How many of us are there actively playing? I think I've only seen three of us (salutor, MTKnife, callen) posting recently.
Chris
That's pretty much it--JeanMichelle seems to have been turned off by the delay imposed on his character. I need to recruit more players--I don't have time just now, but I'll post something tomorrow.
Scott
OK, the announcement is posted. Feel free to chime in with encouraging comments if you like. 
Scott
JM just had twins, IIRC, and sports the German penchant for terseness, so I wouldn't assume it was anything your campaign did unless he told you so.
Hello, by the way. I've just been accepted into your game. I'm a long time ArM reader and character builder, but I never played in a game until November, when I joined these forums. I'm currently playing in Ad Fons and Alpha-guiding the Phoenix campaign. In both of those games, I'm playing a faerie-raised Verditus, so I thought I'd try something different here and play a hard-drinking Irish Tytalus magic animal trainer. Right now, he's appearing in my head as a mix between Crocodile Dundee and crocodile hunter Steve Irwin. I'm trying to cook him into something a little more three-dimensional, though.
I've never played a combat character in Ars, so input would be greatly appreciated once I throw together some stats. One major issue that I've had with this is that the Taming/Training rules in RoP:Magic uses Lab Totals, but there are no rules for specializing your lab for such purposes. It also isn't clear what skills I need to do that properly -- just Animal Handling? Or should I also get Magic/Faerie/etc Lore?
Incidentally, if anybody over here wants to help me stat up opponents for the Phoenix game, I could really use the help.
As for the lab activities, I think a specialization in that is reasonable, though it would be different from the specialization for familiars.
Scott
Magical animal trainer sounds good - with an interest in taming exotic beasts from beyond the normal hermetic lands as his reason for staying at the covenant?
What type of Tytalus were you thinking - what would his integration of the tytalan philosophy be? Pitting himself against the beasts to impose his will upon them (and especially previously untamed animals)? Also, since I have a very junior Tremere, what's his attitude to his little brothers? (I'm happy for a certain level of suspicion/contempt/fundementally incompatible philosophies/friction etc., but wouldn't be happy with the introduction of a character likely to flat out bully mine).
Taming lab totals are all Rego (Form), so I think you could just use a Rego specialisation? Anything else would be less broad to no benefit, I think.
Pardon the lack of quotes, I am doing this on my phone.
Taming uses lab totals, but training requires other skills. The Rego specialization sounds like a good idea though.
Salutor has the right idea about his reason for coming here. I think he might also be a general "adventurer mage for hire," who acquires special animal components for other people's arcane experiments.
I don't know much about Tytalus besides what I have seen players do...yet. Nor have I decided how old he is yet. Seems unwise to spend a bunch of XP when I am so unfamiliar with the combat system. But I don't picture him as a bully, more like the brothers from Boondock Saints. He'll push you to face and overcome your own challenges, not needlessly create conflict. He is far more concerned with facing his own challenges.
Greetings all,
Scott has allowed me to make a Criamon for the saga. Now Scott does not like ArM5 Criamon and I have never played a Criamon in any edition(3,4 or 5) so this is an experiment on several angles.
I'm planning on a Muslim Criamon that is following the Path of Walking Backwards. I think he will be a Seeker or at least an explorer of magical sites. I'm still fleshing it out and hope to have a 1st draft this weekend.
Ah right, I see, I think. So something equivalent to a teaching specialisation, but which applies to training instead, but only for cunning creatures and which also includes taming them in the first place? That sounds as though it could be done, although I'd have thought a lot of skills you're going to have difficulty training in a lab, at least without a fair amount of ingenuity - to take the classic example, if you're trying to train a horse to swim, you're going to need quite an unusual lab.
I think for training the creatures you do just need one rank of animal handling (plus, obviously, the skill you're training them in). RoP:M does suggest that for commanding trained creatures, you could have an option to use Magic Lore instead, but Animal Handling can also be used still. In any case you're probably going to want a reasonable Magic Lore skill to have some idea of what's out there to be tracked down (and the exact ways it's likely to try to dismember you when you catch it).
I'm afraid I can't be much use with designing him for combat capability - I haven't tried out the combat system myself yet. If you're trying to capture magical beasts, you'll presumably largely want to steer clear of Perdo Vim effects, in order not to decrease the creature's utility. Then again, they may be useful as a back-up plan for when things go a little wrong.
I'd recommend acquiring HoH: Societates if you can, for the fifth edition Tytalan philosophy. There's a fair bit in there about their view(s) of the inherent struggle between human nature and the restrictions placed by human society that I'd struggle to accurately sum up.
Welcome. I'll be curious to see what you do with the Criamon - they're not a house that I've ever had any ideas for.
For me this is part of test to see if I could do a Criamon that I would like to play that was not Path of Strife munchkin master. I did not like Tremere from back in my 3rd and 4th Ed days. After seeing some of the discussions on this board I saw that many others disliked Tremere for the same reason without giving the 5th edition a chance. I made a new Tremere for another game and it has been very playable and enjoyable. Now I have never played a Criamon in any edition and at some point I decided I would have to give them a try. This character will be well outside my comfort zone. He will be religious, pious and a non-combatant(or try really really hard to avoid combat of any kind). Should be a fun experiment.
Welcome, fellow newcomer. I agree that the 5th Ed rewrite of the Tremere is much more interesting and setting-appropriate. I've always dismissed Criamon as the "Malkavians of Ars Magica," an entire class of PC dedicated to derailing plotlines and disrupting game flow. It'll be interesting to see what you do with it.
Like you, I'm also trying to avoid playing my usual type! I'm looking forward to seeing if I find a way to fall back to old patterns.
I haven't played any of the previous editions, so I came to fifth edition Tremere fresh. So far I'm enjoying it, although we haven't had any actual interactions with his house yet. Still, the design and character of Gregorius has drawn quite heavily on the background from True Lineages (albeit a relatively positive take), and there's some nice material there.
Amul, I think you might need to rework your entrance for a few points:
- I don't think Patrick speaks the local language, or has any relevant spells to get round that.
- Given he's heard of the covenant, he should know that it's been specifically set up for the purpose of hosting magi, and is therefore pretty much obligated to give him board (although he might be aspiring to more than that, of course).
- Whilst Patrick could have arrived by land, it would have been an odd way to go - the covenant is out past the boundaries of the Novgorod tribunal (despite having been set up by the Theban one). Travelling by ship across the Black Sea would be a far more normal way of having got here.
I also think it needs to be decided when in the timeline he's arriving. Right in the middle of the initial covenant exploration/set-up is probably inappropriate (and therefore the post needs to be moved to a new thread). I'd suggest the MTKnife declares a few downtime seasons and starts (a) new thread(s) at that timespan with your arrival in it, whilst we finish off the old threads simultaneously (and hope nobody dies or declares their undying hatred for all the covenant's works). I think there are still a few things we need to do before declaring the initial covenant set-up - things that spring to mind are get all the magi together for a meet-up and planning session, and meet the local headman. Also engineer Portia and Aetos' exit.
Cursed lack of translator technology! I keep forgetting about that.
I'm not sure why you bring this up. I have the bit about him wanting to make a good impression as character development, he's eager for the challenge this covenant presents, and wants to prove himself before he even gets there.
I figured he had landed somewhere early, and then walked a curving arc toward the covenant, to familiarize himself with the local terrain and wildlife. As Patrick believes they've been here for at least a season already, since he has taken a season to travel here, then this, in a sense, was also a test of the covenant - how far had their presence been felt already?
~shrug~ This is a choice left to the established players. When the call was made for new players, I was under the impression that the game was lagging due to player loss, and you wanted people to jump in ASAP, which is why I offered to enter the game now before my stats were all worked out.
Okay, if that's the way you want to do it, it's perfectly possible (if going to seem a bit odd to the covenant) - I just wanted to check it wasn't based on OOC misunderstanding.
Waiting on a call from Scott on this one, I think. I'm still inclined to the opinion that it would make sense if he came in a bit later than the founding of the covenant in IC time, but it'll depend on how ready Scott is to start juggling timelines.
Well, I certainly appreciate your enthusiasm! Before introducing a new character (or for that matter introducing an existing character at a surprising point in an ongoing story), I'd like for everyone to give both the SG in question and me, as the Alpha SG, a heads-up. I certainly don't intend to tell you what to do with your character, but i'd like to be able to coordinate things, and give you advice on the best point to bring him in.
That being said, I think it's OK if Patrick shows up about now, as a new recruit eager to impress the permanent members. You will want to coordinate with the SG of the story in question, though, which at the moment is Salutor.
For the record, we went ahead and put out the call now because, while we're still wrapping up a couple of plots, I wanted to see if we could find someone to SG the faerie regio story, since Salutor doesn't feel comfortable doing it. Also, though I didn't think about it at the time, it makes sense to provide a little lead time so that new characters can be worked up.
Scott
I'm still working on advancing my Criamon and rounding him out. RL has taken much of my free time.
Oh, I certainly understand. I guess I was just a bit punch drunk after crunching all those numbers the first time and posted without asking for feedback on how to enter the story, which I really should have known better than to do. Advancing by season for 13 years is a chore and a half!
I have posted the (hopefully) correctly adjusted XP Log for Patrick the Unrepentant Tytalus, and am awaiting feedback on him. If the basic math is right, then he can enter gameplay while I finish tweaking him.
Since I've already posted something about how he's somewhere out in the distance but nearby, I'll let that idea for a stage-entrance stand. Let me know if either the ASG or SG have any questions or decisions about that.
Thanks for the clarification.
Incidentally, if you'd like me to start running the Faerie Regio story, I have an idea for that. Is the herd of magic horses entirely a part of that plotline, or do I need to coordinate with someone else before figuring out how to work that bit in?
I'll pm you about the horses.