I was trying to do my build point allocation. I get that 1 bp gives 5 pawns of vis, which we can in turn use for books according to the rates you have posted here. It seems that we should have money, but I can not find a conversion directly from points to money. 1 bp giving 50 lbs of silver seems high, but is what 5 pawns * 10 lbs / pawn would give. Is that the rate?
You can use for books after play begins through the redcap network, which may take some time to establish for your covenant due to it being out of the way a bit...
money is 1 point for 10 lbs of silver. exchange rates between silver and vis vary, but point expenditure favors buying vis. Unfortunately, covenant expenses cannot be paid in vis, so you would need to find some way to convert from vis to silver. 10 lbs of silver to 1 pawn of vis is considered a possible exchange under the guidelines of house Mercere, but certainly not a guaranteed one.
So in short if you want to spend all your build points on vis you will be bringing 250 vis into the covenant, but until you find a redcap to start purchasing from you are still limited to using magic theoryx2 pawns per season in the lab.
In this case I don’t want to be the Player with the Mythic Companion. I do not have enough experience Play by Post. And it seem to be good if this Mythic companion is useful for the convent.
In other words: “I´m afraid of screwing that.”
Silveroak, you mention the Redcap network. Would it shift the setup too much if I took a Redcap as a companion? He would spend two seasons at wherever the covenant is, and two out delivering messages. The background would be that he met these folks delivering messages to the caravan in interesting places, and made friends with some of them. (Plenty of reasonable justifications if you want to say no to this idea, so no problem either way.)
Here is what I am thinking for my start up choices.
Companion - Apprentice Magus
Grogs- Shield Grog, Servant (cook), Specialist (Scribe)
50 points
Level 15/ Quality 10 Intellego Summae (25 pts)
Skilled Scribe (6 pts)
45 levels of lab texts (9pts)
25 pawns Vis (5pts)
50 lbs silver (5pts)
Feed back is welcome but I want to start with at least one book for the library.
Is someone going to start with Aegis of the Hearth, or take a lab text for it, or a casting tablet?
Silveroak has specified that we can get books for vis cost instead of point cost, which dramatically increases what we can get. I don't know if he intends some limitations. For example, he said that for books whose L+Q is 28, the cost is simply Level pawns of vis. (He actually said total 28-31, so I calculate for 28, and if I get something better, great.) I don't know if we can get lab texts for vis.
This is fine.
You can get books for vis after play begins, by trade with redcaps. You will be limited to what is available, and it will take time to get there. If someone starts with a redcap companion (or mythic companion) then this will obviously accelerate the process, but large quantities of books will not materialize because you have vis to spend. I want to make sure this is clear- yes you can by books, but it is not the same as already having them.
I will make the same caveat I have with others- spending 6 points on a scribe also uses up a grog slot- where if you actually make the grog as a character you do not need to spend the points. I would rather see you make the character and spend the points elsewhere, but I will not require you to do so.
I guess I had misunderstood. So any books I want to have to read during seasonal advancement will either be from the set you select, or ones I pay full points for? Whereas any books I get later I can, given time, get for vis? And starting tractatus cost BP equal to quality, up to 11, while start arts summa cost Quality + Level. Do we have the the vis we spend points for to use during seasonal advancement? Sounds like choosing how long to have for seasonal advancement will depend partially on what books you make available?
Anything you buy with points will be what the group has at the start of game play. vis used in seasons prior will not be related to what you spend on vis stores with build points. You can also have read books others spent build points on- You can certainly use vis prior to the game beginning, but you may need to also spend seasons acquiring the vis, whether copying books (those I will allow you to trade "instantly" for vis), extracting it in the lab, or through other activities. Also when you are in the caravan some seasons, or portions thereof, will be spent traveling... once I have a thread I will post a seasonal calendar. FYI while I have stated that mages can be 100 years post gauntlet the caravan was not around that long- it was only around for 40 years. If you are older than 40, you began life somewhere else.
I think what I will do then is to simply declare
- Tomas grew up with the Caravan, the son of the mundane doctor, who has since retired. Tomas was born about 1 year into the Caravan's existence.
- Tomas apprenticeship was in some other covenant.
- Tomas will have spend 14 years after gauntlet at 30 xp / year. One year will only be 20 xp, as he will make his own longevity potion that year. (When we get to details, I will need to know the aura wherever he is at that time.)
- I will have to come up with a good reason for Tomas to join this innovative crew. Probably some combination of the hospital and searching for clues for hidden knowledge. (The Bonisagus breakthrough rules don't seem to use insight, and I have not yet read Ancient Magic, so I don't know the details.)
I will want to have purchased the walking staff (short, more like a sturdy cane, with a number of relevant features I will specify) which I will use to make a talisman after the game starts.
This leads to me probably contributing vis and money to the covenant founding.
I REALLY like what I see in the Maestro - I'll go ahead and do him as a starting character. Tartessos can join us "later". He has Aegis at level 25, but will be up to Silveroak when he comes back.
Master Grigori and Tartessos were brought together by their love of art, and twin convictions that magic could be melded with beauty to make legendary masterpieces that will endure long after we are gone. While Tartessos had to leave the caravan for several years to conduct research and experiments that required a specialized lab, Master Grigor stayed in Malta, fascinated by the quality of the limestone and inspired by the story of the shipwreck of St. Paul. One day he hopes to make an epic masterpiece in tribute to this story and seeks hermetic learning to make this dream possible.
I'll flesh out his story a little later. I'm toying with the idea of him being the next apprentice after Tartessos, but failed to be initiated into hermetic magic due to the strength and narrow focus of his heritage (strong faerie blood, dwarf of course). Will he be limited to a single major virtue? with 21 (yes, 21!!!) possible points, it seems more than one would be posible.
Silveroak - what is your opinion of Faerie sympathy bonus to skills? It seems a little over the top to me, but fits thematically and channeling it into artwork would be a little less abusive than most uses I've seen on the forums.
Also, is Hermetic inclination in (form) redundant with Touched by Magic, or are they synergistic in any way?
they are certainly not redundant, nor truly synergistic. For example let's say a stone mason had both touched by magic with forms terram and aurum, and hermetic inclination in aurum- they could study auum, but it would only be of benefit to them in artwork- while they could build a structure that would always have fresh air (crAu effect) with a magnitude based on dx+mason+1/2 assistant's mason ability+workshop innovation+workshop resources+aura, then subtract 12+magnitude of effect from the total and that is the number of magnitudes that are made that seson. It does not use vis, but is instead tied as a permenant AC to the person it was made for and the effects start to fade when they die. If however you make a sculpture and want it to breathe, for example, this uses 1 long term fatigue per 10 levels of effect, and uses dex+mason+aurum+aura and subtract the level of effect, and you can accumulate that many points towards the level in that season. The long term fatigue is gone for as long as you work on the artwork, but when it is done it is permenant, rather than tied to one person. Craft magic can have a range of personal (affects the object itself) or touch, while hermetic inclination can only have a range of personal, craft (touched by magic) enchantment can have any duration, but adds effects like number of times per day and triggers as separate from magnitudes, while inclination can only use 'permenant' durations (2 times a day, duration sun with environmental trigger). With hermetic inclination you can add the form bonus to your aesthetic quality of your artwork, even when not instilling an effect.
I have no problem with faerie symapthies, but the character will need other 'touches; of faerie than the sympathy itself. raised b faeries, faerie blood, strong faerie blood, faerie friend, plgued by faeries- something to show this is more than "I want a free bonus". Also you should look at p. 65 of ROP:F, you will notice that faeries and artists go hand in hand to begin with...
You could get a Bloodcap as a Mythic Companion
The special virtues described in Blood of Heroes interesting.
Here is the first draft of my character concept/backround.
Frederic of Flambeau:
Frederic was the son of a stonemason who was traveling around and working on different sites for a couple of years each. Frederic´s early childhood was a mixture of traveling- and athletic childhood. One day his childhood finds a sudden end. Their camp was raided and the Family of Fredric was killed.
Small Frederic was getting mad and tried to kill everyone who wants to lay hand on the bodies of his Family. A troupe of scouts in front of the Caravan lead by Pitivo of Flambeu found the boy tiring to protect his killed Family surrounded by the Raiders “playing” with the mad boy.
After rescuing Frederic a PeMe was cast on him. To let him forget the slaughter of his Family and to give his soul back a bit of the peaceful childhood he had before.
During his later live he grew up in the Caravan Convent being an angry wrathful child. First Pitivo thought of raising him as a warrior or personal shield grog. But after a few years he discovered to his delight that Frederic was gifted. Frederic was adapted as by Pitivo as apprentice. Pitivo died by observing a cave that collapsed shortly after the Gaunlet of Frederic. It was no question for Frederic to take over the responsibilities of Pitivo. In his point of view this is to protect the caravan. He might tend to extend this protection a bit too far for the taste of some members in the Caravan.
Gruesome! I love it!
Thanks! I was a bit unsure how the group would react. 
Silveroak - a few posts back you implied the common tongue of the caravan (i.e. for people growing up with it) was "Romany". What is Romany and what is it related to? I'm thinking Grogs and whether I need to buy multiple languages for them.
Also, I was thinking of an experiment - could I advance my Maestro season by season with the caravan from age 5 instead of just assigning bulk XP? I think it would make a more rounded and "realistic" character as well as let me invest more xp in skills such as various languages, area lores and social skills. I think it would be easier to make a more vibrant character this way than just tallying up years and assigning xp to the most useful skills.
For my grogs, I think I'll also go 1 shield grog, 1 servant (maybe a hunter/trapper - lots of rabbits and chickens on Malta), 1 specialist (stonemason intended as forge companion)
For my Grogs, I am thinking that it might well make sense to have one Grog who is a dhield grog for the Redcap (not Bloodcap, since I am not using the mythic option.) That grog would be more rounded than most shield grogs, since he has to help defend goods being transported.
The other two would be a shield grog and a servant / assistant for my Magus.