Ideas for Initiations in character generation

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I'm in the midst of setting up mysteries-laden characters and envisioning on to insert mysteries material in play, and of course I'd like to immediately put the crunchy goods of TMRE and HoH:MC to good use, which obviously means characters would start having several Initations under his belt, but also risks depriving the Mysteries theme of most of its flavour, so that's how I've thought to deal with the conundrum:

The character starts play with all of his Mystery Virtues (and Ordeal Flaws) "earmarked" for future RP sessions (using a combination of beta-stroyguiding, other players doing Mystagogues NPCs, and bluebooking). Specifically, Quests and Initations ceremonies, as well as deal-dealings and instructions sessions with Mystagogues are earmarked for being RP as flashbacks: think of the way the Bride from Kill Bill or Kane from Kung Fu often flashback to the time they learnt some of their techniques, or the frequent flashbacks Highlander immortals had about episodes of their lives. The rest is abstracted.

Until all of the Initation past mystery stories have been done in-game, all of the experience that character gains from any source, as well as the results from lab work, from current play, downtime, and lab seasons, is "banked" (i.e. it may be assigned as normally, but the effects are frozen). Until the flashback RP "debt" is payed, the character cannot access further experience or lab advances. This is to allow experienced mystae characters to be played immediately, without losing the flavour of RPing the quests and initiations. Two versions of the character sheet should be used, one for playing present-time sessions, the other to record "banked" advancement until it is unfrozen.

Characters are assumed to be established members of their respective cults, and the conspiratorial cloak-and-dagger stuff is cut to the minimum. They know how they stand with their cult, and how to get in touch with it. Mystagogues are assumed to behave a lot like eccentric Wise Old Men and Elderly Martial Arts Masters. The existence of cults is widely know in the order, and the various cults are a semi-open secret. Much like pushers, they often do not advertise (but some do evangelize) but everybody knows they exist, and how to find one with enough effort. Some cults are structured, with degrees of initiations, some are loose affiliations of like-minded mystics and scholars.

A mystery cult lore of 1 is necessary to have one minor virtue. 2 unlocks up to three minor virtues. 3 an unlimited number of minor virtues. 4 allows one major virtue. 5 up to three major virtues, 6 allows all the virtues that the cult may offer.

Rules for integrating Quests and Initiations in apprenticeship and post-apprenticeship character creation from TMRE pp. 19-20 are used.

Characters can generally belong to one or two different cults. For Mystery Cult Houses characters, it is generally possible to belong to one Exoteric (HoH:MC) cult and to one Esoteric (TMRE) cult without special penalties. Ex Miscellanea members have the option of belonging to one Esoteric cult and either treat their sub-tradition as a group allowing up to four Favored Supernatural Abilities, or as a mini-mystery cult offering initations in tradition-related Hermetic and Supernatural Virtues. The free extra Virtues and Flaws that Ex Misc and Mystery Houses characters start with are the effect of apprenticeship and do not necessarily mean full membership in a cult or tradition. For the sake of game balance, characters from other houses may be allowed to join to two different esoteric cults, provided they have fully compatible philosophies and doctrines (ST's call). Conflicting responsibilities and calls on the character's time are to be expected.

2

Actually, the "The Initiated Apprentice" section just says that if you take the Cabal Legacy minor Story flaw, a character may begin with Mystery Virtues. He just has to pay for them out of his initial Virtue allotment. That flaw isn't required if you are member of a Mystery House and want to start with some of their Virtues already initiated.

Since you have to pay for those Virtues as usual, it is probably unnecessary to have additional restrictions. Cabal Legacy is appropriate as a minor flaw, since you are getting initiations out of it, but owe significant favors to your Cult. And it consumes your "one Story Flaw" slot.

3

Indeed. But that section also provides rules for initiations during post-apprenticeship both for HoH:MC and TMRE cults: i.e. every Quest and every Initiation ceremony requires a season and loses 10 exp points from the yealry 30. As a matter of fact, I'd expect most of characxter who belong to Esoteric mysteries to have joined after apprenticeship.

4

I think I'm a bit confused here. Are you trying to devise rules for retrofitting TMRE into an existing campaign, turning existing characters into mystae, or are you adapting the provided character creation rules to your "Anyone can join any Mystery" approach?

If you decide to create experienced characters through the post-apprenticeship rules, penalizing them until they have jumped through the necessary hoops seems a bit counterproductive to me. You really need to decide whether you are trying to create a gauntlet-level character or an experienced mystae. If the former, they probably can't afford so many virtues that they don't need to look for further initiations (and thus stories), if the latter, well, high-ranking characters run Mystery Cults. That's probably what the stories should be about.

While running flashbacks is a good idea, using the post-apprenticeship advance rules is a conscious decision to create powerful characters without running them through the game, so there is no reason to hold those characters back compared to others who would have decided to crank their arts up, bind familiars, etc. Recording the characters "old" scores for use during those flashbacks is probably as far as I would want to go.

And, well, you know I don't really agree with your approach, where Mysteries are open to anyone who wants more power, which I believe is part of the problems you seem to have, as you seem to be trying to put in place mechanical limits that compensate for the those I feel were inherent to the setting, and which you want to abolish.

5

I started from the last one you said as my main concern, but it would be nice to do the other things you say, yes.

I was inspired by the characters in the mystae-centered whodunit scenario that Neil wrote. Here's characters are experienced (but not elder) mystae magi who are 60-70ish in age and 40-50 years from gauntlet, having several mystae virtues each, but not all, from their respective mysteries but not yet probably in the position to run their cults. That what I was trying to emulate (since I purpose to run that scenario first, but not necessarily with the proposed characters) and then to restart things from there. So, more closer to the latter you said, but not all the way to elder mystagogues (which I picture more akin to 90-120 y.o. archmages).

So do you think witholding further Xp is a bad idea ? OK, I had some doubts about it myself, that's why I sought counsel. I'm still persuaded that running quest- and initiation-centered flashbacks is one of the best ways to give them their proper RP spot for experienced mystae characters (and they would be a necessity, more or less: after waiting for TMRE for so long (and to decision to put HoH:MC stuff on partial hold, too, until we get the full picture, there's the very strong urge to see some of all that crunchy goodnes in immediate use; no patience to wait and bring the chars through the hoops of multiple initiations, and besides, it is by now the accepted rule -strongly pushed by yours truly- that the default threshold for characters is the somewhat experienced 40-70ish magus, not the fresh from gauntlet apprentice. I.e. a period of post-apprenticeship character creation development, lasting at least as much as apprenticeship, if not double that, is allowed and expected: middle age magi have still a very large plenty of potential to develop, but are not longer the complete underdogs).

Well, it is obvious about this that the best solution here is to amicably acknowledge the difference of opinion, since I'm rather adamant about my dislike of the conspiratorial approach, which I find annoying and boring beyond tears. I prefer to picture Order of Hermes mystery cults without great differences between esoteric ans exoteric cults, except the house cults have official recognition, while TMRE mystery cults are an official parallel organization to the Houses, a "third leg" if you want, besides Houses and Tribunals. I think the potential from the added social complexity to the order more compelling than the boring cloak-and-dagger Masonic stuff. Investigative stuff is IMO best suited for occasional stories, or for dealing with "enemy" organizations, such as a diabolist cult. PC characters should always have a definite picture of where they stand with their social groups and where they can expect to go in terms of developing their abilities. Besides, for ancient magic secrets painstakingly digge out by PC, we'll soon have Seekers and Ancient Magic. Mysteries are about the magic advances that have already been more-or-less integrated in the Order's collective consciousness.

I picture mystery cults a lot like martial arts schools in MA movies: you have to sweat to master their secrets, either by getting acceptance and training by eccentric but ultimately benevolent masters, or rediscovering them yourself from old manuscripts, but pretty much everybody in the setting knows they're out there, and what a follower of one can do, in a very general sense.

My concerns were about not sacrificing the rich RP potential from Quest and Initiation stories in the need to have experienced mystae characters from the start (or existing characters suddenly empowered with several Hoh:MC and TMRE virtue goodness). As for the position of mysteries in the setting, well, obviously I'm still thoroughly persuaded my "open mysteries" approach is superior in many ways to the "cloak and clues" which is suggested in the setting (which the authors themsevles, though, admit is suggestion, nothing else). I'm just more attracted by the mysteries as mutual-help magical research group model, while the authors more liked the secret society stuff.

6

I don't like the idea of withholding xp until a fixed set of criteria have been met. I mean, I know you want to do a mystery cult game, but when I run games hardly anything goes to plan and the players head off on a tangent, sometimes for 5-6 games before they settle down off player motivated plots. You have to consider how many sessions of play will occur before all the players have paid off the debt, because if you vary the games with normal play then quite a few months might pass, which could get frustrating for all.

You could alternatively set the players to start as apprentices in established powerful covenants, where they are safe and the number of distractions from study are low, and game time can pass fast. So that you can pass the 50 years of game time with the rate of mystery/normal games you want, and lots of study and lab time. Then once they have all got the initiations you think needed under their belts, kick them out into a more intensive environment.

Its also fun with the speeded up time to take your players through private downtime/advancement games, and let them plan their activities between games. Leaving all the players in the dark on each characters abilities and interests gets you a nice workable paranioa up, especially if all the characters spend their speeded up time in seperate covenants.