Ars Magica, Northumbria
Covenant House Rules
Bookkeeping,
Covenant
All income of vis
and money occurs at the end of each winter. expenses are paid at the
same time or as the the resource is used.
Aging rolls and deaths occur in the Winter. Births occur in the spring.
Brawling,
Ability
ArM5 clarified the specialties for
Brawling and how dodging
applies.
The specialties for Brawling
are: punches, grapples, knives, dodging.
The dodging ability for Brawling
is only used if the character has no
other combat abilities, or is fighting unarmed or with a knife/dagger.
Experience and Advancement
Characters cannot advance or
spend experience during an adventure.
During the course of a single
season, a character may advance in the following ways:
EXPOSURE
All characters get to check for
Exposure each season for any casual knowledge that they have access
to. Characters on long adventures should check with the GM for
what Casual Knowledges they are exposed to. For characters
hanging around the Northumbria covenant, the following Casual
Knowledges are available:
Grogs and Companions
- Yorkshire Lore
- Northumbria Lore
- Legend Lore (England specialty if they don't already have a
specialty)
- Northumbria Covenant Lore
- Language - Anglo Saxon
- Language - Western Norse
- Language - French
Magi
- Yorkshire Lore
- Northumbria Lore
- Legend Lore (England specialty if they don't already have a
specialty)
- Order of Hermes Lore
- Language - French
TRAINING,
PRACTICE, AND STUDY
In addition to learning through
Exposure, characters can choose to advance themselves through Training,
Practice, or Study. However, there are some
restrictions. Characters cannot benefit from Training,
Practice, or Study if they perform any of the following activities
during that season:
- Participate in an adventure lasting more than 10 days
- Act as a Trainer for others
- Engage in some laboratory activity (summoning vis , creating an
item, summoning a familiar, etc.)
In order to benefit from
Training the character must locate a trainer (obviously).
Here is a PDF character sheet
that you can actually fill out. It's from the Atlas-Games Web site But
I'm tweaking it a little.
Noncombatant,
Virtue
Characters who take the
Noncombatant Virtue may not learn
any weapon skills. All grogs start with the default Ability Brawling 1
and may keep this Brawling Ability at level 1 but not raise it. The
character may not exchange another Ability as a replacement. A
specialty of dodging would be appropriate for a Noncombatant.
Playing
Characters
Who Plays What?
Wizards and Companions will only be
played by their creating player. Grogs can be shared among all the
players depending on the adventure (i.e. there may be adventures with
only one wizard or no wizards). You should try and play a grog within
the parameters set out by the grog's designer.