Sure thing! I have most of my sheet done, I'll look for a good text template for rpol and drop it in to my sheet once it's done.

Hah!  Glad I'm not hard to find?

So you have a character creation thread, go ahead and use that to start laying things out.  It'll give us a single place to provide any and all feedback.  Everyone has one, so don't worry!

I read the note from Dagda as well, happy to work through character generation step by step there and get feedback.

It will keep me from clogging up your rMail so much too ^^

*Snorts* We'll just find other things to clog it up with, just not Ars talk.

But sounds good!

Bonisagus and I have been discussing a few things and I wanted to share the general outline of what our vision moving forward is.  In no particular order (as I think of them) these are ...

1: Draft & prioritize list of world building stuff that is considered needed prior to play start.

2: Review & put final polish on current material, house rules, etc.

3: Complete character creation for present company, Magi & Companions.

3a: We are contemplating establishing two tiers for Companions, a "High Powered" and/or Mythic Companion tier and a more Mundane/Normal Companion tier.  Each Mage Player would need to make a minimum of one of each tier, each associated with a different Mage (other than their own).  Each Magus can only have one "High Power" Companion in their entourage/retinue.

This is intended to somewhat control power level, enforce scarcity, and give a good distribution of Companions for all the sub-groups around each Magus.

4: Recruit one to two additional Mage Players, as well as potentially several more Players if anyone may be interested in playing Apprentices or Companion tier only, at least to start with.

While I don't want to seem elitist we are both rather of the opinion that Ars Magica is not an easy game to learn to play (much less play well and/or design things well) and that recruiting too many people who were new to the system and unready/unwilling and/or over challenged by digging in to learn the system and setting was part of why our initial attempt to open the game failed.  (Among other reasons.)

To address this we have our present company and desire to add one or two more people who either are of similarly exceptional caliber (ahem) and/or are already well versed in the system as Mage slot players.  Five to Six Magi is a pretty healthy size of Covenant and game, so that also keeps our administrative overhead (for Ars, yes there is this.  There are very good reasons there are two of us.) for the game a reasonable size.

Other people are welcome to join the game (subject to arbitrary recruitment/selection and cutoff at max desired population etc.) but to ease their learning curve they will be restricted to Companions and possibly Apprentices until they are potentially ready for more.  People playing at this tier will be able to make up to one Apprentice and as many Companions as they want, each paired to a different Magus.

5: Play Game, Have Fun, Write Awesome Stories. (And, repeat.)

Obviously this is just an overview of what we are currently thinking and I welcome input from our inner circle here (yes that means you) on refining and achieving these things.

That all feels reasonable to me, and I like the proposal in 3a.

I'm getting the sense of how the game will play, with a troupe of players each playing more than one character of different power level in each other's entourage. Which actually feels more realistic than artificially balancing everyone, which rarely works as well as it sets out to do without making all the options so similar it's really just cosmetic.

But not everyone can do all the things and that's okay. In the other game Bonisagus and I play together, my character would be utterly out of place on the battlefield and his can use all the help he can get at court and courting. His is probably more empirically powerful, but they both have interesting stories to tell.

Please let us know how much of this is "Dagda and Bonisagus" will do, and how much is open for all of the 'inner circle' to contribute to?

2 Probably feels like it needs to be you, but there is hopefully room for us to help with 1.

And 3 and 5 obviously.

I concur with what my esteemed colleague said. Wait, you're not a shapechanger, right?

If you are looking for feedback on 3a, having two tiers makes sense and might allow for other players to join and have a 'more powerful' character as they could play in that tier of companion (possibly). Also good for me as I think Myrna probably falls into that category.

Initial Draft of "Stuff Before Opening" for the review & commentary of the "Inner Circle" at your convenience.

I'm quite open to additions/revisions different directions of thought.  I'd like to work on rounding out/massaging the outline of the list first (to be sure it reflects everywhere we initially want to go once we open, and that we have properly prepared for that.) and then start discussing divvying out the writing.

- - -

Inchmore

- Library (Lab Texts, Book Blurbs)
- (Aegis, Backing/Backers)
-- Temporary Protection/Vis Funding?

Athlone

- Sir Geoffroy
-- Knights, Soldiery, Notables
--- Walter de Lacy, Noble Patron

- Major Districts/Sections & Industries

- Church

- Guilds/Significant Guildmasters

- Witch Coven

- Goblin Market, Night Goblins, Crime

Local Villages/Lands & Lords

- "Lakeside", Inchmore's small (growing?) community on the eastern shore of the lake
- Annaghmore Village (west)
- Agharanagh Village (east)
- Inchcleraun Island (Lake)(Monastery?)

Church (Local/Regional/Ireland)

Notable Lands/Mystic Features (known, within 1/day)

Faerie

- Local, plus Lake & River
- Faerie Nobles/Courts?
- Trod Entrance

- - -

Hermetic Prices (Books, Instruction, Lab Texts)

This message was deleted by the player at 10:08, Sun 06 June 2021.

I know the past couple of weeks have been crazy for everyone, but hopefully everyone's hanging in there?

I think we answered everything for ya Aoife?  If not, just nudge me again.

That said, if anyone has any interest in writing up anything, please let us know!  Boss types laid out some of the very broad things that we're looking for in the near future, but you're certainly welcome to pitch other ideas!  Troupe play and all that!

I think you did too, and I haven't lost any interest.

Just energy, I've been sick and I can't get this last coughing to go away. But I'll get back into creation soon, and do some writing up and stuff.

I'm so sorry to hear that!  And the good news is, we're not in play yet, so there's no need to worry about posts, so you just focus on getting better alright?

Crazy is accurate. Been a crazy few weeks. That is settling down.



I absolutely will. I need to review my previous submissions as I'll probably continue working in that direction. Is the 'World Building Collaboration' thread still accurate?

She liiiiives!

Seriously though, I kinda figured things were insane with ya Leah.  And hey, I'm one to talk.  End of the school year means all sorts of insanity for me.  And I do mean all sorts of insanity.

Finally starting to get into a groove here with the kiddos/summer, but it'll likely be another week or so before I'm back in action as it were.  So yeah, totally understand!

Absolutely!  Everything that's up should be current, as I think I purged everything we didn't want to keep.  But if you have any questions, ask away and I'll happily answer!

Concur.  The Collaboration Thread is a list of topics I could think of that we would benefit from worldbuilding material for.  It isn't however listed in anything like a prioritized order and isn't a list of things that I consider essential for opening for play.  That is a far narrower set of things, started on above.

I've had some crazy times myself lately (The great unpacking continues.  I've now unpacked things that have been in boxes at least four or five years.  The wife says it is like Christmas, only we are getting back stuff we haven't seen in a long time.) and have been less active here than I would like.  The goal however is roughly towards the end of this month or so to have at least all of our unpacking done and "maybe" to get myself an office/quiet space of my own situated.  The office/personal space is one of the things I really need to be able to have quiet/focus to be able to give due attention to something like Ars, so I'm really looking forward to that.

We have some time (hey, we aren't "open for play" for some reasons right now) to iron things out how we want them and start doing world building and adding Companions/Grogs etc.  To make things feel decently fleshed/developed and not feel any kind of pressure to make it all work right now with what we have.  And keep it fun and friendly all as we go.

Without making a specific list (or at least one as specific as the collaboration thread) the things I want before play starts are the "primary elements" of the game to be well covered.  The Covenant/Island, Athlone & the important parts/people who live there, the surrounding immediate lands/lords etc. around the lake, Praesis as our immediate nemesis, and the significant backers of Inchmore in the Hybernian nativist alliance.  Those are the things that seem "essential" to me.  The rest is stuff that will be nice whenever we feel like doing it and/or are starting to head that way in gameplay.

Good to see some life here and I'll be looking to try and show some myself here soon!

We have a new player starting character creation for a Magus.  Please welcome Kavin, and also please don't throw anything until I'm offstage.  Thanks.

Welcome Kavin!

Yes, welcome!

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I don't want to step on any magical toes. Do Aoife or Leah have any areas of magic they focus in that I should stay away from or scale back in?

I think everyone posting a quick little blurb about their character isn't a bad idea actually, so whenever folks have the time, please do!

After the kiddo's birthday this weekend, I'm going to start sitting down and spending a fair bit of time on world-building.  That said I know folks are crazy busy right now, but if anyone wants to call dibs on something, let me know in the thread here so I don't write it up!

For Magi we have the following.

Vorsutus bani Ex Miscellanea:  Mercurian Hermetic Astrologer/Diviner with a general proficiency with scrying and an additional proficiency with Intangible Tunnels and other Vim magic.  Infamous (bad reputation lvl 4) master of curses who does bad things to (annoying?) people.  Overall a Vim specialist focused in ceremonial/high magic as he has evolved at this point.  Played by yours truly.

Faelan bani Ex Miscellanea: An Irish native Corrguineach (Irish version of Hermetic Sahir) who is all about summoning and binding elemental spirits and accompanying elemental magic.  Still in development.  Played by Bonisagus, so he could say more perhaps.

Leah bani Bjornaer:  The lady of the lion heartbeast, magically augmented huntress extraordinaire.  Reputation lvl 1 (positive) as a Hoplite for being a lady who is already known helping out the Quaesitori, and some ensuing baggage/drama there.  Overall her magic is about self augmentation/protection, and sensory boosting etc. for being better in combat and for hunting people/things.

Aoife bani Merinita:  Lady of puissant Auram (weather!) mastery and family ties and resultant political entanglements with Faerie.  Your concept and hers might have some shared motivations in seeking dealings with Faerie?  Faerie Princess out and about in the world on her own now.  Well.  She has us!

Would you care to introduce your concept Kavin?

I may have to take the time to do a Magus Roster with a general description of what all the Magi should know about each other sometime after character creation is fully complete.

I am just starting to build my Magus, but I will share the framework that I plan to build on.

Kavin bani Bonisagus A twisted goblin blooded Magus that has served many masters during his apprenticeship and most of them were not kind. He has learned to bind faeries into to items to power them.

I will make the following world building claims. Once completed if the story guides approve of my work, I will come back for more.

Local Villages/Lands & Lords
- Agharanagh Village (east)

Faerie
- Faerie Nobles/Courts?

I'll lay some world building claims for:

Annaghmore Village (west)
and contribute to Knights, Soldiery, Notables
and to share your Faerie Nobles/Courts (or at least contribute to them) ^^

I'm sure Kavin and Aoife will get along very well, except for when they're arguing about ethics and morals :)

Sounds good to me so far folks!

A request before you do any significant writing, please outline where your head is at/what you're thinking (bullet points is quite fine!) and send it our way for a discussion.  Want to make sure we're all on the same page before anyone goes and does a bunch of work!

Concur.  A rough pitch, which we can then discuss and refine, and then a deeper draft seems a good process for ensuring we all aren't wasting our time.

I'm going to be doing some reading and drafting some bullet points regarding Athlone over the next few days and I'll get the results up where we can discuss the public parts.  As the major city near the Covenant I want to go a bit more in depth with it.