Apprentice game plans

[Paul Albertella]

I'm in the process of starting up a Heroquest game with a deliberately restrictive premise for player characters and I'd be grateful for some input and feedback on the approach that I've come up with so far.

The setting will be the city of Syran, in Salfelster, a personal vision of which I've been working on for some time (http://www.eiderweb.net/safelster/syran). The upshot of this game is that the PCs are all exceptional young (i.e. teenage) apprentices, about to start the third year of their studies, and attending one of four Wizardry Schools in the city. As such, they have very limited specialised magic (they're essentially just Lay Members), but do have a number of Common Magic spells, either taught to them by their School (from the Abiding Book) or learnt surreptitiously from other apprentices (a debased form of Common Magic spells that I'm calling Petty Magic). All of them have the usual Homeland keyword, but at an initial rating 15 to represent their youth, and an occupation keyword of Apprentice at 17. To give them a bit more depth they also get a cut down Secondary Occupation keyword at 13, which is intended to represent their background prior to starting their studies, or perhaps their parents' occupation.

As you might have guessed, part of my intention with this is to run a set of teen-angst-ridden Rowlingesque "magic school" scenarios with a Gloranthan spin, but I'm also very interested in exploring the nature of magic, and of wizardry/sorcery in particular. Doing this from the perspective of a group of students learning about magic seemed like a good way to go about this. The game will mostly likely be run as a PBEM and I'd say that I (and the potential players that I've interested so far) are firmly in the narrativist camp. I'm hoping to get the players to write kickers for their characters too, but we shall see...

Unfortunately, when it comes to information about how apprentices learn their craft, there's relatively little to go on in the HQ rules. We are told that their masters set about "shaping their essence to be a suitable channel for wizardry" and that after several years of training they will be ready to attune themselves to a grimoire. This is accomplished by creating a portal of power to the School Founder's node on the Saint Plane and is the final test that determines whether an apprentice is ready to become an adept. We're also told, however, that there are many other tests that the apprentice must pass during the course of their studies.

What might these tests involve? And, beyond learning a couple of Common Magic spells, what might the apprentices' studies entail? The main focus seems to be preparing to access the Essence Planes, but what other esoteric or academic topics might the masters drill into their students? Perhaps more importantly at the character creation stage, what kind of abilities might characterise an exceptional student of wizardry? Is it feasible that they might have concentrated their magic use, even at this early stage?

I have quite a few ideas on this already, but I'd be very interested to hear your suggestions, as well as comments on the basic premise and game approach that I've outlined.

[Mike Holmes]

Cool idea. I like the combination of the human touch of the character's being in school (and how we can all relate to that), with the investigation into how essence magic works for adept track characters. In fact, I think that you're largely breaking new ground here. Though I have to wonder if some of this will be in the soon-to-be-available ILH2, or in the who-knows-if-it-will-ever-be-available supplement on Western magic.

But, I agree, why wait? When it could be fun to make it up.

In addition to classes for learning some spells, and to learn how to access the essence planes, I think that something that the book implies that they could start on early is dealing with the "essential landscape." For example, the rules for tapping essences in the section on the essential landscape. To say nothing of just how to approach such without getting hurt doing so. In fact, since common magic comes from such sources, it seems that if they're getting common magic, that they're dealing with such essences already. No, they may not graduate to actually tapping them until they become an adept (I think the book says this is something only adepts do), but they can be studying it. In the meanwhile, the can certainly be learning how to get spells from such sources, in part by actually getting spells from such sources. In fact, this would seem rudimentary, a thing taught first.

Given that there are multitudinous potential sources of essence, there could be individual study on whole groups. Going back to the Harry Potter reference material, there could be a Potions class, a Herbology class, a Care of Magical Animals class (unicorn horn being a most potent source of essence, of course), etc, etc. All depends on what sort of magic the school teaches and what they consider to be legitimate or worthwhile sources of essence (you only learn tapping human beings if you're in Slytherin).

Second, there's that reference to the master's "shaping" their essence. Well, that would indicate that the characters are dealing with their own internal essence, making it such that it's capable of interfacing with other essence. This could be even more preliminary - the whole first year could be meditating or such, trying to train the character's essence how to be "right" to use advanced magics. I think it's probably at some point along this line of progress that the character gains his "Symbolic Sight" though that probably also takes some more specific training. Again, this is also important in being able to detect essences in the mundane world, so one can find essences, and get spells from them.

Also there's the abilities in the Apprentice keyword itself. Aid My Master is one that I recall. This could represent long hours helping an Adept with his projects, for instance. This being a classic way that students learn in a more "Apprentice/Master" environment. In fact, instead of "classes" per se, I'd think that such a school would be more about who the character spends time with doing what. Learning more from working than from a curriculum throughout their stay. Meaning that pleasing teachers is even more important than it is in a boarding school like Hogwarts. If the teacher doesn't like your work, you just don't learn anything.

Heck, given that most homelands don't teach writing, but that I think that apprentices know it, that's something that they're going to have to learn in their first couple of years. There's a lot of elementary education that they have to go through in early apprenticeship. You can probably assume that they're past that in play (they have the apprentice keyword already), but it could explain what they've been doing in previous years, and, thus, what the current "first years" are doing if encountered.

The steps in "preparing to access the Essence Planes" are numerous it seems to me. In addition to the aforementioned work getting your essence ready, there's study learning about what to expect in the essence planes, what it's like, so that the character doesn't take misteps when he's there - this is represented by the "Rule" ability for the school I think. Then there's learning about how to open a portal of power oneself, which sounds like a complex subject all itself. As mentioned above, important to all of this is learning Symbolic Sight so that one can actually interperet what he sees in the essential world.

Then, in preparation for going in and attuning to the grimoire, the character has to study said grimoire. That might take a year itself to understand completely (or a significant part of one). The character basically learns the spells, but still can't cast them because he's not attuned to the source of the power that enables them. Each spell in the grimoire could be thought of as a "Class" in addition to learning it's theory overall (as they're learned as a gestalt).

Then there's probably study on the use of talismans, and how they relate to being able to use individual spells (said talismans being different and specific from school to school). Do they learn how to cast all spells through one talisman? That probably has it's own complexities of the essence mixing in that one channel. Do they learn many talismans? Then they probably have to study them individually. Again, all in preparation to learn spells outside of a grimoire as an Adept.

How's that for a start? Look at each ability obtained in the keywords and that's at least one, if not more, activities one has to go through to learn that ability. I'm sure I've missed some.

Mike

[Paul Albertella]

Cool idea. I like the combination of the human touch of the character's being in school (and how we can all relate to that), with the investigation into how essence magic works for adept track characters. In fact, I think that you're largely breaking new ground here. Though I have to wonder if some of this will be in the soon-to-be-available ILH2, or in the who-knows-if-it-will-ever-be-available supplement on Western magic.

Cheers. I rather suspected that this was new territory, but it's good to hear that impression confirmed. There's definitely nothing in ILH2 (or at least, not in my sneak preview) and I'm not convinced that there will necessarily be anything in Heoes of Malkion either (if it ever appears). Perhaps it's too much of a minority interest...

In addition to classes for learning some spells, and to learn how to access the essence planes...
<--------------------------------- snip ------------------------------------------>
How's that for a start? Look at each ability obtained in the keywords and that's at least one, if not more, activities one has to go through to learn that ability. I'm sure I've missed some.

Thanks a lot, Mike - that gives me some good stuff to chew over..You've managed to articulate a lot of the ideas that were sloshing around unhelpfully in my head, as well as adding in some very useful new ones.

Your suggested methodical approach of going through the keywords is a good one. Part of the problem with the Apprentice keyword, however, is that it has very few abilities attached; the "Aid My Master" ability that you mention, for example, is actually a spell from the Abiding Book. That said, I share your notion that apprenticeship is largely about helping your master, even if this core component is supplemented by classroom-based group teaching. You specifically pick out the read/write, Rule of [Founder] and Symbolic Sight abilities - in fact (with Create Portal of Power) that's just about it for the Apprentice keyword. Still, even this handful of abilities, when combined with the "tools of the trade" (talismans and grimoires) and the essence planes, should give me more than enough categories of study.

One other thing that I've been wrestling with is the rather vague religious angle on wizards in HQ, which this is something that I'm still a little ambivalent about. I've tried to keep my Schools within a Wizardry tradition (i.e. aligned with a Church) rather than a Sorcery one (i.e. unconstrained by a Church's moral framework), but I definitely balk at the idea of adepts and wizards as religious per se.

The way I see it, orderlies and liturgists are the overtly religious magical practitioners, whereas adepts are more like Renaissance scientists: if they tread on the toes of the Church, they can expect to be sanctioned as heretical sorcerers, but providing they keep their noses clean (or avoid the attentions of the Inquisition) they can pursue their studies in comparitive peace. To borrow from another literary source, I guess I'm thinking of wizardry in terms of the "Experimental Theology" undertaken by the scholars in Philip Pullman's magnificent His Dark Materials trilogy. Hence some of the other things I have in mind for the apprentices are regular "Perils of Sorcery" lessons and stern lectures on general morality and the proper place of an adept in the Great Scheme Of Things.

Having a lot of fun with this...

[Mandrake]

Can I play please? :)

I have more to add, but will have to wait til I get home and have a copy of HQ to hand

[Mike Holmes]

How is what's in the book any different from how you see wizardry?

That is, at first I thought like you did that there was some automatic hard link to the Monotheist Church in which the particular school of wizardry happened to fall. But I'm not sure where that comes from, because after re-reading it a couple of times, I'm now convinced that the book intends precisely what you're implying.

Wizardry schools are precisely "just" magic organizations that deal with essence that happen to occur most often in monotheistic societies. Note that, as in the case of the one school in Heortling society (can't recal the name now), even this is not always true. It's merely that the monotheistic viewpoint (at least in Western Genertela) accepts this form of magic pretty much everywhere. There could be a monotheistic religion somewhere, however, that did not accept such magic, perhaps being like a theistic religion, but with only one god (who might have tons of cults worshipping him in different ways).

Keep in mind that the magic systems presented in the HQ MRB are just samples, and that many more exist (Lunar Magic, for instance). So there could also be other sorts of wizardry that are associated with all sorts of other religions and such. There is no neccessary link between monotheism and wizardry. It just tends to be the case in the area most played in.

Mike

[Paul Albertella]

How is what's in the book any different from how you see wizardry?

You're right - my sense of unease seems to have been extrapolated from the general tone of the Wizardry section, as opposed to the specifics about adepts, apprentices and schools. Reading it all again, there's nothing to suggest a religious element to the schools. Thanks for the reassurance!

Keep in mind that the magic systems presented in the HQ MRB are just samples, and that many more exist (Lunar Magic, for instance). So there could also be other sorts of wizardry that are associated with all sorts of other religions and such. There is no necessary link between monotheism and wizardry. It just tends to be the case in the area most played in.

I'm certainly with you on that score. I've stayed fairly close to the 'norm' in many respects, but my syncretic concept of the Stygian religion in Syran (see http://www.eiderweb.net/safelster/syran/ecumenical.html) is a long way from standard monotheism and the practice of wizardry in the city tends to reflect this.

[Mandrake]

The use of the Abiding Book implies links to the local Monotheistic religion in as much as it is scripture. If you look at the 4 example wizardry schools, the one that does not have a church connection (the Debaldan school) does not have the Abiding Book as a grimoire, the other 3 with church links do.

Whilst I have no arguments at all with schools outside of a church, and indeed am of the view that whilst there might be friction with the local church, in a country where wizardry was the "standard" magic, the "chaotic sorcerer" tag would not be automatic for an unaligned school, I do feel that you can only have the Abiding Book with in a church school.

Of course, there is no need for a member of school to pay anything more than lip service to the monotheistic religion in question, the more religiously inclined will likely have gone the liturgist or orderly route. The scientist analogy works well, there is nothing to stop a scientist having religious beliefs after all.

I assume one of the goals of the characters will be to become adepts, but will they then be going on to become wizards or will the assume other professions? If so, where/when will they gain the skills for this other profession? Perhaps if you are going to give them profession keywords at 13, these could be of the professions they will follow in adulthood/post apprenticeship, and these could develop with them over time (i,.e increase from 13 to 17 as they progress/grow older). In fact the school could include relevant classes, as schools are often tied to a profession or professions.

Finally, on the read/write issue, the implication is that a person would have had to learnt to read and write prior to beginning their apprenticeship.

[Paul Albertella]

...at first I thought like you did that there was some automatic hard link to the Monotheist Church in which the particular school of wizardry happened to fall. But I'm not sure where that comes from, because after re-reading it a couple of times, I'm now convinced that the book intends precisely what you're implying.

Aha! I just went back to the Hero Wars rules for soreceous magic, to see if I could find some more inspiration and I think I may have found where my confusion came from. In this earlier incarnation of the rules, the term 'Wizard' is explicitly used for church leaders and apprentices can join either chapters (which HQ calls Orders) or orders (which HQ terms Schools).

[Paul Albertella]

I assume one of the goals of the characters will be to become adepts, but will they then be going on to become wizards or will the assume other professions?

Woah! That's thinking a bit far ahead for me, I'm afraid. At the pace we play (this is PBEM, after all) I think it's likely to take a while for us to cross that first threshold. You make a good point though: what do you do after graduation? To begin with, at least, I envisage that the new adepts will be journeyman, still very junior members of the school and expected to devote a significant amount of their time to it. They may well adopt (or re-adopt) a mundane profession at this point, but they might equally remain full-time members of the school - just as many university graduates go on to do a post-graduate degree, or similar.

Finally, on the read/write issue, the implication is that a person would have had to learnt to read and write prior to beginning their apprenticeship.

Yep - and in fact the Apprentice keyword already includes Read and Write abilities. Interestingly, I found (in another game) that an Adept character didn't have either of these abilities, so I arbitrarily added them as part of his Magic keyword.

[Mandrake]

Where I was going with the profession thing is that the school might be training potential wizards or it might be training soldier-adepts, merchant-adepts, scribe-adepts etc, so there might be more classes than just the ones for apprentice skills. Indeed, there might be options depending on how the character envisions his future (such as we have optional classes in modern schools) where some people might taking advanced wizardry courses (focused will would be an example) and some might take professional courses.

Taking the Adept Scribes school as an example, I'd envision that most people studying there would either be scribes already or recieve scribe training concurently with their magical education. I can't see them being apprentice wizards first then apprentice scribes afterwards. The ones who were going onto become wizards (likely to remain at the school) might get different training as they would be more magical focused, but the "average" member of the school would be a working scribe imo.

[Paul Albertella]

Where I was going with the profession thing is that the school might be training potential wizards or it might be training soldier-adepts, merchant-adepts, scribe-adepts etc, so there might be more classes than just the ones for apprentice skills.

This is a very good point. One of my schools is part of a larger naval academy and its adepts have an important role in the Sentanos navy, so students will inevitably have some more practical training in sailing and navigation addition to their magical studies. Another school (which was created by one of my players) is concerned with religious iconography, so its apprentices will receive a lot of training in art and symbolism. My other two indigenous schools both lack an obvious practical focus, however, so they will most probably just include some more general scholarly subjects or pure esoterica on the curriculum. Or maybe they could have a day-release programme for students to learn about a non-magical profession that they are planning to follow on graduation. Hmmm....

Useful food for thought. Thanks!

[Mike Holmes]

Wow, lots of cool stuff here.

Paul, one of the demos I run is in Otkorion, and I run it assuming the material on it on the web is correct - in other words, the religion is highly syncretic between the Storm Pantheon and Malkionism. The scenario has an orderly of St. Urox in it, for instance. :-)

Mandrake (just what is your name, anyhow?), I think that the Abiding Book as a grimoire is fascinating, actually. I mean, wizards are not liturgists, they don't have services where they bless people en masse. Oh, I think that they probably can recite the blessings from the book and get the effects from them. But I also think that the clergy probably look askew at them for doing this. That's the feeling I get when playing my Carmanian wizard. Here's a society where the wizards are clamped down on tight by the church, I believe, the head wizards (magi), being also the head of the church. But what's interesting is that part of the historical reason for the clamp-down, is that apparently wizards in the past have used their magics as "Dark Magics." That is, they've fallen into Genestarus (sp?) trap, and used God's magic for evil. So, even in this repressive society, you can still see the separation of certain schools from the church.

To say nothing of the obvious breakaways, like the Spolite witch sorcerers (Ron and I have promised that we'd play a game that dealt with that at some point).

The premise of that game is that we're a group of disenfranchised Lunar soldiers (my character is the unit historian), who are far from home. There are no priests or liturgists or anything like that along. I always get the feeling that at some point some character is going to ask Xerxis to perform the rites in the Abiding Book in such a role...and it's going to be interesting to see how he responds when asked. Most likely it'll be, "B..b..but, I'm not a priest! That would be blasphemous!"

Instead I see his use of the "Spells" of the book as more "technical." He might use "Bless Building" as part of a ritual to enchant a tower (this is a goal for him actually). And Resist Pagan God, and Resist Pagan Spirit, seem pretty much like they'd just be spelly spells for him, yes with religious overtones, but not making him a priest by doing it. It's just magic that he knows how to do. I could even see him doing Lead Prayer as something to do before a battle or ritual, a spell that will help the prayer go where it needs to, to get help.

Will he ever use Bless Marriage? Maybe his own or something. But, again, I think he'd be shocked if somebody asked him to to do a marriage ritual (likely as it might be in his circumstances). That's not to say it wouldn't work if he did. Just that he'd think he was going to go to hell for having abused God's magic so. He's a scholar, not a priest.


Speaking of which, I think you have a great point with the occupation thing. I think that the Magic College in Glamour is supposed to be like this, producing a lot of Adept-warriors and the like. Yes, I think that technically this is stuff learned as a technical Adept - the first grimoire not being about a specialty. But there's nothing to say that a character who has been technically accepted as an Adept doesn't have more schooling to go through before he moves into another occupation.

Here's the key to all of this - you never lose your Apprentice keyword. This is something that's sorta hidden in the rules, but all wizards were once adepts, Paul, so they all have every ability that an apprentice has. What's confusing in the rules is that they sometimes "update," an ability, changing it for the new keyword, or just re-list the ability. But, technically, an initiate doesn't gain a new "Devotee of X" ability, this is a relationship ability that transforms from "Initiate of" to "Devotee of" and the fact that he has "Soul Vision" is not because he's a Devotee, but because he once was an Initiate (OK, actually not a great example, because I believe you can skip Initiate, but generally this is the case).

So where there are pre-requisite occupations or magic keywords, you retain all of the abilities from the prior keyword when taking the more advanced keyword. Thus, all wizards can write because they all learned as Apprentices.

(BTW, I wasn't saying that they'd learn this pre-appreniceship, but in early phases of apprenticeship that probably occured before this particular game Paul is setting up begins. To use the Potter analogy again, reading and writing is for First Years, and the players are playing, I dunno, Fifth Years. You know, getting their Ordinary Wizarding Levels....what? I've read all of the books to my five year old boy).

The point of this, however, is broader. In play, you don't add new occupation keywords. Thus a character who "graduates" from apprentice to adept, doesn't lose his Apprentice occupation keyword. He just starts adding on new abilities that relate to his new occupation. Note, not the keyword, just the abiliites. The only way to get the wizard keyword is to start with it (barring using bizzare rules like I do for keyword development).

The point being that, while such a character is learning the basics of his new occupation as may be taught at the school, he's still a student there. In fact, the point at which a student might fully graduate might be pretty fuzzy. Given that the Adept keyword indicates that the character will keep working for the school part time indefinitely.

And, yeah, why wait till one is an Adept to learn all of this?

You never really fully graduate. You just start doing other things. If you teach at the school, note, you don't become a Wizard per se. You become a scholar or somesuch. Wizards are "magic professionals" who probably do advisory (I like to note that the terms Wizard, Vizier, and Advisor all are from the same root word) work for nobles, or are troubleshooters for communities, etc.

"There's a dragon coming, go get the wizard! He'll know what to do!"

But like you say, there's lots and lots of interesting Adept-Occupation combinations.

Mike

[Paul Albertella]

Paul, one of the demos I run is in Otkorion, and I run it assuming the material on it on the web is correct - in other words, the religion is highly syncretic between the Storm Pantheon and Malkionism. The scenario has an orderly of St. Urox in it, for instance. :-)

Yes, I really enjoyed reading all of the Otkorion material, but I wanted to go for a distinctive flavour of henotheism in Syran and I specifically wanted to avoid the 'familiar' Orlanthi pantheon. I know that a lot of people are flummoxed or irritated by Common Magic and Misapplied Worship, but I'm rather fond of the way these game concepts allows you to 'muddy the waters' of the specialised religions. Hence I have a multiplicity of churches, many of whom grant dedicated members of their congregation Common Magic abilities that ultimately derive from theistic entities such as Ralia (the local earth goiddess), Garzeen Slivertongue (one of Issaries' sons) and of course (this being a self-consciously Stygian church) a bunch of Darkness deities.

I'm also very keen on the many guises of Arkat in Safelster, so I have two separate Orders of Arkat and a whole bunch of Arkati or crypto-Arkati secret societies. There's also an over-arching religion (the Ecumenical Communion) that unites the various churches in their belief that Arkat was a prophet alongside Malkion and Hrestol, who added a further revalation (Regency of the Powers) to their Solace of the Body and Joy of the Heart.

Here's the key to all of this - you never lose your Apprentice keyword...
So where there are pre-requisite occupations or magic keywords, you retain all of the abilities from the prior keyword when taking the more advanced keyword. Thus, all wizards can write because they all learned as Apprentices.

Simple when you think about it that way. This makes a lot of sense.

To use the Potter analogy again, reading and writing is for First Years, and the players are playing, I dunno, Fifth Years. You know, getting their Ordinary Wizarding Levels....what? I've read all of the books to my five year old boy).

No need to explain or justify - I have all of the books (mostly in hardback) and no children (yet - one due v soon) as an excuse. Harry Potter taps directly into my inner child, who grew up reading Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, Alan Garner, TH White and the like before becoming obsessed with SF/Fantasy. Can't wait for the last book!

You never really fully graduate. You just start doing other things. If you teach at the school, note, you don't become a Wizard per se. You become a scholar or somesuch. Wizards are "magic professionals" who probably do advisory (I like to note that the terms Wizard, Vizier, and Advisor all are from the same root word) work for nobles, or are troubleshooters for communities, etc.

A useful distinction. I'm envisaging a range of ranks within the schools, starting with Journeyman and not necessarily culminating in Wizard. Again, this will be very much school-specific.

Lots more to write and think about! Hoorah!

[Mike Holmes]

Yeah, I think it'll be fun to see how it develops in terms of the differences between the school. Heh, the naval academy one...think of the hazing in a wizardry school for the navy! Real life navies are weird enough without the magic. Consider the "shellback" ritual, for instance.

One thing to consider is a more "hedge wizard" sort of "school." Like just one wizard in his ruined tower out on the fringe with his assistant, and their five apprentices. Of course, this wizard is the most talented in the land, but very eccentric...

You writing this all up somewhere? I've got to try it.

Mike

[Paul Albertella]

Heh, the naval academy one...think of the hazing in a wizardry school for the navy! Real life navies are weird enough without the magic. Consider the "shellback" ritual, for instance.

I've just been reading about this "shellback" thing on Wikipedia. Cool! I hadn't really thought about hazing and the like yet, but it's another rich seam of material to mine.

One thing to consider is a more "hedge wizard" sort of "school." Like just one wizard in his ruined tower out on the fringe with his assistant, and their five apprentices. Of course, this wizard is the most talented in the land, but very eccentric...

A very appealing idea. I'm not sure that it'll fit into my particular game scenario, but if I do want to write this all up as a generic set of apprentice rules then this kind of setup is definitely going to have to be considered...

You writing this all up somewhere? I've got to try it.

Naturally :-)