A little stuck with other stuff at the moment. I will try to post again on Monday or Tuesday. (I know I have to finish Gabriele's ambush ...)
How would you go about finding a familiar? Schedule an adventure? And who would stat up the familiar?
I have added the Creo tractatus Aurthor wrote to the library - if we didn't have enough scribe time to copy this properly, I can remove it again until the scribe is free.
I need to do an aging roll for Aurthor - so, what is our aging modifier? Is it -3 (-2 for being magi with a good standard of living, -1 for healthy feature) or am I being overoptimistic? Also, is anyone available to do a longevity ritual or shall I just do a quick one for now?
The covenant is Spring at this point, so it is +1 for Magus social status, and +2 for healthy feature.
Greetings!
I will humbly join this gathering. Will attempt to steer Andros ex Flambeau and Camilla into interesting directions, once I get a handle on everything that is going on. Newbie to actual Ars Magica Sagas and PbP; longtime RPGer, though (usual suspects: D&D, Vampire, Mage, Marvel's FASERIP).
A good night to all.
This was discussed ages ago but is it assumed we got the primers for arts we don't have primers in?
Also apologies for disappearing for like two weeks. Real life really got in the way of me doing any of this stuff.
While I"m at it, Archimedes I'll be honest I'm not sure of the direction you want Ouragan to take, I've just been developing skills that seem appropriate to him being a member of house flambeau and I'm going to look at ways of combating the fact that he has lots of troubles with faerie interference so I'm thinking I'll develop better wards but beyond that I'm not sure what you think would be appropriate as I'm just a little lost on how to develop this character and I don't want to take it in a direction you wouldn't be happy with.
It was discussed as general plans before the game, it had not been brought up in council. Give the directive and Julien will get it taken care of.
I think I may have mentioned in the yearly planning thread that we should do it but it probably got lost among the other posts.
darkwing -- Taurus is likely going to take on Giovanni as an apprentice in 1105. Is there anything you would like me to make sure to do before that?
crawfs -- I kind of envisioned Ouragan as a bit of a devil-may-care adventurer, but left his magical ambitions a little vague. He would probably want to take an apprentice because it's the thing to do and to show off a bit.
Archimedes - do a quick run-through on the maths of teaching virtues - as is, I think you can teach Subtle Magic and Quiet Magic twice for the full "cast in heartbeast with no penalty", or you could teach Life-linked Spontaneous Magic. I think I worked out you would need an optimised teaching lab with the +3 bonus to be able to get lots of virtues in.
I'm going to need some more specifics on this as I don't have access to Apprentices. Is there anything in the Core or HoH books that talks about teaching virtues?
Hi!
The base difficulty of teaching Hermetic Virtues to a student (which could be another Gauntleted magus, unless I'm missing something!) is reaching 15 SQ for minors and 21 for majors, +3 to base SQ/ minor Hermetic Virtue the apprentice already has , +6 to base SQ/ Major Hermetic Virtue the apprentice already possesses. -3 diff. if you stick him/her with a minor Hermetic Flaw, -6 if you stick him with a Major Flaw. The teacher must possess all Virtues and Flaws taught, although from my reading nothing prevents you from soliciting another Magus with high SQ teaching a desired Virtue he possesses. Some prestige (maybe) and vis/service (definitely).
From what I can see, Giovanni has no Hermetic Virtues, so start there, Subtle SQ 15, Quiet SQ 18, Quiet SQ 21, Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic SQ 30, in that order. Taurus could inflict one of his minor/major flaws on Giovanni to reduce the SQ needed in a particular case. Taurus has a Teaching total of Com + Teaching of 9 + 5 (Giovanni is Apt Student) + 9 Teaching one-on one + 2 Lab= 25.
So Subtle, Quiet x 2, Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic + Twilight Prone or Necessary Condition. Can even teach one of the Terram ones but that's SQ 33, it would require to stick him with another Major Hermetic Flaw to get a reachable SQ.
Hope my math's correct!
I have been thinking about the rewards/losses for companion adventures.
Specifically, given the "Gabriele's Ambush" adventure, with support from two grogs, here's how I see the individual rewards ...
- Corresponence is a set of letter exchanges, but that does not seem appropriate given the nature of this adventure, and Gabriele's only newly gained literacy.
- Reduced time will not result in any change to season use on this one.
- The adventure was not high enough level to result in a minor virtue.
- A reputation seems likely in this particular adventure, but would I really want to take all five rewards here?
- I'm not sure that labor points would apply to Gabriele, unless this is where artistic renown comes in?
- Vis seems more appropriate for a magus character. I guess I can stretch a bit and take this, but since Gabriele has no use for vis, what might he get in exchange with a magus?
- I think I have enough characters to work with right now; introducing a new character is not something I care to do at this point.
- Plenty of confidence points already from this adventure.
- The adventure was not a quest.
Given this, is it possible to have some additional individual rewards added into the list? I'm thinking about ...
- A limited number of build points; perhaps a minor enchanted device might be gained?
- Perhaps it is possible to gain a new ability? In this case, perhaps Gabriele had a clear lesson in Intrigue, or in Single Weapon. Although since these abilities can be used untrained, could some of the story experience be placed in these?
- The original solo play rules had provisions for temporarily gaining virtues (flaws for losses). While I think these were originally intended to be covenant based, perhaps we can use temporary minor virtues for individuals, that last a number of seasons equal to the base difficulty of the adventure? I have not thought this one through all the way yet, and can see lots of inappropriate virtues (like Educated), and ways to abuse it, but it might warrant some discussion.
- Additional experience in one of the abilities used
I am having a similar concern about losses, as two seem specifically geared toward magi, leaving companions with choices of a permanent flaw, a wound, or negative reputation. But maybe these are the best options anyway?
Comments welcome! (Especially if I'm missing something Gabriele can do with the current reward system 
)
IgnesF -- Thanks for the info on teaching virtues. I'll spend some time making sure Taurus can teach these. (Are these rules in Apprentices, or have I missed them in some other book?)
Hi! No problem! Straight from Apprentices, although the numbers look similar to those in The Mysteries.
And from Taurus's stats, SQ 25 to Giovanni. You could also go this route: Subtle SQ 15 (1 season), Quiet SQ 18 (1 season), Quiet SQ 21 (1 season), Puissant: Creo SQ 24 (1 season), Life-Linked Spontaneous Magic SQ 33-9 inflicting Major Hermetic Flaw (you have your choice of 2)= SQ 24 (1 season).
To further teach Puissant Terram, you'd need SQ 36, which is very difficult and involves a checklist: raise Teaching by 2 (from 6-8, 75 xps) and Lab specialization by 1 on Teaching and get Good Teacher
• by initiation (might be some Bjornaer can do that, teaching is honored in that Mystery House)
• or go to an adventure with many rewards so that you can pick that Virtue (an adventure with students? Risky!),
and inflicting Weird Magic to lower to SQ 33.
It occurs to me that the Magi should all write a Tractatus or 2 on Teaching. Certainly seems to be the central theme of the covenant!
Farewell.
I'm missing something here. According to ArM (pg 164), Taurus SQ would be 2 (Communication) + 7 (Teaching, apprentices) + 3 + 6 (single student) + 2 (lab bonus) = 20. I could install a couple lab virtues, but this would at best get me an additional +1, according to the notes about teaching specializations on pg 112 of Covenants. Where do the extra 5 points to get SQ 25 come from?
Darkwing -- Did you want Taurus to teach Giovanni any virtues beyond Subtle Magic and Quiet Magic(x2)? Based on what I'm reading, I think I can get to that quickly. If you want more, I will need to increase Taurus teaching by three points, which is likely to take a while.
Hi! Giovanni is an Apt Student, that increases Teaching totals by 5 SQ (and Training, per silveroak's clarification elsewhere).
The reward of labor points is designed as the primary alternative to magi, but as there are characters such as Gabrielle who are neither, I have added a reward-
- Mentor opportunity - gain access to a mentor to study under for one season- reputation and SQ combined equal the challenge level of the adventure. May be used at any point in the next 5 years.
I will point out that studying with an artist whose reputation is at least 2 greater than your own results in experience in your own renown equal to the renown of the artist you studied with.
Also added a new loss- plot hook
Archimedes - the basics of subtle and quietx2 will do. Learning LLSM will make the covenant better in 115 years when the main stories start, but we have 15 years for you to get more Teaching (some from exposure, and we can get some tractatus in).
Is the mentor a teacher, then? If the teaching SQ is Com + 3 + bonus (6? or is this a class?), this doesn't leave a lot of room for reputation, and might be unavailable for lower level adventures. (As an example, Gabriele could take this reward, and get a mentor with a SQ 11 and a reputation of 1. Since the mentor's reputation is only one above Gabriele's current 0, Gabriele would get 11 xp in Music, but no bonus to reputation. If the SQ were 10, meaning the mentor had a Com of 1, Gabriele would get 10 xp and 1 renown point? I'm not sure how renown works, as I don't have A&A.)
Can the mentor reward be taken more than once? (And is it available immediately? I was about to finish the rewards/loss for 1103 when I saw this post.)
Is the plot hook permanent? (In the original rules, some hooks and rewards were temporary, lasting a number of seasons equal to the challenge level of the adventure.)