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Apparently I can post in a locked thread. This is good to know. Seeing as how this was my saga, my failed attempt at masterpiece, I want to mine it for resources and perhaps use this space for "hidden posts" (stuff I can post and store here while posting a link to it on my character sheet elsewhere).
I seriously doubt anyone will read this. Who follows dead sagas? But I may ressurect this someday, and I invite interested players to drop me a line.
I've actually started work on my character (Vibria of Flambeau), and before reading this, or really knowing anything about the saga, have given her Mythic Blood (dragon). Perhaps her ancestry ties into this somehow, and has something to do with why she's coming to this covenant? (and, to be honest, the prospect of skimming nigh unto 8700 posts intimates me just a tad).
Don't worry about it. This is going to be a new saga based on and old one. Your character would not logically know all that stuff.
As for justifications as to why you are here, these are usually easy to invent. I just want a little thought behind it. A Flambeau (Flambelle) is easiest, given the strong ties we had/have with that House. Mercere as well.
And I shall not be a slave to past continuity. Strange to hear me say that 
. I will draw from the past for inspiration, but much is mutable. We could change the nature of the dragon, or decide we want nothing to do with a local dragon and simply leave that off. Or maybe we will decide there are 2 dragons (that would be foolish though).
Couple of quick questions:
- In char-gen, are we limited to the spells in the books, the books and the Net Grimoire, or can we come up with new spells (vetted by the troupe)?
- If it's option C, does a pile of coins count as a single item ("pile") or as a Group (which could necessitate adding 3, 4 magnitudes for my Avaricious Mythic Dragon-Blooded Flambeau's Terram-counting spell)?
- I also need to come up with a Minor Magical Focus due to her Mythic Blood. I'm thinking "Flame-throwing", which I'm thinking would cover creation and/or moving of fire; examples would be Pilum of Fire, Balls of Abysmal Flame, spells that make the campfire jump up and hug your face, stuff like that. Does that sound reasonable, or do you have any other/better suggestions?
Counting the Dragon's Hoard (InTe 3)
[tab][/tab]R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual
Allows the caster to determine exactly how many coins, and their approximate value (in mythic pounds), in a single container, stack, or pile.
(Base 2, +1 Touch)
Note that if it is Group, that raises the spell level to 5. then she can add 2 magnitudes, and as long as the number of coins in the pile she's touching is ≤1,000 then she should be fine.
(edited to add the spell in question)
The Vibria, a Catalan dragon (our area) is a Wyvern (body style of 2 legs 2 wings no arms) was associated with corrosive powers. Exuding posin acidic vapor, spewing acidic venom, and such. I used those, but firedrakes were more popular. The big dragon though, he was a proper Dragon with fire and a huge might an has the habbit of assuming the guise of a wizard/scholar. You can use this for inspiration or change to suit your need. I even forgot that dragon's name, so really feel free to tailor it.
For spells, how about we escalate it as you age? Common spells to start, then eventually up to net grimoire. Maybe some custom in your field. Maybe. As for your spell question, I think it works out the same either way. You either adjust for Group or Size of the individual.
I like the dragon idea
Vibria is a cool name idea too. That, the focus in creating fire, and the coin counting power. All coolness.
If your spell question is about that power, then a single gathered pile counts as individual. I thought you were talking about creating coins.
Okay, so the Counting the Dragon's Hoard is ok, then? (I went ahead and did it as Group, with +2 magnitudes for size, giving her the number and value of up to 1,000 coins in a group).
The only other "custom" spells I did was convert Aura of Fire (which, I think, is a bond power that I just switched over to a spell using the description in my MetaCreator), and an actual "from scratch" spell, Robes Proof Against the Cold (CrIg 10), Base 3, R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual, which heats a garment so that it is hot to the touch (she has Greater Immunity (Fire), and really doesn't like the cold). If these are okay, I'll go ahead and post the text from my metacreator and a brief backstory type thing. I think I'll make her just out of gauntlet, native to the area of Catalonia south of Andorra. Motivation for coming to Andorra Covenant is that she can go to Provençal, Iberia, and Normandy, and get treasure from all three places.
Awesomnestastical!
Maybe you have met Carmen during apprenticeship? She is also from the region TCarmen will be my character).
It's quite possible. Perhaps Vibria's pater was at least associated with, if not a member of, the Knights of Seneca (I'd have to track it down to see, but from looking through the HoH: S section on Flambeau, I didn't see any societies that she seemed to belong in). And perhaps she thought, for whatever reason, that young Vibria would make a good fit in Andorra.
(edit to remove character sheet due to Revised House Rules; will repost when done.)
I don't understand the year/season/cycle advancment rule, although at first glance, I like it.
Does this mean that we must obey the 3 rules, or only one at a time?
So, for exemple, if obeying the 3 rules, in a year, I can take up to 3 seasons advancment, using the rules for Seasons, and, the 4th season, take Vis Wages?
On gaining Virtues, I like it, with one caveat: The incentive to take flaws is low. As I understand it:
A major Virtue costs 30 XP (3 seasons), +3 seasons, = 6 seasons.
If I take a major flaw, it becomes 15XP (2 seasons, the leftover 5XP being scratched of as waste), +3 seasons ) = 5 seasons.
IMO, the taking of flaws should cancel the XP cost.
BtW, you may want to check the latest Sub Rosa article, on Magi Pack, by Mark Shirley. There are some interesting bits in the labwork section.
For exemple, one thing I LOVED is that, for mysteries, he gives guidelines: cult lore 1 for the outer mystery, 3 for the next virtue, then 5, then 1 more per virtue.
Wondering, maybe I'll reboot DT, maybe I'll do something new. The Spider. An Ex Misc with a focus in mMF in Silk.
Almost forgot companion. Any suggestions as to what my companion should be/what we need?
The Fixer!
I suppose I need to edit it to be more clear. What I mean is that you should spend no more that half you time in the lab, no more than 3/4 in advancement, and no more than 1/4 earning extra vis. It can mix into a bulk for the Cycle. I noticed it myself revamping Carmen last night, but just alternated: 1s lab, 3s advance, 2s lab, etc. But yeah, there are those six-season consecutive projects.
I think if I add that the Yaer is meant to be looked at as a ratio that cab be expanded for a cycle.
Dimir Taar, eh? With some slight revision? He had spirit enemies I think. We played that out with the genies and the vault, so pehaps a different enemy or diiferent Major Flaw (or using Chargen, buy it off as a Major Virtue and call it a story resolved through adventure).
I don't want new players to be intimidated by the size of our past, so I am not holding strict to continuity as to render it unnessecary to read the gigantic volume of old posts. Old stuff is good inspiration material though.
Or maybe spirit enemies works. Et us make good use of it this time
For Carmen, I have been recreating her from scratch, using the old sheet as a guide. So far I am achieving virtually the same results, perhaps a tad better when I am through. She will be a 20 year maga! Dimir Taar will hit 30 I think, and that's as high as I want to go.
I really like that some people are choosing younger magi. I really want to mix ages, and using Jonathan Link's multi-threaded technique, I can see to it that each gets to shine in the spotlight regardless of the mixed power level around them.
I am an old comic book geek, I know I can handle it. Heck, in the Avengers movie, it took the mudane Black Widow to trick Loki into revealing his plan.
Or a spider mage, eh?
Spidermage, Spidermage,
His spider hands
Stick to the page...
That could be cool too. Start off with common spells, save the customs for the second cycle on (though a few from your pater as an apprentice would make sense too). That web spell in RAW can be tweak all kinds of ways. And Europe has a variety of spiders, benign and deadly. Useful for Animal spells to create, summon, enlarge, and do other things with spiders. They also make great spies
I also like that your old rules-shark habbits kick in right away. You know how lazt I am.
Peregrine_Bjornaer: We could have more than one Redcap? It would make sense if Doissetep sent a couple of escorts with Mercuria, maybe with the intention of their starting another Mercer House. That's kind of tricky politically, since the other major Redcap players in the region are either way off in Marseille with the Chief Redcap (she presumably organized the previous Mercer House at this location?) or very close by but in another Tribunal in Barcelona. So maybe a sort of Lieutenant Redcap with ties to the Cult of Mercury and enough political acumen to handle deep Tribunal intrigues might be cool?
I was just thinking about that this morning. I've never played a Redcap before, but I think I can pull it off. Fedora of Mercere, a French redcap, a few years after "gauntlet", perhaps,
By the way...quick question about Redcap/Mercere...psychology, for lack of a better word. I've seen in other sagas that it seemed like the primary objective of a Mercere/Redcap was to have as many kids as possible. Is that more or less the case here, too, or should her attitude be more like "Meh...if it happens, it happens."?
idea!
(feedback appreciated)
Every player runs a Magus, a Companion and five Grogs.
But these are not your entourage.
A player of an older magus may have a larger entourage, but control fewer of these characters. A player of a young magus has a smaller entourage, but has direct control over his companion who is associated with the magus.
An example of my idea. Two players of elder magi control the entirety of each other's henchmen. Two players of medium age magi control their companios, but someone else has the grogs. The player of a young magus controls a companion and two grogs that are his buddies or whatnot.
This is just a vague idea.
But yeah, there are many acceptable companion and grog ideas: Redcaps, covenfolk from your old home, professional custos, hirelings, mercenaries, people you met on the road, survivors from the disater that struk the covenant, new employees recruited from the area or specialists from afar; just about anything.
For most female Redcaps, I imagine that having and raising children is one of their primary goals. Especially in the Cult of Mercury, there is a lot of pressure to continue the line and to maximize their chances of having Gifted kids. In fact, I imagine that giving birth is a common Gauntlet for young Redcap women. When the Mercere is Gifted, however, there is less pressure, because she's basically what the House is trying to produce. She has more freedom to follow her own path, and there's nothing that suggests that Gifted magi are more likely to have Gifted children. I would imagine the Redcaps are generally more interested in her taking the time to make them longevity rituals and magic devices. Part of her moving here and settling down might be their desire for her to try and start a family before she gets too old, though.
I generally try to make sure that a player's magus and companion have some reason not to get along or work together very much, so that there are more opportunities for that player to interact with another player. Or are you suggesting that just the companion and his cohorts go together as a set? I'm fine with it, though I worry that it's easy for us to get bogged down in all these new characters at the beginning of a game. 
We can focus on companions and grogs later. Let us concentrate on getting our magi together.
My idea is not a HR, just a thought. I was wondering on ways to make old and young magi on the same "level" as it were. Older magus, less control over their immediate cohorts. Young magus, tighter bond between them and their henchmen.
Just a thought.
In past games I have been in, there are two main ways to go about it. Both have equal virtues and flaws.
The straightforward way is every player creates a small group of characters the control.
The more artistic way is for everyone to play each other's companion.
The second is rich with story telling opportunity and can get players mixed into multiple stories. The drawback is that, when players leave (they come and go in PbP games), you get stuck with a magus without a companion and a cool companion dangling with no magus to tie him to the covenant.I experienced that with a cool character I created named Dragor, companion to a Tremere magus when we started up Novus Mane. That guy lasted about a month, but I managed to keep Dragor on as autocrat. Still, he felt like a fish out of water. On the other hand, anoter player took up the companion of my magus, and that lasted for years of fun.
We can work that out as we go along. Let us focus on or magi for now.
Ok, everything applies. I thought so, but wasn't sure. IMO, this is great, and well done. Congratulations! This is exactly what you needed!
Might be fun, but I will limit myself to a single magus.
I might create a companion (probably an hedge wizard, wanted to do this for a long time!) and grogs, but I won't run any.
No. Time.
So I guess what I'm saying is that this is perfect for me 
Thanx for the feedback!
I was aiming for a system that is easy to apply in the abstract, allows a lot of flexabilty, and to reign in some of the potential munchkinism.
What do you think of the V&F system? Twilight?
You see where I am going with my companions/grogs suggestion