Dwight Marsh
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« on: November 06, 2006, 07:04:25 PM » |
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This is going to be a long post
I have constructed an Ars Magica one shot I would like to run on this date.
It is powerful wizards in 1220 AD, living in Mythic Europe who are gathering for their every seven year meeting, where they deal with all the political and legal issues that have been accumulating for seven years. The characters are young mages who are looking for a covenant to call their own.
I have five player characters to choose from. However, instead of handing them out and letting people say, “Hey, Darius is a Satan worshiper? Better watch out for that!” I figured I would provide a test and hand out characters based on what you said you were interested in playing. I wrote the test with an automated testing service in mind, sadly, it was not able to handle five variables, so I will have to correlate the data manually.
Test Guidelines: These questions should be answered in what you would be most interested in playing. Sometimes that will not be your characters perspective. If your character has a flaw that he is unlucky in love, he will hate that flaw, whereas hopefully you would have fun playing with it.
Questions.
1. Why would you choose to get involved with trouble?
a) To help your friends
b) You can’t help but help those in trouble
c) Help, smelp, You can’t resist getting involved with whatever is going on
d) To make friends who will help you with your problems in turn
2. How do you see the glass
a) Half empty
b) Half full
c) With my eyes, silly!
3. If you somehow lost your ability to do magic, would you still be able to make a living?
a) Yes
b) No, I concentrated on being a kickass magic user to the exclusion of all else
4. How important is the respect of your peers?
a) Very
b) It is OK
c) It is good to be underestimated
5. How important is it to be well read?
a) Very
b) Not such a big deal
6. The Laws of the Order of Hermes are baroque and non intuitive. Are you willing to put up with doing extra research and making sense of things for the other players?
a) Sounds like fun
b) Nah!
7. You are walking down a path when you are attacked by robbers. You
a) You wonder why you were walking when you could have turned into a bird and flown to where you were going more easily.
b) Turn invisible.
c) Have your guards deal with the problem, casting spells to aid them
8. What is better
a) Reliability of effect
b) Versatility
9. Ars Magica is set in Mythic Europe, a world where the power of God is real and all powerful. (those working for God are much more limited though) How do want your character to believe?
a) I am devout
b) Not really devout
c) I am devout but not monotheistic. A weird philosophy.
d) The religion I am not devout in is polytheistic.
Below is a list of ten positive aspects to characters.
Gentle Gift: In Ars Magica, the ability to do magic is called “The Gift.” Normally, the Gift causes a supernatural air about that person, so than humans and mundane animals and many others instinctively are suspicious of that person. Someone with the Gentle Gift is not under this effect, their efforts to deal with people are not penalized in this way.
Good with Illusions: Better than most skill with casting illusions
Good with Muto spells: Spells that turn something into something else, be that water into wine, enemies into stone or yourself into a wolf are under the form Muto. The mage is especially skilled in this type of magic
Great Stats: The mage has better stats than most of his peers
High Score in Magic Theory: Magic Theory is important in learning more difficult spells and other lab activities. This has little direct benefit, but does sugest that the character has more powerful effects available to him.
Magic Last Longer: Most spells are temporary, or require vis (magic made physical) to become permanent. Many only last a few minutes or until sunrise or sunset. The spells this mage casts often last longer
Perceptive: This mage is just better at noticing things
Quiet and Subtle: Normally, mages cast magic speaking in a loud voice and making gestures. Failing to do so adds a major penalty to the roll. This mage is not penalized in this way, they can cast spells silently and with no gestures with no penalty.
Second Sight: Some magical creatures like ghost and fairies and so on, are naturally invisible or disguised. This Ability allows the mage to possibly see them as they really are anyway.
Shapechanger. The mage has the supernatural ability to change his shape into a number of different forms. This is not a spell, and does not have all the limitations of spell casting.
Given the above, for the following five questions, pick the trait you would most like to have
10 Would you prefer?
a) Good with Illusions
b) Good with Muto Spells
c) Great Stats
d) Quiet and Subtle
11 Would you prefer?
a) Magic Last Longer
b) Perceptive
c) Second Sight
d) Shapechanger
12 Would you prefer
a) Gentle Gift
b) Great Stats
c) High Magic Theory
d) Quiet and Subtle
13 Would you prefer
a) Good with Illusions
b) Good with Muto
c) Perceptive
d) Second Sight
14. Would you prefer
a) Gentle Gift
b) High Magic Theory
c) Magic Lasts Longer
d) Shapechanger
For the next five questions, pick which trait you would be the least interested in having.
15. Least interested in
a) Good with Illusions
b) Great Stats
c) Highly Skilled with Magic Theory
d) Shapechanger
16. Least interested in
a) Gentle Gift
b) Magic Lasts Longer
c) Quiet and Subtle
d) Second Sight
17. Least interested in
a) Good with Muto
b) Great Stats
c) Perceptive
d) Shapechanger
18. Least interested in
a) Gentle Gift
b) Good with Illusions
c) Highly Skilled with Magic Theory
d) Second Sight
19. Least interested in
a) Good with Muto
b) Magic Lasts Longer
c) Perceptive
d) Quiet and Subtle
Now, with the good comes the bad. Below is a list of ten weaknesses that PC mages have
Bad at Perdo Spells: Perdo is the art of destruction. The mage is just bad at those kinds of spells. Note, creating a fireball is considered a creative act and falls under Creo, turning someone into stone is Muto and picking them up 50 feet into the air and dropping them is Rego (movement or change) so this is less an aspect of what the spells can be used for and more what it can do. Turning invisible is a Perdo spell, as it destroys the images that leave the body.
Blatant Gift: As the Gentle Gift negates the normal social penalty that mages have, the Blatant Gift magnifies them.
Cabal trying to Kill him: Some group of people is trying to kill him, and the mage is not sure who.
Can not cast Spontaneous Magic: Hermetic mages cast spells by computing their casting total and rolling a dice to add to the effect. If they know the spell, they just compare it to the total. If they don’t know the spell, they can spend fatigue and divide the total by 2 and if it is still higher, they can cast it, or they can divide by five, not roll and not spend fatigue. Casting spells without learning the spell first is spontaneous magic. This mage is unable to do this, he is limited to the spells he has learned. This is not as limiting as it sounds, since initial mages have difficulty getting scores high enough to do much with Spontaneous magic anyway.
Disfigured: For some reason, the mage looks funny.
Gets Lost Easily: This mage always needs someone who knows the way, because he sure doesn’t
Has problems in Divine Aura: There are four kinds of auras in Ars Magica, and not everywhere has a aura at all. However, most towns, villages and cities are under the Churchs protection, and are in a Divine Aura. Magic is harder for any Hermetic Mage in a Divine Aura, but this mage has extra problems
Plagued by a Demon: There is a demon who is trying to make your life difficult so that you fall into sin. The demon might not be above pretending to be your friend to get you in trouble with the Order of Hermes, which is completely opposed to dealing with demons.
Trouble with Romance: You keep attracting losers, and the people who you find attractive are convinced you are a loser.
Twilight Prone: Sometimes magic goes badly. For wizards, when things go badly enough, you go into something called Twilight. This is not always bad, but it is bad often enough and is the canonical way that most mages leave play instead of dying or being killed. This mage goes into Twilight more easily than most.
For the following questions, state which disadvantage you would be most willing to live with.
20. I could live with
a) Blatant Gift
b) Cabal Trying to Kill Him
c) Can’t Cast Spontaneous Magic
d) Disfigured
21. I could live with
a) Bad at Perdo Spells
b) Have Problems in Divine Aura
c) Plagued by a Demon
d) Twilight Prone
22. I could live with
a) Cabal trying to Kill Him
b) Can’t Cast Spontaneous Magic
c) Gets Lost Easly
d) Trouble with Romance
23. I could live with
a) Blatant Gift
b) Disfigured
c) Have Problems in Divine Aura
d) Plagued by a Demon
24. I could live with
a) Bad at Perdo Spells
b) Gets Lost Easily
c) Trouble with Romance
d) Twilight Prone
For the following questions, pick the disadvantage that you would most dislike playing.
25. I sure don’t want
a) Bad at Perdo Spells
b) Can’t Cast Spontaneous Magic
c) Disfigured
d) Gets lost Easily
26. I sure don’t want
a) Cabal trying to kill him
b) Have problem in Divine Aura
c) Plagued by a Demon
d) Twilight Prone
27. I sure don’t want
a) Bad at Perdo Spells
b) Blatant Gift
c) Can’t Cast Spontaneous Magic
d) Trouble with Romance
28, I sure don’t want
a) Disfigured
b) Gets Lost Easily
c) Has problems in Divine Aura
d) Plagued by a Demon
29. I sure don’t want
a) Blatant Gift
b) Cabal trying to kill him
c) Trouble with Romance
d) Twilight Prone.
Well, you finally got to the end. If you are interested in playing, you can either post your answers here or write your answers down and give them to me before the game.
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