Thanks to Ioke's great spot on the error in the calculations (short on Servants and Teamsters) revised figures are £24 cash, 9 Servants and 6 Teamsters.
Absolutely. Silly of me.
It would be useful to see the breakdown of inhabitant points and expenditure per category, in one single post, in the covenant thread (or a wiki of T Rex sets one up). Especially if we are going to recruit specialists for cost savings, it is critical to have an idea about the breakdown.
I may be being a bit dim here but I have a list of inhabitants (could add a column for "actual") a list of expenditures by specific type and a list of cost savings, again by type. I then list the yearly change. What else would you like to see? I agree that the post would best sit in the covenant post, once it is populated with the actual boons and hooks.
Really want to get the format as right as possible now so we can use it easily and I can update it easily after each change. Any comments very much appreciated.
That sounds like what I want to see. If you have posted it, I have not seen it ...
It is in the Vis, Finances and Loyalty post.
Apologies. I did not see the new thread.
A note column in the expenditure table would be useful, recording any judgement calls which have been made.
- Writing materials. I would have thought that Roger would also use a pound's worth of writing material!?
- Wages have not been calculated for the magi. This makes some sense, since the wages account for some personal luxury which we cannot afford, but not complete sense since it also accounts for certain necessities like clothing.
One may question if all of the companions actually live in the covenant and are supported by it. The Magister in Artibus is assumed, I believe, by the virtue to be supported by some school or university where he teaches two seasons per year. Edoma could arguably be touring with her troupe most of the year, thus not eating off covenant funds. If the companions actually do live on the covenant, the season they are assumed by their virtues to be working should logically benefit the covenant as cost savings. I don't know how the different virtues are meant to be interpreted in this respect ... some are quite explicit, while others seem a little ambiguous.
Extra notes column - agreed, good call.
- Writing Material - agreed, good spot.
- Wages for Magi are a council decision I think as they "own" everything anyway.
- Are we supporting all the companions - we'll see at campaign start and I will adjust accordingly.
In Arts & Academies it states the teaching element of Magister in Artibus gives a level 2 positive reputation. I assume not teaching your required seasons (based on wealth) loses the positive reputation and may lead to a negative one.
Tiny interjection here. About laboratories, Alan's laboratory will have x1.5 to x2 upkeep due to a flaw in magic he has...this is actually fluff and should ask the ST, but just saying ( that means it should cost 1.5 for an upkeep of 0 at start I think?)
We are already bankrupt from day one so another 0.5 to 1 lab's worth make any real difference - lol. Lets see what Emelric's call on it is.
There will also be the light/heavy use factor which we may want to factor in. Or maybe it is the other way around; if we are short-cashed, the labs will be the first item to suffer, and to avoid creating flaws it may be worth cutting down on the use and do other things.
It would be useful to set up a budget based on magi at living condition 0. It is not a satisfactory in the long run (IC speaking), but it is plausible and acceptable in the build-up phase. At such conditions, individuals drop to 40 points, saving (by quick estimate) ~ £13½. If some of the companions are supported elsewhere, the deficit might be only a few pounds. Of course, that does not remove the magi's desire to get an additional source of income and support the living standard they expect, but it may change the approach from one of panic to one of strategic planning ...
Why don't we just rob a bank? 
Or, well, maybe not a bank, but something ought to be robbable.
Or we could take the silver coin creation spell from Covenants p61 as a lab text for one of the people who have not spent their 60 build points, "The Riches that are Rightfully Mine" CrTe 35 that creates £2000 in silver coins. Huge issue with the Quesitors at some point but we will never starve - lol.
Is anyone able to learn the spell in a season?
The quaesitores is only one problem. We need to keep all that silver safe till we need it, currently with no grogs, and no safe vault. I would certainly want more loyal covenfolk than you have calculated that we have, before I would risk it.
By the bye, I made the calculations based on reduced living conditions and working companions, and I think we can plausibly just break even. It is posted in the other thread. It is just an illustration to say that it is possible.
As I stated before: I need to know if we doing the mine option or not. If we aren't, I can drop Miner's Keen Eye And take either Touch of Midas or Riches That Are Rightfully Mine(d) if I drop something else too. As always, problem is the quasitors
A lab text for an item version of Miner's Keen Eye wouldn't go amiss. We already have a text for the stone cutting knife, so send a grog or two out with those tools, and we can start a new mine if we did not have one ...
Should I have swapped one of the Summæ for lab texts on items for covenant use, I wonder? Level 40 items may be within reach, and level 30 is routine in virtually any art combination as long as it can be made from iron.
Covenants page 5 suggests starting Covenants are limited to level 25 lab texts.
Thanks. Forgot to check that. A useful Miner's keen item is Ivl 30 )-:
It's probably a no then. can't find much of interest at lvl 25
Those InTe are poorly constructed and contradictory to other Intellego spells. +1 to see through material is like wtf... all In[form] spells see through the material. InAu sees through weather, InAq sees through water... it's just an arbitrary +1 magnitude.
You can construct a spell based off Sense the Feet that Tread the Earth, drop the +3 size and +1 part and make the target +1 group. Drop the base to 2 from 4.
Sense the Living Earth
InTe 5
Base:2, +1 touch, +1 concentration, +1 group
Touch the Earth and the caster feels a general awareness of the living metals of the Earth. By concentrating on a particular Nobel metal the caster can feel their way through the Earth and find where those metals live.
The description here of metals as being alive is really just the paradigm, just flavour. Unless metals actually do breed underground :0)
It isn't as accurate or exact, takes time and requires some sort of search. However it's good enough to find veins to mine.
Also, to change dirt to precious metals is MuTe base 4 or 5, instead of the CrTe base 15.
Creating already minted coins that have the caster's sigil seems to me to be absolutely a bad idea and needlessly hard spell, likely invented out of vanity.
A small lump of gold, a big lump of silver, and some copper is all we need to make electrum or rose gold jewellery to trade for goods.
If next to the coast we can produce salt for trade easily as well.
Note:
The Riches that are Rightfully Mine(d) (p. 61): Replace the T: Ind with T: Group (for multiple coins). Replace the first sentence with the following: "This spell fills a large chest or other sturdy container with silver pennies equal to about 650 Mythic Pounds.". In the description, replace "it would take 100 years" with "it would take more than 30 years". Finally, replace the level calculation with "(Base 15, +1 Touch, +2 Group, +1 complexity)".
3m to show off lol
I'm thinking of having Reynard spend a season pregame writing a commentary on the Vim summae he is bringing with him. It won't be illuminated or bound well, etc. Just have the basic stats for the content. 1(Communication) + 6 + 3(good teacher) + 1(commentary) = 11 quality Vim tractus, which requires reading of said Vim Summae
And then spend 2 seasons making a Talisman.
If we are using the covenant rules (so binding, illumination and scribing add to quality) then it is +3 rather than +6 so total quality will be 8 (Covenants P 88) - actually reading what is typed you do not even get the +3 but that makes no sense against the Summae description. I guess they want core rules to equal covenant rules+Scribe+binder+illuminator.
Just checked the errata on the Atlas Games site and the +3 for tractatus is correct.