I've used the income/expenditure rules from Covenants before to millimanage a covenant's finances, and it's kind of fun in a familiar nerdy way. The question is, are people interested in the wealth of the covenant being a factor in stories? If Bibracte is doing so well that they amass a big pile of silver and then want to use it for something - or if it's running so close to the red that story events can threaten disruptions - then it would be interesting to track finance; on the other hand, if it's just a lengthy verification that everything is running smoothly and nobody cares beyond that, then we might as well leave it as an abstraction. Anyway, short answer: I would certainly accept the role of running mundane finances if that were desired by all.
The Pierre Legris idea is just one to float by everyone - I'm not attached to it by any means. I always tend to drift towards "lab" characters, so in a way it would be nice to choose a different way to go for a companion. On the other hand, having PL as a companion would be an excellent excuse for me to flesh out the other 4 woolworkers as grogs and get into their RP.
Here's a proposed back story for Maximianus, presented in timeline form. (It'll also include important Tranquillina dates.)
1052: A Norman boy named Georges is born in the young state of Apulia, not far from Melfi in the southern Roman Tribunal.
1060: Georges is discovered by Praefactus ex Bonisagus and taken to Rellantali to become his apprentice. Georges is drawn to Corpus as a specialty and is taught reverence for the abilities and ideals of the Founders.
1075: Georges passes his Gauntlet; Praefactus gives him the name Maximianus. The new magus Bonisagi remains at Rellantali, conducting research and staying aloof from the covenant's questionable activities in Venezia.
1107: Maximianus takes a Pisano boy, Gherardo, as an apprentice. Gherardo is interested in Corpus as it relates to combat, which Maximianus tolerates.
1122: Maximianus graduates Gherardo from his Gauntlet and gives him the Hermetic name Timesitheus.
1123: Fed up with Verdi and covenant politics in the Roman Tribunal in general, Maximianus resigns his seat at Rellantali to Timesitheus. Maximianus wanders the Roman Tribunal as an independent magus; with no laboratory, he takes an interest in learning Medicine.
1166: [color=magenta]Eskil is born in Eilginn (northern Loch Leglean Tribunal).
1168: Philomena ex Bonisagus is appointed leader of the Longevity Project at the Sinews of Knowledge covenant in the Greater Alps Tribunal. Philomena persuades Maximianus to join Sinews of Knowledge as well. Maximianus conducts research towards increasing the potency of Longevity Rituals; he also writes extensively on Corpus and Medicine.
1174: Cumhachd ex Tytalus meets [color=magenta]Eskil and enrols her in the abbey school in Farrais.
1178: [color=magenta]Eskil becomes Cumhachd's apprentice at the Loch Leglean covenant of Lamh nam Monadh ("Hand of the Moor").
1185: [color=magenta]Eskil survives a severe laboratory accident under Cumhachd's supervision. [color=magenta]Eskil becomes obsessed with Corpus and avoiding lab activities.
1187: [color=red]Tria Trianomae claims [color=magenta]Eskil as her apprentice. The two move around the Stonehenge, Loch Leglean, and Hibernia Tribunals, shadowing the Spring Tenens Occultorum. [color=magenta]Eskil proves not to be a suitable pupil for [color=red]Tria's strict curriculum.
1189: Maximianus feels too comfortable and not challenged enough at Sinews of Knowledge; progress on the Longevity Project in general has all but halted. [color=red]Tria, eager for more representation of House Bonisagus in the north, convinces Maximianus to relocate to the Stonehenge covenant of Burnham. [color=magenta]Eskil's apprenticeship is transferred to Maximianus as part of the negotiations; they share interests in understanding wounds and diseases, and Maximianus tailors a plan of study to accommodate [color=magenta]Eskil's apprehensions about vis.
1193: [color=magenta]Eskil passes her Gauntlet; Maximianus gives her the Hermetic name [color=magenta]Tranquillina. Eskil stays at Burnham, slightly shielded from Cumhachd's badgering.
1194: The Stonehenge Tribunal meeting is declared void due to lack of attendance. Maximianus is dumbfounded by the resignation and lack of engagement, especially compared to the combative Roman Tribunal and highly structured Greater Alps Tribunal.
1195: Stonehenge is not represented at the Sixteenth Grand Tribunal of the Order of Hermes.
1200: Blackthorn calls another Tribunal meeting, but again nobody else comes (despite Maximianus's urging of his sodales at Burnham) and the meeting is inquorate.
1201: Disgusted with the isolation of Burnham and Blackthorn's unchallenged dominance of the Stonehenge Tribunal, Maximianus founds the new covenant of Nigrasaxa. [color=magenta]Tranquillina and Ariel ex Flambeau, filia Scintilla, accompany him from Burnham to Nigrasaxa, where they are joined by four other Spring magi. Nigrasaxa calls a Tribunal meeting, which is successful. Under Maximianus's prodding, Hermetic politics in Stonehenge becomes more engaged.
[strike]1222 (Winter): Maximianus suffers Final Twilight. [color=magenta]Tranquillina muses about the possibility of moving further away from Cumhachd's influence.[/strike]
1223: Aided by a recommendation from [color=red]Tria, [color=magenta]Tranquillina leaves Burnham and joins Mons Electi.
([strike]There's no Tranquillina-driven reason why Maximianus should have gone into Final Twilight; I'm just following the timeline from the Nigrasaxa mini-saga, and it's a convenient chronological coincidence. If[/strike] it'd be more fun to have Maximianus still alive and kicking, that's fine by me.)
Tria is currently busy in Rome. Let's say that Tranquillina is acting independently based on conversations she might have had in the past. Tria would have mentioned trustworthy covenants as her own, Le Maison, Ra'am's Phoenix, an unnamed Rhine covenant but the politics in the Rhine are dreadful, and Mons Electi...
Nope. Not that these are that difficult to create.
But a "normal" character can have these too. These use up fatigue instead of Might (I made a thread somewhere about ArX-Men)
As I see it, knowing at least roughly of much surplus we make might be interesting, in order to know what extra we may buy.
For exemple, reading Grogs, I was struck by the fact that Isen (and probably Alexei even more) could be interested in hiring, at least for the Tribunal, the Montjoie Company or something similar.
So, not so much as in "we must manage our ressources carefully" as in "Ok, how much of it can we afford?"
But if it proves too much work, or simply boring, just don't do it.
I started a new thread to continue the Pierre/companion discussion. Everybody's input is welcome.
Returning to Tranquillina: Jonathan, is there anything I should be doing proactively on behalf of this character's RP or background at the moment? Writing letters, for example (from her to Mons Electi; to her from her tormenting ex-mater Cumhachd; ...)?
Well, Tranquillina needs to come up with the why she wants to be at Mons Electi. We can say that she has heard of Mons Electi. She can even be with Ra'am at Phoenix right when Alexei shows up...
Moro doesn't have quite that same difficulty. He can be ordered to go to Mons Electi, in some respects...
Jonathan, I want to propose one changed detail to Tranquillina's build. Right now she has the level-25 spell Gleam of the Freshly Polished Glass, which I took for the health benefit in the lab; however, I realize now that it would add +1 Warping to the lab, and I don't think even that small risk fits with Tranquillina's personality.
Also Peregrine pointed out that Penetration is sort of a silly mastery ability for Leap of Homecoming, so I don't know why I spent the 5xp to get up to Mastery level 2.
So I'd like to use those 30xp for something else:
Fortunately, I realized that I would love a spell that allowed Tranquillina to speak while in wolf form. The spell would be Stories of the Beast, which is not exactly a canonical spell but is a canonical effect for a familiar (ArM5 page 105). I'm thinking of a level-15 MuAn spell (Base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Diam - although I'd take it at Conc if need be); the Touch allows her to use it on other animals too. Then I can put 15 xp (pre-Flawless Magic doubling) into mastering that spell so I can cast it without penalty in animal form.
Summary of proposed change - let me know if it's ok. Deletions in gray, additions in green. [strike](I thought I could strikethrough text with , but it doesn't seem to work....)[/strike] [sub](never mind)[/sub]
Leap of Homecoming (ReCo 35) - Mastery 2 1 (Penetration, Still Casting)
Gleam of the Freshly Polished Glass (PeTe 25) - from Covenants, page 122 - Mastery 1 (Quiet Casting)
Stories of the Beast (MuAn 15: Base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Diam) - Mastery 3 (5) (Still Casting, Quiet Casting x2)
What's wrong with a bit of warping?
I don't have any problem with those changes. And I'm not the kind of SG who locks players into bad choices or bad builds. I mean what's the point? See Isen's recently identified problem.
Don't forget to update your warping score for 1 point per year from the time you first initiated Tranquilina's Longevity Ritual.
How many xp did you spend for your spell mastery?
Flawless magic doubles XP spent, so to get to the second mastery ability you spend 5 xp from your character generation pool and Flawless adds another 5. To get to the third you need 15 more experience points, but you can't have half xp, so you need to spend 8 which doubles to 16, leaving 1 extra for the next advancement level. I'm off by a considerable amount, and MetaCreator doesn't handle this correctly so I'm not sure if the mistake is on my end or your end...
Personal warping, sure, why not (and I gave Tranquillina 20xp in Warping from her LR). But lab warping can cause unintended effects on spells n stuff. Not her style
Thanks - I know you were putting it in Metacreator so I didn't want to "sneak" in a change. (Tangent: why o why is there no Metacreator for the Mac....)
This is what I have: Stories of the Beast - 15 xp for Mastery 3 (5) Disguise of the New Visage - 15 xp for Mastery 3 (5) The Wound that Weeps - 15 xp for Mastery 3 (5) Lifting the Dangling Puppet - 5 xp for Mastery 2 Seven-League Stride - 5 xp for Mastery 2 Veil of Invisibility - 15 xp for Mastery 3 (5) Wizard's Sidestep - 5 xp for Mastery 2 Panic of the Trembling Heart - 15 xp for Mastery 3 (5) Aura of Rightful Authority - 5 xp for Mastery 2 Total spell mastery xp: 95
True, it would suffice to spend 13xp instead of 15xp on those five spells ... I'm just so used to getting Mastery xp in groups of 5.
I'm calculating a total of 460 xp from (non-Mastery) Abilities from her build:
Gaelic 5 is free; Magic Theory 6 costs 70 (Affinity); Magic Sensitivity 3 costs 25 (level 1 is free); and 23 other Abilities (6 at level 1, 13 at level 2, 3 at level 3, 1 at level 4) cost 365.
I agree with everything else about your calculation. So I have either 40 xp to spend (by yours) or 10 xp to spend (by mine). Unless I copied down a spell level incorrectly to this thread....
If it's only 10 left, I'll do one more lab season. If it's 40 I'll think harder (maybe take some Philosophiae...).
Ok, I reviewed my list, and had missed Athletics and Etiquette. So, I revised it and we're still short... the 10 you indicated, which is a season of doing something, or 10 xp.
Cool, I have an idea for the lab season. But I want to run it by you first:
Covenants discusses magic items crafted with the intention of going in labs (p121). With a level 30 effect that doesn't mimic a particular lab Virtue, it suggests that having it give +1 to a lab Characteristic together with +1 to a specialty is appropriate. I'm thinking of a specimen holder cabinet thingy, enchanted with a CrCo effect that preserves the bones/blood/etc. stored in it; it could grant -1 to Upkeep and +1 to Corpus. On the other hand, Tranquillina wouldn't want anything in her lab that added to its Warping score. How do you feel about these mechanics? (It would certainly be a reasonable thing for her to have had in her former lab at Burnham.)
What made me think of this in the first place is that I can see Tranquillina's lab, after a couple of seasons of Refinement, easily getting up to Upkeep +4 (10 pounds of silver per year rather than the 1.5 or 3 from an Upkeep +1 or +2 lab) including a +2 uptick to Upkeep from her Specimens. This enchantment would be a way to help keep costs down. But, if Mons Electi doesn't care about spending 10 pounds per year on one maga's lab, then I can smile and think of a different use of the season....
Well, that's not possible, because it would be an invested device and require two seasons, I think... Can you pull it off with a lesser device? Need to design the full item effect out.
Pedestal of Perpetual Preservation: indefinitely preserves a corpse that has been set upon it.
CrCo base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, Ind; changing Sun to constant effect adds 4 levels = level 9
Cabinets to Sustain Specimens: indefinitely preserves pieces of corpses that have been placed within it (up to ten corpses' worth).
CrCo base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 Group; changing Sun to constant effect adds 4 levels = level 19
If a maga had a CrCo Lab Total of 2*(9+19) = 56, she could create both as lesser enchantments in a single season.
And since a wise man suggested that specialist magi are more fun to play, let's check out Tranquillina's CrCo Lab Total:
Cr 6 + Co 27 + Int 3 + Magic Theory (Corpus) 9 + aura 3 + materials bonuses (amber, honey, sulfur) 9 - Vis Allergy 1 = 56.
This coincidence assumes that Puissant Magic Theory's +2 applies to the cap on shape/materials bonuses; if not, it's reduced to 54 - but we haven't taken into account any specializations Tranquillina might have had in her Burnham lab, nor her spell The Resolute Mind of the Tireless Researcher, which can add +3 to a season's Lab Total.
If this all works, the question then is what bonus can it provide to the lab's statistics. Covenants suggests that 20 levels of effects can improve a characteristic by 1 (say Upkeep -1, for the preserved specimens) and 10 levels can improve a specialization by 1 (say Creo +1, since there's always a perfectly preserved corpse around). At least that's the proposal....
No bonus for the previous lab. Remember, the premise for starting players is that their wings have been clipped, so to speak.
I'm inclined to have that spell inflict the point of warping on the first season, with the second season being a freebie. I'll check the numbers tomorrow.
