• PendingAstrologyPetitions

To expedite the astrology mechanic, please use this space for dealing with any astrology petitions, rolls, etc. that can be handled outside of an actual gaming session.

Pending Petitions

• By putting a petition here, it is assumed that your character has made and succeeded on the relevant rolls to create it. By signing a petition here, it is assumed that your character is both willing and able to be a cosignatory. (From p. 207 of the sourcebook: "The maximum number of cosignatories acceptable on a petition is as follows: one Sidereal of each of the other four castes, a number of fellow initiates of the destiny's college equal to the Sidereal petitioner's Essence, one Lunar Exalt, and one Solar Exalt.") Please go ahead and make the appropriate (Wits + Linguistics) or (Wits + Craft [Air]) roll (or, at least in downtime, just spend willpower). Indicate that you've done so even if you fail; it still counts toward the total number of cosignatories permitted.

Petition 1 [Note: I'm not actually making up this first petition during the current downtime in Heaven; it was created during a brief confusion about how much time had passed in Creation. I'm just putting it here so I don't forget it.]

Are you there, Pattern Spiders? It's me, Nameless Crow. I want to be Vengeful Aardvark, a former playwright now writing pulp fiction.

Cosignatories:

Other Mechanics

tmack: Who's willing to help me with the effect roll for the cult of Makarios (once I write up the appropriate destiny)? It requires being a cosignatory on the petition and at least one dot in the relevant college. Since I should probably be the one making the prayer and effect rolls, participants should also have fewer dots in the college or lesser Essence than me. I'm still not sure which college I'll use; I'm still trying to decide among Treasure 2, Sorcerer 2 or Treasure 3, Sorcerer 1 or Treasure 3, Sorcerer 1. (I'll finalize that before making any actual effect rolls for this or other destinies) Also, note that you can convert endurance from Sorcerer RDs into prayer effect dice in the group mechanic.

• AT: What college will you be using for this? I've got 1 dot each in Sorcerer and Treasure Trove, so I can help so long as you use one of those (or any of the Endings Colleges). I may not be the best to do the advanced planning (Int+Craft(Fate) is 3, Int+Occult is 5 but I don't htink I have the astrology lab), but do have an RD of the Treasure Trove I can don for the bonus, if we'll actually have 3 days to do this. I don't know if multiple people can get that bonus, or if it's leader only, or if it's "any one participant".

  • tmack: According to the book, "When multiple Sidereals work together to create a destiny, the secondary participants each add their Essence in dice to the effect roll. In addition, other tasks undertaken to enhance the effect roll may be divided amongst all the Sidereal participants, to ensure each task is performed by teh most competent astrologer in that field." I think that means that each buff can be performed by an arbitrary participant, but only once for the ritual. Otherwise, everyone could use the free +3 effect dice for Ritual Behavior (which requires no rolls), which would allow each participant contribute about +5 or +6 effect dice for free. As for the advanced planning rolls, it looks like Ania has the highest Int + Craft (Fate) roll aside from me. (I didn't look through other sheets in detail, so I don't know if other characters have buffs that could increase that. Methodology of Secrets certainly can.) The +3 Ritual Effect bonus seems like a great choice for someone who has the requisite dots but not many other skills in astrology. Emma seems like the best choice for computing the horoscopes if I'm not doing it.

Revised: I don't think is going to work. Remember the huge printout that Emma received from her Efficient Secretary describing everyone in the vicinity who's an offspring of Makarios? Presumably they all have Essence >= 2 and are involved with the cult, and each of their Essences adds to the required scope of the destiny. Astrology is good for large groups of mortals (and you can't pick out the mortals among a group of mortals and others) or single powerful beings; having more than one Essence >= 2 being around makes doing anything impossible.

• The huge list was for everyone in the Eastern Direction. The hundred-mile list of Godbloods, including Great Forks, was short. --BTS

  • tmack: Oh, I didn't realize that shorter list was for a hundred miles from our position. (I'm still a bit fuzzy on how large the Directions are.) OK, that's feasible. Never mind.

    AT: I'm not sure if the Cult of Makarios is a valid target. My reading of the rules is that you can only target a geographical area, and that identity like "member of the Cult of Makarios" is a part of the trigger. I don't think we're up to the task of putting a destiny on everyone in the Great Forks area, because there are lots of high-Essence beings there. Maybe I'm misinterpreting, though, and social groups are valid targets? The small-scale example of a "small group/clique" or "extended family" lean that way, but all the larger examples are about geography not society. Still, it does seem like astrology is really hard otherwise.

    • tmack: I'm still fuzzy on a few on the astrology mechanics. An example destiny in the book, for example, describes a Sidereal blessing all of his lover's male descendents through him when they try to perform magic. I have no idea what the scope on something like that would be; it's not even a fixed number of people, let alone a fixed geographical location. The book says that "a destiny can affect things other than people" (modulo a few caveats), but the examples they include suggest they're talking about other tangible things like animals and crops and lakes rather than abstract cultural units. I think astrology is supposed to be hard; it's supposed to give you miscellaneous useful but not game-breaking bonuses to mucking around with creation, but it's not supposed to replace actually going into the world and having adventures in it. I'm not sure what to do about this. I have to ask Brian a few other questions about astrology anyway; I'll go ahead and put this one in an email too. The most useful thing to do might be for me to go ahead and write up the destiny, then let Brian explain what's wrong with it and how to fix it.