Setting: Temples, Sites, Ruins, and Empires

[Crissa]

Because they have it attuned to them.

You can totally ruin the site, but without the BBEG, you can't take the site. But also without the BBEG, you can't use the site, and neither can they.

It means you actually have to defeat the bad guy, and not just sneak in while they're sleeping.

-Crissa

[NoDot]

Why can't you sneak in while they're sleeping?

Unless you assassinate him while he's sleeping (which should be viable-he should have guards), that just means the BBEG reattunes it in the mourning.,

[ckafrica]

Could we have a way to re-attune the power of a site to fit the party's philosophy? When the holy warriors take down the barrowmounds the set up a temple of goody goodness which transforms the undead power into a holy site instead?

[Username17]

I think that more than one way of getting levels should be codified into the game, and ways to lose levels should not be.

So putting together a big empire of various power sites should cause you to personally go up to Level X, but losing it all shouldn't cause you to personally lose and levels. You're still Level X, you just can no longer replace any Phoenix Guard or scry out of Snake Mountain.

So yeah, if you don't want to run around playing Caesar and just want to run around saving princesses and killing dragons (or vice versa), that should be fine. Completing quests can make you go up levels (and having other people complete quests against you doesn't make you lose levels).

If you don't want to control an empire and build giant monuments and shit there should be other options. But that should be an option.

-Username17

[Draco_Argentum]

Isn't it important to have shattering the evil overlord's powerbase actually affect him? That way he has to flee and start again with a new empire rather than being a legitimate threat straight away.

[Username17]

Isn't it important to have shattering the evil overlord's powerbase actually affect him? That way he has to flee and start again with a new empire rather than being a legitimate threat straight away.

It's important for it to affect his empire, but having it directly reduce the power of him is probably bad.

The one caveat is that whatever bonuses he gets from being in his house while fighting should probably drop if you blow up his summer house at the Bronze Columns. But however powerful he is while adventuring should probably stay constant - because otherwise players will stay in their house rather than adventure and that's Ars Magica.

-Username17

[Draco_Argentum]

I don't tend to think of evil dudes who adventure and have an empire. Generally seems to be one or the other.

[virgil]

So the power inherent in having a site be an overlapping set of abilities that can be directed onto you or distributed amongst the chosen Phoenix Guard? And to limit adventuring with said power, have the power source be largely stationary, at least on a geographic level?

How would you go about deciding on the numerical values for some of this? Would you just allow a site to output X levels of power, with thematic limitations, and have diminishing returns when given in multiples? For instance...

Snake Mountain (EL 11)
When not under control, will produce & maintain 32 Snake Men (Level 1) every interval. A Snake Man, named King Hiss, manages to latch onto the site to control it for his own purposes. As the place had been producing Snake Men for a long time, he doesn't want to direct its power towards making more Snake Men, but instead entirely into him. As long as he is in Snake Mountain, he is a level 11 character, with several abilities chosen to control the natives already present.

[virgil]

Might it also be easier to prevent the mega-empires from keeping tabs on nodes by making sure the powers given by nodes only work within their region? If the Well of Weeping Roses is attuned and a portion of its power is mailed to the Empire of the Sun, the region of influence of the Well is reduced, the region of the Empire is slightly expanded, and there remains a vast stretch of territory between them both where neither can influence the other. Spawned monsters, adventurers, and ordinary soldiers can wander without a problem; but the elite Soldiers of Light don't get their powers while in this dead zone.

I can also see players being able to make nodes, but I see it as either a once-in-a-lifetime action or only able to be attuned to one of their created nodes at a time (and the others are drastically reduced in power if not attuned to their creator).

[Username17]

Might it also be easier to prevent the mega-empires from keeping tabs on nodes by making sure the powers given by nodes only work within their region?

I think at some level you have to be able to march stuff around or the players are going to end up just not caring. "Why not just put a fence around the Vale of Infinite Horror and be done with it? It's not like anything can get out..."

Probably the best solution is to have each node have a Here and an Anywhere effect. So you get to have a bunch of burnination going on actually in the Prison of the Second Sun, but its mere presence entitles the world to a certain amount of fire shenanigans elsewhere. If unoccupied, this manifests as periodic monster rampages (or whatever), and if occupied it generates power for the empire.

-Username17

[virgil]

Sounds viable to me. I assume it's best to keep the 'Here' effect constant, so we don't end up with people painting the Cerulean Chasm chartreuse and directing its power to produce doilies.

[CatharzGodfoot]

It's a good opportunity for shaping the rules of the wargame and the social minigame.