OOC Chatter

So, what level of experience is everyone? I've been making ArM Characters for years, but haven't ever actually played in a game yet, until joining another PbP here on these forums a few weeks ago. That hardly counts -- we're about 45 seconds past when I say "Hello."

On the other hand, I've been RPing for over 15 years.

Must have been around 15 years of roleplaying for me as well, starting with MERP, which did wonders for my English.
I've known Ars Magica for almost as long. I used to play other games when I was younger and more into getting xp for killing creatures.

Heya,

I've been Role playing for 25 ish years. Started with D&D very young, then as a teen like many got into Mage, then was introduced to Ars M from there. Used to be into my LARP and free forms but children have put a big dent in that.

I've never however tried this style of rp and as I warned Jean Michelle I'm not the greatest of writers so sorry if my posts are a little short (I prefer "To the point")

All I ask is that people proof-read their posts before sending them. Short, long, doesn't matter to me.

Man, I had completely forgotten about the handful of years I played DnD during Lunch in grade school until just now. Good times.

Started playing D&D back when 1st edition was still new, in high school (so, that would be roughly the Eisenhower years :laughing: ). Then started with Champions in about '86 for about three years. Did some GURPS off and on for a while in the late 80s and through the 90s. Went back to D&D when I found a new group (because I wanted someone else to GM for awhile) around 2k, did D&D and Marvel for a couple years, then played Ars for about 2-3 years, then I moved to Smallville and decided to try pbem/pbp, and voila! here we are.

Ray

I'd like to once again suggest that we use Obsidian Portal in conjunction with these forums for the game.

Obsidian Portal is essentially a gaming-centric wiki. The GM can create entries and sections of entries that aren't visible to the other players until he chooses. There are handy tabs for Characters, Places, and Items, etc but most interesting to me is the map feature. You can upload images which get turned into Google Maps style scrollable image, and add marker points to the map which link to wiki entries, which seems like it would really add to the sense of geography, especially if we can find an era-appropriate map online somewhere.

At the basic/free level, we can use one map, and at the premium level, up to 10. Probably don't want to commit the cash to the premium level until the game has some legs under it, though.

I'd prefer starting here for now. I won't have the time to read into the other site before Christmas.
Once I've fully understood it and once we've reached the critical number of 500 posts (indicating that it is likely for this game to survive), we can talk about it again.

This is not just a polite way of saying no. Promised!

Fair enough, though I feel there is some value in starting a wiki for the campaign now, before we have 500 posts of info to integrate.

You may have deduced from my character sheet stuff that I've traditionally played the role of Campaign Secretary in my other gaming groups.

Greetings Gentlefolk,

My name is Ivan. In a previous incarnation I was Domazhir Slipoi (Hi Ray) in the saga, "Mystikae Eikona."

I propose a Jerbiton generalist with a martial bent. From the outset I had in mind a maga, and was highly entertained to discover "The Glamazons." I've got her largely specced-out, and will post Berenguer (an Occitan version of Brengaria, I think) later this afternoon.

I like this idea, in principal. Ray and I used a Wetpaint Wiki for Mystikae Eikona. No mapping, but free, and easy to use.

Happy to wait to see how things develop.

Ivan

If we all agree to a specific wiki to start, I'll go along happily. Obsidian Portal's wiki stuff is free. You even get one map for free (athough you have to be careful it is the RIGHT map, because "one map" means "one upload."), so we could all start with free accounts on Obsidian Portal and upgrade to the advanced maps should we ever feel it necessary.

I had a feeling that it was you, when I saw your post on my character's thread but i didn't want to jinx it waves back

I just noticed...

the background on my new avatar makes it look like Max Headroom.

Any estimates as to when the campaign is going to officially start?

Thanksgiving is next week, and I could sure use the escape from dealing with family and festivities.

I personally have to deal with family this week too.
I had forgotten about Thanksgiving (I am not from the colonies :smiley: ).
Before stressing everyone I'd rather give you an extra week to finish character building.

In the meantime, we can start by me posting the appendices and the arrival/introductions, redcap questions (this will take a week or so anyway).
After thanksgiving, we'll have all the magi in one spot and can start exploring the covenant.

Missing a day or a week of play is not a big deal anyway - for short absences it can be assumed that the character toddles along.

No Thanksgiving in this Aussie Colony! :slight_smile:

Playing an Ex Misc , i get a free Major Non-Hermetic Virtue.

Wanting to try something a bit different , making use of the Magic book to design one.
For those who ask , you dont need a Might Score to do this. (page 43 , RoP:M)

My choice is the Ritual Power on page 47.
Use of the power costs Fatigue and Confidence Points.
Being as starting characters have a score of 1 , only one point can be spent.

page 40 , RoP:M

Using 25 levels , will cost 1 Fatigue level and 1 Confidence Point.
It will have a Penetration of Zero.

Restore the Raiment of Yesteryear ; Level 25
R: Touch , D: Mom , T: Ind

Any garment touched by the caster will return as closely as possible
to its original condition.
This is not just the same repair as a Ritual Creo spell
but years of actual Aging are removed as well.

Base 20 , +01 Touch

Base 20 is enough to resolve a serious aging crisis , but not major or critical.
Instead of choosing Forms (An , He & Te) , conceptually worked better to treat it like a magical focus.

Due to possible accusations of munchkinism ( :astonished: ) :
My original idea was to choose the major House Ex Misc virtue as an i Mutable Virtue[/i] (page 37 , The Mysteries).
The power would then only have been available in the 4 mutable signs (Sagitarrius , Pisces , Gemini , Virgo) (page 50).
This also makes it a minor ability and i could then have chosen the Ritual Power two more times. (With GM permission of course)
Having 75 levels to use would have meant that i could spend at most 3 confidence points to use it.
The restriction here being that you would need a Confidence Score of 3 , unless an exception was made.

The Restore Power would have been much greater (obviously) , but very limited in how often it could be used
and being able to have Penetration levels , it could have affected magical clothing.

One other choice was to take a Rejuvenate the Aging Actor power.
This would have removed actual years of age from a person.
But i could see problems , if word got out , that you could do so.
Plus it didn't fit thematically.

So people , tell me what you think.

Just so I understand this:
You want to spend a major virtue on repairing clothes?
Why not simply make it a beneficial side effect of your spellcasting (I am trying to use simple concepts - makes it easier to understand without all kinds of weird rules)?
There also is the Spinnen Faeirie Blood virtue from L&L, 97. There also is Julia from MoH - she seems to be similar to your concept.

What I won't allow is any home-made tempering with the aging rules for humans.

It breaks a Hermetic limit , by reducing actual decrepitude due to aging , even clothing "ages".
As given , for a confidence point , and i could only do it 3 times in a lengthy campaign , most definitely not very effective.
Which is why being able to restore magical clothing or fabrics , like say Hyperborean tapestries (from Ancient Magic)
would be far more interesting.
There is always the chance of repairing Verditious enchanted clothes , armour or fabric as well.

What i want to do is restore clothing/fabric that has been damaged.
Hermetic Spells are usually too costly in terms of vis.
I have based some of my ideas on Julia , but didnt want to play a carbon-copy of a published character.

Wasnt aware that i could take "beneficial side effect for spells".
As we werent doing season by season apprenticeship , i could not experiment in the hope of getting one.
Plus you indicated that an Ex Misc taking Skilled Parens , Book Learner and possibly Inventive Genius
would be frowned upon.

What about animals then? Serious question , not rhetorical.
I can see how tampering with the RAW would be problematic , so i wasnt actually trying to put one over on you.

I am quite happy to take a standard book virtue , if it makes campaign play easier.

Animals are problematic because of House Bjornaer (they are animals) - animal products are fine.

I have no problem with this at all - as long as it is not used to circumvent the aging rules for characters.

No point wasting a power that uses confidence points on anything that can be created if you have vis.
If it could restore the hide of a magical beast or even recreate the magical beast itself , then yes.

You wouldnt casually use the one i designed to fix a peasants jockstrap.
More likely on costly royal regalia worth several fortunes.

Think i will probably stick with something more mundane. :mrgreen: