Resorses, rules, and example

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Iron Magus
1

I'm running late in packing for my trip. But I still do hope to see at least one more character up before I leave and to open up the first event for at least a group of three.

I typed the following example submission up this afternoon when my internet connection was down.

I’ll use the Flambeau character from the core book p.25 for an example of what I’d like to see for posts of activity. In character discussions between your magus and a functionary of the covenant are particularly encouraged.

Year 1
Sp: Read covenant magic theory summa Magic theory 3 +10
Su: Read covenant magic theory summa Magic theory 4
Fa: first season preparing laboratory exposure experience to Magic theory 4 +2
Wi: second season preparing laboratory exposure experience to Magic theory 4 +4 use yearly funds to acquire a hickory wand with a sharpened brass tip

Year 2
Receive vis, total vis 1 creo 1 ignem 1 vim
Sp: Read tractatus “the Frozen Heart of Winter” 15 xp, ignem 13 (16)+2
Su: Read tractatus “the Punishing Sun of Summer’s Zenith” 15 xp, ignem 14 (17)+3
Fa: Read tractatus “Of darkness and cold” 10 xp, perdo 5+5
Wi: Read tractatus “The transcendent power of time” 10 xp, perdo 7+2 use yearly funds to create ice distribution infrastructure

Year 3
Sp: create Wand of New Year’s Night, Lab total 36 use 1 pawn ignem vis, exposure magic theory 4+5, ignem 13(16) +6
Su: Read tractatus “inevitable morning” 15 xp creo 13 +2
Fa: Read tractatus “Of Forms and Seeds” 15 xp creo 14 +3
Wi: Invent spells lab total 55 “Fuel of Stones and Air” creo ignem 15 “Touch of penetrating Flames” creo ignem 10 exposure xp creo 14+5 ignem 14(17)+5 use yearly funds to acquire a brass and hickory brazier.

Year 4
Receive vis, totals 2 creo, 1 ignem, 2 vim
Sp: Craft the Brazier of Illuminated Examples, lab total 60, use 1 pawn ignem 1 pawn creo, exposure xp creo 14+7 ignem 14(17)+7
Su: update laboratory gains “Minor feature (brazier)”, minor structure virtue +1 Aesthetics, +1 ignem specialization, “Excessive heating (from Brazier of Illuminated Examples)” free supernatural -1 safety +2 ignem specialization, Superior lighting (from Brazier of Illuminated Examples)” free supernatural, +1 aesthetics, +1 texts, +1 Imagonem specialization, exposure magic theory 4+7
Fa: read covenant summa on vim, vim 5
Wi: laboratory gains “Spacious” minor structure virtue +1 Aesthetics +2 Safety, exposure Magic theory 4+9

Year 5
Sp: reads covenant magic theory suma 10xp magic theory 4+17
Su: reads covenant magic theory suma 10xp magic theory 5
Fa: Spends season refining laboratory, laboratory gains refinement +1 and highly organized virtue (+1 general quality) exposure Magic theory 5+2
Wi: extracts vis lab total 3 pawns Vim

Wand of New Year’s Night:
A wand of hickory with a sharp brass tip that is used to scribe circles in soft earth. The wand is a lesser enchanted device enchanted with the following power:
Circle of New Year’s Night
Perdo Ignem 10
Range touch Duration momentary Target circle usable 1x per day
A wielder scribes a circle using the wad of new years night to activate its power. When the wand touches the point on the circle where it began everything inside of the circle is strongly chilled, water within the circle freezes and any people within the circle take +5 damage from the cold. The power of the wand is limited and it can not chill a circle of more than ten paces in circumference.
(base 5, +1 touch)

Fuel of Stones and Air
Creo Ignem 15
Range touch, duration ring, target individual

This spell creates a blaze of bright fire burning within the ring it is cast upon. The fire is hot enough to do +5 damage. If th4 ring that is inscribed around the fire is ever broken then the fire is extinguished.
(Base 4 +1 touch, +2 ring)

Touch of penetrating flames
Creo Ignem 10
Range touch, duration momentary target individual

A burst of bright flames flashes from the point touched by the caster. These flames are hot enough to do +1- damage to any object or creature that the caster touches and to the caster.
Base 5 +1 touch,

Brazier of Illuminated Examples
This brass covered hickory brazier is of substantial size and is a lesser enchanted device with the following power:

Will of Example character
Creo Ignem 30
Upon command a large and bright fire bursts from the brazier. This fire is hot enough to do +5 damage. The fire can be dispelled by a second command.

Base 4, +1 touch, +1 concentration, +1 individual,+5 levels item maintains concentration, +10 levels unlimited uses

I had hoped to have time to create dialogs between the example character (he has specializations in insults and I'm not taking advantage of it) and the covenant autocrat to tell the story of these items but , alas I did not have the time.

The Wand of New Year’s Night is to be used to create large blocks of ice to be sold by the covenant. A story about cutting the ice from nearby lakes in wintertime and a particularly well insulated storehouse used to keep the ice from ablating over the course of the year is concocted to explain the availability of this substance throughout the year.

Fuel of Stones and Air will be cast throughout the covenant in places where a fire would be appreciated. By doing this the character will decrease the number of hours that the coven.folk need to spend gathering wood and leave them free to pursue other activities. This spell will give a lab a warping score so it certainly would not be appropriate for most labs.

Please include an updated character sheet at the end of every event.

2

In regards to the acquisition of materials by trade:

Characters will be able to trade any vis they possess through the redcaps using these rules

  1 pawn of a technique may be traded for 1 pawn of any form
  2 pawns of technique vis may be traded for 1 pawn of any technique
  2 pawns of form vis may be traded for 1 pawn of any form
  3 pawns of vim vis may be traded for 2 pawns of any form
  3 pawns of form vis may be traded for 1 pawn of any technique

Characters may trade any books that they write using the following rules

  The first copy of a book traded through the redcaps will return either a book on the same subject with a quality one higher than the text produced or a book on a different subject with a quality one lower than the text traded.
  The second copy of a book traded will return a book with a quality two lower than the first book traded.
  The third copy of a book traded will return a book with a quality three lower than the first book traded.
  After three copies of a book have been traded the market for that text will be saturated.

Laboratory texts of original spells may be traded for other laboratory texts detailing spells from the core book. In general the laboratory text traded must be two magnitudes higher than the effect of the laboratory text received.

It takes two seasons to complete a trade.

Naturally one could attempt to trade lab notes for vis or enchanted devices for tractaus and the like. We'll make up some additional guidelines for this when the situation arises. I will create the guidelines based not on the covenant build point costs of the items but on my estimation of how much time and vis it takes to produce what is given versus what is desired.

3

resources available to the players

at the start of their post apprenticeship career every magus will have:

an income of 3 pawns of vis every even numbered year. These pawns will be distributed as follows one pawn of technique (the technique to be chosen by the player at the start of the game and will not change) 1 pawn of a form similarly chosen at the start of the game and 1 pawn of vim vis.

150 points of tractati with a maximum quality of 12. All of these tractati are protected by a restrictive version the cow and calf oath and may not be legally copied or distributed.

A room large enough to construct a laboratory with a +2 size

sufficient funds to create and upkeep a laboratory with an average upkeep cost.

sufficient additional funds to afford to pay two specialists to perform a job for the character one time per year. (such as a book bnder and an illuminator but not a scribe during a single year)

petty cash enough to gather any other material necessary for the magus's upkeep within reason.

The covenant itself has a library consisting of a level 5 quality 15 summa in every art. A level 6 quality 14 summa in magic theory and level 3 quality 10 summas in parma magica, finesse, concentration, penetration, faerie lore, divine lore, magic lore, and infernal lore.

The turb will make an instructor with a teaching score of 3 a communication of +2 and three levels of any military skill available to the magi.

4

Concerning the nature of competition:

I believe that the best way to determine the victor in an event of this sort is to have the competitors vote.

At the end of an event each player should vote for someone else's submission. There will be no tie breakers. Ties are just fine.

Naturally it is in good form to comment on the strong poins of all of the other submissions.

I will try and serve as an impartial rules ajudicator and work to answer your questions about what you can and can't do.

5

Some thoughts on Mystery initiation

My present plans are as follows:

You'll need to have a mystery cult lore score of 3 to undergo initiation in a minor minor from a cult.

You'll need to have a Cult lore score of 5 (?) to undergo initiation in a major virtue (I want to use the suggested levels of cult lore from the mysteries book I'm not sure that I recall them correctly)

In addition you need to increase your cult lore score by at least one level between every initiation.

I don't foresee the incitations ever taking less than a season (no sacrifice - no results) but I'll examine the scripts before hand and make allowances for any personal abilities that your character has.

How to raise cult lore: a single season of tutelage from an instructor of communication +1 and teaching 2(magi) is available from every esoteric cult for an earnest applicant. Beyond this, additional seasons of tuition and tractati are available for any member of the cult who spends seasons working for the cult, we'll try and find a fair balance.

The four house cults are an exception. They have greater openness and books of house lore are available and they can be lent to the characters at a rate that is better than fair (I.E. if you write a good tractatus on house criamon lore you will be lent two or more equivalent tractatus for your own study).

I intend on using most of the cults from mysteries revised there are some exceptions. One of these is the charismatic "initiation of the month themed" cult from the example cults chapter (I can't recall the name at the moment). I also recall that one of the cults first intiates the members into the mystery of inscription on the soul, then for the next intiation requires that the character destroy their talisman Shocked. We'll change that.

For virtues without already supplied scripts you the player should submit a script to me and I'll ok it or tell you my reservations.