Academy of Magic

[Benjamin]

Originally posted by tcharazazel@Feb 25 2004, 01:59 AM
then how big is your average sea zone? 50, 75 or 100 miles across?

The poster maps have a handy scale on them somewhere. Of course, most of the maps you find online don't have them, so I can see how this is confusing. And like Anakin said - 150 mile limit is nothing. Aelis should have tapped into Caelcorwynn Island centuries ago, just to have unspoiled sources.

[tcharazazel]

When i look at the sea zone map on the cartographers guild webpage it shows there are 2 sea zones between Mieres and the Southern Coast. So, to confirm then are sea zones about 25 miles accross then?

I'm also curious about this for an off topic reason, namely calculating the avg speed of a ship in mph, for ease

One other quick question off topic, then is the avg province 25 miles across? or are sea zones just really small?

So the home rule to make provinces and sea zones bigger aside, I just have to say I'm a bit jealous of the wizzie regent who's gonna get to run this Academy... heheh, tho I'm sure I'll be shellin out the cash for it

[tcharazazel]

and yes im aware in the BCRS they say an avg province is about 30-40 miles in diameter. So, my question is really aimed at figuring out why they decided to make sea zones smaller.

[ConjurerDragon]

Aerenwe NOF schrieb:



>The Straits of Aerele are only 50 miles wide. Baerghos Island is 50 miles

>off the coast of Taeghas,,,,

>

>Cerilia is a tiny world, so that 150 mile limit is not a draw back.

>Cerilian Wizards could be tapping Aduria, if there is not local competition

>from the natives.

>-Anakin

>

Especially the Yakmen of Aduria that secretly leech the bloodlines of

the Cerilian scions ;-)

bye

Michael

[Don E]

Originally posted by irdeggman@Feb 20 2004, 07:36 PM
Check the BoM (pg 56+)[there is somewhere around 10 pages of discussion concerning the RCS]. It gives a whole lot more details concerning the RCS. Specifically that there is a level 0 holding there. That is the primary source for description of how the ley lines foucus inward and not outward from it.

It also gives a whole lot more detail concerning ley lines, transfering them (and loaning them), etc.

Basically it is "the" definitive source of 2nd ed material concerning the RCS and also ley lines.

IMO opinion the problem here is the BoM itself. While a brilliant book when it comes to adding rules to the magic system on the domain level of BR, I feel some parts of the background material is seriously lacking. It seems to me that the books was written entirely outside the framework of the Anuirean state of politics and power.

To be more specific I can mention the introduction of 10 high level blooded wizards into Anuirean politics. How could these people not have a profound effect on all that happens within a wide radius of the Imperial City? Any one of those 10th to 19th level (correct me if I'm wrong) wizards could long ago have been established as a strong regent wizard with a significant number of sources.

I have discuseed this with some people before, and one argument that keep returning is that the wizards in the CoS is not interested in politics and try keep out of the current affairs of Anuire. Not only is it very unlikely to have 10 blooded wizarsd that are all pacifists, but over a longer time period the probability off all not wishing to gain any power becomes quite slim.

As for the ley lines I have always found them odd, even before BoM came out. If they are used to educational purpouses as described in RoE it might make sense, but the maintenance would still be an extremely high cost to pay. And where do these wizards gain the RP to use these ley lines? I doubt they are continuously burning off their bloodline to gain RP for such a use.

IMCs I have severely reduced the importance of the CoS. Partly because I can't find a way of fitting them into Anuirean politics, and partly because it smacks to much of FR to me. Personal opininion of course. If one tried to come to some form of consensus for fitting the CoS into Anuire in their exoisting state I would suggest a combination of reducing the power level of the wizards (perhaps reduce the number to half or less) and possibly making them regents with a few sources. That would change the power in the region, but I beleive that is inevitable if one wants it included.


Cheers,
Don E

[Osprey]

Sorry but the general concensus was wrong....

Book of Magecraft, pg. 26 "Ley Lines can be forged across bodies of water,
but they can extend no longer than 150 miles before terminating on dry
land."

-Anakin Miller

I've been mulling over this issue of ley lines, and frankly I think this 150 mile limit over water is rather arbitrary and groundless. The Book of Magecraft may say so, but the more I think about it the more I don't like it. Why? What's 150 miles got to do with ley lines?

As a DM, I'm more comfortable with a rule something like "a Ley Line cannot extend across a sea zone. It may cross bodies of water that do not make up a "province" in and of themselves."

Maybe that's just me being resistant to change my own version of Cerilia once I've set it up that way, but at least it has some logic to it.

It might be interesting to add that any major river or body of water would make a barrier for ley lines. Not impenetrable, but one that requires a stronger ley line than a land-bound one. So adding 1 RP and 1 GB to the cost of any ley line that crosses a major river could be an interesting element to allow for the power of running water in eroding continuous lines of mebhaighal that bridge them.

[RaspK_FOG]

I would like to add my two coppers worth of an opinion here:



Magic is drawn from the land, right?

And water cannot generally be considered as "land", correct?

I think that a more concrete rule would be to say that water generally increases the difficulty of "establishing" a ley line. The wider and deeper a body of water is, the more GB (a slight curve gain, like a numerical progress) and RP (a tremendous curve gain, like a geomatric or exponential progress, or even a factorial) you need to "establish" a ley line. As such, small rivers, particularly streams, would not affect ley line usage a lot, but ley lines crossing seas would be too cost-defective to most people's liking... or perharps to some people's liking! :P

In any case, I would go with a numerical progress for GB (+1, +1, and so on, per "size category"), while I would use a factorial for RP when it comes to big, deep bodies of water, like lakes and seas (+1, +2, +6, +24, +120, +720, and so on, per "size category"), or a geomatric progress for shallow bodies of water, like rivers (+1, +2, +4, +8, +16, +32, and so on). This allows really powerful regents to use ley-lines over bodies of water, but... :P