What should I do for episode 150 of the podcast?

Anyone who listens to the podcast knows my episode numbers are all over the pla,e because I've recorded a heap then changed my mind about their release dates, leaving a total hash of things, but by my calculations, September 27 should be episode 150. I've saved the number because I wanted to do a "big" episode for it.

What should I do?

Previous big episodes have included
25: "A Covenant for Shallot"
50: "Goblin Market"
75: "The Adventures of Captain Shard"
100: "Dolores: The Lady of Pain"
125: Simplified magi creation (which isn't a big episode, sorry)

I had originally intended to do "Return to the Fortress Unvanquishable" but I don't have time to stat all of that up: It's a ridiculously huge job.

So, suggestions are very welcome.

As to the general course of the project, 23 episodes of various lengths have been recorded and pre-loaded on Libsyn. The Wordpress versions are nowhere near that complete, because I'm very short on time, given some health things that have come up (again! Gahh!) I think I've mentioned pretty much everything that's been preloaded, other than a little one I just finished, which is as deep a dive into cosmology for Mythic Europe as possible. It's about whether you can do House Criamon better with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin than Empedocles. I may be the only person who care about this question. 8)

Cornwall is being edited, slowly, and I quite like what's emerging.

There are enough little pieces that I can string them together into themed pdfs, like Dunsany, or Minor Demons.

Wish I was here earlier.

I still haven't recorded it, so...if you have an idea I'm happy to hear it.

Big episode ideas:

  • favourite fairies from Cornish folklore
  • subtle differences of all the underground fae (knockers, kobolds, etc)
  • mechanics changes that would make for a wonderful Ars Magica 6th edition
  • which year would make the perfect start date for a saga of Ars Magica
  • what makes the ideal introduction and learning curve for Ars Magica
  • a detailed explanation of the lyrics to "The Riddle" by Nik Kershaw

How about the best ideas you thought you had that were never used in the line?

One other thing I would actually love to hear is the life story of one of your characters from a game

Or if all else fails you could resort to any variation of the ever popular 'top ten' list.
Top ten spells, top ten stories from games, top ten criamon riddles ect.

I would personally like one of these:

  • Something on ghosts, expanding on what can be found on Realms of Power: Magic and Hermetic Projects. And how it relates to what Art & Academe says about the mind and spirit on page 31 onwards.
  • A piece about the Schism War and how to use it for stories, either modern (1220) day stories or flashbacks to the SW.
  • Some article about Titanoi and Chthonic Magic. I know Titanoi are fully explained in the Tytalus chapter of Houses of Hermes: Societates, but that explanation always felt like it was missing something, for me. And Chthonic Magic, as far as I've gleaned, is more a description than a real concepto in Ars Magica, and I think it has lots of potential for being more.
  • Some kind of text about how different spirit summoners are really very much alike mechanically to each other, and all of them to Infernal Summoners. How this justifies that the Church frowns upon those who deal with spirits more than other practitioners of magic, and how this can be used by a Storyteller to create stories for spirit summoning characters.

Can't think of anything else right now.

Hi Timothy,

I've enjoyed the podcast from the beginning. I'd like to hear more about the Cornwall book's contents and story hooks on the Schism War (as mentioned by Yirkash). But being that I'm getting ready to start a new ArM saga with a group of new players that haven't experienced ArM an episode on Magi creation would be very helpful as I can suggest it as "pre-work" prior to the character creation session.

I'm actually curious about this, how Chthonic magic can be expanded and studied; I'm also curious how Chthonic magic compares to Holy magic and Faerie Magic in theory and theme; Faerie magic is suspiciously accepted, Holy Magic is considered rare and weird, Chthonic magic is something that may get you marched.