Build Point Wish List

From Ars Magica

Revision as of 03:57, 11 February 2006

Although this is called the BP Wish List, it has three functions:

• Write down what you would like to see the 300BPs spent on.
• Write down which hooks and boons you would like the covenant to have.
• Inform the other players what you will be spending your 60 points on (those with points).

Hooks and Boons

From the email, I think these are the ones that people agreed about. --Samuel 19:49, 10 February 2006 (PST)

Hooks

• Regio (Major or minor?)
• 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.
• Roads (Major and Minor)

Boons

• Aura *2 minor boons
• Hiden resources

I have left out Beholden, since if Lily gets aproved _my_ hook for beholden disapears and some others did not like the thought.

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.)

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.
  

Current 300 point wish list

Corpus vis source, 4 pawns per year (20BP) (Bought by Marcus)
Vim vis source, 2 pawns per year (10BP) (Bought by Longinus)
Perdo vis source, 4 pawns per year (20BP)
Muto vis source, 4 pawns per year (20 BP)
Corpus summa, level 16, quality 12 (28BP) (Bought by Eirlys)
Ignem summa, level 10, quality 10 (20BP) (Bought by Eirlys)
Animal summa, level 16, quality 12 (28BP)
Mentem summa, level 16, quality 15 (31BP)
Terram summa, level 16, quality 15 (31BP)
Herbam summa, level 10, quality 10 (BP: 20)
Imaginem summa, level 10, quality 10 (BP: 20)
Parma Magica summa, level 4, quality 10 (22BP)
Tractatus: Muto, quality 10 (BP: 10)
Lab Text: Gift of Bear's Fortitude, MuCo25 (BP:5)
Lab Text: Shape of the Woodland Prowler, MuCo25, An req (5BP)
Scribe/Bookbinding specialists (10BP) (Bought by Eirlys)

60 points spent

Corpus summa, level 16, quality 12 (BP: 28)
Ignem summa, level 12, quality 14 (BP: 26)
Specialist: Bartleby the Scrivener (scribe 6) (6BP)

Other Notes

While not terribly interested in them herself, Eirlys thinks it's important to have good summae in Terram, Vim, and Mentem. She's not that worried about acquiring a Vim summa immediately, though, as high level Vim summae shouldn't be too hard to find, and trading favors to get one copied shouldn't be that difficult. Her priority will be scouting out vis sources, though; as important as good summae are, they can be bought with vis.

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]

Current 300 point wish list

Under Construction

Player 60 point build list

Summae

• L7 Q10 Vim Summa [17]

I'd point out that Mnemosyne has already bought a L15 Q16 Vim Summa, which would seem to make this redundant--Perikles 11:17, 9 February 2006 (PST)

• L7 Q15 Magic Theory Summa [36]

A L7 Ability Summa can only be bought with a max Quality of 14 [11+3x(8-7)], so it would at least only cost 35 BPs. Alternatively, a L6 Q17 summa would cost 35 BPs as well. Ref AM5, p71 --Perikles 11:17, 9 February 2006 (PST)

Good points, both. I'll readdress these from home this evening. Thanks. - Tim

Tractatus

None

Vis Source

• 7 pawn Vim vis per year [7]

Dunno if you are aware that Longinus has taken 2 pawns of Vim vis as well, which would bring this to a total of 9 and that he also taken 7 pawns of Rego vis which covers the Aegis. On the other hand, I'm not sure there is such a thing as too much vis :P Just a FYI--Perikles 11:17, 9 February 2006 (PST)

I looked at this after the fact, based on the replies to my earlier post. I'll rework these (if necessary - I agree about "never too much vis") after I wrap my character up. Again, hopefully tonight. - Tim

Does not a Vis source cost 5bp/pawn? --Samuel 12:36, 9 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

Current 300 point wish list

Vis sources are always good. Interests (in my selfish view) Intellego, Creo, Vim, Corpus, Muto

Vis stocks to cover Aegis for first year.

Personal interst - laboratory. I like the idea of starting with a spacious laboratory (Minor structural virtue +2 safety, +1 Aesthetics 10bp) as it will allow improvement later.

Books, my character may well know about, but OOC I haven't yet number crunched with this character. I'd therefor go along with the herd in Sumnae / Tractatsu for Muto, Corpus, Herbam, Mentem, Terram or Vim in the middling levels / qualities.

A specialist Steward to run the place, and front it when Marcus is unavailable.

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.

Current 300 point wish list

Generally speaking, I find the problem is that folks with high scores in arts don't want or can't afford books to really boost their specialization. My instinct is that we should probably try to get the specialists to write introductory books on their speciality and buy either tractati or books that focus on areas where we are collectively weak. But that's just a feeling. Anyway ...

• Vis, vis, vis! How much Vis is too much is a very saga dependant question. Lots of Rego and Corpus since that's Marcus' speciality. Longinus already has 3 Creo, 7 Rego and 2 Vim. I'd add 3 Corpus to that. 15*5=75
• For some reason, actually based on events in another game, the idea of a good Parma book has an appeal. So perhaps a Q10 Parma tractatus for 10 points. (Although Eirlys wants a PM6 summa!)
• Possibly an architect/stonemason of skill 5, unless we can do this with our grog/covenfolk, 5 points
• Several MT tractati, 2 both of Q10 = 20 Or a good summa.
• A good Mentem summa would be nice
• A few Rego and/or Corpus tractati would be good.
• Unless they're nearly maxed out, avoid summa in areas where we have specialists - but as Longinus points out, 4-5 summa in the L15-18 Q16-13 range would be nice. His arts preference would be Rego, Corpus, Mentem and then he doesn't have a strong preference. A L18 Q13 Rego summa for 31 points gets Marcus kind of drooly. Anything below L15 or so, though, is probably a waste of points in his view.

Current 60 Points Spent

Looking over the other folks purchases, I'm thinking:

• Rego Summa, Level 18, Quality 12 (30 BPS), "Mundum regere debimus nos regere"
• Six point Corpus Vis source (30 BPS)

Gwenci/Bard

Current Hooks/Boons wish list

Current 300 point wish list

Longinus/Corbon

Current Hooks/Boons wish list

• Beholden, minor hook
• Politics, minor or major (or both) hook
• Protector, minor hook

• high non-warping aura, minor boon(s)
• wealth, minor boon this one is probably unlikely, I just prefer political stories to wealth creation stories and like to be able to do things like afford a +3 lab if I want to make one.

Current 300 point wish list

• 24 pawns vis/yr including Re/Vi and Cr/Co sources 120bp, 2/magus + 6/AoTH + 2 into stores. More for stores would be nice but I'm not sure if even 24 pawns/year could be justified.
• AotH text at at least Lvl 30 covered by Phaedrus
• Seven League Stride and/or Leap of Homecoming texts Probably covered by Marcus. Incredibly useful once you can learn them, but virtually impossible for a non specialist to invent.
• 4 or 5 Summa in the range Lvl 15-18 Qual 16-13. 124-155bp. Preferred Arts, in order and entirely selfishly, Corpus, Rego, Vim, Creo, Muto, Intellego, Mentem, Imagonem, Terram, Animal, Aurum, Aquam, Herbam, Ignem, Perdo.
• Specialists to cover any of the following that are not already covered by companions or grogs. A scribe/percamenarius 8 magi can keep this fellow more than busy! An educated teacher of Latin and Artes Liberales (and with luck, or preferably, Magic Theory!) good for apprentices and under-qualified magi, may be better aquired after 10-15 years A competent Seneschal so that none of the magi have to spend time of actually running things as such, and also a first, acceptable, line of greeting/welcome for non gifted visitors
• Conjure the Mystic Tower Text 7bp, Longinus can _almost_ learn this and with 8 magi in one building (unless we spend boons) it could be a liiittle crowded, not to mention any trouble/difficulties if two magi find they don't get on so well
• Maybe some magic items, though I don't do so well on specific ideas for these. Maybe Creo Animal or Creo Herbam for fertility type stuff? A cloak of invisibility? handy to send mundane/companion spies out with?

Current 60 point purchases

• Rego Vis source 7 pawns/yr 35bp, enough for the AotH +1 spare
• Vim Vis source 2 pawns/yr 10bp, a little varied cover for the AotH
• Aegis of the Hearth Text no longer needed thanks to Phaedrus
• Combat leader specialist no longer need due to Geraldous the seargent
• Creo Vis source 3 pawns/yr 15bp, something to save up for those longevity potions

Total, 60bp

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.

Current 300 point wish list

Good books to copy and trade!

• Introductory books for Muto and Intelego lvl >=10
• Comprehensive book for Rego lvl20Q11
• One good book per character. (This is probably more than we can afford. 248pts)
• One Comprehensive book on a Form that we have Magae specialising in.
• At least one good introductory book on some form.
• One good mundane book if we can afford it.

No Art Summa below lvl10

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).

Current 300 point wish list

• Vim summa, level 15, quality 16. Cost: 31 BPs. Bought by Mnemosyne
• Corpus tractatus of quality 11. Cost: 11 BPs. Bought by Mnemosyne
• Creo summa, level 7, quality 11. Cost: 18 BPs. Bought by Mnemosyne
• Rego or Vim vis source (Enough to pay for the Aegis - 9?). Cost 45? Bought by Longinus
• Creo or Corpus vis source (Sooner or later we'll need healing). Cost 15? Bought by Longinus
• Herbem summae, level 15, quality 14. Cost 29 BPs. Bought by Eirlys
• Imagonem summae, level 16, quality 15. Cost 31 BPs. Bought by Eirlys

• One or more Mentem tractatus, quality 9+. Cost 9+
• Intellego tractatus, level 11. Cost 11 BPs.
• Terram summae, level 10, quality 10. Cost 20 BPs.

• Total: 220+ points, 20 unspent.

Current 60 point purchases

• Vim summa, level 15, quality 16. Cost: 31 BPs.
• Corpus tractatus of quality 11. Cost: 11 BPs.
• Creo summa, level 7, quality 11. Cost: 18 BPs.
• Total: 60 points, 0 unspent.