[Ars Magica 5] OOC: It's PeIm for darkness, not PeCo

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:46 pm

Ok, so character sheet update- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B57GMl ... sp=sharing

Moved some build points around on arts, also spent xp
Winter 1219. Adventure at Orsha Portage. 6XP: 6xp Animal

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:18 pm

Hi everybody, I am a fan of Ars Magica. You have a great game going and I am hoping I can join it soon !

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:32 pm

Welcome to the game, JeanPat!

We're just settling down and deciding what to do in Spring of 1220, otherwise known as "right at the beginning of the game." Adding a new player at this point would be very easy indeed. What sort of concepts do you want?

Existing players: What sort of characters do you believe would be useful in our covenant? What would complement your characters? What isn't anyone doing? What would people like help with?

Edit: So I finally got around to checking your character sheet, Prak. Mea culpa. It looks pretty good. The only critique I can make is that while I see what you're doing with Puissant Latin, it's only worth it if you plan to boost your Latin above 4. Otherwise, Educated is simply 15xp more valuable.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:57 pm

I... think I missed that one. Yeah, I'll switch that over.

Fixed: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B57GMl ... sp=sharing

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:31 pm

Looks good.

One more niggle: Cyclic Magic (negative) is very cool and very in character for Nidratr, but it specifies that you're at a penalty 50% of the time. As such, if you want to do it seasonally then that's cool but you need to specify another season as well as winter. Autumn and Winter would be fine, as would Winter and Spring.

You could also do "Winter plus half of Spring plus half of Autumn", but that would screw up your lab totals for three months of the year rather than two, and nobody wants that.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:34 pm

Yeah, let's make that Fall and Winter.

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:25 am

Works for me. That's all your niggles sorted.

Korgan0, Prak_Anima: Jean has sent me a draft of a character which looks pretty ballin'. He's a Bonisagus researcher with impressive Magic Theory who does Creo Corpus healing magic. I have no problem with this, but wanted your opinion on whether you consider this role intrusion. Generally this sort of thing works very well in Ars Magica, because you can write tractati for one another and learn from one another and thus end up with a stronger covenant, and because you each have your own Minor Focus the other person can't actually overshadow your niche even if they have the same stats as you.

If either of you feel that Corpus or Bonisagus is *your* thing and you don't want to share it, then please drop me a note.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:31 am

Well, I am much more about Perdo and CrHe/An than really CrCo, so I'm cool with anything that means I don't have to take time away from my hexing to heal people.

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:32 am

For the background I was thinking about having left Venice with my true love, against the will of her rich merchant father. The new covenant seems like a good place to start a new life.

So True love flaw can also be a combination of enemy (her father) and true love, depending of the stories you want to tell.

Considering the other Bonisagus is also italian and well versed in creo, i was thinking we could have written each other letters/know each other throughout our apprenticeship. So that could be a way to introduce my character. What do you all think ?

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:40 am

Is there a day where you do like semi-live play, like during the week-end ?

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:42 am

We don't, sadly. This is probably because your humble servant has only snatches of time here and there to play with.

EDIT: Scratch what I said earlier. I'm actually interested in giving out some downtime immediately so you can experience how the seasonal play thing works. Once we get the introductions done and the standing of Mathei of Bonisagus is agreed (whatever that standing may be), we can go into seasonal time for a single season. Does that sound like fun?

As a reminder, here are some things you can do with a single season without a lab. This is a non-exhaustive list. Please notice that everything gives you XP. This is the way Ars Magica works: downtime is where you get your XP.

- Set up a lab in an available building, or a tent if you don't have a chamber available (a one-season lab gives a -3 to general quality until you spend a second season improving it) (XP gain: Two)

- Study from vis, using it up to learn about the nature of magic directly (XP gain: Aura + stress die)

- Be trained; that is, sit and watch someone work while they comment on what they're doing (XP gain: The teacher's Ability score +3)

- Be taught; that is, have someone sit and spend their time teaching you something they know more about than you do (XP gain: Their Com + Teaching + 3 + a bonus depending on how many students there are)

- Teach someone (XP gain: Two)

- Explore the area to gain XP towards Area Lore (XP gain: Seven)

- Talk to people to gain XP towards languages (XP gain: Eight until you reach proficiency in that language)

- Practise casting a spell to gain mastery in it (XP gain: Five)

- Read a book (XP gain: the Quality of that book)

- Write a book (XP gain: Two)

The bonus for teaching is +6 for one student, +3 if you're teaching two, and +0 for more than two. You can teach a number of people up to 5 times your Teaching Ability, or a single person if you have no Teaching. Arts can only be taught one-on-one and cannot be Trained. However, books in Arts are very common.

Grogs cannot teach, since they're busy doing whatever their job is. However, you can be Trained by them, just by sitting there and watching them work; assuming you want to know something that a grog is doing, anyway.

Making agreements of the nature of "I'll spend a season teaching you Corpus if you spend a season teaching me Muto" are a good idea and will make both of you more powerful; and since you both took affinities and a minor focus (you did, right?) another person having the same Arts isn't going to be a threat to your niche protection.

(Also, entirely off-topic, I recently got hold of the new sourcebook Transforming Mythic Europe, which is the book for campaigns which abandon the "no interfering with mundanes" rule. It is badass. The "create your own nation in the middle of the ocean" and "foster the magical industrial revolution" chapters are especially awesome. It's full of worked examples of "here's a thing you can do, here's how the spells in it would be statted, here's what effect they would have on the world and here's various variants and their consequences.")

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Sat Aug 09, 2014 5:48 pm

Hi
Here is my character !
(Laertes, i made a few changes, mostly change virtues and flaws and spells.)

Baptisimal name : Mathei Morreti Ex Bonisagus

Name : same as baptisimal name, as he would considers an affront to his parents and his family to change it.

Int : 2
Sta : 2
Com : 2
Per : 1
Str :-2
Dex :-1
Qik : 1
Pre : 0

Loyal 3
Compassionate 3
Optimist 2

puissant magic theory free

affinity with magic theory
inventive genius
skilled parens
baccalaureus

Puissant creo
Affinity with Creo
Puissant corpus
Affinity with corpus
minor magical focus (healing)
good teacher

weird magic
true love (major)
optimistic
Compasionnate (major)
ability block (martial abilities)
difficult spontaneous magic

Early Childhood (0-5) (45 xp)

Athlethic 1 (running) 5
Brawl 2 (dodging) 15
Italian 5 (Venetian regional dialect) Free
Folk ken 1 (merchants) 5
Stealth 1 (hiding) 5
Awareness 2 (searching) 15

Apprenticeship (5-15) (240 xp, 120 spell levels)

Parma magica 1 (mentem) 5
Magic theory 7+2 (creo) 94 (141)
Penetration 1 (corpus) 5
Concentration 1 (spell concentration) 5
Finesse 1 (precision) 5
Leadership 1 (inspiration) 5
Etiquette 1 (merchants) 5
Code of Hermes 1 (mundane relations) 5
Magic Lore 1 (magical creatures) 5
O.of H. Lore 1 (personalities) 5
Teaching 1 (maga) 5

Total : 144 xp for abilities

Arts

Creo 12+3 53 (80)
Corpus 9+3 28 (42)
Terram 5 15

Total : 96 xp for abilities

Baccalaureus (90 xp)

Latin 5 (Hermetic usage) 75
A. Liberales 2 (Ritual magic) 15

Skilled Parens (60 xp, 30 spell levels)

Corpus 12+3 24 (36)
Rego 5 15
Intellego 5 15

Spells
InVi 10 Searching for the fields of dream (Base 1, r:per, d :con, t: vision) (detect fairie auras)
InVi 10 Searching for the places of power (Base 1, r:per, d :con, t: vision) (detect magic auras with sight)
InVi 10 Searching for the shards of magic (Base 1, r: per, d: conc, t: vision) (see vis glowing)
CrTe 35 Conjuring the Mystic Tower
InCo(Me)15 Whispers through the Black Gate
ReCo 30 Gift of Flight (base 15, R: touch, D: Sun)
ReIm 10 Wizard's sidestep
MuIm 5 Aura of Enobled Presence (R: Personnal, +1 changing image)
MuIm 5 Under the guise of the Crow (R: Touch, D:Sun)
ReMe 10 The Call to Slumber
PeVim 10 Unravelling the Fabric of Corpus (R: Personnal, +20)

L: 10 Q : 10 Vim summa
Q : 10 Creo tractatus

1 x Creo vis
4 x Terram vis

1 herbalist (his wife and true love) named Gisila Piuoli

2 shield grogs (two italian mercenaries)
2 servants
1 carter

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Wed Aug 13, 2014 10:02 pm

Where is everyone ?

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:15 pm

Life's been kicking my ass so I haven't been around to post, but once we get to seasonal time, anyone want to help me get my Creo up?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:18 pm

Lots of hours of training for my management job. Also, this is a really unfamiliar game to me, which only intensifies my quiet, reactive playstyle

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:39 pm

Management job? Congrats, I must have missed the announcement.

Work's been sucking me in too; I've got a really interesting project which is now almost over but which has been dominating my energy for the past few weeks. Still. Real life comes first for everybody, and gaming comes a very distant second. I have no objection to anyone needing to dial back on their gaming because of real life.

Edit: Ars Magica is a game which responds very well to player agency. As such, if you're unsure of yourself at the moment my advice would be to find a thing in the world which the character would like to have solved, work out the spell you'd need to solve it, and then level your Arts to the point where you can design and cast the spell for it.

For example, worried about rats eating stored grain? Not to worry. This can be solved with Rego Animal. Worried about grogs not being able to understand one another? This sounds like a task for a Universal Translation Device. Concerned about the Kiev convoys getting raided? Sounds like you need to build a flying boat.

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:34 pm

Congrats on the job. I would gladly teach you, but we are at the same level. I do have a tractatus of creo q10, so you could use it this season if you want.

Does anyone want to give me 2 pawn of creo or terram, so I can summon my house/hospital ?

I will return the vis or a favor !

(ill post something about it in the ic thread)

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 12:53 pm

I was going to make some in-character comment on how it requested a definite article, and I was going to amend the Latin, but when I looked it up, I found that Latin has no definite article.

EVEN BETTER I then wrote up this thing about how to appropriately refer to the wolf you'd have to use Russian, not Latin, as a result, only to find that Russian also has no definite article. Apparently there's a linking verb that can be used to specify that the implied article is indefinite, but even then the definite one is expressed by not using the linking verb. It's amazing.

So I didn't get anywhere with a post, but I figured I'd share that fascinating bit of info.

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:03 pm

That's awesome, thanks for posting it.

Now this leaves me with the slightly awkward question of how a Russian-speaking wolf living with a bunch of Latin speakers in the Ukraine asked for his name to be spelled with a "The". Ah well. We'll call it an error from when our campaign was translated out of Latin into English and move on.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:52 pm

Yeah, I've been busy at my new job since my store manager got fired, sobl I've had to cover a bunch of his shifts and sort out what's going on. Sorry about my lack of posting.

Laertes · Post by **Laertes** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:01 pm

No worries. Real life comes first. We've all had work stress by the sounds of it.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:28 am

JeanPat wrote:"I mean no offense to Camille, but the magic she uses to raise building from the ground can only produce mundane results, whereas the tower I plan to conjure, similar in many ways to the original that stand proudly in Durenmar and in many other covenants throughout Europe, could be adapted to the the pursuit of magical studies, without archictecural constraints."

Uh, am I missing something here? I'm pretty sure the only differences between Conjuring the Mystic Tower and The Changeable Tower is that you create the stone while I have to have some to pull from the ground, and that I need to make a Finesse roll where you don't. The results are the same... I think?

Prak_Anima wrote:*((Is it expected that we start with some Vim? Looking it up in the book reminds me of trying to suss out "resonance" in Mage))

I dunno about the book, but it's part of Laertes' char creation post... here. 4 Form, 1 Technique.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:59 am

Ah, ok, thank you.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:26 am

Vim, as in the form, or vis, as in the magical shit?

[[OOC note: I think JeanPant's character is trying to pull a fast one on us.]]

JeanPat · Post by **JeanPat** » Wed Aug 20, 2014 10:45 am

my character isnt trying to pull a fast one.

Craft magic can only do what mundane craftmen can do, but more faster. For instance, the buildings crafted are mundane.

Conjuring the Mystic tower conjure a tower from the realm of platonic forms (i.e. perfect form). It is made of a single bloc of stone and is more magical in the sense that the caster can take more liberties in the architectural design, i.e. it is more like a condo tower vs a normal tower.