In gerneral, I'm a "Rules-Light" player/DM myself, and that works for my existing groups.
But this group is cobbled together with people who I think will appreciate the depth and complexity of the setting and the rules, so Im willing to stretch myself.
I also informed them that there will be a STEEP learning curve for everyone (myself included!), and that, while I'll try to apply "Rules as Written" [RAW] whenever possible, I also subscribe to the "Rule of Cool" to encourage creative thinking/playing.
And, as an aside, I found a pretty cool "Grogs-Only" adventure in the 4E "Faerie Stories" supplement that really piqued my interest for the group....
And thinking about Tarragon Vale: I think it would be interesting to have the 7-year tribunal in the 2nd or 3rd episode (after "Ghoul of St Lazare") and have them still have a seat for the Covenant with no representatives present. (I think this group.will appreciate that potential mystery!)
To echo what others have said: as a Storyguide, do not worry about what stories to run.
Instead, make sure your players understand that ArM5 has an explicit mechanism for them to express their preferences about what stories will be run - and in fact rewards them, in character, for using that mechanism.
The mechanism has three components:
a) Hooks - these are the stories that your Covenant as a whole will be involved in. If the troupe (including you, the SG!) collectively chooses Poverty, it's a way to say "hey, we want stories about wealth creation - whether it's treasure hunting or business development".
b) Story Flaws - these are the stories that each player wants his magus (and/or companion) to be hit with. By taking Enemy a magus' player is saying "I want this opponent to constantly come and threaten my magus. I will enjoy the fight (or maybe the flight) even though my magus may not. Bring the heat on!".
c) Major Personality Flaws - these are the stories that each player wants his magus (and/or companion) to obsessively seek out. By taking Hatred, a magus' player is saying "I want to play a variant of ArM5 where my victory points are not measured by how high my Arts are, what enchantments I made, what reputation I have - but how much hurt I managed to inflict to this dastardly entity". Note the difference: Story Flaws produce stories that come looking for the PC; Major Personality Flaws produce stories that the PC goes looking for.
Together, these will produce multiple storylines (for example, if you have three magi each taking either a Story or Major Personality Flaw, and your Covenant has three Hooks, that's six storylines even disregarding Companions), so you will not lack inspiration, quite the opposite. In fact, it's crucial to try to tie as many as possible of the Hooks, Story Flaws and Major Personality Flaws together, so that a single situation will engage multiple characters, possibly in multiple ways: Common Enemies, a Covenant in Poverty and an Avaricious (or Generous!) character, etc.
Regarding steep learning curve, my suggestion:
After the mages are created, before the covenant creation, do a 4-seasons free-lab session, where each mage must invent either a spell or an enchanted item. Give them 10 paws of any virtus, an aura of +3, any book they want to use is Q14, L15 or Q 15 L5 for abilities, no lab note available. It is a parting gift from their master, or from a friend-mage or in payment for a future favor (depending on their choice of flaw/virtue).
They can use these seasons as they want as long as that by the end they have a functional magical item or a working spell. So they can spend three seasons to buff up their skill so they can one-shot their research or two seasons to improve and two to invent. Or one to open an item, two to improve their skill, and the last one to instill an effect. Or do 4 minor items in 4 seasons.
It will let them test and understand the lab rules. It might also give them an opportunity to adjust some skill or even flaw/virtue. It is a little power boost (although I don't think they will manage to invent a spell higher than level 15-20 unless heavy specialisation and magical focus), but it is such a big help to get acquainted with the core lab rule that it is worth it. They will get a sense of how much study they need to do before they can invent a spell, they will understand that trading for labtext can be a lot more effective than inventing spell unless it is truly original (on a personal note, I consider that only spells in the core rulebook have easy-to-get labtexts).
Although it is simple math, there are many variable so it can easily get confusing, and at the same time, they will see how to derive a spell level from the base effect and the Target/Range/Duration parameters.
For Covenant and characters, put in a grace period within which changes can be made. Let people play their characters a few times before "locking in" their virtues and flaws. (Maybe recommend people leave a few empty slots initially.) If people decide they really need a book on Parma Magica, let them trade for one easily.
Definitely in the cards for that! I'm pretty flexible abut letting people tweak their characters within reason in the early goings, especially in a complex ruleset.
Im thinking of running a short scenario, then skipping a year and having the 7-year Tribunal. (PCs are 6 years out of apprenticeship.)
I like the idea floated above of letting rhe PCS fool with rhe lab/research rules early on. Maybe the Tribunal requires that the PCs bring a new spell, item, or piece of research to their presentation at the tribunal?
OK, so we got thru the first part of character (Magi) generation;. (It really is an ordeal prepping and creating characters, and we haven't even hit Covenenat generation yet!
It took awhile to solidify virtues and flaws; some tactical players were very tempted to just mechanically game the system!) And I could use some practical advice and thoughts on the concepts..
The concepts range from pretty simple (A Bjornaer "Gentle Giant" Magus, my DM PC for when I get to actually play), to outlandish and melodramatic (a Criamon Magi who is interested in studying the Enigma as a sort of potential "LInk to the Divine").
But two of the concepts in particular I could use advice on, so we can tell interesting stories and potentially avoid pitfalls and rules issues....
Merinita Maga who wanted the "Strong Fairy Blood" virtue. We tentatively decided on her being the child of a Female Sidhe, who was possibly kidnapped from her Fairy Regio at a young age and apprenticed to the Order. ("Strong Fairie Blood" is a STRONG Virtue, I think, since it allows slower again AND gives Second Sight....)
We also brainstormed that maybe this Maga had a "not-great" relationship with his parens, and after passing their Gauntlet moved to the Alps Tribunal, having somehow discovered about the kidnapping (She took the "Blackmail" flaw as well).
We have a Tremere Maga (transplanted from the Transylvaninan Tribunal) who fled the Transylvanian Tribunal ahead of a potential death sentence; her parens were executed as Diabolists shortly after her gauntlet.
She took the "Plagued by Supernatural Entity" flaw to represent her parens haunting her from beyond the grave, and the "Driven" flaw to indicate that she's trying to rid herself of the hauntings. First qustion is... How does "Aegis of the Hearth" work in regards to supernatural visitations? (We haven't gone thru Covenant gen yet, but I"m assuming someone will take/learn that spell.)
So based, on these concepts, I'm thinking this could be a sort of "Covenant of Misfit Magi" or a "Black Sheep Coven", which is a great link to keep the characters together and focused.
The Merinita does not strike me as controversial at al.
Strong Faerie Blood is very strong in the long game, and even more so for a companion, but if your saga last long enough for you to notice, you should celebrate.
It may sound as if you have two story flaws, the blackmail and the faerie legacy. If you want to expand on both the parens and the faerie parentage, this character may draw too much attention at the expense of other characters. If you can deal with that, I see no problem.
The Tremere is potentially more problematic. If they is a black sheep in Transylvania, they be a black sheep in House Tremere, meaning that the player may be forfeiting their major house boon of house resources and support. You will find few answers on how to play Tremere on this forum, because many players do not like them and others, with a more neutral stance, have not figured out how to balance their intra-house agenda with order-wide loyalty and compatibility. All of this obviously depends on how you interpret the Tremere in your saga.
And the 2nd arc (after "The Ghoul of St Lazare intro adventure) would be having the 7 Year Tribunal and introducing the Covenant to the Tribunal.
Maybe I could introduce a detente between Tremere and the Player/Covenant if she can convince them that she's actively working (through her "Driven" goal) to dispel/eradicate the Infernal [and her parens ghosts in particular]?
I also changed canon a bit to make one of the PCs apprenticed to Tarragon Vale: canonically, IIRC theyve been missing 22 years, but Im gonna switch that to a much more recent disappearance (to 6 years ago just after the PC graduated.) He'll find out about it at the Tribunal. (That will also give everyone a chsnce to play their Magi together early on.)
You could. It depends only on your abilities as storyguide.
The danger that I see is that you make too many story hooks and never have time to tell them. Like the Merinita, it may sound like a double story flaw, with the infernal plague plus the black sheep of the house. I would have scaled down the plot density if I were SG, but that says nothing about you and your troupe.
Regarding Strong Faerie Blood, no worries. At most, it means starting with more XP (because they have a +3 to their aging roll, you can make a mage up to 30 years older without any side effect or longevity potion requirement), but in term of "brokenness", I find it pretty easy to handle.
Regarding the Tremere, I have a couple of suggestions that will allow him to remain within his House, yet with all the problems linked to him fleeing.
What if the Prima (or one high-ranking Tremere) planned it. She has a plan for him, but it requires a deep cover. Since almost nobody in his House is aware of it, regular Tremere mages will make his life difficult - this have to be reflect by a flaw. If he does not have a flaw, then he has - mechanically speaking - nothing to fear. To be consistant, he cannot have a death sentence on his head because whoever is using him as a deep cover agent knows that House Tremere is too good to let him escape, so he is only a "person of interest" that is not worth a Wizard's War (up to the player to find a good idea for that, as ST you have enough to take care of, so let that to be sorted to the player).
Honestly, a mage out of apprenticeship is hunted down by House Tremere, is as good as dead. Full stop. He won't have yet enough political backing and personal power to survive a wizard's war initiate by House Tremere, that's plain and simple.
If the player still want to play a Tremere hunted by this House, he must have a new identity (dark secret ?) and pretend to be another mage, from another house (like Ex Miscellanea, notorious for being very bad at tracking their members). And until somebody is able to identify his magic sigil and linked it to the missing mage, he is safe. Sure, he must change his appearance, ideally without relying on magic otherwise it will be too easy to dispel - maybe he is able to have a Persona like Tytalus can have. How did he acquire this virtue can be interesting as well.
This mage Personae won't have much telltale that would betray him. He might be better at Certamen than he looks like, but it is hardly a conclusive proof - it is not possible to detect that a mage is good at Certamen because he has a minor magical focus in it, it would only look like he is quite proficient in one technique or one form.
So in case 1) the player and you need to decide for which purpose is needed such deep cover. To be credible, he might be officially an orbus (expelled from his House) and he will start the saga with the need to find within a year a house. He will still benefit from the Tremere virtue since he was trained in this house and won't get the virtue from another house. Maybe he need to infiltrate a House ? Or investigate something that requires full deniability from House Tremere (like recovering the reports and memories stripped from Tremere leaders during the Sundering ?).
In case 2), ideally no players should knows of his real origins, and obviously, the PC cannot be too socially active in the Order to minimise risk of being discover. So a labrat of some sort can be a good cover (Criamon with tattoo on his face to hide him works as well). If he has a Supernatural virtue, it will be easier for him to pretend to be an Ex Miscellanea. Bjornaer is out unless he got a heartbeast outside of the House (but how ???), Verditius, he could go the way of Embrace of Boetius, but the background needs to be really solid to maintain his fake identity...
Some people play the Tremere a bit like the Mafia. Nobody leaves the family kind of thing. I've always felt the mafia style Tremere a bit extreme.
The effort to track someone down, in a time before fast communications, is really hard. Also, it's killing a person. Most people are reluctant to do that. Unless the target has done something really bad, most times, if the transgressors gets far enough away, it will be let go.
Problem is, a strong suspicion of diabolism is the step too far. Diabolism is a major transgression. A SG playing a more relaxed Tremere would still find Diabolism hard to ignore. Tremere would spend the resources. They will send a specialised wizard killer, sometimes called a hoplite, to find and kill the character.
If instead of running, after her parens were found guilty she was shunned as no-one wanted her in their covenant due to the negative association, and thus left, that could make it work. You can still have a degree of enmity with Tremere, as there is still the taint of Diabolism on her, even if she wasn't found guilty, and technically as her parens has passed she'd have her sigil, which would be another point of annoyance for Tremere.
In regards to Aegis. The haunting works. If you want to have an in game explanation, being haunted is part of her essential nature. If she's invited in to the Aegis, so are her ghosts. The meta reason is, it's not a flaw if it doesn't affect the character.
I wouldn't worry about this. Your magi are just starting out -- they'll have a low Casting Total when they cast their Aegis, even if they use Wizard's Vigil: their Aegis won't have much Penetration. It'll hamper the spirit's Penetration, but probably won't keep it out of the covenant most of the time.
Which will be a good incentive for the Tremere to up their Casting Totals -- Story Hook!
Well, if she has fallen out with the house due to a dark secret, it is no longer a secret. I think you have to work out exactly how bad the terms are with House Tremere. It could be a dark secret, meaning ok now and maybe worse in the future. It could be a bad reputation, which may mean bad relations and make it hard to advance, but not blocking normal support. It could be something like Harry Dresden terms; possibly represented as the enemy flaw.
Tremere is not very likely to hunt down an untrusted youngling. Other houses are more likely to employ Wizard's War. They are much more likely to evict them from the house. This is of course a possibility, having left Tremere to join another house. Tremere would probably ignore her completely, for better or for worse.
Depends on how well the secret is known. If only a small subset of Tremere know, and the Diabolist parens was dealt with in house, the Tremere and the character may both want to keep the secret, thus Dark Secret could work.
You might want to check the original Gauntlet Graduation Gifts, since it has a different breakdown compared to Loki's "Dowery" version.
The version posted on the forums is also several years outdated from the current version. There was never enough interest for me to bother with adding the update.