This is where not reading carefully bites me in the a$$.
The LR does indeed slow down aging, but it doesn't do so by changing the underlying mechanics of aging. It provides a bonus to the aging roll. I was thinking Korvin wanted to invent LRs to be more effective for mundanes, initially, to make the LR just as effective for mundanes as it would be for magi (-1 for every five points of Lab Total, as opposed to -1 for ever 10 points of LT).
A breakthrough would affect the divisor of the lab total, it cannot change the underlying aging mechanic, it's too difficult to track.
I already believe that an applicable focus applies to LRs and have been operating under that principle. The LR is the Creo Corpus lab total, it just gets divided by 5 or 10, so, IMO, there's no reason not to apply a focus to that lab total, if it applies. mMF:Aging is one that applies.
Ah, yes, I didn't thought about that, but such a LR would effectively greatly benefit mundanes without any further breakthrough: That same "apprentice LR" would slow down a mundane's aging by one and a half, too, so LR would become immensely more valuable to mundanes, too.
And thanks for the aging, you said it better than I would have done.
Of course, I agree about the focus. What I meant was that a breakthrough could give everyone the equivalent of an applicable focus. Those with mMF: Aging would get twice the goods, that's all.
I don't care much, nor do I want to bring down Jebrick with something that'll probably come little into play, but thematically and mystically, this is strange to me, like attacking the problem from the wrong angle. This is a question of feeling, not of game balance, so, please, feel free to ignore me.
How to put it? Say, you're not satisfied with how water douses fire. Yet, instead of researching a better fire suppressant (Bonus = LR/x, or bonus = y+LR/5 if you want even apprentices potions to be more efficient, or both), you want the fire to be easier to extinguish with water.
The current LR gives a bonus of +1 for every 10 years. Korvin wants to give a +1 bonus every 15 years. It should be quite doabe but for the fact that LR is a plot device for AM and less built within the rules.
No, the +1 for every ten years is something that everybody has, regardless of whether they've had a LR. The roll for Aging is Quality Die + age/10 (round up) - Living Conditions Modifier - Longevity Ritual Modifier. If you have no LR, then your LR Modifier is zero. Every character I have who's at least 35 has been rolling Quality Die + age/10 for their aging rolls.
The only time that age comes into play specifically for the Longevity Ritual is in determining how much vis is uses (one pawn for every five years of age, rounded up).
Unless you're wanting LR to be cheaper to make, I'm not seeing where you're coming from here.
I think you need to work on the mechanics of what you want a bit more.
All people age as follows:
Stress die (no botch) + age/10 (rounded up)-Living Conditions - LR modifier.
You do not want bonuses to this roll, you want subtractions from this roll. You cannot change the underlying mechanic to Stress die (no botch) + age/15 (rounded up) - LC modifier - LR Modifier. You can only change the LR modifier. Your research is focused within that area.
For some reason, I was thinking this was initially based on improving LRs for mundane people. So the 5 to 3 is for Magi or those with Supernatural V/Fs?
My initial reaction was "Why?" As in why improve on the Longevity Ritual for mortals (1/10 of your Lab Total, rounded up) as opposed to improving the LR for everybody? I'm not sure that magi make enough mundane longevity rituals. Although, if you could find a way to make mundane LR as effective as magic LR, that may increase the demand for it. However, I can also see this breakthrough being closely monitored to make sure that it's not used to violate the Code. If, for example, you create a LR for a local baron/prince/king, thus giving him a drastic advantage over his rivals, would that constitute "interfering with mundanes," especially if said rivals demand such a ritual (whether the local magi can utilize the breakthrough or not) with dire consequences if he's denied? Just some random free-thinking, here.
As far as how to best "improve" the longevity rituals, best ways I can think of is to remove the infertility and/or remove the Warping. The latter, especially, will also, indirectly, increase the magi's lifespan by pushing back Final Twilight considerably.
Hermetic LR can be already efficient enough, but mundanes suffer greatly. Improving the first would not do much to these twilight-ridden old magi, but improving the latter would let magi keep their friends, faithful servants and loved ones close to them a lot longer.
I had also forgotten House mercere, that's huge!!! And they're vis-rich, too
I'm going to throw out a left-field solution to this question that focuses on thematics more than mechanics. I don't expect people to agree that this is the answer, but I think a discussion of your objections to the idea might be fruitful.
While normally you have to make the exact same device/spell in order to stabilize the discovery, the rules set for LRs is sufficiently different that I feel like we might be able to get away with this.
Instead of having to stabilize the discovery by making a second LR for the same person with the same experimentation, what if you just had to experiment the same way on a second LR in order to successfully stabilize the discovery? Then Korvin's experimentation on A's LR could be stabilized with V's LR. Having managed to talk TWO magi into letting him experiment on their LRs is fairly impressive, and speaks highly to their opinion of him as a LR specialist.
Note also that V has the Difficult LR Flaw, so her LR total is going to be half A's. Not sure how that fits into this effort, but worth bringing up.
Is that something that you know about before do your first LR? If Viscaria hasn't had a LR done before, and Korvin experiments on a LR that winds up only being half as effective as it should be, is he going to go "Ah! She must have something about her that makes her longevity ritual less effective!" or is he likely to go "Dangit! My experiment didn't work as I thought it would, and as a result Viscaria's been saddled with a p.o.s. longevity ritual!"
The experimenting is needed less with the magi LR because of the switch to concentrate on mundane LR. I can experiment with your LR but it is not as pressing and I feel it would not add to the break through Korvin is currently working on.
As to allowing a breakthrough on one LR be stabized on another....It would not work as LR are all tailored to an individual and the experiment must be stabilized by repeating the experiment.
This is not something that has been established. I assume it has something to do with her Imbued with Spirit of Terram, which was the handiwork of her pater. Off hand, I would say that Viscaria is far too hedonistic to have ever worried about her LR before now. I doubt that Norbert Gunthar would have mentioned the negative side effects of his handiwork.
I leave this up to jebrick as Korvin's player and the one focused on the LR rules, I think. It seems to me that he'd either figure this out quickly from the early diagnosis/examination stage of the LR creation, or that we ought to say that our answer should be determined by the roll on the experimentation table.
...as far as Breakthrough Points go, I'd imagine that exploring any Difficult LR would be very valuable to a researcher, regardless of the specific work they are doing. You learn the most by working with the statistical outliers.
"Subject A reacts normally to Experiment 1. Subject B and Subject C both react negatively, even though Subjects A and C have The Gift. What common factors between Subjects B and C cause them both to fail?"
Oh, and Viscaria would totally send Chastity to Korvin for an LR. "Make sure the bit with the infertility happens, okay?" she'd whisper.
By the mechanics, yes. What about the thematics? The visual? The "feels like magic to me" part of the question?
Tracking the progress: Breakthrough points : 6
Cheat the reaper - CrCo30 Discovery Stabilized in 1229.2 Stablize discovery 1d10=9 warping points 6 - 1d10=6 = 0
Spells to make:
Gift of Vigor ReCo20
Bane of the Decrepit Body PrCo25
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh InCo 10
Study humors of the body InCo20 Base 10 Touch +1 D: Diameter +1
