Hooks and Boons Wish List
From Ars Magica
This is the Hooks and Boons discussion list.
- Please write down which hooks and boons you would like the covenant to have.
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Boons and Hooks Summary Table
| Name | Type | H/B | Value | Page | Corbon | Jeff | Nick | Peri | Sally | Sam | Tim | Popularity | Notes |
| Aura x 2 | Site | B | 2 | 8 | X | X | X | X | X | X | 5 | ||
| Road | Site | H | -1 | 11 | X | X | X | X | X | 5 | Automatic | ||
| Beholden | External Relations | H | -3 | 21 | X | X | X | 3 | |||||
| Hidden Resources | Resources | B | -1 | 16 | X | X | X | 3 | |||||
| Regio | Site | B | 3 | 7 | X | X | X | 3 | |||||
| Protector | H | ? | X | X | X | 3 | |||||||
| Hermetic Politics | External Relations | H | -1 | 22 | X | X | 2 | ||||||
| Wealth | Resources | B | 1 | 16 | X | X | X | 2 | |||||
| Regio | Site | H | -3 | 9 | X | X | 2 | ||||||
| Site | H | -3 | 11 | X | X | 2 | Unavailable | ||||||
| Ruined Covenant | Surroundings | H | -3 | 24 | X | X | 2 | ||||||
| External Relations | B | 3 | 20 | X | 1 | Unavailable | |||||||
| Local Ally | External Relations | B | 1 | 21 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Centralised Kingdom | External Relations | H | -1 | 22 | X | X | 1 | Automatic | |||||
| War zone | External Relations | H | -3 | 22 | X | X | 1 | Probably automatic | |||||
| Manor House | Fortification | F | 0 | 11 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Fortification | H | -1 | 15 | X | 1 | Unavailable | |||||||
| Missile Weapons (Bowmen) | Residents | B | 1 | 18 | X | 1 | Shortbows | ||||||
| Peasants | Residents | F | 0 | 17 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Gender Imbalance | Residents | H | -1 | 19 | X | X | 1 | ||||||
| Residents | H | -3 | 19 | X | 1 | Unavailable | |||||||
| Residents | H | -3 | 19 | X | X | 1 | Unavailable | ||||||
| Wealth | Resources | B | 3 | 16 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Contested Resources | Resources | H | -1 | 16 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Vivid environment | Site | B | 1 | 9 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Mutable | Site | H | -1 | 10 | X | 1 | Requires Regio? | ||||||
| Monster | Site | H | -3 | 9 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Roman Ruins | Surroundings | H | -1 | 25 | X | 1 | |||||||
| Buildings | B | 1 | ? | X | 1 | Possibly... | |||||||
| Building or Fortifications | B | ? | X | 1 | Possibly... | ||||||||
| Buildings | B | ? | X | 1 | Possibly... | ||||||||
| Faerie Court | H | ? | X | 1 | |||||||||
| Festival | H | ? | X | 1 |
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]
Definition (Major): The Covenant is located in a magical regio that only native guides can safely navigate. The labyrinth of the regio may take many forms, though its precise nature must be described. The Redcaps, who collect such knowledge, report twisting causeways, tangled woodland paths, convoluted sewers, or paths trod through sunset clouds. To fail to follow the path is often to return to the mortal world, but in many covenants false paths lead to prisons, over cliffs, or into the lairs of monsters.
Versus...
Definition (Minor): The covenant is located in a magical regio that can be entered in many ways. The covenant may take measures to limit entry into the regio, but these are never perfect.
- Road [Minor] I'd like to see an intersection of a major and a minor road
Definition (Major): The covenant is on an important mystical trail of some kind, so that mystical creatures, from one or more realms, often turn up at the covenant.
Versus...
Definition (Minor): The covenant is on an important mundane road, river, or sea route, so that people often turn up at the covenant, bringing or causing stories.
- Monster [Major]
- Buildings [Minor] Tower with appropriate outlying buildings
- Wealth [Minor] Personally, I'd like to see this manifest as an iron mine
- Hidden Resources [Minor]
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
Query: There would no doubt be a manor house in Church Stretton, covering the manor of Stretton-en-le-Vale, and I would presume that within that manor, there would be no other manor house. I'm sure you have a better idea of the distribution of manor houses in the area than I do, but I thought that they were generally the seats of minor nobles? - J
- Residents - Free choice - Peasants. Seems to fit area style, and provide a little limited defence without employing troops.
Hooks
- Major External Relations Hoook - War zone.
Definition: The covenant lies between two powerful noble holdings that are at war. Each side requires the magi to join it. Failure to assist, on either side, may lead to reprisal because the warlord considers the covenant in league with his enemy. This hook may be unknown.
- 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 Resource Boon - Secondary Income (Sheep farming + toll on road)
- 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)
- Manor house & outbuildings I was thinking of based on the idea that we might have (somehow) come into the possession of some existing buildings - an existing manor - rather than having to physically build the covenant from scratch. One of the threads of the campaign might then be that of getting them into a more usable form over time.
- Centralised Kingdom & road seem to reflect the location selected already, based on the basic ideas of the campaign as outlined. Following other discussion (and reading the covenants book) I will add War zone to my list for much te same reason. It wasn't historically a full-on war all the time, but it was an area where wars did occur fairly regularly, and certainly during the early time of the covenant.
- Gender imbalance seems to reflect the covenant balance we are setting up.
- Bowmen. Both Wales and England were known for bowmen - having locals who are already skilled fits the feel and would give us some defence in early days at relatively low expense. Following other discussions, combining this with Peasants might well make sense. --OldNick 03:54, 15 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).
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:
- 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.)
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.
Link with a couple of definitions: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ArcanumMagica/message/164
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.
Definition: The covenant is on land which is exceptionally beautiful and pleasant.
Definition: The covenant can only be entered by those who know how to navigate the regio.
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Major Site Hooks:
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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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Minor Site Hooks:
Anti: The covenant doesn't physically move around.
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Fortifications
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Free Choices:
Anti: There are a number of manor houses in the area, but they do not like in a magical aura.
Pro: This is fine, assuming it is crumbling. | |
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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:
Pro: Outstanding. This is a very good choice for a starting covenant.
Pro: This is very common in this area. |
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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Major Resources Hooks:
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Minor Resources Boons:
Question: how does this compare to Wealth?
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Minor Resources Hooks:
Anti: The local produce of note is sheep, and therefore wool. A fictional product, probably some form of wool garment, could be a possibility though. Church Stretton had a 'Carding Mill' in the valley in later history... (Or simply very exceptional wool. Examples about - Brie cheese, serge de Nimes (denim), etc. "Stretton wool" would be a reasonable not too ahistorical option, I think.)
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Residents
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Residents Free Choices:
Pro: While I don't think many of the grogs will be able to to justifiably possess martial training, I'm happy for them to be trained in-game. Axe-wielding milk-maids could act as a formidable deterrent. | |
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Major Residents Boons:
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Major Residents Hooks:
Anti: Sounds like something for an established covenant - --OldNick 03:29, 15 February 2006 (PST)
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Minor Residents Boons:
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Minor Residents Hooks:
Anti: They won't be there at the beginning of the saga.
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External Relations
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Major External Relations Boons:
Definition: "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).
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Major External Relations Hooks:
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Minor External Relations Boons:
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Minor External Relations Hooks:
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Surroundings
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Major Surroundings Boons:
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Major Surroundings Hooks:
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Minor Surroundings Boons:
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Minor Surroundings Hooks: :
Faerie court nearby. Good source of stories. Sometimes faeries travel from it.
Local festivals are a nuisance - affect magi
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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