Hooks and Boons Wish List
From Ars Magica
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*'''Wealth''' | *'''Wealth''' | ||
<small>Question: How does this differ from the Minor boon in the basic rules?</small> | <small>Question: How does this differ from the Minor boon in the basic rules?</small> | ||
| + | :<i>"The covenant is fabulously wealthy. One existing Typical source of income is upgraded to Legendary, providing enough money for the most sumptuous of quarters and the purchase of the most expensive materials and equipment. The fortunate magi of such covenants can live in kingly luxury, as can the covenfolk"</i> | ||
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'''Minor Resources Boons:'''<br> | '''Minor Resources Boons:'''<br> | ||
*Hidden Resources | *Hidden Resources | ||
*Right | *Right | ||
| - | * | + | *Secondary Income |
<small>Question: how does this compare to Wealth?</small> | <small>Question: how does this compare to Wealth?</small> | ||
| + | :<i>"The covenant is blessed with an additional Typical source of income. This source of income is completely distinct from the covenant's main source of income. As well as increasing the covenant's total income, this diversification provides a measure of protection - should the main source of income fail, the magi should still be able to provide for themselves without serious difficulty. This Boon may be taken multiple times."</i> | ||
*Vis Grant | *Vis Grant | ||
*Wealth | *Wealth | ||
| + | :<i>"The covenant is wealthy even by the standards of other magi and the nobility. One existing Typical source of income is upgraded to Greater providing enough monry for the magi and covenfolk to live very comfortably, with a large surplus for spending on luxuries"</i> | ||
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| width=50% | | | width=50% | | ||
'''Major Resources Hooks:'''<br> | '''Major Resources Hooks:'''<br> | ||
*Indebted | *Indebted | ||
| - | * | + | *Indiscreet Resource |
| + | :<i>"Gathering one of the covenant's resources necessarily attracts overtly criminal acts. If these deeds are uncovered by the relevant authorities (who may be either mundane or Hermetic) severe punishment for the player characters is the likely result. This may be avoided by the successful completion of a story every five years or so." Examples then given.</i> | ||
*Natural Disaster | *Natural Disaster | ||
*Poverty | *Poverty | ||
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*Indebted | *Indebted | ||
*Indiscreet Resource | *Indiscreet Resource | ||
| + | :<i>"Gathering one of the covenant's resources necessarily attracts unwanted attention amongst a certain group, such as the mundanes, nobility, faeries, or the Quaesitores. As a rule of thumb this results in a story every five years." Examples then given.</i> | ||
*Natural Disaster | *Natural Disaster | ||
*Poverty | *Poverty | ||
| - | * | + | *Regional Produce |
| + | :<i>"The covenant, or nearby lands, produce goods that are remarkable, if not unique. These goods bring in money, but are also significant because f the Reputation they generate for the region". Explained further and examples given.</i> | ||
*Vis Salary | *Vis Salary | ||
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 19:40, 14 February 2006
This is the Hooks and Boons discussion list.
- Please write down which hooks and boons you would like the covenant to have.
Contents |
Consensus and Condensed Wish-list
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Hooks
Boons
Boon or Hook
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Eirlys/Sally
Boons
Boons
Hooks
Boons
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Longinus/Corbon
Boons
Boons
Hooks
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Eirlys/Sally
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
Hooks
- Mutable (minor, site): The covenant grounds are susceptible to change based on the inhabitants; "the covenant incarnates their passions as guides and mentors, or beautiful songs can change the time of day, the color of cloth, and the attractiveness of the singer." (p10, Covenants)
- Road (minor, site): The covenant is near a major road travelled by Redcaps and mundanes alike.
- Mercer House (major, residents): We have a building dedicated for Redcaps' use, and offer generous hospitality to travelling Redcaps.
- School (major, residents): There's a learning institution on the covenant grounds. "The younger sons of many rich farmers and lesser lords congregate at the covenant to be taught letters and something of philosophy... [which] prepares them for later, university study and marks them as gentry." (p19, Covenants) Gives us a good place to troll for apprentices, and gives the Gentle-Gifters ample opportunity to interact with the mundies. Besides, everyone loves having smart people around.
- Ruined Covenant (major, surroundings): "The covenant is near the site of a powerful covenant, which has fallen into ruin. The younger covenant controls some of the previous covenant's resources, but has not discovered them all, nor explored the central site of its predecessor" (p24). This could be the source of the hidden resources so many of us are looking for, and add some adventure and excitement in the mix too. The ruined covenant could easily be within a neighboring regio. I'd like to see this in lieu of Hidden Resources, as it can still yield resources in the future, but is more interesting, I think.
- Faerie Court (minor, surroundings): There's a faerie ring from which unseelie emerge during autumn and winter. They may be interfering with the local lord's hunting, on a magical faerie hunt.
Boons
- Magic aura of 5 (two minor boons). I'm a big fan of a faerie aura, but that's only good for me, for everyone else that'd be amusing at best and annoying at worst.
- Regio (site, major): The covenant can only be entered by those who know how to navigate the regio. I'm a big fan of this being a faerie regio, but I don't think we can have a magical aura in a faerie regio, so, magical regio is probably closer to being something we can all agree on.
- Exceptional book (major, external relations): "The covenant has, legally and legitimately, gained possession of a copy of the finest summa ever written on one Art. This book is an excellent addition to the library, of course, but it is also a powerful diplomatic tool and source of prestige. If you select this Boon, you need not pay Build Points for the book. The book's (level + quality) = 35, with a maximum quality of 25 and a maximum art level of 20" (p20). I see this as being the #1 awesome boon we could take, as this (combined with a good scribe!) gives us the bargaining power we'd need to flesh out the rest of the library. I'd suggest that we shoot for this boon and consider spending fewer build points on summae, as we can make adventures out of wheeling and dealing to whore our exceptional book out for copies of other stuff. One art summa per mage plus what we could negotiate for with the book from this boon, would be the makings for one damn fine library, indeed. Vim would likely be too common to be of much bargaining power; Mentem would be of particular interest to Quaesitores, who would be most likely to come up with good trades we want; Corpus, Terram, and Ignem are popular, and would also be likely to make us popular. I'd be a fan of Muto or Animal, personally, but Corpus, Mentem, or Ignem would be best.
- Vivid environment (minor, site): The covenant is on land which is exceptionally beautiful and pleasant.
- Wealth (major, resources): Perhaps this might even be faerie-related; air-spirit sheep made from clouds, which can be fleeced for a material which, once woven properly, is as warm as wool but light as silk.
Ambrosius/Tim
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
Hooks
- Regio [Major]
- Road [Minor] I'd like to see an intersection of a major and a minor road
- Urban [Minor] This choice would be in lieu of Road
- Monster [Major]
Boons
- Buildings [Minor] Tower with appropriate outlying buildings
- Wealth [Minor] Personally, I'd like to see this manifest as an iron mine
- Hidden Resources [Minor]
I prefer road to urban, and there are two very interesting roads nearby. Monster is a great hook. :D --Admin 05:41, 11 February 2006 (PST)
Bedo/Nick
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
- Fortification - Free Choice - Manor House. Conventional for area, without going to the level of threat / local involvement implied by a castle
Hooks
- Minor Site Hook - Road (mundane)
- Minor Fortification Hook - Outbuildings.
- Minor Residents Hook - Gender Imbalance (rough count 24:6 at the moment)
- Minor External Relations Hook - Centralised Kingdom (reflecting English situation)
Boons
- Minor Site Boon - Aura x 2 - As stated, benefit of power
- Minor Residents Boon- Missile Weapons (Bowmen)
- Minor External Relations Boon - Local Ally
I like your choices, but need to see a definition for "Bowmen", "Gender Imbalance", and "Centralised Kingdom" - especially "Bowmen". I am especially keen on 'Local Ally', have a good idea for how the bowmen boon can benefit the covenant and grow with it, and the "Kingdom" hook sounds like something that will keep Marcus amused. :D --Admin 05:38, 11 February 2006 (PST)
Marcus/Jeff
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
Ideally, Marcus (and Jeff) would like a Covenant with some reasonable mundane connections. Here are two ideas which sort of reflect my thinking.
1) A Priory established by the Abbey at Shrewsbury. A Priory is a satellite establishment of a larger institution. This would come about if there was some immediate need to have some force of magi at the site and would have to be at the behest of either the Abbot of shrewsbury or possibly the prior at the Priory. This would get us in bed with the Church, which I think provides some interesting complications, although YMMV. This would work nicely with a regio, since the magi would live mostly in the regio while the covenfolk and monks lived outside, and in some cases might not even be aware of the presence of the magi. So, one complete possibility here is that the priory is established near some magical threat (Major Road, Ruined Covenant, etc.) and the Abbot, who does not believe that magi are evil, decides to install them there since they are best suited to protecting his monks. The monks themselves would be innocent of knowledge of the magi would live near/with/in the regio but not be part of the priory itself.
2) A more mundane set up. Several companions have links to various nobility and one, Lily, specifically mentions giving land to the covenant in her background. Given that, the follow-through is much like option 1, only without the need for a specific threat and instead a need for some sort of fuedal contract. "Giving us land" isn't really a fuedal concept, I would suggest that if this option is pursued that we are instead given a charter like a town, which probably means our true nature is known to the granting noble, or that we impersonate monks or hermits and the land is "given to the Church."
Be warned! Marcus is built to interact with the world, so most of my boons and hooks will reflect that. Bearing in mind some of the comments on the mailing list, I will not say that we should have Mercer House, School and so on. Instead, I will suggest that some of those could be built in game as we move along. If there is a threat, then we could find ourselves in the fuedal hierarchy, perhaps through Lily or another intermediary, and actually serving as fuedal overlord of the area.
I don't have Covenants, but those of you who do can probably see where I'm going with this and figure out other good ones.
Hooks
- Protector - Priory, village or both.
- Beholden - to the Abbot, the noble, or both.
- Road - either minor or major, or both
- Urban - as an alternative or adjunct to Road.
- Ruined Covenant - this could also be the source of the problems that force the Church or the Nobility to call us in.
Boons
- Aura of 5 - why not if we can afford it?
- Buildings or fortifications - depending on the rationale of how we get started this might fit. If we are protecting an existing priory or being made Lords of a village, then buildings might come with the job.
- Hidden Resources is always fun
- Regio - I sort of like the idea of hiding the magic side of thing in a regio in the middle of either the village or the priory. In fact, the idea that the Priory was founded on the ruins of a covenant where the mundane ruins are now in the dominion, but the magical ruins are in a regio on top of the same space kind of sings to me.
Longinus/Corbon
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
- Beholden, minor hook
- Politics, minor or major (or both) hook
- Protector, minor hook
Phaedrus/Samuel
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
Hooks
- A Magical regio to explore.
- Beholden. Preferably minor and towards someone/thing local.
- A faerie road. (For Eirlys to handle.)
- Protector. The local willages has been bothered by faeries and other "wierd stuff".
Boons
- High non-warping aura, minor boon(s)
- Could we get a bonus to aging rolls to help us keep our specialists?
- Wealth? I would prefere to have this in a "Hiden resource" type of way, fighting for money does not seem very interesting as a major part of the saga. A bunch of stories to establish ways to get good suplies (and expanding them when needed) and the like could be interesting.
Mnemosyne/Perikles
Current Hooks/Boons wish list
- Boons: A good, high magical aura (though not enough to cause Warping).
- Boon: Building (a tower or great hall or something)
- Boon: Hidden Resources (Maybe a store of magic items, a secret vis source or even some books, - possibly hidden in the regio or somewhere)
- Boon: Regio (Yay... who doesn't like having their own pocket realm? Alteratively we could make this a hook and make it part of the story to uncover it, perhaps tying in with the hidden resources)
- Hook: Contested Resources (maybe a new vis source or some cash resource).
- Hook: Politics (minor one, as the major one is going to be VERY difficult to hide from the Quaesitores... namely Mnemosyne).
- Protector (Minor)
How ever we got the ground to build on whoever granted it to us had a problem with "Wierd stuff" in the area that we should protect the surounding willages from.
Boons
- Aura (minor) X2 (Listed by players.)
::This will raise the aura from the baseline level of three, to five, which is the highest aura that doesn't warp grogs. Could someone describe the hooks/boons from Covenants:
- Healthy Feature - It's +1 on aging rolls, and provides the Healthy location on ArM5 page 170 - can be taken up to three times. (tot +3 for first, +5 for three?)
- Minor Fortification Hook - Outbuildings. Bedo asked for it, I do not know what it means...
- Vivid environment - Sounds interesting (after a few hidden resources) should go well with Healthy Feature which I realy want us to have.
- Ruined Covenant (Major hook) - Sounds interesting, we could place it in a Major Regio to get some really involved stories. But for it to qualify as a _major_ hook there has to be something special about it...
- Whatever could represent "hidden" sources of wealth, especially wealth that our suroundings benefit from. (A toll-both is just glorified robbery.)
If we get some hidden resources, could we please spend one or two pawns of Vis income on making sure _all_ our summae have good quality and lvl? ;-) Someone mentioned buying Summae for Vis, are there any established prices? (The characters should know...)
Boons and Hooks - Definitions and Arguments
- This is the list that Nick kindly typed out on the forum. I suggest that anything you would like a proper description of be put in bold writing, so that the people with a copy of Covenants can add one if they like.
- Also, regardless of whether or not a description has been added, players may add arguments for and against a specific Boon or Hook, so that all the arguments for any given Boon/Hook are in the same place.
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ArcanumMagica/message/164
- link for some definitions. I'll hunt the rogue small text command when I get back tomorrow. J
Site
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Major Site Boons:
Pro: This will raise the aura in the laboratory areas, whilst leaving the grog-areas unaffected. Intended for raising the aura about five without affecting the grogs.
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Minor Site Boons:
Pro: This will raise the aura from the baseline level of three, to five, which is the highest aura that doesn't warp grogs.
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Major Site Hooks:
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Minor Site Hooks:
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Fortifications
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Free Choices:
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Major Fortification Boons (alternatives to default Castle):
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Minor Fortification Boons:
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Minor Fortification Hooks:
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Resources
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Major Resources Boon:
Question: How does this differ from the Minor boon in the basic rules?
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Minor Resources Boons:
Question: how does this compare to Wealth?
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Major Resources Hooks:
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Minor Resources Hooks:
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Residents
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Residents Free Choices:
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Major Residents Boons:
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Minor Residents Boons:
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Major Residents Hooks:
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Minor Residents Hooks:
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External Relations
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Major External Relations Boons:
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Minor External Relations Boons:
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Major External Relations Hooks:
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Minor External Relations Hooks:
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Surroundings
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Major Surroundings Boons
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Minor Surroundings Boons:
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Major Surroundings Hooks:
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Minor Surroundings Hooks: :
Pro: How ever we got the ground to build on whoever granted it to us had a problem with "Wierd stuff" in the area that we should protect the surounding willages from.
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