This is indeed very important. It has not been clear to me what's the big deal with lycanthrope, but it is clear that if we assume that the animal is dangerous. This assumption is not clear in RAW. The fact that the cycle is predictable makes lycanthrope in the manageable end of major flaws, but the the animal form which is a real danger to your friends explains it.
If we change it to greater malediction, for forced shapechange with a situation-based criterion and a vulnerable shape, we get the severity of a major flaw. The shapechange will occur in embarrassing, dangerous, or other critical situations, where being a vulnerable animal really matters.
Whether the stats in the changed shape are those of a rank and file mundane animal, or if human intelligence is kept, is entirely up to the design of a greater malediction, but it is clear that it must be balanced against other aspects of the condition such as frequency.
Now, there are plenty of options to tune a greater malediction around the theme of involuntary shapechange, so it must be possible to reach an agreement, but it does require the patience to wait for Emelric's verdict
Of course, I have a personal interest in Reynard being played, since I wanted to play his sister as a companion, but of course that should not really be a deciding factor in the debate.
Now, I think you are being harsh, but you do have a point nevertheless. We are a new troupe, most of us are new to the PbP format I think, and the SG is new as PbP SG. That calls for keeping things simple, and your desire for Reynard is not simple. I don't think it is the wrong troupe, rather the wrong time
So it comes down to what is a dangerous animal. Two of their examples ( bear and wolf) are dangerous to humans. If they added a panther it would be another animal that is dangerous to humans. Humans should fear the animal and want to hunt it down. It could be a danger to the Covenant if it starts eating the local sheep or grabs a small child. A fox can do none of those things. Yes a fox can be a pest and will kill rabbits and chickens/ducks and perhaps get a lamb.
If you make it a greater malediction, does it cause the same issues as a dark secret? Or Enemies? Compare it to other major flaws. I think it would work with a minor flaw. I like the Monsterous blood or just do lesser malediction with the exact same thing. Make it uncontrollable or random may make the character hard/impossible to play as a magus.
We can't do monstrous blood. I disagree with your assessment. Flaws are based on Story challenges and character detriment. A Lycanthrope bear isn't going to be easily killed. Boar is most dangerous, but the character isn't Reynard the boar.
Just picked up Apprentices, and on pg 27 ". Is that fox interest- ed in helping the character’s infant son, or eating it?" I'm thinking foxes may eat kids. /shrug. I'm not stuck on the Lycanthropy angle though.
I like the Monstrous blood option too. We can figure something out here before we start, I'm sure.
Probably worth noting that I am happy to help with any of the accounting tasks for the saga such as managing the library, doing the covenant finance calculations and bookkeeping, keeping track of the vis sources and allocation etc. It will be OOC as my magus is both incapable and probably uninterested in such tasks. If Emelric can let me know what, if anything, he wants be to contribute please.
John, do you mind suggesting what I should bring with my build points. I have a tendency to power game in reverse and get the most interesting yet useless things.
I would suggest a Magic Theory Summae level 8, Quality 11 = 35 Build points
Summae in your choice of art (we have Intellego and Perdo suggested so far for Manus of Verditius) at level + quality of 25 (level 15, Quality 10 would be my choice).
If you don't fancy the Magic Theory Summae I would go with two art Summae of level 15, Quality 15. Looking at your character build Rego and vim would seem good choices.
Are we using the book quality rules from Covenants or the core rules?
If Covenants what improvements do the books brought by the magi have? (scribe, Binder, Illuminator and resonance).
I ask because as I develop the library I want to note them for possible future improvement. Given that in Covenants quality is limited to 11 when the writer has Comms +5 and Good Teacher I would think quality 15 would be already benefitting from Scribe, Binding and Illumination but may be not resonance.
I need suggestions on how to build the characters to achieve the desired effect and concept. If ReVi doesn't work this way then I need to know how to make the character to do things. Or scrap the character.
If I may suggest: when someone, like John, volunteers to do the bookkeeping, it should be fine to let him add all the details to explain the quality of each book according to his own judgement. It will come in handy if we decide to invest time and effort in the copying of books and curation of the library later. Personally, I think that young magi are most likely to have cheap and worn-out copies of good books, than costly boosted copies of mediocre books, but that's just me.
That's not an answer. The answer is left for Emelric.
Having done the maths on the covenant finances we need to bring 5 servants and 5 teamsters to get the covenant started with six magi and four companions. We also need £19 of cash to get us through the first year as described on Emelric's post. If the people numbers changes I'll re do the calculations. So this is in addition to the 60 build points and 10 Vis.
I will need to know if we are doing the mining thing or not, for my character. Or I could take one of those fancy money making spells and tide us over for a year (it would cost some vis though, and we might have to explain to Quasitors and stuff)
Good spot. Servants is 2 per 10 but Teamsters is 1 per 10 (page 64 of covenants). When you say "post the complete budget" what else would you want to see?
