I think we all know what this is for.

I do have a bunch of things posted in the game wiki already, including stuff on making magi and companions.

Discussion goes here to keep Setup clean? Or are we talking there too?

I'm probably going to get pretty confused, pretty quickly, with everyone's displaying name being "Player #". Could we be assigned appropriate aliases?

We should probably have something more distinct before we get deep into discussion. Even if we haven't gotten character names yet. A-SG can probably reassign it to anything you want at your request.

I posted 2 magi and 3 companion concepts. In addition to possibly having a SG alias.

Yes, I'm trying to keep the setup thread cleaner overall, while any spillover here is perfectly fine.

Yes, I can certainly change names. I just did that as a placeholder. I would eventually make primary names your SG or magus character name, but I can also switch placeholder names as well. I'm totally flexible on that.

I think this is what I meant by Mythic Crafter. The one where you can make magic items with crafting.

If we end up in Africa

I'm thinking I want my character to be a spill over from Levant(?) being a native Egyptian. Either incarnation id probably going to be inspired by the Cult of Thoth pushing the magical order manifest destiny angle (from two different directions).

Yes, Touched by (Realm) allows you to make magic by crafting (and without vis). There are also a couple more restricted versions of that, where it's a Minor Virtue and you can only do it for very specific craft and a single Form. Mythic Farrier in Grogs explains this and shows how to extend it.

How deep into Covenants are we getting? I'd rather leave out special book materials if there is any negotiating room.

In reply to Player 4 (msg # 7):

Ah, I see, so you'd like a Crafter Touched by (Realm). Well if that is the case I might go for something else. The companion concepts I listed are all of course still subject to change. Instead, one thing I could go for a craftsmen's best friend; a (Mythic) Alchemist! Provide good quality materials to work with, maybe even some Alchemical Steel and the likes!

Just as a general question, I know some SGs have a problem with the Beast Masters Ex Misc tradition. Due to them having to have the Feral Upbringing flaw, which precludes them from starting with a language skill, which some Sgs think should preclude them from studying Latin, which in turn makes them unsuitable for mages, since you need Latin, or some such langauge to study magic.

Pretty sure Feral Upbringing doesn't prevent you from starting with a Language Score by the end of character creation. It does mean you don't get a language score of 5 for free (instead you get bonus 75xp for your childhood). After childhood you can purchase any living language with your standard XP. Hermetic Apprenticeship would give you access to Latin as normal.

I think you'll find it's OK if two of you have Touched by (Realm) if you both like. You might be in different covenants, you might have different Arts, you might have different Crafts, etc. So while I like preserving player niches, I don't think that is a problem.

As for Feral Upbringing, the Flaw does say you don't start with languages; you don't get to just buy them after reaching 5 years old. I do think that stops you from starting with Latin. However, I don't think that stops you from learning magic. All beast masters have Animal Ken, so they can communicate with each other. It does mean you initially lack Latin to use for casting your spells and so will initially be at penalties when casting spells unless you have Quiet Magic x2 or something like that (though that's handy for animal forms). Personally, I like using Skinchanger or Shapeshifter with a beast master to be able to turn into the type of animal within their specialty.

Almost missed this one:

The resonances? I tend to like them for some flavor. And if there is a hunter or two as I've seen suggested, that can provide some added value for the skins, bones, etc. of animals they've hunted. I've generally found resonances don't come into play much. Most writers just don't go through the effort since it only works for a single copy; their original need not use the materials at all to make copies of it to sell.

So setting up a new tribunal I think one needs a minimum of 4 covenants and a minimum of 12 magi.

Is the thought that we, the players, are to be the whole tribunal or are we planning on NPC magi to fill out the tribunal with more magi?

However we solve it, I think the creation of a new tribunal and the hermetic politics involved will make for an exiting saga.

The plan is to not have any NPC magi. It will be a small tribunal, but that's reasonable for a new tribunal. This will do things like making this tribunal's meetings entirely about and between PC magi, which should be fun. How much do our covenants cooperate, trade, compete, etc. should be interesting.

Since Redcaps count as magi for the Order, they help qualify for tribunal validity. Counting some Redcaps, I think we'll be a little beyond that minimum. But not so far beyond that we have a truly overwhelming number of players.

Sounds good.

So we're waiting for a few more players before getting our hands dirty then.

I assume we're first waiting to see what the majority of players prefer as the Tribunal of choice, and judging by the responses so far, it seems to me a close call between Novgorod and North Africa.

How do we figure out who bands together to form a covenant?

Should we just make IC discussions where we present ourselves (when we get that far) and talk about what interests the magi and what kind of covenant they would like?

I guess if there are several Merinita or others dealing with the fae it would make sense for them to band together, just like if we have a couple of more academic oriented magi they might want to form a research covenant dedicated to some specific research goal.

There was mentioned a ex-misc Pralix magus as a possible character concept and the ideas of Pralix might not go to well together with a Flambeau hell bent on hunting down hedge wizards and the Order of Odin.

So what are the thoughts on this?
Not just Callens thoughts, but all of you.

Scandinavia has more #1 priorities than Novgorod, and while I wish for Scandinavia I'm happy to play anywhere, even across the Atlantic if that was what ended up with the most votes.

I'm partial to Scandinavia, not just because it happens to be my home, but because I find the Order of Odin to present a lot of interesting options. Also it plays nicely into the story ideas in Guardians of the Rhine, where the new covenant of Heorot in Denmark joining the Rhine tribunal is seen as an agressive expension into the territories of the Novgorod tribunal with all the hermetic politics that leads to.

On the other hand North Africa feels more isolated from the Order even though it's just on the other side of the Mediterranean. Maybe it's because Scandinavia is mostly christian by the 13th century and North Africa is not.

In reply to Player 9 (msg # 21):

Sorry, mixed Scandinavia and Novgorod.

I do think North Africa offers a more varied variety of cultures, and religions.

Also non-christian so we can take them as slaves. Quickly filling our stocks of grogs.

In reply to Player 6 (msg # 22):

That it does.

Norway, Sweden, Denmark is pretty similar and most of Finland if we add that is under Swedish control.

The Second Swedish Crusade could give an interesting backdrop when it comes around in 1240.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Swedish_Crusade

In reply to Player 9 (msg # 24):

If Novgorod is chosen there will also be plenty of warmongering potential like that, particularly in the Baltics. The Livonian Crusade offers a nice opportunity to beat the ever-living shit out of Teutonic Knights and establish a glorious pagan Empire!

That and the Mongols are coming.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Wed 24 Feb 2021.