Designing Your Own Grand Project

The six Hermetic projects presented in this book are just the start of what's possible, and every troupe may develop their own grand projects relating directly to events, characters, or situations in their own sagas. Developing such a project is not simply about designing a number of related effects. A grand project may occupy the magi involved for a number of years and will present challenges along the way. So here is a walk-through of a project showing the major steps you might want to consider when designing your own project.

First, you need to define what the project is. This will include working out the motivation behind the project and its ultimate goal. This provides the direction and helps to keep the stories, challenges, and laboratory work focused toward the outcome. This is likely to arise from events already underway in your saga.

Exempli Gratia: For the purposes of this walkthrough, let's assume that we have a covenant in the turbulent Roman Tribunal, in the wealthy city of Verona. The covenant is beset on all sides by jealous neighbors both mundane and Hermetic. Fearful of an attack on their city, the magi decide to magically fortify it.

Some projects, such as building a covenant inside a volcano, require a specific location. Others can be performed out of the magus' laboratory. So the troupe should decide whether they need to settle in a new location. Finding and securing such a location might present story opportunities as the magi lay the foundations for their project.

Magi undertaking significant projects are rarely able to work independently. They will need assistance, if not from other magi, then from mundanes. The Hermetic shipwright, for instance, needs a team of carpenters and laborers in order to build his ships. Other projects may require the magus to learn specific Arts or spells, and suitable books must be found and bargained for. And then there is the question of how to fund the project, both in terms of silver to pay for supplies and services, and vis for the enchantment of devices.

Exampli Gratia: Following our example, with the magi already based in and wanting to fortify Verona, it is clear that they will conduct their project from the city itself. But while the limited pockets of magical aura have so far been tolerable, the magi search for something larger and more powerful. If they do find a stronger magical aura, there's a risk that something else has already laid claim to it.

All of the covenant's magi have committed to this project, but they decide they have no alternative but to skirt the Code of Hermes and approach the city leaders for support and funding; the magi know they will need to buy vis and other supplies, and for that they will need money.

The troupe should then decide upon the steps toward completing the project. This may, as with the Hermetic Shipyard, include creating a dedicated laboratory. It will certainly include creating multiple spells, rituals, and enchantments. This stage also determines how you know when you've accomplished your goal as each planned part of the project reaches fruition.

Exampli Gratia: The Verona covenant decides that they need to enchant the city gates in order to strengthen them against siege activity. Similarly, they create a ritual to do the same to the city walls. As they also anticipate magical attacks, they train a group of grogs and appoint a Parma Magica specialist from among the magi charged with protecting these grogs. Further parts of the project see enchanted siege engines being created as well as tall, slender towers within the city, from which all of Verona can be seen. And from these towers, variants of subtle destructive spells, all with Sight range, can be rained down on attacking forces.

And, of course, no long-term project would be complete without story potential. Each stage of the project — finding the location, securing supplies, gaining allies and support, etc. — is an opportunity to make story every bit as important to the project as laboratory time.

Exampli Gratia: The magi of Verona have already had to find a larger and stronger magical aura within Verona, negotiate support from the city itself, and forge links with foreign magi to secure a supply of vis. The city may expect more out of the arrangement than the magi anticipated, or the supply lines with their foreign allies may be interrupted or discovered by their enemies. Nearby rivals and enemies may learn of the fortification and stage preemptive attacks, testing the defenses before they are ready. Or new allies may be found, eager to gain similar defenses against mutual enemies. The culminating story of the project will be in putting the long years of work to the test: an attack on Verona by Hermetic rivals under the cover of a mundane siege. The fate of the covenant — perhaps even Verona itself — is then decided by the years of preparation that came before.

And so the creation of a grand project is not simply a device to account for a magus' time. It provides direction to a magus' study, and can be used by both storyguide and troupe to tell stories that directly relate back to that magus, his covenant, his tribunal, or even the Order.