The Order of Hermes has a significant line of communication, something that sets it apart from medieval society in general. With the ease of communication the Redcap network provides, the Medieval passion for letters provides ready source of correspondence between magi.
In the Theban Tribunal, this correspondence is a fact of life. Magi who do not participate are often looked down upon. There are two types: personal correspondence between two magi; and circulars, correspondence that is added to at each covenant.
A magus may write a number of letters equal to half his Com + Scribe total (round up) in a year, without affecting his ability to work in the laboratory. If a magus devotes an entire season purely to writing letters, he may write a number equal to his Com + Scribe total. These letters are long and detailed, not just casual notes between acquaintances.
There are two types of letter that a magus can write. The first is a highly abbreviated Lab Text. Anyone in possession of one of these letters may duplicate the laboratory project described, and gets a bonus to his Lab Total equal to the magnitude of the author's Magic Theory score. This sort of letter is popular in House Bonisagus, as it is considered to fulfill their obligation to make their research public without taking too much of their time away from the lab. If the invention described in their letter involves NonHermetic knowledge of original research it may require access to other material detailing this in order to be duplicated.
The second type of letter is part of an ongoing correspondence with another magus. Each correspondence consists of twelve letters on either side, and these must alternate. Each correspondence has a subject, which can be either a magical Art or a knowledge. Each correspondent must have a basic grounding in the subject of the correspondence: a score of five in an Art or a score of three in a Knowledge. The correspondents must each write at least one letter per year, of the correspondence is to be of value. A magus writes letters at a constant rate during the year. The time taken for a Redcap to deliver is not a problem in the Theban Tribunal as it will be delivered within two months (usually less) if the Covenant is in good standing.
When the correspondence is complete (each magus has sent and received twelve letters), each correspondent gains a number of experience points in the subject of correspondence. The number is the same as would be gained from studying a tractatus with a Quality equal to the other correspondent's Com + Scribe. For every full five points by which the other magus's score in an Art exceeds yours, or every two points in a Knowledge, add one to the effective Quality. If the relative scores in Arts have changed during the period of the correspondence, use the greatest difference.
Further, each correspondent gains one experience point in the appropriate Casual Lore. For magi, this will be Hermetic Lore. If a magus is corresponding with a cleric, the cleric will gain an experience point in Hermetic Lore, while the magus will gain a point in Church Lore. This reflects the bits of information about the correspondent's life that will be woven into his writing.
Other people may study the correspondence as a text on the subject. In order to do this, they must have access to all twenty-four letters, in the same place, and they must spend a season studying the text. The Quality of the text is equal to the lower of the two Com + Scribe totals of the author, and the reader gains no bonus from the relative scores in the subject, because the text is not geared specifically to answer her questions.
Circulars are something unique to the Theban tribunal. A magus will begin a discussion, sending it via Redcap. Others reply to it, and then reply to the replies, building a long discussion. In our Saga, there are two types of circulars: an open discussion on Hermetic political topics and circulars upon a particular Knowledge or Art.
Open political discussions require a small, but constant amount of attention to the dispatches carried by each Redcap that visits each covenant. This is considered to be an irritation by the less politically-oriented magi, as it always at least seems to affect their studies. Most magi, however, accept this as a fact of life in the Theban Tribunal.
To reflect this constant drain of time, a magus who elects to keep abreast of political events and voice his opinions and comments in short missives must reduce their Study or Laboratory totals by a total of ten, which is distributed as they choose over their seasonal activities for the year. Although Recaps bring the missives in discrete packets, this distributed penalty reflects background research, theoretical musings, and regent preparation done at other times during the year to compensate for occasional interruptions.
Each year which a magus elects to take this penalty, he or she gains experience in Theban Tribunal Lore as if they had a complete season of Exposure (as per the Exposure rules on p. 187 of ArM4). Particularly sadistic StoryGuides may elect to inflict experience penalties on Tribunal Lore for magi who do not participate in the political circular. Once the magus has reached a score of four or higher in their Tribunal Lore, they need only distribute a penalty of five across their seasonal researches to avoid experience loss, as they have learned what missives to discard out of hand and which to pay attention to.
For example, Machiavelli of Jerbiton decides to participate in the political circular during 1187. He reads an Ignem summa, finishes an enchanted item, copies a series of texts, and studies from some Imagonem vis during the year. He elects to take a penalty of -3 Quality to he Ignem summa, a lab penalty of -5 to his enchanted item (he's almost done), and a penalty of -2 to the vis study. At the end of 1187, he gains two experience points in Theban Tribunal Lore, brining him to a four. This means that he need only take a total of -5 to his activites in 1188 if he wishes to stay abreast of events.
Alternatively, a magus with time on his hands can spend that time preparing for other activities that year (or completing research which had been left incomplete). Such will eliminate one point of penalty for each two days of free time spent. Note that a magus cannot spend the ten "free" days he or she gets each season in this manner.
Knowledge and Art circulars have a smaller distribution than the political circular, both because the subject matter is generally of limited interest and because an overlarge distribution broadens the focus of discussion to the point of uselessness. Thus, the maximum number of participants that can participate in a circular on a Knowledge or Art is equal to the highest Communication plus the Knowledge under discussion in the circle, although exceptional cases may be allowed by the StoryGuide. Further, a correspondent needs a firm grounding in the material to participate; in game terms, the magus needs a three in a Knowledge or a five in an Art.
It takes approximately three days per unread letter to read new correspondence in a circular and compose a response. If a circular is just in the process of starting (with only one or two letters in the chain as of yet), each correspondent must still spend the same amount of time as if there were a complete set of letters to read. This time is instead spent ironing out the logistics of the circular with the various other prospective correspondents with short letters and the like.
Since most participants in a circular are anxious to see how their thoughts are received, it is either a politically ignorant or impressively prestigious magus who ignores a waiting circular intentionally. The political backlash as a result of such an action could be severe. As a result, projected laboratory projects, other readings, apprentice training, and the like are often postponed. Of course, a valid excuse is generally accepted, as circulars are frequently known to come when the magus is out of the covenant, in Twilight, in the midst of a delicate laboratory project, or otherwise indisposed.
Note that a magus doesn't have to respond to a circular immediately, but rather, he is generally expected to do so at his or her earliest possible convenience. This is most often at the very end of the season the letter is received or at the very beginning of the next season. Subsequent activities that season are reduced in the normal fashion (by one point in excess of the first ten lost to adventuring and the like). A magus may spend the remaining days of the season as he sees fit, although the effects of those actions are subject to StoryGuide approval.
Should a magus decide to spend the remainder of his time in a season writing letters (as per the other correspondence rules), the circular counts as two letters written, although a magus with a Com + Scribe total of one or less can always write his response to a circular in one season or less.
Each participant must write a certain number of letters before he or she can really benefit from the discussion. After a participant has written a number of letters in a circular equal to (30 / (number of participants)), rounded down, he or she gains a number of experience as if he had read a tractatus with a Quality equal to the average Com + Scribe of all of the members of the circle. As with one-on-one correspondence, each participant also gets an experience point an appropriate Casual Knowledge.
Like correspondence between two authors, circulars can be collected into texts for others to read and learn from. Due to the frequent lack of previous letters and the abrupt termination of the correspondence in such a collection, however, a full thirty or more consecutive letters are required for a complete compilation. Treat such a compilation as a tractatus with a Quality equal to the average of the participants' Com + Scribe, and reduce the Quality by one for each letter less than thirty which is not included. Assuming that there are at least thirty letters, the reader also gains an experience point in an appropriate Casual Knowledge determined by the collector of the correspondence at the time of the correspondence's collection.
Collected correspondence (both circulars and personal correspondence) on Arts is a special case, however. Due to the complexities of Hermetic magic and the fact that letters on the Arts are tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the correspondents, the effective Quality of the correspondence for those who read the correspondence is halved. Thus, if two Criamon were corresponding on Vim, and the lower Com + Scribe total of the two were nine, all magi who read the collected correspondence of the two would treat it as a source of Quality five.
Last modified: Tues Jan 5, 1999 / Jeremiah Genest