We have already 2 of the 4 magi who are Bonisagi, but that's not really a problem, because both have different fields of research (Titus is interested in regiones, while for Petronius it is portals). We do have a Criamon who will do research on ghosts and the divine realm, so I'd be careful about that aspect of things.
We have a thread where we discussed potential House Rules. But overall we want to keep this saga pretty much vanilla. The few HR we came up with are described on our saga wiki (which I had forgotten to metion previsouly), more specifically here.
A few items of note would be:
- Wards (including the Aegis) must penetrate, which makes Wizard's Communion almost essential (a variant named Ritual Communion is widely available for the purpose of ritual spells, with D:Sun and (level-10) effectiveness).
- Requisites will be strictly enforced for translocation spells, because that's one of the rationales behind Petronius' research on portals. I would think that the need for requisites for other purposes (like shaphechanging spells) would also be strict, but we haven't discussed it specifically.
- Spell mastery has been changed to be slightly less powerful in some cases (multicasting) and equitable between the various special abilities.
As for the origin of your maga, it doesn't have to be from the Rhine, so feel free to pick another Tribunal. And as far as experience, all the magi are currently between 3 to 10 years out of Gauntlet. Post-Gauntlet advancement is 30 xp per year, with spells costing their level in xp, and other lab work costing 10 xp per season.
That's pretty much it!