My inner munchkin is whispering to me and I would like reality check please.
The Luck Virtue allows a character to, according to p45 of ArsM 5th ed
Does that mean it won't apply if any skill roll is involved?
What about Carouse (games of chance)?
Perhaps I am influenced by modern knowledge of all how many things can go wrong in health-related matters, that in the relatively simple/primitive healthcare of Mythic Europe I suspect luck should play a factor in Recovery rolls and Aging rolls/crisis.
And for Magi, would Luck have any effect on Twilight, whether entering or controlling?
A skill in carouse (games of chance) might help you in several ways- it will give you an idea what the odds are. If you are playing something like poker it will help you bluff or read your opponent's faces. If yu are cheating it might help you manipulate the outcome.
Which is the key issue- if you are not cheating then luck will help- the cars or dice are still random. If you try to trick toss the dice or stack the deck then luck no longer applies. In non-gambling situations it is up to the SG as to exactly when luck is more or less of a factor than skill or talent.
Ahhh... the Minor Virtue Lucky! It's a legacy Virtue that first appeared (with essentially the same text) in 3rd edition, when there was an explicit way to "tune" Ability and Characteristic rolls so that luck would be more or less of a factor.
As it stands, it's very poorly written for 5th edition, for two main reasons. First, it's not clear at all when it should apply - when is "luck more of a factor than skill or talent"? One could argue that's almost always, or almost never, the case. Second, it's not clear at all how to apply it mechanically. If your character's life depends on a coin flip, just how do you "add +1 to +3" to the relevant roll?
Ultimately, to determine its applicability and "oomph", it's best to keep in mind that it's a Minor Virtue. So it's on par with those Virtues such as Keen Eyesight, Venus Blessing, Light Touch, and Puissant (Ability). And like those, it's "active" even when not rolling: if you have Venus' Blessing, you are constantly sexy, and the Storyguide is perfectly within his rights to decide that the Faerie Queen chooses you, of all the turb, to "entertain her" - no roll required.
Similarly, I'd say that a Lucky character is not on guard duty when the evil Faeries attack, and is on guard duty when the rich nobleman eager to tip arrives at the Covenant. As for the +1 to +3 bonus, I would not apply it to Recovery rolls (Rapid Convalescence provides a +3 bonus to those) or to rolls to avoid Twilight. I'd add a +3 bonus to a character's Carouse roll to determine the winner of a game of Tabula (think Backgammon), a +2 bonus to the Presence roll to determine if Social Contacts activates, or to an Area Lore roll to find a free room at an inn during a busy perioud, and perhaps a +1 bonus to the Athletics roll to determine if the character manages to grab something to avoid a fall.
Luck Virtue in Ars Magica 5th ed applies more to situations where randomness outweighs skill. It could impact Carouse (games of chance) but not necessarily all skill rolls. In health-related matters, Luck might influence Recovery and Aging rolls/crisis due to their unpredictable nature. Regarding Magi, Luck could potentially play a role in the randomness of Twilight experiences, affecting both entry and control to some extent.