- Choose how many complete cycles (N), up to 4, have passed since apprenticeship (0 ≤ N ≤ 4).
- Roll a simple die and divide by 2.
- Advance your magus/a N cycles plus up to the rolled number of years. (Yes, fractions of years are OK.) You may choose group these to be either N or N+1 cycles.
- Use a system based off the Andorra system, with 10 experience/season.
- Your magus/a gets 40-10N pawns of personal resources as a bonus. You should come up with some explanations of these, such as gifts or an inheritance from your parens, donations sought from your House to pursue this venture, proceeds from work you've done and bargained for well, etc. You can use these resources during development, save them for afterward, or any mix you would like. You as a player get to choose 40-10N pawns of resources for the covenant. These do not belong to your character, they belong to the covenant; but you are welcome to choose things that may benefit your character more than others. Use the provided price list for this.
Advancement:
In a Season, you may…
- Take 10 experience Advancement (average quality of the average abstract source is 10)
- Work in the Lab (normal rules, including gaining Exposure experience)
- Earn extra Vis Wages (3 pawns per season of any Form, gaining Exposure experience)
- Do anything else that requires a season's worth of time (write a book, copy texts, run errands, go on vacation, visit your relatives, etcetera). You gain Exposure experience for this as well as for the results of your activities.
In the four Seasons of a Year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) (averaged out over a cycle is OK), you may…
- Take up to 3 seasons Advancement
- Work up to 3 seasons in the Lab
- Earn one season of Vis Wages
- Do whatever else that fits
- You Must take 1 point of Warping.
- You Must take 1 additional point of Warping for each continuous effect you have running such as a Longevity Ritual
A Cycle is an average of about almost 5 years of abstract development (the actual length of a cycle may vary between 3 and 7 years, so long as you average close to 5 across your N cycles plus rolled years). Regardless of the adjusted length, each Cycle you may…
- Draw a Vis Salary of 20 pawns of any Form of vis. You may spend or use this vis at any point in the cycle. This is in place of the core book's suggestion for available vis.
- Gain up to 3 points of Virtues from a Mystery, Adventure, or other appropriate source (see below).
- Describe a Major event in your life (the frequency of Major life events may serve as a guide to vary cycle length).
- You Must lose a season somewhere due to miscellaneous whatever.
- You must take a point of Warping for some reason that is certain to happen sooner or later. Take more if there is a good reason (such as a related Flaw).
Other Considerations
- No more than 1/4 of the total experience you spend may be placed in any one Ability or Art at character creation.
- Sources: Learning methods are all averaged out, so the specifics are not relevant. You may not buy a book nor hire a teacher during pre-game advancement. If you possess a Virtue that affects how many xp you gain from a study source (such as Apt Student or Book Learner), add 20xp per Cycle of Development. This is invariable no matter how you tweak things. If you have two such virtues, add 30xp. If you have three then you are really pushing it, but that would add 35xp per cycle. For further consideration, there are certain Virtues & Flaws that may not mesh well with this advancement system. Though they operate fine in regular play, for pregame development they are modified as follows…
- Secondary Insight: The bonus xp are gained whenever the relevant Art reaches a score of 4, again at 6, and again at each point of increase beyond that.
- Free Study/Unimaginative Learner: Because study from vis requires a roll, it is treated as an independent seasonal activity, much like lab work.
- As a young developing magus, it is presumed you have access to a Standard Lab in a Magic Aura of 5. No further concern is needed unless you wish to tinker with this.
- During Development, it is presumed you have access to Lab Texts for spells from printed canon. It is not that you had access to every spell, just the ones you happened to be researching. Other spells and variants will need to be invented from scratch. The same shall apply for texts concerning Charged Items and Lesser Enchantments.
- Certain Virtues grant bonus experience during character creation. Examples include Warrior, Educated, Arcane Lore, Hermetic Experience, Skilled Parens, Well Traveled, etcetera. Treat these as more than just a bonus to your char-gen package. They are part of your characters essential history. They include contacts and ties to your past; an eclectic cabal, old army buddies, a university, etc. This is not to be treated as a Story Flaw or an extra Virtue. It is just a resource that gives as good as it gets. Complementary Virtues and Flaws may be taken to accentuate your past experience.
- Aging: Make Aging rolls as normal to check for apparent aging or actual aging, with a +1 Living Conditions modifier (unless you enhance your lab to improve that).
- Familiars: Spend 1 season to find an appropriate animal/being, which you must magically capable of binding at the time you find it. Not only does that limit its Might, but the Might must also be no more than half the Lab Total with which you bind it the following season. Those Might limits assume a Spring season Familiar run by another person; subtract 5 from that limit for each season beyond Spring, and subtract 5 from that limit to take control of the Familiar more as an extension of your mage. Spend lab seasons as normal to work on the bond. After binding Familiars gain 5 experience per season as a simple overall average. Consider all Familiars to be Companions in terms of what may be selected, but try to avoid Story Flaws. No Transformation may be done prior to the start of the game.
- Talismans: Buy components with vis as necessary, assuming more ordinary components are free. Spend lab seasons as normal to work on it.
- Distilling Vis: Vis distilled from an Aura is a separate Lab activity.
Gaining new Virtues & Flaws
Basic rule
In a given Cycle, you may gain up to 3 points of new Virtues &/or Flaws from Mysteries or Adventures. This requires discretion, and should not be indulged in every Cycle (unless you are part of a Mystery Cult). New Virtues & Flaws may also result from Warping, Twilight, and other miscellaneous circumstances.
For Mysteries and Adventures, the basic formula involves an investment of Time and XP. Base Time os one season, plus another season for each point of Vitue gained. This may be reduced by incorporating up to Three points of Flaws, each point reducing the required time by one season to a minimum Time requirement of one season. The XP cost is ten times the Virtue points gained, unaffected by Flaws. Participation in a Mystery Cult that teaches this Virtue reduces the cost by 5xp per point of your score in the appropriate Cult Lore.
Time Required = One Season plus One Season per Virtue Point, minus One Season per Flaw Point.
XP Required = Ten times the Virtue points, minus (Cult Lore x 5)
Maximum of 3 points of Virtues &/or Flaws, Minimum Time Requirement of One Season.
Permutations
An allowance for MinMaxing, you may convert Time into XP or visa-versa. You may do this to best take advantage of your Cult Lore or for including more Flaws than Virtues, in order to fit within ratio limits of XP gain/expenditure, and etcetera. For magi, one season = 10xp, so flipped around either way, the formula can be look at as…
Cost in XP = 10 + (20 per Virtue Point) - (10 per Flaw point), - (Cult Lore x 5). Maximum 3 points Virtues/Flaws, Minimum cost 10xp
OR
Cost in Time = Seasons equal to the formula above divided by 10 (round up)
For the purpose of these formulas, reducing/improving/increasing/removing a Virtue or Flaw counts as equal to the change in points. For example: Removing a Minor Flaw counts as 1 Virtue Point. Reducing a Major Flaw to Minor or Improving a Minor Virtue to Major counts as 2 Virtue Points. Removing a Major Flaw counts as 3 Virtue Points. Then Removing a Minor Virtue is 1 Flaw point, Increasing a Minor Flaw to Major or Reducing a Major Virtue to Minor is 2 Flaw Points, and Removing a Major Virtue is 3 Flaw Points.
Changing a Virtue or Flaw into another Virtue or Flaw also counts as equal to the value of the change. So Changing a Minor Virtue into another Minor Virtue is 0 Virtue points, changing a Minor Flaw into a Minor Virtue is 2 Virtue points, and so on. You can only change one Virtue &/or one Flaw in such a transaction, regardless of their value, and you may not include further additions.
Adventures
You may use a tale of grand adventure to justify new Virtues and Flaws once, possibly a second time if developed three or more cycles and the story written up for it is good. This is usually something non-magical, but it doesn't have to be. Examples gaining a General Virtue or resolving a Story Flaw. In any case though, any new traits must be a plausible result of the story and are acceptable if they are. So major supernatural encounters can rationally justify new magical traits.
Because this is limited to one time only (maybe twice), this is the only method allowed for gaining XP related Virtues (such as Warrior or Educated) or changing Social Status.
Mysteries
A Cult Score of 1 is required for your first Initiation, a score of 3 for your second, and an additional point for each Initiation thereafter. The required XP cost is reduced by 5x your score in that Cult Lore, as mentioned above.
Initiation Scripts in printed cannon may supersede the limits and guidelines given here. Just follow what they say.
Cabal Legacy allows you to start with one Initiation for free (as part of your initial Virtue & Flaw balance). In addition, you qualify for an Initiation with each point of your score in that Cult Lore.
Note that further moving along the same Mystery Virtue (e.g. refining the Inner Heartbeast, different Transformations for Becoming) are handled as laboratory seasons or similar rather than totally new Initiations. So they are not numerically restricted, but you do have to invest the necessary seasons and vis to progress this way.
Warping
For non-magi with Warping, simply apply normal rules (Minor Flaw gained when Warping Score reaches 1, again at 3, Minor Virtue at a score of 5, Major Flaw for each point thereafter).
For Magi, refer to Twilight.
Twilight
The theory is that, in the short term, the typical magus will have (on average) an equal number of Good and Bad effects from Twilight. These may include new Virtues &/or Flaws (up to 3 points either/each), gaining/loosing knowledge or spells, and etcetera. To incorporate Twilight into Development, simply choose an even number of Warping points (up to 24 in a Cycle), and divide between Good & Bad Effects (including Scars for two or more episodes). This requires no xp and the time is considered washed in the abstract of the season (until you reach a Warping score of 6). Certain characters may have special traits that may justify more Twilight points or adjusting the ratio of good/bad effects. Use common sense and troupe guidance.