Ask a simple question, Awakened edition

[Suleri Drals]

I reopen the thread : (Original author : Archmage Joda)

To restart :

Q1 : Camelot was created by Imperium Rite or Practice ?

[KaiserAfini]

2 questions

1) Are the spell factors of an imbued item set and unable to be changed?
2) Are there any ways a sleepwalker could boost the casting roll besides willpower?

You can find someone to cast AoE Fate boons centered on the imbued item, which can only be used to activate it. 8-again, rote property, dice bonuses, you can make the activation roll a lot more reliable. While that doesn't depend on only the Sleepwalker, maybe they know a Fate mage who owes them a favor or they can even hire one in a Lorehouse.

A Veiling of Fate should probably be used as well, so the increased improbability of all these lucky coincidences is hidden from Sleepers, preventing Breaking Points and Quiescence (at least from the casting).

[Neos01]

2 questions

1) Are the spell factors of an imbued item set and unable to be changed?
2) Are there any ways a sleepwalker could boost the casting roll besides willpower?

1 i think that only always on items have fixed factors

2 increasing the ritual time if not using istant casting

[Mr.F.I.X.]

2 questions

1) Are the spell factors of an imbued item set and unable to be changed?
2) Are there any ways a sleepwalker could boost the casting roll besides willpower?

[KaiserAfini]

I've ruled that a "yes" in the past, but required perception rolls to see things of interest due to the enormous breadth of perspective. The reason is that bit in Outward and Inward Eye about the subject still being able to be surprised by dent of a distraction. Clearly it requires some mental effort and focus on the subject's part to understand what she's seeing.

Excellent, thank you. It doesn't completely rule out the possibility. But it allows and archeomancer to explore from relative safety and anticipate ambushes consistently well.

[galivet]

I've ruled that a "yes" in the past, but required perception rolls to see things of interest due to the enormous breadth of perspective. The reason is that bit in Outward and Inward Eye about the subject still being able to be surprised by dent of a distraction. Clearly it requires some mental effort and focus on the subject's part to understand what she's seeing.

[KaiserAfini]

Do the effects of Zoom In compound with those of The Outward and Inward Eye ? For example, if Zoom In lets them see for two miles, would that combine to let the caster see everything within the two miles radius in every direction ?

[KaiserAfini]

You don't saaay? Omigosh that's amazing!! He's already an Eleventh Question so that's perfect! Yay that makes me so excited!

And thanks to nofather too! That was the info I felt was why I should ask this question before I proceeded. My Guardian Hierarch is kind of in a strange situation too--in a sign of cooperation, the position is only of a "Dual-Hierarch", one for domestic issues, the other for the Mystery that seems determined to blow the lid off the Veil and to support the local Arrows who took a huuuge hit!

There is an old post by Dave that I think captures the feel well on how the Questions fit into Guardian politics (its from RPG.net, so I wasn't sure how else to post the quote here):

"Yeah. I like the tension between the Question and the rest of the order - in a magical society of liars, having people dedicated to uncovering the truth is unsettling.

In my house game, the local 11Q is one step removed from local Guardian leadership thanks to that, despite being a Master. He's not a particularly easy man to get along with. He uses the second attainment almost as reflex now, and having been mildly discriminated against because of his Legacy his whole career he's long since stopped even pretending to be sorry about it - if someone is going to be freaked out anyway, he may as well cultivate that image. Naturally, the local Guardians made him Emissary (the Guardian in charge of inter-order relations) because that discourages the other orders from interfering with them.

Anyways - he, finding no suitable apprentices in his own order and with a mid-high but pretty unshakable order status, has decided to take a Free Councillor (one of the PCS) as an apprentice, and is teaching him Time ready to induct him into the Legacy despite the fallout that will result - in his opinion, the Epopt can try to punish him for breaking the order restriction on his Legacy, but he gave her several years to steer Guardian apprentices his way and he has more dirt on her than anyone else could even suspect.

This gives the Guardian PC in the cabal the screaming heebie jeebees. He already regards the 11Q as being nearly heretical, and sees the Master's social troubles and seeming inability to not use his attainments on everyone he talks to as being a result of the Legacy; the 11Q, to a young Messianistic-leaning Guardian who takes the order-as-a-religion very seriously, are broken. They've given up their ability to function as proper Guardians in order to fulfil their niche role perfectly. Whenever the 11Q is around, the Guardian tolerates all his eccentricities because he thinks the 11Q is a holy man. Like a mad hermit kind of a holy man. As for what he thinks about the Libertine PC being steered Question-wards, it's like a trainee priest finding out one of his friends is being recruited by a hardcore monastary, despite not believing in God.

All of this, naturally, is lost on the Libertine who just sees a Master taking an interest in him.


(And you're right - the Attainments are only one element in a whole suite of powers. But Questions have all those Mage Sight spells available as per normal. The Attainments are the deductive cherry on top. Other mages will eventually get to the same conclusion, but a Question does it faster)"

[Scarlet Witch]

Depends, how desperate are they ? The Guardians are the secret police of the Awakened, so the level of transparency required of a hierarch position would not come easily to them. Because of this, putting an Eleventh Question as Hierarch could work, because they are committed to the truth and can make good liasons, or intimidate with how much they know.
[...]

You don't saaay? Omigosh that's amazing!! He's already an Eleventh Question so that's perfect! Yay that makes me so excited!

And thanks to nofather too! That was the info I felt was why I should ask this question before I proceeded. My Guardian Hierarch is kind of in a strange situation too--in a sign of cooperation, the position is only of a "Dual-Hierarch", one for domestic issues, the other for the Mystery that seems determined to blow the lid off the Veil and to support the local Arrows who took a huuuge hit!

[Primordial newcomer]

Thank you nofather. It's great to hear they wrote the orders in 2nd edition with that in mind.

Just to be clear, you mean the Free Council changed the most from its book to 2nd edition?

EDIT: nevermind, just read up on that

[KaiserAfini]

How unlikely is it to see a Guardian of the Veil as a Hierarch? I haven't read their book, and am not clear on the subtleties of their idea that all thrones are false in juxtaposition to their own political authority within and without the Order.

Depends, how desperate are they ? The Guardians are the secret police of the Awakened, so the level of transparency required of a hierarch position would not come easily to them. Because of this, putting an Eleventh Question as Hierarch could work, because they are committed to the truth and can make good liasons, or intimidate with how much they know.

Another option is Bearer of the Eternal Voice, but they would need to be very discrete as to not let people know they are one or using their gifts.

There is also the matter of need. If there is a crisis so serious that only the Guardians can deal with, then having them take the lead is natural. But that also means they may fabricate the incident that tilts the scales to this outcome.

Another option is if there is too much political infighting and only the Guardians can mediate to keep everyone in line. Lets say there are few Ladders in a Consilium, the Mysterium and Free Council constantly bicker about research and access to information. In that case, an Arrow and Guardian alliance may keep the order, since Arrow philosophy is against taking a permanent role of power, the Guardians may be the only ones for for the job.

In summary, it all comes down to whether circumstances are grave enough that you would agree to be lead by spies.

[Primordial newcomer]

As an excerpt from the book, p123, 'Hierarch: One can travel the seven seas and the like number of continents, and she will seldom find a Hierarch who belongs to the Guardians of the Veil. The Guardians are so disliked and distrusted that achieving the popular support necessary for ascendance to the position would be a true political miracle.'

It gets more into what those situations are like, usually being about the consilium needing what the Guardians offer and are good at (namely secrecy) but also occasionally the Guardians taking control in a consilium by force. It's implied that even when there is a Guardian Hierarch, it doesn't last long..



They're still relevant, though they are dense reads, and the mechanics are pretty much all outdated, practices and Arcana having shifted around a bit and Merits I think having more impact in second edition. They get into that a bit here, but to quote "That’s a significant portion of the edition’s wordcount devoted to developing the Orders described in the first edition core, and we have no desire to throw it away, so the first thing I can tell you about the Orders in second edition is… You’ll recognize them. If you’ve read Left Hand Path or Mage Noir, both written after all the Order books were out, you’ve seen roughly how we think of the Orders. Our Guardians of the Veil are clearly the Guardians from their book. That’s not to say we’re not placing emphasis in slightly different places, or tweaking here and there, but if you own the Order books rest assured that they’re still very much relevant in the new edition."

I think the Free Council have changed the most? They went over it more when the book came out, the question came up a lot (you can probably find the developer and writers talking about it).

Thank you nofather. It's great to hear they wrote the orders in 2nd edition with that in mind.

Just to be clear, you mean the Free Council changed the most from its book to 2nd edition?

[nofather]

How unlikely is it to see a Guardian of the Veil as a Hierarch? I haven't read their book, and am not clear on the subtleties of their idea that all thrones are false in juxtaposition to their own political authority within and without the Order.

As an excerpt from the book, p123, 'Hierarch: One can travel the seven seas and the like number of continents, and she will seldom find a Hierarch who belongs to the Guardians of the Veil. The Guardians are so disliked and distrusted that achieving the popular support necessary for ascendance to the position would be a true political miracle.'

It gets more into what those situations are like, usually being about the consilium needing what the Guardians offer and are good at (namely secrecy) but also occasionally the Guardians taking control in a consilium by force. It's implied that even when there is a Guardian Hierarch, it doesn't last long..

Speaking of the above, are the 1st edition Order books good reads or are they fairly outdated?

They're still relevant, though they are dense reads, and the mechanics are pretty much all outdated, practices and Arcana having shifted around a bit and Merits I think having more impact in second edition. They get into that a bit here, but to quote "That’s a significant portion of the edition’s wordcount devoted to developing the Orders described in the first edition core, and we have no desire to throw it away, so the first thing I can tell you about the Orders in second edition is… You’ll recognize them. If you’ve read Left Hand Path or Mage Noir, both written after all the Order books were out, you’ve seen roughly how we think of the Orders. Our Guardians of the Veil are clearly the Guardians from their book. That’s not to say we’re not placing emphasis in slightly different places, or tweaking here and there, but if you own the Order books rest assured that they’re still very much relevant in the new edition."

I think the Free Council have changed the most? They went over it more when the book came out, the question came up a lot (you can probably find the developer and writers talking about it).

[Primordial newcomer]

Speaking of the above, are the 1st edition Order books good reads or are they fairly outdated?

[Scarlet Witch]

How unlikely is it to see a Guardian of the Veil as a Hierarch? I haven't read their book, and am not clear on the subtleties of their idea that all thrones are false in juxtaposition to their own political authority within and without the Order.