Where is a good English-language resource for 12th-13th century Italian history? Most of the ones I can find focus on northern city-states like Milan and neglect the south of the country, so I don't know much about it. I presume I can get away without knowing much, but it would be nice to know more.
try starting your search for Kingdom of Sicily.
Does anyone have any thoughts on hooks and boons or how they would like build points spent?
For boons, as we are having a lengthy prologue I would like:
a good aura
healthy feature (every little helps to reduce the risk of failed longevity rituals, and it makes generating covenant grogs for the prologue worthwhile if we know they will have a decent working lifespan)
either wealthy or secondary income - in order to pay for eight wizards and their apprentices, and no doubt a period of crossover in which there are up to 16 active wizards and their labs, regular income won't do. As the example in covenants shows, £100 barely covers 6 magi with basic labs and a shield grog each and enough servants to clean the place and feed everyone.
I am more interested in the connection to the Persephone myth than to Aphrodite, but whether this is best expressed as a region boon or hook, or a fallen temple hook, or a legendary site hook, is up for discussion. We could even choose monster if you think a three-headed underworld hound regards part of the covenant as its territory.
Build points - vis sources or vis income is the obvious choice, given a century of prologue to build up and use. We only need to save more than 1/4 of the vis earned to make it a better use of the points than buying vis stocks. I understand book availability is limited at the start, and the parens magi may already have their main arts at a level where summae don't help, so I see our library as a few primers (because all the parens want to train apprentices in time) and a few excellent tractatus for the older magi.
Keep in mind the origins and required hook and boon as well- debt (in the form of rents on the land) and writ of crenulation. Given that boon castle is an obvious hook to take...
I also do use both aura fluctuation rules and income fluctuation rules... but with income fluctuation any source of income that is part of the covenant (as opposed to an external investment) will be modified by covenfolk loyalty.
While we wait for a thread, can you start preparing the list of "authorities" (or approved book list) so we can start spending the 2000BP on library, specialists, etc.
For vis sources, presumably you want us to come up with a list of business ideas that support us getting vis for. Do we nominate the forms it comes in, or is it supposed to be Vim "vis of account" and we then haggle with others as to what forms we can swap it for?
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, any business will generate vis of account. Natural sources are possible, but will come with a rival, etc...
I will get working on the authorities
Hello, everyone! I chatted a bit with Silveroak via PM, and I'm planning to join as well.
Was looking a little at Hooks and Boons for the Covenant; how important do we actually want money to be in the prologue? With this many magi, and rent to pay, it'll be quite tight if we don't do anything about it. But at the same time, maybe a poor Covenant that chafes under the unreasonable rent it's required to pay is a direction worth taking?
This is Cannonball's friend. Been tooling around with character ideas that are variations on "Italian Lesbian Wizard Batman" and actually had a background summary worked out for my older character.
But that was before I remembered that we were going to hand them off. I was planning for her to be rather creepy, and it's one thing to play someone like that, it's another to ask someone else to play her.
For my younger character I was entertaining thoughts of having her be a Cambion, but Cannonball has warned me that involving the Infernal might be too game warping.
I can probably come up with some non edgy ideas too, those were just the first that came to mind.
Welcome!
Personally, I don't really enjoy having to play with finances. I don't mind playing a story to pay for something unexpected that happens along the way or for a large expenditure to update the covenant, but keeping track of all the costs, and worrying over that kind of detail is not very interesting to me.
As for boons and hooks, it seems like we need a minor hook along the lines of "Road" to account for the possible Saracen raiders and other visitors, wanted and unwanted. I also think that the various ruins in the area lend themselves to a Regio boon/hook. While the tribunal is pretty much settled, it seems that an area that has been repeatedly attacked, then abandoned might have a regio under our control. (Perhaps we have to wrest that control from the "mother-covenant" when we gain status as an independent covenant rather than a chapter house? Is that happening before we start play, or is that part of the prologue we will be writing?)
Looking through Covenants, a minor Road hook sounds like a great idea. The Southern coast of Italy should be a major shipping lane come what may; we could also leverage that into a Wealth feature, using our magic to extract shipping tolls and policing the seas for pirates and invaders? Someone also mentioned the Healthy Feature minor boon earlier in the thread and given how amazing the landscape and weather is down there, I can't help but agree with that one too.
Castle, as a major hook, is an interesting one to take. Because we're notionally going to be in Locri (or the surrounding area thereof). However! There is actually a local castle just up the hill at Gerace. Which, I might add, was last renovated more or less at the same time our chapter house showed up in the area(!). Now, two castles right next to each other feels a little off to me, but I don't think there's anything stopping us from saying Gerace castle is actually ours?
If that's the case, it suggests hooks like Urban (minor) and Outbuildings (given it's right in the middle of a small town). Along with the more standard Curtain Walls / Mural Towers, and possibly artillery or soldiers of some kind. Being in the middle of a town has its own complications, and does move us slightly away from Locri itself, though.
If Gerace castle belongs to the Normans, and we're in the area of Locri proper, I'm thinking more minor fortifications are perhaps the way to go...
Speaking of Locri, given the whole place was sacked and pillaged by heathens, it's possible something like Massacre Site is an appropriate hook? Regardless, I think Fallen Temple would be appropriate given the nearby pagan ruins!
You have a writ of crenulation, and I'm going to retcon actual history such that the castle of Gerace was leveled (which is part of why you were given that area of Locri to shore up the Norman defenses). By what I had read when I et up the game initially the nearest town was 6 miles away- Gerace is apparently 3 miles away, so it is essentially being written out as being destroyed or relocated during the conflict between the Byzantines, Saracens, and Normans.
Locri was sacked centuries after it was abandoned, so it is not probable as a massacre site. It was sacked by Saracens- the people apparently abandoned the city while the local population was still pagan.
I will also say that an infernal character will probably be less disruptive in this game than in many others, but it would definitely need to be a secret, and a real secret, not a wink and a nod secret.
Makes sense. Instead of fixing up the castle ruins to try and protect the area, we were brought in to try and protect the area. When you've got access to wizards, why not try and use them!
Couple of hooks probably worth having: Mundane Politics (major) - because, lets face it, we've been hired to defend an area at the behest of a king and that's as political as you can get! - and perhaps one of Beholden (major) or Hermetic Politics (minor)? To represent that we were a chapter house, and still have ties back home. We could also use something like hermetic politics to have access to a local vis source, if we want something other than vis of account.
Technically the only thing you were asked to do was defend the land which was given to you- which would not be considered against the code, any more than paying rents is. However that hook can e as much about perception as what you are actually doing, and you are in the same tribunal as Magvillus...
also WRT economics I will be keeping track of all of that, including fluctuations. What is important to know is that a) It will be usefull to have someone in game keeping track, even if it is a grog, and 2) covenfolk loyalty influences the die roll for economic fluctuations. Happy covenfolk are productive covenfolk...
I think the original apparently too windy city cite that got abandoned before the one that got sacacked might be a Vis source?
Given that we have a Writ of Crenellation, it seems a shame not to use it. If we do have a castle, would we be starting with something like a Shell or Tower Keep, and building from there, or are we starting with a Basic Ringwork? Still not sure how much has been built starting at 1100 ... As time goes by, we might develop the Outbuildings hook.
I was also thinking the Vivid Environment boon might be appropriate, given the picturesque ruins and the coast.
@Nolrai2 -- Any vis sources in the area are probably owned by previously settled covenants.
I agree that the existence of the ruined temples and amphitheater seem to cry out for a vis source somewhere around. Perhaps the Contested Resources hook (possibly more than one?) would be appropriate.
Contested Resources should definitely be in there somewhere; some of the areas around are just so ripe for them. Does kinda feels like we've muscled into the territory though (in true Norman fashion!). Defences-wise, I could see us taking curtain walls and mural towers - perhaps with something akin to the 'crumbling' hook to represent them being in various states of construction?
I like the idea of multiple contested resources.
Are hermetic covenants the only users of Vis in this part of Italy? Or might other beings be okay with the realitive lack of true wilderness?
I'm still trying to read the books, it feels a bit like trying to drink a fire hose.
I don't think we're "Handing off" characters - I think the point is we all create an experienced wizard who's experienced enough to train an apprentice, and we all create characters ready to start apprenticeship. We then have to sort out which of the masters will train which apprentice. At some point during the prologue, you say "my apprentice can start training now" and they begin play under you. The masters are expected to retire or die or move to Loch Leglean before 1220.
If you want "Italian lesbian wizard batman" as a character for the main story, you can create "Italian adolescent-unsure-of-their-sexuality apprentice" and choose a master most appropriate for you to be their Robin to, and develop them. If you want "Italian lesbian wizard batman" in the backstory, create that character as a master wizard and see who volunteers to be their apprentice.
PS I haven't added anything to the praesidium orae wiki as someone's already taken the username "darkwing" on there and I'll have to think of a new one. Boo.
The master character will be run by someone else. That simulates a more realistic conflict of interest between investing training in the next generation and building your own legacy. After all if the master writes a book or tractatus, that will serve the whole covenant, including the advancing character of the person playing the "instructor" magus... same concept with enchanted items, etc.