Let's suppose I have 6 XP's in Imaginem, giving me a score of 3. Let's then suppose I get a hold of a Summa with Level 5 and Quality 12, and read it. I have Book Learner (+3), and a Study Bonus (+2), meaning that I'd normally get 17 XP's, taking me to 23. 23, obviously, would be enough to take me to a score of 6. So, what happens? There are three options:
I stop immediately upon reaching 5, with 15 XP's.
I stop just before getting to 6, with 20 XP's.
I get the full 17 XP's, and am now at level 6.
I can't believe no one's asked this before, but I wasn't able to find it in a search.
The Arm5 corebook, p.165, reads: "A student may continue to study a summa as long as his score in the Art or Ability that it concerns is lower than the level of the text".
So you can immediately eliminate option 2. Option 3 would make sense only if the "Minimum Advancement Unit" of Summa study was one season worth of xp - but in fact it's less than that (the same page tells you that you can study e.g. a single month out of 3 and gain the 1/3 the experience of a full season). So, although it's not clearly spelled out, one should assume (and the general consensus is) that the Minimum Advancement Unit is 1xp: meaning that you keep accruing xp, one at a time, as long as (in your example) you have not reached a score of 5. That single xp that gets you to 15xp and a score of 5 then makes any further progress impossible.
In fact since you can break study into 1/3 a season. You probably could study the book 2/3 season (normally about 14 xp for you, but you only get 11 since that puts you at 15) and then spend 1/3 a season with another book.
Its a very "interesting" passage. And open for interpretation.
I think what they meant was that you can gain up to the level of the book. But what it actually says is that if you lack 1 XP to the next level you still get all XP from reading the book...
Is there a clarification or errata on this anywhere?
I'd love to do that, but it's hard to read that into the rules, since the partial-season rules are all about distractions, not multiple activities. It does say you can only gain XP's from one source per season, but I suppose one could stretch that by saying two books are a single source (since at least it's a single type of source).
IMS, I would allow you to divide amongst multiple sources. So say you split study between three Q9 books, you gain 3xp in each subject. The value of the Booklearner virtue is also divided, granting a +3 for the season divided up amongst the subjects (for 4xp each). Or say it is two different methods with different values; a teacher (Q8) and a book (Q9). You get half value from each, 4 from the teacher and 6 from the book (9+3/2).
And I count fractional xp
This happened in my sagas several times before we changed to a "only tractatus exist" book system. We ended up giving the character enough XP to reach level 5 (as per your example). So he would gain 11 XP. That would be half a season worth of study. The rest of the season you can do whatever you please.
