Table Talk (OOC)

I'd forgotten about the sponsorship challenge. I thought Wolfgang wrote letters already but I need to track back through the posts and check.

According to the Saga Calendar you intended to send letters in 1205. I didn't see any explicit mention of you writing, but I assumed you did write.

I've updated Regulus activities in the Saga Calendar, but in a sense that is just a draft and can be subverted.

How should we go with the "find sponsors to join the Rhine" thing?

  • just assume we find 4 willing magi and let the troubles of being part of Rhine hitting us later
  • have trouble now (as in, a story to convince a magus to sponsor us)
  • other option?

I was even busier than expected last week and was unable to post. I'm just now getting up to date on what was posted. I should be able to post something tomorrow.

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So it's taking me even longer to get back into it than I expected.

And I've had a cold since the beginning of th week, so my brain cells aren't all working at the moment.

Sorry, I'll be back soon -- hopefully.

Don't worry. Take your time. Hope you get well soon.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Character Creation Discussions (OOC)

Hello @Vortigern, and welcome! I don't think anyone is going to be against one more player. =]

What about moving character discussions to the character discussion post?

Not sure if you got to take a look at the other threads, @Arthur is our main storyguide, but the idea is that we all take turns and share the burden. It would be nice if you could indicate which kind of stories you'd be interested in running (or for which character you'd be interested in taking a more active approach). The Notes and Claims thread should have some info on who has commited to what (just so you have a notion, I think there is no problem with some overlap).

Again, welcome!

I moved Virtigern's post to the Character Creation Discussions topic.

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I'm a bit hesitant to stake a BSG role claim when I don't know what is going on the saga now already, or what all of you are interested in.

I am quite willing to participate in this way however. I'd just like to make sure I'm not doing something that will fall flat and/or not get interest/play.

Some options that occur to me.

  • Infernal Antagonists (Knightly Order with public acceptance perhaps.)
  • Ash Guild Intrigue & Conflicts
  • Hermetic Crimes & Intrigue
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I love these because they're right up Wolfgang's alley. I also note that we have a fledgling quaesitor and a fledgling hoplite in the covenant so that works out well.

Wolfgang will, at some point, be investigating the Holy Vehm, which could go in a lot of directions.

But to be honest he needs quite a bit more study before he can tackle things on his own. Rafael was light-handed with the giants, they could have easily been too much for Wolfgang to handle.

Not much has happened in the saga so far. A couple of magi joined the covenant, we harvested some vis, got in touch with local nobility and hunted man-eating menaces.

I also think these stories would be a great fit, if you want to run them. =]
With infernal in particular I always think it risks hijacking the whole saga if it's too huge (I mean, what could possibly be more important than stopping infernal menace?), but if we take care it would be nice.


True. But to be fair, you did get the jump on them. Had it been the other way around, Dagny and/or Gwyneth would have died (or even Wolfgang if he got hit first).

On that note, I would accept some criticism. I've been thinking on how to improve future combats, and at the moment I think the way to go is to make it hinge on factors... outside combat. Because for one threat to pose serious trouble to Wolfgang in direct confrontation it will need to have 30+ might (at least) and/or a ridiculous soak. And to seriously injure Kiefskala (with his humongous +21 Soak and +4 size) it needs to dish out at least +30 damage (possibly more), meaning it can either kill or incapacitate everyone else with a single blow. Neither is very practical on a regular basis.

I have a vis-collection story in mind that should prove a challenge for any and all of the current magi, if people are interested. It doesn't need to be run right away -- we can even ret-con it into the story line if we want to.

The key to challenging a combat-focused magus, while still providing a challenge within his specialty, isn't always to provide a bigger, badder opponent. It is usually to constrain combat in some way, such as:

  • Multiple opponents
  • Opponents that must not be killed
  • Opponents that are hard to target (invisible, intangible, hard to tell apart from bystanders)

I wrote them with you guys in mind after looking over your characters just a bit, so that was no accident!

Also I'm something of an Ash Guild fan myself!

Though Vorsutus being of norse descent ... I'm not sure if he is as worried about the Order of Odin as Wolfgang might be! 8P

Ah, well then I haven't missed much!

I'd like to make them more of a recurring bad actor if you will rather than a one arc and done kind of enemy. I am open for discussing how to do that. They could be over a Tribunal Border or the like. Or as a knightly order have a fortress or abbey or the like near a larger town or city that it would be unacceptable to just attack under most circumstances.

Honestly, I think the challenge aspect of stories is vastly overrated/overrused, and it's especially unnecessary in Ars. Probably a minority opinion, but I'm used to that.

It sort of ties in with my desire to see a character/group of characters advance significantly, by letting years and decades pass during the course of a game, which after a few years here and a few dozen Ars campaigns here and elsewhere I've begun to feel I'm the only person in the community who wants that. So I just sort of gave up on that and I go along for the ride with whatever other people in the saga want.

Wolfgang has some significant variances from the Ash Gild party line, which could make for interesting stories. Also, take a look at the Holy Vehm - they're mentioned in the write-up for Phillipus Niger (Wolfgang's parens) and he has some goals related to them (Wolfgang sees them as a major threat to the Order).

I did some reading on this today and it is quite interesting. Perhaps I could tie in some of my earlier ideas in with this one. Not something I'd ever dug into before.

I think I agree far more than I don't. Ars is to a large extent focused on characters that are very powerful, and get more powerful as things go along. Sometimes/frequently a challenge is interesting if done well. Yet I think part of the goal of Ars is also both simulating this world and exploring what these powerful people do inside it.

I think this is all perfectly in keeping with the spirit of Ars. Seeing time go by at a decent clip (not "too" fast, but where you can notice if you will) is I think how the game is intended to flow with a structure based in Seasons.

Looking over the Covenant area maps (nice!) I see some waterways near the Covenant grounds themselves that appear to connect to a river called the Sorne, that then connects to the Birse. That appears to go off towards Basel.

Would I be right in inferring that all of this connects to the Rhine?

I'd assume there are some questionable waters, rapids, waterfalls or the like intervening (even just along the length of the Rhine as it were) but I found myself curious if the connection to a major waterway was there.

The Birse indeed flows into the Rhine at Basel.

The Birse is a relatively minor river (at least compared with the Rhine) which flows into the Jura mountains. It is shallow and wide in places, deeper and narrower in others.

There are several areas where there are rapids or waterfalls. In fact, one of those waterfalls are in Laufen, which was the location of the recent giant story.

It is also subject to occasionally strong floods.

Very interesting.

I'm pondering how hard it would be to magically assist an longship in navigating these waterways.

Howdy all! So obviously I'm the other FNG. Sorry for the delay in getting this intro post up, but life was all sorts of hectic! End of the trimester, which meant report card narratives for students were due. So between that and a history competition my students were preparing for/competing in yesterday meant that I haven't had a spare brain cell to rub together as it were. But it's spring break, which means my sanity is slowly returning! Sanity being something of a misnomer in my case I s'pose?

So joking about my chosen profession aside, I've been playing Ars for a bit over a decade or so at this point. So still something of a baby by community standards.

And Plot, that's something I've noticed as well. Though it's not limited to Ars, it's a side effect of PbP I think. That said, don't worry, I'm very much in your camp. There's a reason why I'm a fan of just saying "For once nothing happens for a season or two, go read some damn books and or work in the lab" every now and again.

Sounds like a hectic time!

Glad you are in the mix now.