Apprentice Training Schedules

[size=85]Salve Sodales,
Here's the Training Schedule I use to teach my apprentices, it ensures that they have all the basic requirements of House Verditius, and are well grounded and known amongst the coven-folk as well as in the mundane world around them. This should hopefully lead to less of the grogs having morale issues. Please go over it and suggest any changes that you might think necessary, and indeed your own training schedules.

Basic concepts/assumptions
Librum Access Levels :
0 - Not allowed to enter.
1 - Entry only, no book access. (dusting, message running etc.)
2 - Apprentice section allowed, copying only.
3 - Apprentice section allowed.
4 - Journeyman section allowed, copying only.
5 - Journeyman section allowed.
6 - Master section allowed, arts only.
7 - Master section allowed, abilities only.
8 - Master section allowed, spells only.
9 - Adept section allowed, parens veto.
10 - Full Library access.

[Think of Duties as being mini story quests that teach a skill, or grant a benefit. This creates the pattern of Initiation. All Duties grant a Perk if completed. Choose the most appropriate perk for the duty completed.]

If they do not take the free season, then they are required to assist in the laboratory, or another task as set by the parens. (Remember exposure xp!)
They can only take one of the free season options per year, and only if there is still a season left for them to take it in. They cannot carry a free season over to another year.
If the apprentice cannot learn anything further from that teacher in that art, the teacher is encouraged to round-out the apprentice by teaching another art instead.

Year Zero (If uneducated in Latin, Artes Liberales and Philosophiae) Librum Access Level 0.
Apprentice is taught L: Latin
Apprentice is taught Artes Liberales
Apprentice is taught Philosophiae
DUTIES :
1/ Learn about the people around you, what do they need, what do they want, who is friendly but nasty, who is gruff but friendly?
2/ Learn sufficient Latin to be able to hold a mundane conversation with another covenant magus.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of a mundane ability of the apprentice's choice.
One half Lb of Silver.

END YEAR 0, Local Population and Area Lore Examination. If successful, Librum access increases by 1.

Year One. - Librum Access Level 1.
Apprentice is opened to the Arts
Apprentice is taught the technique of Creo
Apprentice is taught P: Scribe
DUTIES :
1/ Assisting the grogs and turb with maintenance duties. (aka Cooking, Cleaning & Tidying.)
2/ Caring for the magical goods on sale in the parens' Studio.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One Lb of Silver.

Year Two. - Librum Access Level 2.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Intellego
Apprentice is taught Verditius Cult Lore
Apprentice is taught the basics of Hermetic Magic Theory
DUTIES :
1/ Copying/Studying in the Library.
2/ Assisting the grogs and turb with maintenance duties.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One Lb of Silver.

Year Three. - Librum Access Level 2.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Muto
Apprentice is taught Verditius Cult Lore
Apprentice is trained in the basics of a Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Copying/Studying in the Library.
2/ Train with the Turb.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One Lb of Silver.

Year Four. - Librum Access Level 2.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Perdo
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Rego
Apprentice is taught Hermetic Magic Theory.
DUTIES :
1/ Copying/Studying in the Library.
2/ Go shopping for supplies, with a responsible member of the turb. (and several irresponsible ones!)
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One Lb of Silver.

Year Five. - Librum Access Level 2.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Corpus or Vim
DUTIES :
1/ Copying/Studying in the Library.
2/ Joining the local church or craft guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One Lb of Silver.

END YEAR 5, Mundane Ethics Examination. If successful, Librum access increases by 1.

Year Six. - Librum Access Level 3.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Assisting the local church or craft guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One and a Half Lb of Silver.

Year Seven. - Librum Access Level 3.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Assisting the local church or craft guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One and a Half Lb of Silver.

Year Eight. - Librum Access Level 3.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Assisting the local church or craft guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
One and a Half Lb of Silver.

Year Nine. - Librum Access Level 3.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Practicing your Craft Skill.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
Cash from sale of Craft pieces placed in apprentice's account.
One and a Half Lb of Silver.

Year Ten. - Librum Access Level 3.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Craft a Journeyman Piece for your Craft Guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art of the apprentice's choice.
Cash from sale of Journeyman Craft piece placed in apprentice's account.
One and a Half Lb of Silver.

END YEAR 10, Magical Ethics Examination. If successful, Librum access increases by 1.

Year Eleven. - Librum Access Level 4.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Train with the Turb.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art or ability of the apprentice's choice.
Vis or cash from sale of magic item placed in apprentice's account.
Two Lb of Silver.

Year Twelve. - Librum Access Level 5.
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 1
Apprentice is taught the techniques of Specialist Art 2
Apprentice is trained in their Craft Skill.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Create a Masterpiece for the Craft Guild.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art or ability of the apprentice's choice.
Vis or cash from sale of magic item placed in apprentice's account.
Two Lb of Silver.

Year Thirteen. - Librum Access Level 6. Personal (basic) Laboratory (setup by parens) accessible.
Apprentice is taught an art of their choice.
Apprentice is taught an art of their choice.
Apprentice is taught Magic Theory.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Using an existing Lab Text, craft a Lesser Enchanted Device for sale.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art or ability of the apprentice's choice.
Vis or cash from sale of magic item placed in apprentice's account.
Two Lb of Silver.

Year Fourteen. - Librum Access Level 7.
Apprentice is taught Philosophiae.
Apprentice is taught speciality spells.
Apprentice is taught speciality spells.
DUTIES :
1/ Studying in the Library.
2/ Using an existing Lab Text, craft a Charged magic item for sale.
3/ Converse with coven-folk, other apprentices, covenant magi to establish a needful magic item.
PERKS :
One season free time, to do anything a normal person can.
One seasons teaching of an art or ability of the apprentice's choice.
Vis or cash from sale of magic item placed in apprentice's account.
Two Lb of Silver.

Year Fifteen. - Librum Access Level 7.
Apprentice opens an item for enchantment.
Apprentice instills an effect into the opened item.
Apprentice has one additional season to complete the enchantment.
Apprentice is taught the basics of Parma Magica, and gauntleted.
DUTIES :
1/ Complete the Masterwork item.
PERKS :
Become a full Magus.
END YEAR 15, Magical Item Examination. If successful, Gauntlet.

Perks for apprenticeship completed, received at Gauntlet.
For each duty successfully completed, One half Lb of silver.
For having at least one turb member willing to guard you, 1Lb of silver.
For achieving Journeyman rank in the Craft Guild, 5Lb of silver.
For achieving Master rank in the Craft Guild, 10Lb of silver.
For not breaching the Code of Hermes during your apprenticeship, a lab text of your choice.
For not breaching the mundane laws, a lab text of your choice.
For serving at every council meeting, social gathering, tribunal etc, 1 pawn of vis of a type of your choosing.

For each separate art studied (An & An is 1, An & Ig is 2.), 1 pawn of vis of that type.
For each season of solo study, a lab text of your choice.
For each season of copying in the library, a lab text that has not already been copied.
For each season of service to the parens (not taking the free season), a lab text that has not already been copied.
For each ethics examination passed, 1Lb of silver.
For having an amicus within house Verditius, 5 Lb of silver.
For having an amicus outside house Verditius, 10 Lb of silver.

For each Lesser Enchanted Device created, 1 pawn of vim vis.
For each batch of charged items created, 1 pawn of vim vis.
For each Greater Enchanted Device created, sale value in vis or cash as desired.
For entering the apprentice challenge at the Verditius contest, 1 pawn of vis of a type of your choosing.
For winning the apprentice challenge at the Verditius contenst, 5 pawns of vis of a type of your choosing.
For creating an elegant and worthy Masterwork, a copy of the masterwork.
For creating a Masterwork with more than one effect, the sale value of the masterwork.

K.[/size]

That is...... wow

:open_mouth:

I think I just forwarded this to about two dozen people. Well done :smiley:

You're a much more generous teacher than my Verditius ever was

You are impoverishing yourself for the sake of your apprentice. It is their privilege to be your apprentice and three seasons of work per year in exchange for a season of training and the opportunity to graduate from apprenticeship as a member of the order is an absurdly good deal. To put more than a season a year into training your apprentice is from the point of view of the teacher magus an absurdly generous gift. If you have a 0 communication and only collect exposure experience in teaching (specialization apprentices) then your apprentice will be as well or better trained at the end of apprenticeship as a starting character even if they never spend a season in study.

Apprentices are for extracting vis, copying lab texts, making casting tablets, doing tasks that are too trivial for you, and occasionally helping you in the lab.

before I let an apprentice read for a season I'd make sure that there was no one I know who wanted to copy a lab text, that none of my sodales who wished to have an arcane connection fixed, and that I had all of the vim vis that I could ever want. :open_mouth:

Here's my take on the issue from a few years ago.
https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/napkin-scrawl-apprenticeship-time-distribution/5555/1

+1 This!

You're welcome! Took me about 4 hours to type it up originally, ages ago. Obviously it got modified by circumstances, but I started teaching my apprentice when I had 10s minimum, and (with Secondary Insight bonuses) he ended up with 9s across the board.

I treated creating a new mage as if I was creating a Masterpiece magic item. The idea is that the apprentice will go off, and other magi will see this freshly gauntleted mage, able to cast 20s and 30s across the board, with plenty of cash, vis, and lab texts and offer them a place in their covenant. Also, a reputation maker of somewhat entertaining proportions.
Everything that mage ever does will gain you a teeny bit of rep, as their parens.

Yep, see above. By normal character gen, ISTR the same character (without the Secondary Insight bonuses) comes out with 2 arts at 8ish, the rest below 5. He starts with educated, arcane lore, and strong parens. Most of his points go into abilities rather than arts, and he starts with 40 levels less spells. still roughly equivalent of a starting character. Verdi need a lot of abilities compared to say a Flambeau.

Extracting vis is scutwork, dull scutwork at that, and can damage an aura. Not fitting work for a Verdi anyway, thats what Bonisagus are for. Casting tablets? anyone who wants can just learn the spell anyway. Tasks that are too trivial for me is exactly right, creating duplicate copies of lab texts, making yet another batch of healing potions (charged items) for the grogs... Helping me in the lab I would go with, except that Verdi labs are built with very thick walls and very light rooves (roofs?), and I'd rather not detonate my apprentice by accident. On purpose is another matter...

Apprentices are the future of the Order. As such you should train them to the very best of your ability. Bear in mind my PC was about 30 years post gauntlet at this point, had an armourer's shop as an income source (C&G rules, self-limited to 50 Lb of silver a year profit.), and even after handing over all that vis had in excess of 500 pawns floating about.

In my covenant, if you need vim vis, you grab a bucket, go down to Colt's vat number 15, and tell him how much you borrowed if you remember. Cash wise, there's a barrel by the covenant gate filled with one Lb bags of silver. Every year or two, I have to refill the barrel. Redcaps get given a Lb of silver each time they visit, as we see them so infrequently that I'm trying to bribe them to come back.
I also give the grogs retirement gifts of a few Lb of silver, their arms and armour, and anything else they need cash wise. I dread to think how much cash I'd end up with if I could actually sell to mundanes!

K. - I did debate making a really big building with a diving board and just throwing all the vis in together...

That's very civic minded of you.

And, of course, that is a totally valid opinion for a magus to have of apprentice training. Equally, many magi will think of their own (short-term?) benefit (and what exactly is to the magus' benefit will of course depend on the context and goals of the magus, and I suppose his ability to rationally evaluate his circumstances).

In the end, I think that most magi are probably going to make their apprentices do the same tedious, unproductive things that the magus complained about doing when he was an apprentice himself.

And that's how we make a Tytalus! :slight_smile:

As an intellectual exercise (which is how the OP started out) assume you only teach 15 seasons, and use the appentice as a lab-monkey the rest of the time.
If you have arts at 10, you can teach 30 levels of spells a season. (Assuming Int +2 MT +5 and Aura 3.) Arm5 p.95
You are meant by ArM5 p. 32 to provide 120 levels of spells as standard.
That means you spend 4 seasons teaching spells.
The apprentice gets 240 points for arts and abilities, 90 of which are coming from exposure.
you have 11 seasons to teach them the remaining 150 points, less the 1 used to open the arts.
You therefore need a COM + Teaching [+3 +6 (single student)] score of 6 in order to train an apprentice to the standard level.
Strong and Weak Parens I'll leave to other people.
K.

Yep, pretty much.

There is easy potential to be better though, without the magus trying too hard.

  • A typical master might well be able to teach more than 30 spell levels in a season (a master probably has more than 5 MT and will probably choose to mostly teach spells in his highest Art combination). A master who can get the spell learning done in 3 seasons (teaching Arts total of 15 each instead of 10) only needs a Com + Teach of 5.
  • This excludes the possibility of adventure XP. Ten seasons worth of "adventure" during the apprenticeship that each earns 5 XP for the apprentice (i.e. 3 more XP than exposure) lowers the Com + Teach requirement to 3 (or 2 if the master can do the spell teaching in 3 seasons).

Remember the bonus for being a lone teacher, and the penalty for the gift. Unless you share your parma, that is :slight_smile:

Already included.

Sharing Parma is standard, ArM p. 106.
"...failing to extend your Parma Magica to cover your apprentice during training is a violation of the reuirement to train you apprentice properly."

K.

I thought we made Tytalus by finding the greatest, smartest, and most self-assured Gifted apprentice and then through adversity and exciting and dangerous challenges, we make them Überzauberer?

Just saying it out loud... you know, with Tytalus being the greatest wizards as such? :laughing:

My maga thinks of herself as a very generous, giving and kind person. As such, giving an apprentice a season of tuition a year is a very generous thing to do - to grant someone the amazing Gift of being a Hermetic Magus! That is generous indeed!

Library access for apprentices?! They damage books! The apprentice will have to earn access to my maga's personal library, and the covenant library is strictly off limits. There are Parma Magica books in there, amongst other things.

The argument that apprentices are the future of the Order is partly true, but a better option is to foster and develop your freshly Gauntleted apprentice to help them grow into a more potent magus. Offer the occasional season of training. Provide shelter or support if other kids pick on them. Have them go off on adventures for you every now and then.

Being the mentor story flaw - that's how to build the future of the Order.

Or you could be the tormenting master flaw. That works, too.

Restricted library access, and not to the covenant library! Access limited personal libraries are only logical when you are in a mystery cult. Quickly made copies, backup lab texts, vanity books and grimoires, correspondence, nothing that Qs could object to, certainly no complete how-tos on Parma!

Apprentice as masterwork, remember? Post gauntlet training is normal amongst Verdi anyway, IMO. Other kids picking on them? I expect my apprentices to fight back with overwhelming force. (Unofficial motto of my mage is in my sig. The standard tactical response to aggression is a pre-emptive retributive strike. (I hit him back first.)) Adventure for me? The first initiation they get gives Dutybound (House Verditius/OoH/Parens), they'll be hunting down enemies of the House, Order and of me anyway! Plus, we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time hunting hostile nasties and ripping them apart anyway.
K.

Just don't forget the lesson Bonisagus learned from his last apprentice. :slight_smile:

I think this is a great post with lots of great ideas.

I am currently running an apprentices game. I am running it so that each session is a year of in game time.

Apprentices are given the base one season of training with their master
They also get one season a year of "free" study. They can train with a mundane teacher, learn in the library, work on personal projects, or convince another master to teach them.

This may seem generous but the young apprentices have discovered that "free" study comes with a lot of strings attached. You have to negotiate for access to the mundane teacher, the cool books are off limits for apprentices except when the librarian wants a favor.

Once every five years their master will give them an extra season of training, initiation, virtues etc.

Players have two choices for a master. They can have a basic master with 4 in Com plus Teaching. Or they can have an experienced master with 8 (and possibly Good Teacher), however he will only teach what they players wants 50 % of the time. If the dice come up wrong then he will teach whatever odd thing he thinks the apprentice should have.

All this combined is producing a wealth of great stories and generating some interesting and organic characters.

Basically if the apprentice wants to do anything other than sweep floors or doing lab work they are required to bribe, blackmail, wheedle or find some other way.

An in character response from a less generous mentor

"Wait, creating more laboratory texts that can be used by multiple magi through the years, creating arcane connections to give the order enhanced abilities on certain locations or people, creating casting tablets that give any member of the order the ability to cast spells far beyond the ability of the apprentice, and creating vim vis to open invested devices is about short term benefit while say teaching an adolescent girl sufficient mentem to manipulate her peers or a twelve year old boy enough rego animal to spont cat-catapult is somehow doing the order a service?"

"You are such a desiccated old corpse. Sitting in a boring lab mindlessly fixing Arcane Connections may have been what you called "learning ancient magical secrets" in your day, old man. But you just totally don't get what being an apprentice in the early thirteenth century is all about. At the rate you teach, I'll be in Final Twilight before I learn anything worthwhile. And a cat-catapult is like so totally cool and essential for the covenant...like, what happens if we get attacked by flying mice?"

Interesting, but the idea that you have 15 years in which nothing else happens so that you can train your apprentice how you want is a bit ridiculous.

IMS, I can't plan more than a year ahead. Well, I can, but something (maybe more than one thing) will be bumped by reality.

Seems like my 30 yo mage should be more than capable of training an apprentice then...!
If e.g. a familiar teach the apprentice latin and MT that is even less time wasted for the mage.