Grogs

These rules are intended to replace the Ars Magica rules as written for grogs with the following goals:


 * Grog creation should take five minutes or less.
 * Grogs should be modestly-powerful assistants with obnoxious personality tics.
 * When grogs are injured, recovery should be quick and easy to calculate.
 * Maintaining a grog over their natural life should be easy and simple.

Grog Creation Rules
During gameplay, grogs integrate into the same systems as magi and companions. However, because they are intended to be far more numerous (and have higher mortality rates), they need to be easy to make quickly.

Name, Sex, and Origin
Write 'em down!

Birth Year, Aging Years
The first thing to establish for a grog is when they are born. After writing this year down, establish the following through addition: These may be modified by virtues (Faerie Blood) or a Longevity Ritual, but otherwise will always stay at these values.
 * Middle Age: 1d10 +35
 * Old Age: Middle Age +20
 * Mortal Age: Old Age +20

Native Language
Write down the character's native language (based on Origin). For grogs, this is not tracked like other Abilities. They are assumed to be fluent in this language, but are not assumed to be able to read and write it unless they have Artes Liberales.

Personality Flaw
All grogs have (only) one minor personality flaw and have special rules governing how they come into play.

Grogs are, by nature, screwballs. Every one of them has a minor personality flaw. While companions and magi take the limelight and their various personality flaws play out through the nuances of their actions, grogs typically stay in the background, manifesting their flaws through rare, spectacular outbursts of impropriety and incompetence.

Each player may, once per game session, use any grog under their control to cause problem for either a) an individual companion or magus of another player or b) a group of companions and magi as a whole. This must play out either as a -5 Penalty to a roll of consequence or to a shift in circumstances that hampers an individual's/the group's goals (GM's discretion, should be equivalent to +5 on an important Ease Factor). If a roll is penalized or Ease Factor is raised, Confidence may not be used to ameliorate the impact of the grog's bumbling.

The inconvenienced party receives a Confidence Point for their suffering. If the entire group was inconvenienced, the troupe or GM may decide who receives it, but it should not be the player controlling the offending grog.

Additionally, the player who caused the mishap receives 1 additional adventure XP (for the magus or companion they are playing) at the end of the session which may be assigned to any ability and can go above and beyond the normal 5 point spending limit.

N.B.: It is perfectly valid for a player to have reasonably close covenfolk stumble into a scene to cause problems!


 * Busybody
 * Carefree
 * Compulsion
 * Continence
 * Covenant Upbringing
 * Delusion
 * Depressed
 * Dutybound
 * Faerie Upbringing
 * Fear
 * Higher Purpose
 * Humble
 * Judged Unfairly
 * Lost Love
 * Noncombatant
 * Obsessed
 * Oversensitive
 * Nocturnal
 * Pessimistic
 * Poor Memory
 * Prohibition
 * Reckless
 * Reclusive
 * Short Attention Span
 * Simple-Minded
 * Sheltered Upbringing
 * Soft-Hearted
 * Temperate
 * Transvestite
 * Vow
 * Weakness
 * Weak-Willed

Characteristics
As with any other character, grogs have 7 points to spend on positive Characteristics and can take up to 7 points in negative Characteristics that can then be spent to raise Characteristics further. The following common point spreads are taken from the Grogs sourcebook for easy allocation:

Virtues and Flaws
Modifications to the core virtues are listed here. Any virtue struck through is unavailable for grogs. This is to simplify both their creation and maintenance. As in the core rules, grogs may only have minor Virtues and Flaws, but unlike the core rules, they may only have up to 2 in each.

All grogs must have a minor personality flaw, leaving only one minor flaw from another category.

Supernatural Virtues
 * Animal Ken
 * Dowsing
 * Enchanting Music
 * Lesser Immunity
 * Lesser Purifying Touch
 * Magic Sensitivity
 * Premonitions
 * Second Sight
 * Sense Holiness and Unholiness
 * Skinchanger
 * Wilderness Sense

Social Virtues - Due to how abilities are assigned to and advance for grogs, only the social aspects of these virtues apply.
 * Clerk
 * Covenfolk (Free)
 * Craftsman (Free)
 * Custos
 * Failed Apprentice
 * Gentleman/woman
 * Knight
 * Mendicant Friar
 * Merchant (Free)
 * Peasant (Free)
 * Priest
 * Wanderer (Free)
 * Wise One

General Virtues - All virtues associated with experience gain are invalid due to how grogs advance Abilities.
 * Berserk
 * Cautious with Ability
 * Clear Thinker
 * Enduring Constitution
 * Faerie Blood - As written, but instead of -1 to aging rolls, +10 to all aging years.
 * Famous
 * Free Expression
 * Good Teacher
 * Gossip
 * Great (Characteristic)
 * Inspirational
 * Keen Vision
 * Large
 * Light Touch
 * Lightning Reflexes
 * Long-Winded
 * Luck
 * Perfect Balance
 * Piercing Gaze
 * Protection
 * Puissant Ability
 * Rapid Convalescence - For grogs, this directly reduces recovery time (see Recovery).
 * Relic
 * Reserves of Strength
 * Self-Confident
 * Sharp Ears
 * Social Contacts
 * Strong-Willed
 * Tough
 * Troupe Upbringing
 * Unaging - The grog does not acquire Characteristic penalties but may still die at Mortal Age.
 * Venus’ Blessing

Supernatural Flaws
 * Lesser Malediction
 * Offensive to Animals
 * Visions

General Flaws
 * Afflicted Tongue
 * Arthritis
 * Clumsy
 * Disfigured
 * Fragile Constitution - For grogs, this directly increases recovery time (see Recovery).
 * Hunchback
 * Incomprehensible
 * Infamous
 * Lame
 * Missing Ear
 * Missing Eye
 * Missing Hand
 * Motion Sickness
 * No Sense of Direction
 * Obese
 * Offensive to Animals
 * Palsied Hands
 * Poor (Characteristic)
 * Poor Eyesight
 * Poor Hearing
 * Poor Student
 * Small Frame
 * Social Handicap
 * Tainted with Evil

Social Flaws - Due to how abilities are assigned to and advance for grogs, only the social aspects of these virtues apply.
 * Branded
 * Criminal Outcast

Abilities
Ability allocation is drastically simplified for grogs. All grogs are classified as a Generalist or a Specialist. This classification determines how their abilities are focused. When writing down a grog's abilities, instead of listing abilities with individual scores, you write down the categories (Generalist or Non-Specialist and Specialist) with scores and list abilities beneath them. All abilities a grog has in a category have the same score. Certain Arcane abilities (e.g. Parma Magica) may not make sense for most grogs and Supernatural abilities still require the attendant Virtue. Grog abilities do not have Specializations.

N.B.: For purposes of ability classification,  languages may be considered Living (and, therefore, General) if they are "alive" where the grog lived during adolescence.

Generalists
Most grogs in the covenant are generalists. They competently perform a variety of tasks around the covenant at the same level of ability.

or
 * 6 abilities at a score of 2.
 * 4 abilities at a score of 3.

Specialist
These grogs split abilities between Non-Specialist and Specialist categories.

or
 * 3 Non-Specialist abilities at a score of 3.
 * 2 Specialist abilities at a score of 4.
 * 1 Specialist ability at a score of 5.

Equipment
Grog equipment is simplified into broad categories. They have two categories of armor (Light/Cloth and Heavy/Metal), one type of shield, and four types of weapons (Single, Great, Thrown, and Bow). Strength, Load, and Cost are never considered for grog equipment, instead replaced by a flat Encumbrance penalty that cannot be lessened through Strength. Upkeep is listed for players using Covenants rules.

Recovery
Using Ars Badgame house rules for wounds, grogs recover from wounds at the following rates:


 * 1 Wound - 1 Week (Chirurgy or Medicine: Ease Factor 5 or base CrCo L2 for 1 Day)
 * 2 Wounds - 1 Month (Chirurgy or Medicine: Ease Factor 10 or base CrCo L4 for 1 Week)
 * 3 Wounds - 1 Season (Chirurgy or Medicine: Ease Factor 15 or base CrCo L10 for 1 Month)
 * Incapacitated - 1 Year (Chirurgy or Medicine: Ease Factor 20 or base CrCo L15 for 1 Season)

All wounds heal concurrently.

A grog with Rapid Convalescence automatically reduces Recovery Time by one category (minimum of 1 Day). A grog with Fragile Constitution automatically increases Recovery Time by one category (1 Year goes to 2 Years).

Advancement and Aging
Grogs do not gain experience or age like other characters. When a grog hits Middle, Old, and Mortal Age, they gain set bonuses and penalties. They do not roll for Crises until they reach Mortal Age. Characters with the Unaging virtue do not gain the Characteristic penalties.

Characteristics:

 * Middle Age: -1 to any Characteristic
 * Old Age: 2*-1 to any Characteristic
 * Mortal Age: 3*-1 to any Characteristic

Abilities:

 * Middle Age Generalists: +3 to all (if 6) or +4 (if 4).
 * Middle Age Specialists: +1 to all Non-Specialist, +3 to Specialist (if 2) or +4 (if 1).
 * Old Age Generalists: +2 to all (if 6) or +3 (if 4).
 * Old age Specialists: +1 to all Non-Specialist, +2 to Specialist (if 2) or +3 (if 1).
 * Mortal Age Generalists: +1 to all (if 6) or +2 (if 4).
 * Mortal Age Specialists: +1 to all Non-Specialist, +1 to Specialist (if 2) or +2 (if 1).

At Mortal Age, grogs roll for a Crisis every year and are considered to start with a Decrepitude of 2. This means grogs will live no more than 3 years past their Mortal Age.

Extremely kind-hearted magi may create Longevity Rituals for beloved grogs. This has the effect of pushing up the grog's remaining age thresholds by 2 years for every point of bonus that would normally be granted by the ritual. However, it cannot undo the effects of aging and once a grog has reached Mortal Age and suffers a Crisis, nothing can be done for them.

Sample Grog
Bernard (Male, Burgundy, Specialist)

Born: 1320 (Mid: 1358, Old: 1378, Mort: 1398)

Native Language: French

Personality Flaw: Short Attention Span

Characteristics:

Str +2, Dex +2, Sta +2, Qik +1, Int -1, Per -3, Com +1, Pre +2

Virtues: Puissant Ability (Stealth), Tough

Flaw: Missing Ear

Abilities:

Non-Specialist: 3 - Carouse, Italian, Swim

Specialist: 4 - Single Weapon, Stealth

Equipment:

Light/Cloth Armor (+3, 1 Enc)

Single Weapon (+1/+3/+1/+5)

Shield (+3)

Init: +1

Attack: +9

Defend: +9

Damage: +7

Soak: +8