OOC chat

I assume the covenfolk will retain their memories, but all shall be revealed in due time.

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We should start a wish list and see how close we come to what Silver comes up with. :slight_smile:

Happy holidays, everyone!

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At this point I have a basic framework of the covenant and need to figure out how much to flesh it out- for example it is likely that each of you should have an undisclosed large number of lab texts (the range for dates of gauntleting was 1170-1210 and nobody took anything over 1190- also meaning that nobody knows about the 4th crusade, for example), so either we will need to find a way to shoehorn in later back-edit additions to the covenant inventory or this could take a while... even those 20 years that everyone backdated their gauntlet represent a combined 160 years of lab texts.

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It's probably unfeasible to detail them all beforehand. Maybe some level of abstraction? E.g., I suggest an effect, you determine a likelihood that future-me would have invented that, and then we roll?

As Seon said, trying to detail it all would be too much.

What I'd do is set a percentage minus spell's level, and any spell that rolls lower than that, is found in the library, when you look for it.

For Example, say Muto Animal has 70 - Spell level, and Muto Corpus has 80 - Spell level. And my character wants to see if there's a spell that lets you transform into an Elephant, and a spell that lets you transform your animal claws info a more fearsome version. Say the MuCo into Elephant is level 40 (didn't compute this), and the fearsome claws is a MuAn 25. There would be 40% that the turning into Elephant spell is there, while there's 45% chance for the fearsome claws spell.

How about we have a pile of lab notes that you can rummage through looking for a certain type of spell in play, that you believe you might have, from what you have uncovered of the background, invented, and I'll decide at that time what you did invent- there will obviously be some things that you have definitely done however.

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Yeah, I'd prefer this solution - it's nicer to have you decide based on background rather than having it randomized.

I would like it if you threw us a few lab texts / item that are unusual and can lead to stories (e.g. Why would I need to design a ritual to heal a giant? why would I want to move a mountain? what breakthrough was I working on to get this effect that falls outside the regular hermetic limit, and how do I continue that project? what does this enchanted item in my lab actually do ? Which vis source was I harvesting which this weird effect to slowly harvest vis from a river over a month?) and otherwise allows us to choose X numbers of lab text levels, occasionally throwing in a side effect / flaw / modified effect for those characters that might be inclined to experiment. The same thing with other covenant resources (e.g. items, libraries), it could be co-designed, some of it you do it, some of it we do it.

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I have complete confidence in your "as we go" decisions, @silveroak . Like @temprobe I love the idea that these things lead to stories and plotlines. Those seem like a great balance in terms of truth to the backgrounds we've created while opening up storylines and avenues of pursuit.

I'm having a great time thinking about the situation we may find ourselves in based on the clues you've given so far. I'm thinking about it in my own life. What would the 25 year old me think walking into the 55 year old me's house and yard. Why is there an Xbox on the live-edge hand-crafted desk in the first floor bedroom that appears to be an office? Why is there a second, older generation xbox gathering dust on the floor? WHy is there also a gaming PC under that desk and a Surface Book 3 sitting beside a huge monitor? Why is there a Bible on the desk with headphones to the PC piled on top of them and a strange plastic container subdivided into seven compartments each marked with a letter--S M T W T F S--with small pills in some of them? Why is there a large blue plastic cup with "Caroline Tar Heels" printed on it? Why does the book case have the complete works of Henrik Ibsen in them in Norwegian AND English? Why is Patrick O'Brian's complete Master and Commander series there but the last volume appears never to have been opened?

What choices would that 25 year old me make differently? What would they try to trace and then chase down to come to the same or an even better conclusion?

Such an interesting situation you're building here, Silver. I think a looser structure to fill in the details will likely make for the best storytelling.

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That will be fine with me. It makes sense, for example, that Tastheus will have an interesting reportaoire of various Perdo spells and others for use in Wizard's War/ Wizard's March. I would not however, expect to find a Intellego Terram prospecting spell for silver or gold.

I agree with the others, it makes sense to have a bunch of undecided labtexts - partly because its a hell of a lot of work. You can even change some of the accessible lab texts with story - my Jerbiton experiments ALL the time, and lab accidents can destroy lab notes. Some notes may get misplaced or stolen. The Tytalus might decide to hide their notes in a secret area of the lab to keep the other Tytalus from finding it.
Plus, my artist will be spending at least 1-2 seasons a year doing non-hermetic work, art and sculpting and exploring for new inspirations.

Most of my character's research will be available... but let's see you make use of it, with her being incomprehensible...

Question: would you allow Maintaining the demanding spell in an enchanted device such that it can maintain spells cast by the character?

There is such an item mentioned in an example, Mysteries (revised) at page 30, but I can see how this might be controversial.

The reason I ask is that it just occurred to me that this would be the most efficient way for Lares to go about his goal of extending spontaneous spells.

IIRC your Talisman can do that

Itzhak: Yes, but I mean investing Maintaining the demanding spell into the talisman at duration concentration and having the item maintain concentration on it. In this way, one could cast a spont at concentration duration and then cast Maintaining via the talisman and have it maintained indefinitely - hence controversy.

That would suffer the same issues that enchanting items with MuVi spell enhancers would have- namely getting an item to target a spell.

Ah, ok. I wasn't aware of that discussion - can you point me to it? I thought the enchantment limitation only concerned MuVi, as per the guideline box in ArM5 159.

Would that apply for one's Talisman? I thought, since Magi and Talisman are connected more closely, it wouldn't have the same problem

added to house rules, and yes the limitation also affects talismans- the issue is not the range but the rigidity of enchantments and dealing with a variety of spells. You could still use the spell in an enchantment to sustain the spells cast by the item itself, which in effect replaces the "maintains concentration" effect for a set of effects enchanted into the item.