So, I've got some truly excellent players this time around. I'm using the Lion and the Lily and weaving character backgrounds with plots and story seeds. Looks good so far, and after two games, the players are really excited. Thanks to the fine authors of the Lion and the Lily!
I'm also making use of Covenants, and really want to play up the immersion a bit. I'm planning on making the library on index cards, and creating some sort of vis tokens.
For vis tokens - anyone got any ideas?
Also, who came up with the Boar King? Love him, and so do my players. He was a great way to introduce an anachronistic saxon character.
I photocopied the symbols for the Arts onto different coloured sheets of paper (so the Corpus symbol is on blood-red paper; I matched the colours seen using Sight of the Active Magics as best as possible). I think I got about 30 tokens from each sheet, which I then cut up with a guillotine. I made some larger tokens for chunks of indivisible vis.
Each character has a small envelope with his or her vis along with the character sheet. The covenant has a whole stack of envelopes, one for each Art.
I ask the players to write the physical form of the vis on the back (in pencil, so the pawn can be recycled) - this is mainly for show, but it also brings back happy memories ("How fitting that we are using this pawn of vis to heal our grog, since he is the one who won this pawn in the contest against the Lady of the Mists"; etc.) This also allows me (as SG) to keep track of pawns of vis prava and other tainted stuff.
Credit for this idea goes to Andy Smith, who elaborates further in that saga by keeping all the unallocated vis in a locked cash box - the ritual associated with having the storyguide produce the key and unlock the box makes us players all the more grateful for the vis he deigns to give us
As a Player in Marks camapign I can attest to how well this works, it's quite nice to not have to do hours of Vis maths and book keeping. If you have the Vis, you have the token, if you spend the vis you hand back the token.
I also find there is an incredible feel as a player when you pour out your lifetime of acqured multi-coloured vis tokens on the table like some sort of post halloween magi-candy haul.
However it does have you asking questions like, "Where on earth did this eye come from" or "Monkies hand?! How the Heck have I got a Monkies hand!"
I really like this idea. Maybe this is something that could be added to the web site to so that we can download them, print them out and use them in our campaigns? I would love to use vis tokens in my campaign.
I've just acquired all the symbols, and plan on making some sort of business card-sized template for them, in various denominations. I'll see about making it into a PDF and then offering it to Atlas as a play aid for the Ars downloads.
any luck with the PDF or something similar?
Im very keen on integrating something like this in my campaig.
Im currently considering markers from litko.
they are cool but espensive.
I've got the documents all done. I just need to take my jump drive to work with me and they'll be all done and pdfed. I'll upload them hopefully Tuesday. Thanks for the reminder!
For special occassions I use different flavours of wrapped lolly. You get to eat the lolly when you use the vis. I don't use cheap lollies, either. I do, however, make common ones like Herbam things like Minties, while Intellego might be those coconuty things put out by Ferrerro. This, I hope, makes players think "Hrrrm, how can we get more Intellgeo vis?" and "How can I use more Intellego vis?"
Then again, I'm just a little food obsessed.
Um, he's mine. He is vaugely based on local burial practices. The trussing of the legs of boars in Venelli graves is a real thing. I'm glad you liked him.
For years I have been considering getting little class beads, which I used to use for confidence points, but this works card idea is wonderful! Any advance on the pdf plan?
I used Power Point. I didn't choose a standard business card size, preferring to print them on straight card stock and cut them myself. They are double sided, amount on one side and form on the other. I also took the art symbols and re-vectorized them. If anyone wants them just send me a message with your email. Let me know if you want them in PowerPoint (I have 2003) or PDF.
