Scholae Magicae Story Seed Ideas Wanted

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

So I have long (very long actually) loved the concept of the school of magic. This has led me to try and figure out ways to go about designing it so that a number of concepts of Ars Magica remain intact even though some of the general rules are being broken.

At base I am changing these two things:
[]There was a Major Breakthrough that established the possibility for a teacher to teach multiple people in the Art.
[]There was a Major Breakthrough that made immunity to the social penalty of the Gift an aspect of having the Arts Opened rather than of the Parma Magica, that way students didn't have to worry about being surrounded by other Gifted and thus Parma can still be taught at the end.
[*]Another breakthrough combined both others (and a third, the subtle opening which make it so that one's schores in the Arts doesn't effect the totals needed to gain supernatural abilities, but that is just because I like the concept) into a 'secret' opening variant taught only by the school.

Okay, so as a principal the idea is that the school of magic (which I still need to actually think of a name, though in someways I am partial to just Scholae Magicae) was founded around the 'present' time of the setting (that is a little after 1220), with all the political, social, technological, and magical elements that currently existing remaining in existence. This includes the Houses and the cultures and standards of how they organize.

So a magus (or magi) come in and announce that they are creating a school, and that they know a way to open the Gift to make such thing as magical classroom training possible. The question becomes how the various Houses interact with this phenomena and the potential story seeds that might come from it. Furthermore, how would school interact with the magi of the Houses and their apprentices. I was thinking that maybe apprentice would be a title applied to those who have a master, and student would be applied to those in the school taught by the school itself but not directly by their master. At base the four Mystery Cult and four Societies all could allow membership post training in the school, while the True Lineages require direct master-apprentice connections.

I was also thinking that a master could enroll their apprentices into the school by agreeing to provide some cost, which often would be gifts or goods other than vis or money. But that not all members of the school would be apprentices, some master-less students would come in. I was also thinking that the school would agree to open the Gift for those apprentices who would go on to attend the school, the ceremony would have the master be involved in such a way that it could be said they opened the Gift, even though everybody knows the professors of the school were the one to open the gift (since the professor is doing it in the name of the organization, and the covenant organization school is not a magus and cannot have an apprentice, everybody is fine with the fiction). If a master has their apprentice gift opened up but then takes the apprnetice and runs, they become blacklisted by the school - which basically means zero access to its resources, laboratories, information, or future academic connection.

My idea is that the school is in the Apollon Gorge on Candia (Crete) in the Theban Tribunal with Talos as the guardian.

Anyway, I REALLY would like to here what sort of story seeds could come from this. Interesting ideas, various plot points, elements of design and whatnot.

I would like to establish that while I am all for adventure and quests and danger of the attempt failing, my thought is that in the end (however long the 'end' part requires) is that it becomes an accepted Hermetic-wide institution of learning that almost all mainstay magi consider useful, valuable, important and accepted.

But I really want to here you thoughts on this. Basically, when I read through the books this is one of those ideas that stick out at me, explode in my head, and demand attention no matter how many times I put the books down and move away. So yeah, I would love to here thoughts and opinions and stuff from you guys.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for commentating. :slight_smile:

Later

2

For the first breakthrough, perhaps a penalty for teaching multiple students is in order.

The second, I have little difficulty with.

Back to the first, though, for players wanting to run a school without these changes, it seems that you could have a covenant so oriented -

  • The master opens the Arts and teaches his apprentice the Arts, and teaches his best Arts all around to all of the Apprentices. You'd want to have a teaching body of over ten, as many as 20, to cover the Arts.

  • Most of the class teaching is for the many non-Art Abilities a mage needs; Artes Liberales, Philosophiae, Magic Theory, Code, several kinds of Lore, and so on. This lends itself to either tenured or visiting teachers.

  • Magi would also benefit from advanced study, if they can get over themselves.

3

Thanks for the comments, appreciated.

If you don't have the breakthrough (at least the multiple studenrts learning magic one) than really the school doesn't work. You need to have as many masters as apprentices since a single master can only teach a single apprentice at one time. And since it takes an entire season to teach it limits how much can be done without reducing the potential of a teacher to learn their own magic.

Its why I think a school of magic doesn't really work till the limit on one student to teacher is broken in a one way or another.

But yeah, any such school would have to recruit individuals who know the other non-magical abilities. Such recruitment process could be pretty fun to roleplay out, I mean what benefits could mundane scholars gain by being in a magical location.

Also the whole thing being considered a covenant (with all the elements of that) provides an interesting thing on how it interacts with the greater Hermetic Order.

On your point about the second note, the social penalty thing. It really changes nothing mechanically. It also doesn't effect the importance of the virtues Gentle Gift and its related flaw since those features effect the world at large. This change only effects others who have the Gift and whose Arts have been opened to the Hermetic tradition using the new method. Basically, it just moves the effect earlier to allow us to have a situation where students don't need thei rmaster to extend parma over them in order to let them interact with each other. Otherwise the negative effects of the gift socially would make a classroom environment to tension field. It solves something that is often handwaved away anyway and gives it an official in-game discussion.

But yeah, some interesting ideas you have.

4

Who do the players play? Magi and covenfolk and grogs as usual, or apprentices/students, or a mix?

...

The young being young, apprentice vs. student would likely be a point of difference, the apprentices taking it as a mark of superiority.

If a student is Arts initiated by a mage who is not his master, to what house do they belong? Do they apply to join a House?

How large a student body are you envisioning? How large a teaching body? I would think one informs the other.

5

I find that such a school wouldn't be terribly popular, actually. I mean, apprentices do a lot more for their masters than merely serve as lab assistants. They can fix Arcane Connections, copy books and texts, gather materials, make stuff in the lab themselves with the help of texts, generate Vim vis, and more. And if by some fluke there really isn't anything you'd like your apprentice doing that season, there's most likely an unused book in the covenant library that doesn't require your apprentice going possibly quite far away. There aren't a whole lot of magi who would rather have their apprentices learn at school for a season than have them stick around doing master-apprentice stuff unless the school season counted as their season of yearly Hermetic training, in which case the situation flips and banzai! Apprentices become a very low-cost assistant (whatever it costs to send them to the school, basically, which is probably a good deal if it's anything other than a season of service or excessive vis) that everybody would love to have... But it becomes a bit difficult to call them truly that magus's filia after the fact, given that, y'know, the magus didn't actually teach the character his magic and pass it on.

And what of these kids who don't have official masters? Can Bonisagus magi take them? What is their initial House, anyway? Are they still considered the apprentices of the one who opened their Arts? If so, how would you deal with the HUGE political aftershock as Tremere magi charged into the teaching profession to amass all the new students' votes? How many seasons per year do the teachers themselves have to work? Does the school have a program for acquiring young Gifted children? And are the children given any control over what they specialize in? Could the school cry "deprivation of magical resources" if one of its students were slain by an outside magus? Do students who aren't apprentices get any of the indirect protection regular apprentices get as property of magi?

As for story seeds, well, how is the school funded? If it's not a covenant, does the Order start trying to tax magi, and how hard would the backlash be? If it is a covenant, do they have to charge other magi exorbitant fees to make up for the seasons these magi aren't spending doing other things? Do they make non-apprentice students reimburse the school upon becoming magi, and if so, could adventures be had because of that? Does the school have field trips to study magical creatures and phenomena in person? Especially if you add the Subtle Opening, a school full of Gifted children who know Hermetic magic and can be indoctrinated into other forms of magic would be immensely useful to any other magical tradition, so kidnapping attempts could be common. In a normal apprenticeship, apprentices have nowhere to turn for protection from their masters, which can lead to nasty things (for perspective, there's an entire House dedicated to people who like abusing their apprentices). But apprentices in schools have other people around them who suffer similar mistreatment, and if their Gifts don't affect one another, they might actually be able to band together to oppose the smaller number of adults doing awful things to them. There are stories in that, but there are also stories dealing with the effects on the school's reputation based on how they react to the revolt; if the teachers are submissive to the student coalition and give in to their demands, they might lose reputation for not being able to maintain discipline, but on the opposite side of the scale if they punish the students too harshly they might have to deal with a loss in reputation from (mostly non-Tytalus) magi who fear sending their apprentices to that school on account of the possibility of them dying there. Gifted kids are hard to come by, you know.

Any of those sound like good story seeds?

6

I would look to try and tie the Scholae Magicae more into the Thebes tribunal. There's already the notion in Thebes that good apprentices will go to good masters (those who have the tokens to claim them) because that's the best situation for the apprentice.

The Scholae Magicae, then, could be built on this principle. Founded, funded and run by the tribunal. Mages who elect to spend some of their time teaching there could get tokens for their efforts. Though I imagine a lot of the teachers at such a school would be highly skilled mundane tutors (for things like latin, et al).

Perhaps part of the student's training lies in making (useful) low-level magic items for the tribunal at large? They could definitely learn their scribing while making copies of books for the tribunal libraries (perhaps even making copies of things "for themselves" that they can take when they graduate).

You could also set things up so that the school only teaches apprentices for, say, 10-12 years or whatever. And the remaining years of the apprenticeship are done one on one with an actual master. A master who gets a very skilled, well trained apprentice that he doesn't have to do a whole lot of teaching to (these years will more be to accustom the apprentice to covenant living, and the day to day life of a mage).

7

Ooh boy, some awesome comments to read and try to reply to. I'm at the work typing on my phone so forgive spelling and editing mistakes please. :slight_smile:

++

TimOB

Well my intro story idea was to play the founding magi and what they had to do to research abd develop and create the school. Then if other sagas got developed have the players actually play students in the school. Or a mix of teachers, students, and staff.

The whole 'rivalry' between students and apprentices is an interesting one. And while I wouldn't want it to develop into all put mini war, I could see some interesting stories. Maybe students and apprentices could be thrown together so that both get to learn about each other more.

The House question becomes a major question that I have yet to solve. If you font have a direct master you are not in a House, which means most students wouldn't be part of a House during there training time.

I honestly think that if the Opening is done in ceremony (the non magical use of the term) then the actual magus who wants to be master could be considered the master, even if technically he didn't do the Opening. It's one of those nice fictions everybody knows is fictional but all smile as if it's real anyway. If this makes sense.

At first like 10 to 20 but later on growing till there are hundreds, maybe even a thousand students in the school. The formula is Teaching x 5 students in a class, with Teaching classes. I consider it more realistic, hehe.

As for teaching body, not sure. Only a few at first but growing in number later on.

++

Hammer 'n' Godsmite

As an interesting note the whole master must train their apprentice for at least a season out of a year is not in the main Code but a Peripheral Code ruling, which means it's up for political debate and discussion. Actually a number of houses have methods where other magi can train their apprentices. One example is the fosterage of House Bonisagus, but House Jerbition has something similar.

You make an interesting point about the many uses of apprentices. I didn't think about it that way. Honestly, my thoughts went towards the education and capabilities of the students, not how there master would see it.

I will say I think school training counts for the requirements of at least one season per year. My thinking is that there is three seasons of schoolling in s year with one season of break, which is a month between the semesters.

My thought was ro make the schooling be 7 years, which corresponds to the time between Tribunal, especially in Thebes. This way graduation from the school could correspond to tribunal meeting time.

Technically a Bonisagus master can take an apprentice at any time and any age and any place. I'm pretty sure the school is a closed environment that doesn't allow random outsiders to walk about at will, probably for that reason. The whole what house they are in becomes a major question, of which I don't fully have an ans we for actually. The four mystery cults and four societies can take older magi as members, so students could join those houses later on. bonisagus can take an apprentice at any point and it counts, so that covers that. Mercer magi are genetic descendants of Mercer do no need to worry about that. The other two Tremere and the one with the G are not exactly decides by me how it works. I do think that as time goes on it will be easier for students of the school to join a House when it becomes a recognized place of magical learning for the order.

The technique to open the Arts are kept a covenant secret of thecsvhool, not to be broadcast. Furthermore, only those with training (holding a special virtue) can open the Gift in others. This way they kind of have an open monopoly. I say open as they are willing to open the Arts to people, you just have to attend the school.

The school is a covenant whose charter protects its students like Maui might protect resources or covenfolk. This is also in Thebes so the tribunals ruling that gives apprentices certain rights and protections must be followed.

Part of the modifications I made is that during the same season as a magis is Teaching they can also do a laboratory activity, though at -5 penalty and the equivalent of five days distraction. Thus magi teachers can teach for three seasons, and still keep there magic up. This might not be to everyone's liking, but I see nothing wrong with letting a teacher use there skills while also teaching. It happens in real life all the time.

I haven't written it up, it's too nitpicky, but I figure the covenant charter that established the Scholae Magicae answers the questions of rights, responsibilities, and freedoms of the students. Though I will say they are protected.

The school is ocayed in the mountains of Crete in the Apollon Gorge, a Magic rich area. Die to story events st the founding of the school - which saw Candid breaking free and gaining independence from Venice - the school covenant was granted exclusive vid rights by Tallos, the guardian protector of the island. These resources Gove the covenant a lit of independence. I do feel they provide a lot of it to the Tribunal and Order as gifts.

Masters provide gifts to the school to get their apprentics enrolled. This does not include gifts, but skills and magic items. Those without a master get free education in the school.

My idea is that a magical race provides the covenfolk for the school, as the covenant and school lies in a Magic 5-6 aura. The founders assisted the magicals (a beastmen race in my notes) in gaining freedom from the corrupt Dictator of Epris who enslaved them and seeks to infernally taint them.

Basically the school is protected. It's hard to get to, protected by high aegis, and has a bunch of magical defenses and masters of magic guarding it. It's hard to get in.

Though a story about attempted kidnapping could be interesting. Adding it to my list.

I dont want everything shiny and beautiful and light, but I generally go for the more good in people. So students might bully but it's not the thing. And teachers are mostly honest, with the few bad showing how the rest are mostly good. My while idea is that magic isn't fading and neither are auras, so the school isn't going to have to worry about power shortages and stuff.

The school and covenant are led by magi, but a council of representatives from the various segments within the school have some say.

And yes your ideas are helpful. :slight_smile:

++

Cannonball

Your ideas are awesome and interesting and very useful.

Thinking about it yeah reducing the time in school to say ten years with the rest being direct apprenticeship might be cool.

I also like the idea of making magic items and scribing books for the atribunsl and Order as a thing to do. It's educational and productive.

The tying it to Thebes tribunal is cool, the use of tokens is helpful. I'm not sure the school would want random teachers coming and going or to five up control to others, but it's am interesting idea.

Very interesting points, very useful to think about.

++

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the comments! :slight_smile:

The field trip idea is brilliant, will add that into my notes.

8

A better idea for the magi teachers perhaps: teachers are elected to serve a term at each tribunal (until the next tribunal) on a kind of...rotor basis. Every mage of a certain age is expected to do their part to educate the next generation, and they will - at some point - be called to do it. If a mage doesn't want (or isn't able) to be a teacher, they can arrange for someone to take their place willingly. I imagine this will necessitate a gift of tokens to the mage who has volunteered. Mages who neglect their duty to the next generation (dereliction of teaching, or simply being irresponsible/negligent/extremely poor) are liable to earn them some shards.

I doubt teaching is a full time job for those years (probably 1-2 seasons a year?) but that's still an obligation on the mage's time. So for their service, mages will still receive tokens. They might also have a say in, for example, what sort of projects the students undertake and what sort of books and other texts they end up copying (though I imagine there may be some tribunal oversight in this area, so the tribunal as a whole can benefit). More perks might include access to the school's library - which, if it's extensive enough, might be a strong draw for some mages.

This creates some interesting story seeds around tribunal time. With mages trying to find out who's next on the roll call: is it them? Is it anyone they know that they either need on hand in the near future, or who might ask them to swap with them? Do they have the tokens to buy their way out of their obligations if they don't want to serve? And if not, can they scramble together enough to pass muster in time before the tribunal (or find someone with some shards who might be...persuaded to take their place for the erasure of said shards)? Do they need a stockpile of tokens for some personal pet project that will require a lot of favours? If they do, can they find someone who's on the fence or doesn't want to teach - and can they convince them that you're the best person to replace them (earning yourself his tokens of gratitude, and the tokens for serving as a teacher)?

9

Huh. Well, you definitely run your sagas in a much more positive light than I run mine. Glad I could be of assistance to you in spite of that. :smiley:

10

Cannonball

The ideas you have of wrapping certain tribunal elements into the functioning of the Scholae Magicae is a really interesting one, providing as it does a lot of campaign ideas and potential story seeds. Though I do want the school to remain independently owned and governed I do like the existence of certain deals that make it connect with the tribunal a little more.

The rotation of magi as teachers is kind of cool and very 'democratic' in the way similar to what the Theban Tribunal already operates with its various elected officials and stuff. From a out of game story perspective it also allows on a positive side a new character who could become well liked, a favorite, or somebody cool and on the negative side it could randomly throw in 'badguys' are around for a year or so and then leave again, since their term of office is done. Such things create a lot of fun for everybody.

I do really like the idea of teachers being able to utilize their students as assistants in various school projects and work, such as copying tomes or crafting magic items. Such things benefit the school, train the student, and empower the teacher - so positives all around. From an in universe prospective it also allows younger individuals to see what the higher echilons of their craft can accomplish, what one day they can do ocne they go through the proper training. I like that.

Keeping Tribunal time important makes sense and is a lot of fun. I also like working to balance school time with tribunal time, so the school has to have durations of seven or fourteen years at max, or a little less and some time spent with one's actual master.

Its a lot of really awesome ideas and I think with analysis could be developed further and deeper and made even more great.

++

Hammer 'n' Godsmite

Yeah, I guess I do. :slight_smile: Honestly, I enjoy the positive elements of what stories rather than always chasing after the more negative features. (Example, I like White Wolf and World of Darkness, but I cannot help but see more positives than one should really see in that universe; it also has me quite happy that the connections have been divorsed between the two universes, though that is an entirely different conversation).

Honestly though, I think listening and hearing story elements that are not as positive (and thus I wouldn't really come up with) is really awesome. Its fun to take those ideas and twist them so that the outcome is what I want, even if I couldn't come up with the basics of them in the first place.

So, feel free to provide some things you might think that would destablize events or cause issues or problems. They provide some realism and also some fun, especially when the players overcome and defeat them to come out stronger.

Thanks all for the comments. :slight_smile:

Ars Magica is one of those games that I have owned for over a decade, almost always loved, find myself addicted to certain elements, but aren't able to get those that roleplay around me interested enough in trying it out. Sadly. Which is why I love coming on here and reading the messages on these forums, and occasionally posting things as well. :slight_smile:

11

Have you considered Play by Post as an option? Atlas may not have the most popular PbP section, but stuff does happen.

As for darker things, well, I mentioned most of them, and you answered some of them off. For example, based on the Tribunal you're in, there's less concern than usual over whether or not the magi will abuse the students and whether they can do anything about it. I really do think you could make use of how hard Tremere magi are going to try to get in on this project as a source of story hooks, though. I mean, if they get a few teachers in on this, then a few collective Tremere united votes later, Tremere magi may well be keeping a good number of the students, and thus their voting sigils, getting themselves even more political advantage. There also might be religious and idealogical concerns regarding the school if students are spending that much time there, much as is the case in the modern world, but with much less freedom for the children to make their own choices. I mean, many magi take their ability to force their religion on their apprentices very seriously, and you'd lose swathes of potential customers just by having the school have a strong leaning towards any given religion. That could cause stories in itself, as the teachers either try to promote or moderate religious influences in the teachers in order to style their school as unbiased (which tends to repel Christians and Muslims) or strongly religious (which tends to attract people of the given faith but repels most others).

12

I was thinking about it. I have so many ideas but I am not sure how long term many of them would last or anything. I would really love to participate in such a thing, or run one if I got more experience in the medium. I glanced over it the other day and there doesn't seem to be much update, though I might have missed stuff.

On the Tremere I agree with you, which is why I want to do something different. I mean, yeah, the Tremere as boogy men are so easy to do, its the standard of previous editions and the sort of thing that is kind of expected. Heck, reading through it many ideas on how they might go bad or corrupt or just misuse their power or whatever comes. But its so cliche and overly done, and while its not bad by any stretch its so easy.

But yeah having there be a House that might seek to take advantage of the opportunity for good or bad is na interesting one.

The social issues is highly interesting and very much worth many stories, and so is the religious ones. Though the later ones I kind of don't know where even I stand on (in terms of the setting itself), since Divine is one one hand interesting but on the other hand I dislike how it seems to trump Magic when the game is about magic. But of course that issue could lead to interesting stories as well.

Its very thought provoking on how it might go.

I was also thinking that maybe a saga could be set in the founding of the school and then fast forward whatever length of time one wants and have a story set later on, to see how the changes on original events might have come to be recognized. But the issue with that is that it requires change to the status quo of the Ars Magica world and that could require a lot of prepatory time that setting the saga in the 'present' (as in, 1220) wouldn't really have.

13

Tremere aren't boogey men, they're just pragmatic. There's a difference, and any politically savvy Ars players will know it when they see it.

But you're right that it's overdone. Who else could get in on this... Oh, I know! You could have Flambeau and Tytalus magi trying to influence the Order to become more martial by strongly encouraging the teaching of martial skills to students. Plus, with the apprentices not hating each other for their Gifts, you'll see something of a similar student social structure to what happens in today's middle and high schools. You know what would cause possibly the most Order-shaking of stories? If the students, in trying to be cool and edgy for each other (holy yay, friends and girls!) took advantage of their lack of difficulty learning other Supernatural Abilities and got tried to get in contact with and learn from an Infernal agent...

Or, to make it all a big scare without actually having that possibly school-ending calamity, perhaps a Faerie in the role of an Infernal agent; the school was fortunate enough that a Faerie decided to pull some vitality out of a story where the students learn their lesson not to call demons, rather than an actual demon showing up.

As for religions, keep in mind the Order isn't quite normal when it comes to religion, and unlike most of Europe's population, there are actually a very significant number of Hermetic magi who are either pagan or don't want anything to do with any religion. Perhaps the Christian magi who might send their children get upset at the predominantly Greek pagan worshiping staff there, who have a tendency to rub some of their beliefs off on their students. Or maybe most of the teachers there aren't strongly affiliated with any religions, but one of the academics teachers tries to push Christian Theology on the students and learning apprentices in the hopes that they'll convert.

As for your questions on a game to join... I'm currently hosting one, that hasn't gotten any interest yet... Though it may or may not actually take off, because the premise clearly isn't very popular.

14

Stealing the Future is about a Hermetic school, it is currently on hiatus and I'm trying to bring it back.
I made some changes to how summae and teaching works, because summae are too powerful (and cheap). My feeling is that teaching, as laid out in virtues like Magister in Artibus and Baccalaureus, necessitates extremely high teaching scores an/or Good Teacher. Teaching Hermetic Arts one to many results in an immediate loss of 6 SQ for that teacher, too.

15

The Tremere are trying very hard to shake off the older elements of their nature and status and while the writers are doing a really good job,its not perfect yet. Well, I guess for me that is who basically learned about Ars Magica from the whole Mage and Dark Ages of the World of Darkness. Anyway, I basically am trying very hard to not make them go bad and stuff. hehe

Your idea about Flambeau and Tytalus is a good one. What I especially like about it is that it unites two different Houses together, so in their process of being all destabilizing they actually create more of a push towards unity. Its a sort of juxtaposition that I kind of really like.

I do like the idea of what would happen when the students find themselves learning about different and unique supernatural abilities. It would revolutionze the Order and the bringing of foreign magic into a much more common use.

I don't so much like the idea of it actually being an infernal agent, but I LOVE the idea of it being a faerie who has taken upon himself the task of creating a story in which people learn how freaken bad it is to summon demons. Its really cool, nifty and a potential awesome story design. I really think that is such an awesome campaign arc for a group of students in the school. It would be especially cool if the story is repeated every few years by the faerie so that multiple students get the message of the infernal is bad. ITs a lot of energy to be gaining and I totally think the school would benefit from the presence of operation of such a 'friendly' faerie.

Your point on religion is an interesting one and has a lot of potential saga stories. The whole figuring out how the magi of the tribunal, with their patrons and their historical magical traditions, and the other pagon-y things they have deal with the fact that the area is not that far from Rome and Constantinople. The more social elements of having differing religions all in one location would be kind of interesting, especially if somebody was interested in basically combining the elements into a new 'heresy' that unites magic and religion and empowers the Order. (I am firmly of the saga decision that magic and the Gift and using magic is not a Sin and that the Divine doesn't actually care, its how you use magic that matters not that you have magic so I see no inherent difficulty in combining Hermetic magic and divine practitioners into one belief). But yeah, there is a lot of interesting story ideas (like you mention) that could come from the old and the new and the super new and the different all competiting to win the hearts and minds of the next generation. And really whatever standard becomes the standard of the school will have a lot of ability to in the future make itself the standard in the mainstay of the Hermetic Order.

Really, this can be applied to anything - eventually the students of the school will become the majority of the Houses, whether this is soon or hundreds of years from now. What this means is that given time and school education the traditions and cultural standards of the graduates of the school will come to change the Order and how its organizes and operates. And while I don't believe the Order is naive, I am giving the school and its founders and its students a sort of PC power that makes it so their plans are potentially quite successful even though some really powerful older magi might stop it. But this is just some personal likes. hehe

On your game, is it posted in the forums. I'm not saying I'm interested but I wouldn't object to looking up the information you have posted on it. :slight_smile:

Oh really that is pretty interesting, I will have to look it up to see about its design. If its public that is. :slight_smile:

At a basic glance I agree that teaching need some sort of reworking and you have some interesting ideas there. I focused more on not being so limiting to what is learned and how its learned but yeah if a person has a high enough score than a lot of experience can be gotten pretty quickly.

Oh, and by the way what is SQ an abbreviation for? Its probably something simple and common and I am just having a brain freeze. hehe

16

My game is posted in the subforum "GMs looking for players," like all PbPs that try to recruit. Also, SQ stands for the Source Quality, which is how much experience you get from something before applying penalties from, say, a Might score. For example, a Quality 22 summa has a base SQ of 22, though this might be modified if the person reading it has an Affinity in the skill the book is about or has the Book Learned Virtue.

Glad you liked the story seeds I suggested.

17

Ah I see. Will go over and look at it. :slight_smile:

And of course SQ stands for Source Quality, I knew it was something that I totally should know especially considering how much rereading of the Teaching rules I have done, lol.

And yeah those ideas are thought provoking which I really like as it gives me ideas. hehe

18

Stealing the Future is a PbP game here on Atlas.
The House Rules thread illustrates the changes I made to summae and tractatus. Here is where I discussed the rationale. I also started a thread called Breaking Summae here in the Ars magica forum. Summae become textbooks and their bonuses for reading are greatly reduced without the aid of a teacher. With the aid of the teacher the summa's full SQ is added to the teachers' source quality.

Hermetic Instruction is a new Arcane Ability that functions as teaching, and with it they can teach more than one student at a time, it replaces teaching in determining the SQ for teaching, but works exactly like it. I divided the day up into 6 periods and runs like a modern school term. Each teacher gernates their Sq and divides by 6 and that's how much they teach in a school year. My goal was to complete a period of apprenticeship in 7 years, too.

19

Those are very interesting changes, though I have to read over them more before I feel I can comment. I do say I agree with the whole nature of education needing to be changed in Ars Magica.

I completely agree with you on the creation of an Arcane Ability, and in fact I created my own version of Instruction a little while ago while designing my school of magic a little more. Allowing a student into six classes per unit of time (season) is an interesting way to go about it, though is there a particular reason you choose six?

I think creating an alternate rule system that allows indivduals to learn in mechanical Ars Magica terms like one might in real life - multiple classes and subjects being learned at once - while also letting teachers do more than just teach in a single season is something both useful and interesting.

I really do like you ideas and suggestions and will have to look them up to a little more depth. .

20

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet but there's already a canon school of magic, the Scholomance in the Transylvanian Tribunal book. You may want to check this book for ideas to see how they did it.

If your designing your school as a covenant two virtues that will really help you are Unnatural Law and Greater Immunity. I would have the Unnatural Law grant anybody under a certain age magic resistance and have the Greater Immunity eliminate the negative social effects of the Gift. This should greatly ease student relations.

Also, nothing says that Latin, Hermetic Lore, Arts Liberales, and other Academic Abilities have to be taught by wizard, they could just as easily be taught by a mundane teacher (who won't be terrified of his students because of the Greater Immunity (the Gift) virtue).

Also, you might want to consider what virtues and abilities would be taught there as well. Considering what Enchanting music could do, this school's marching band could really rock! :smiley:

Also I agree with the others that this could only really work in a Tribunal with a high degree of cooperation such as Thebes or Transylvania.