Magic potential of a province and canon data

[Vicente]

Hi,

I was under the impression that the magic potential of a province (under 2e) was the base magic potential of the terrain (as defined in page 81) minus the population level (except in elven provinces).

But I was putting RoE information into an Excel file, and there are a lot of provinces where this rule is broken (like for example, all provinces in Tuarhievel :S), so many that I have a hard time believing it's a typo. So what is the explanation of this? That terrain basic magic level it's just a guideline? Or it's really a typo?

Regards,

Vicente

[Sorontar]

I believe that elven controlled provinces are the exception to the rule. They can settle and gain resources from their lands without affecting the magic potential level. This is certainly true according to the BRCS:


Province levels that represent elven populations living in harmony with the land do not subtract from the level of sources available within a province.


Sorontar

[Marco Fossati]

I believe that elven controlled provinces are the exception to the rule. They can settle and gain resources from their lands without affecting the magic potential level. This is certainly true according to the BRCS:



Sorontar

It is also reported in the Book of Magecraft (2ed)

[Birthright-L]

In addition to the ability of elven populations to increase their
population without reducing the magical source level of their
provinces, there are occasions in the published materials when a
particular terrain feature, not just the terrain itself, increases
the magical potential of the land. The discovery of an dragon
skeleton, a mystic font at the heart of an ancient tree, finding a
massive vein of crystals that pass into the heart of a mountain are
all the kinds of things that might raise the source potential of a
land and/or become the focus of wizard`s source holding or ley
line. So, there might be a province that had a terrain type that
normally only allows a source potential of 5, but the existence of
one of these kinds of special, magical features increases it by 1-2.

Gary

[Vicente]

That's exactly why they are wrong. Elven provinces in Tuarhievel are Light, Heavy or Ancient Forest, which according to the rules should be Magic Potential of 7 (light and heavy forest) or 9 (ancient forest).

Yet all provinces in Tuarhievel have magic potential of 5 or 6 (there is no terrain type with magic potential 6).

But there are more, for example Brosien and Seamist in Taeghas are 2/6, which indicates a Magic Potential of 8. The only terrain with that value are Swamps, but those provinces are clearly Mountains (Magic Potential of 7 or 9). In Tuornen Elevesnemiere has 2/5, and the province is clearly Plains or maybe Hills (both have Magic Potential of 5 so it should be 2/3).

There are a dozen more examples only in RoE about these.

[Vicente]

That would explain some things like the "mistakes" in Taeghas and Tuornen (and a few other realms), where terrains seem to have higher than expected Magic Potential. Although this is not mentioned anywhere in RoE :(

It doesn't also explain why Tuarhievel has less Magic than it should (unless you say the land has been devastated by war or by losing their elven empire and the land Magic Potential has decreased...).

[Edonel Bladesong]

It doesn't also explain why Tuarhievel has less Magic than it should (unless you say the land has been devastated by war or by losing their elven empire and the land Magic Potential has decreased...).

I remember having this exact discussion with our DM years ago and we had used the argument that by opening the realm to humans, sharing the Law resources with Dhoesone and allowing human Guilds, this had affected the realm relationship/rating with regards to its Source rating.

[Vicente]

That makes sense. Would be nice if those things were stated as rules somewhere, but well :)

[Thelandrin]

I found that if you assume that Elven population only reduces the source potential by 0.5 per level (so -3 in a province-6), it tends to square quite well for them.

[Vicente]

Yet Rhuobhe has the correct levels with normal rules. I'm starting to think that the product needed a very big edition work to fix all these things but it was released without it...

[epicsoul]

don't forget that there were things that could artificially increase or reduce the source potential – dragon bones being underneath the land was one possibility, for instance. Magical damage is another (reduction). In the case of Tuarhievel, I always assumed that the source level was being damaged by the human exploitation allowed by the regent (human guilds operating there)

[arpig2]

That's one advantage to using your own world - stuff works.

[AndrewTall]

Apologies to anyone confused by me merging the two threads...

The sidhe provinces sometimes follow the stated sidhe rules, and sometimes reduce levels for non-sidhe holdings, population, or some other mechanic known only to the author.

Sidhe suffer badly in mechanic terms from having no guilds or temples (generally) and often only having minimal law holdings and I think that the source rule was intended to make up for that so personally I 'correct' the published source levels to 7-9 (as appropriate) and sometimes go beyond to account for links to the spirit world, etc.