't get much use. Compare that with, say, a mMF in ice, which Angarr will probably use every day of his life in a variety of situations.
I'm not saying that a mMF in aging would be bad. But I'm concerned that it's limited to situations that will only have a tenuous connection to stories, and so might not give a great deal of satisfaction in play. Granted, it's just a minor magical focus, so it's not going to be as useful as a major magical focus. But even still, it seems like a mMF in aging is really narrow to a couple of situations that are more mechanical than story-driven. It seems to me that while it's a great focus for an NPC magus, it might not be a great focus for a PC magus who wants to participate in stories.
I'm curious if others have seen that sort of mMF in play and how it turned out. I'm only going by theory at this point, and would love some examples of this in play.
I seriously considered going for a CrCo magus with a mMF in perfection of the human form, something that might potentially have included fighting aging and stat-boosting rituals. But I was concerned that it might not hold up in the long run as something with legs.
I'm also curious about the discussion that's been going on about maximizing some kind of magical ability for a magus. The gist of the discussion seems to be that a magus really has to have a magical focus (minor or major) lest he or she be unable to achieve really high CTs for at least some spells. Is that really the case? Is a mMF or a MMF really a sine qua non of designing a successful magus? I've struggled with this in my character design in coming up with a decent minor magical focus. (I want Gentle Gift, so a MMF is not on the table.) Is a magus without a magical focus really gimping himself?
We also have a blacksmith, and we can create metal goods easily.
If you want to create high-level spells before you're 80 or so, you need a magical focus. I think you could cast powerful spells with a well-designed talisman, Adept Laboratory Student, and Life Boost
A specialist doesn't have to have a focus, major or minor. Indeed, the corpus specialist I have in a hangout game doesn't have a focus. He just has Corpus as his best Art (at 18 at saga start). Interestingly, that Corpus specialist is also Gently Gifted. One can be specialized without a focus, but having a focus certainly allows one to double down on the specialty.
That's a valid concern, but one that each player needs to answer for himself when he designs a magus. Is that a magus that I will enjoy playing? In the context of this specific saga? Those are the much more important questions than anything related to the character's optimization for a specific magical task like creating longevity rituals or casting ritual spells or crafting magical items. As I wrote, it is all about the character's motives and interests. There are numerous background that could lead one to become a longevity specialist, just like there are numerous one that would lead one to become an ice magus. These are what determines the kind of stories one will pursue, more than his actual magical competences.
A child who grew up in a hospitce where old people would die in poverty might be driven to create the best longevity ritual he can for himself, in order to avoid a similar fate. Such a magus might follow stories related to the fountain of youth, long-lived people, of a magical tree that produces apple which refuvenates people, etc. None of those stories would benefit from him having a Minor Magical Focus in aging. But then, he wouldn't benefit from having Inventive Genius during those stories either. A different magus, who grew up in an appearance-conscious noble household, might care more about his youthful looks than actual longevity. He'd be drawn to other stories.
Some virtues provide benefits during stories. Other don't. Sometimes it is a magical focus that is useful for those stories, but oftentimes it is something else.
A magical focus as a great tool for specialisation, but by no means the only one. It all depends on the vision we have for a specific character. For example, I once designed a Perdo specialist, a Flambeau magus. He didn't have a magical focus, because his specialty meant his magic was spread out amongst too many Forms. But he had Flexible Formulaic Magic and mastered a number of spells, which gave him tremendous flexibility with those spells. I never actually played him, but his interests were more political than combat-related. Combat capabilities were just a tool to pursue his political ambitions. So the stories he would have pursued would have been those where he could advance his ambitions. No magical focus would have helped him directly in those stories!
Raw magical power (through a high casting total or lab total) is just the simplest and most obvious way to gauge of magical success. Others are more subtle but very real.
My take away learning from the past few years of Ars is Deft Art and a Focus are excellent virtues. Almost mandatory imho. While playing slow forum games and not table games.
You make a really point that I'd been implying. Forum games are slow, by design. Putting a character into play that might someday do something interesting is also incredibly frustrating. Doing something well, which is what I suggested when I started this entire saga also made the implication that specializing was good. I was in a game that I'd joined on the second reboot and there were dozens of posts for period of time of just two days... And the characters, of course, hadn't progressed. The game time involved was 2 days, but the real time was more like 3 months! I don't pace things that slowly, I took that as a signal in how to design my first PbP game I ran and other sagas started since have tended to adopt a multiple simultaneous stories approach. It's hell for an ASG, to be honest, but it's the only way for a saga to progress..
Also, consider that we're still in character design, haven't really focused on the covenant, and we're like 3 months into the process...
I don't believe I will go this far in the optimization, though. Atlas may have a lot of corpus, and probably a decent amount of Creo, but I don't believe his life rituals will go much beyond a decent alternative ; still probably decent to trade with mundanes. I also don't give much thought about Atlas aging, to be honest. That makes the game a bit different, but not necessarily worse.
For mow, I picked mMF : walking, although I don't know where it's leading me ( 
). I may invest more in some social skills, and a network of affiliates and mundane connections (iirc, the hanseatic trade peaks around the saga's time).
All to the good. Something original! 
(Says the guy who picked "resizing" as a focus.)
It's going to be interesting. Thyra, Bartholomeus and Calpurnia had others complete their longevity rituals for them. Two are 12th magnitude, one is 15th. Sooner or later one of us is going to roll very high and get an aging crisis. None of us three can re-do our LR's - we may have the lab text, but we'd need to get a CrCo lab total high enough (60 or 75) to use it! Rolling the aging die at the end of the year seems much like playing Russian Roulette.
Jonathan made a number of suggestion for improvement of Calpurnia, and I've incorporated (most of) them. Dumping Automata, changing her stats a bit, with a proper attack that makes use of her focus. This changed her build points, and I've updated ironboundtome's sheet
Now, her flying boat will be invisible.
With the Summae we have planned of Creo 17 & Corpus 18 the lab totals should be reasonable. If your totals are very low and we are stuck then a +10 to +12 version can be created for you too, higher again if your Magus assists.
Thankfully, one needs to have a Crisis for the longevity ritual to lose its effectiveness. That requires an Aging roll total of 22+. With a +15 longevity ritual, a +3 Bronze Cord and a +1 Healthy lab, Bartholomeus would need to roll 1, 1, and 9+ (about 1-in-400 chance) in before he gets a crisis until he reaches the age of 61 (he's only 48 at saga start). And the last roll falls to an 8+ once he's over 80 (about 1-in-300 chance).
I've already had a high roll of 18 during advancement. All that did was increase his apparent age. And if his LR fails during play, all that does is generate the need to crank out a new one before the following year. Even if it's a lesser one (he can generate a +7 LR at saga start), he should survive long enough to crank out a +10 LR within a few years. If not, well, everyone dies some day. 8)
Indeed. If Bartholomeus helps someone create a new LR for him, he adds 15 to the lab total. And if the main magus has a Leadership score, Garapadax can also help add another +5. That's a 4-point boost to the LR's effectiveness right there!
Well, I guess it will depend on Jonathan's story, but with the Order seemingly going down, plenty of the benefits of specialization and trade may get lost.
It will be interesting to see the choices of the community across time : focusing on survivability and become a covenant obsessed by death avoidance, trying to understand and cure the disease, focus on settling our lew environment, etc.
One thing is sure : the character building phase may be the last stop at the fuel station before a long travel through the desert.
This is a rules question: Calpurnia has Wizard's Boost (Terram), and Wizard's Reach (Terram). She also has a version of Wielding the Invisible Sling, using a metal shot. Both of the Vim spells are level 20, and her version of Invisible Sling is level 15. Can she use both MuVi spells on her Sling? I'd think not, because one would make the Terram spell level 20, and then it's too high for the other to affect. Would it make a difference if the MuVi spells were higher level?
In general, can you use multiple MuVi effects on a single spell? What would the Concentration roll look like? To cast two spells at once, you need to hit EF 9. Would three be EF 12, or higher?
In general the repeat castings of the same MuVi spell won't increase the outcome IMO.
Question: How can you cast two different MuVi spells at once plus the Sling? Two versions of the same mastered MuVi spell on two different instances of a mastered Sling, because they are both mastered? Maybe but that'd be a Conc roll for each.
I thought MuVi guidelines stated that only one MuVi spell can be performed by a caster at a time, but now that I've gone looking I can't see the reference so it's probably just an assumption.
Another assumption I made was a character with FlexFormMagic can use their virtue and a MuVi spell at once, but still limited by the overall levels of the spells.
So I'm guessing this is not plausible because it's casting two different MuVi spells at once by the same caster. Two separate Magi could certainly alter the same spell once each though in the manner you're describing.
Jonathan - what is the policy about making up grogs. Presumably we can make up grogs for the specialists that we paid for with BP. But what about grogs beyond that? I assume we each get a shield grog as well, That's pretty standard. After that are we free to just make up grogs for the covenant as we wish? Or do you want to impose some kind of limitation on the grogs we can create?