Sounds like it. Also, Ars appears to use the same pyramidal track for everything, so I wouldn't personally muddy the waters with a custom progression track, but that's more of personal preference. I'm sure it won't be hard to track. 
I think the rule does something similar, in a way. A better durability score makes it less likely that wear will accrue, as well as allowing the book to sustain more wear before being adversely impacted.
Translating those effects to a pyramidal progression of wear was more difficult. In a way, what I did is more akin to the mechanics of Soak vs Damage instead. That's not pyramidal, but still an accepted progression in Ars.
Ooh, I see. That makes a lot more sense in this case.
That's probably worse for young magi but better in the long run. I don't mind either options.
A brewry might be the main source of income of the covenant. Perhaps the use on water from the thermal springs give a particular taste to the beer. As per GotF p.89, the main export of Bamberg is beer, so with the right mundane contacts, your production could pass reliatively unnoticed.
Or perhaps there are hops growing on top of the hill, and the magical aura adds to its flavor. You can simply cultivate the hops and sell it to the breweries in Bamberg, with a small quantity being used locally.
A small brewery inside the regio is possible. Magical hops or yeast?
Edited the description of the site (first post). Banz Abbey is on the north side of the river.
As a result, I relocated the covenant to the Staffelberg, which is south of the river and was the site of the Oppidum. Better connection to the history of the region. 
If we choose Yeast can we also make magical bread/Extra flavored Bread ?
For clarity, regardless of the choice, are we setting this up in-character rather than assuming everything is running ahead of time?
I am looking at the Google map satellite view. There does not seem to be too many hills on the south side for the cliffs. I am assuming you were putting us at the Ringwall initially. With the satellite view, I can't really get a good view of the topography. Is Staffelstien on a hill?
Mix of both. Some of the elements should be there to enable what we, as the troupe, want to see happen.
So if we want the covenant's source of income to be related to brewery, than having hops already growing on the hill would help develop it. Giving those hops some specific qualities related to the hill's magical aura helps explain how your product is differentiated from others in the region, hence how you can make enough silver to sustain the covenant.
Adding some elements related to it in the regio can reinforce that theme. Or resources found inside of the regio can be totally unrelated to the source of income.
Bad Staffelstein (modern name) is right along the river. South of it is Staffelberg, a fortified hill which was the site of an Oppidum in the time of the Celts.
Bad Staffelstein on Google Maps
If you have Google Maps show the terrain, you'll see that there are hills on both side of the river. Staffelberg is the bigger one to the south.
What if the brewery itself were the magical part?
In the book I sent the link to, the brewery was built on the grave of Finn MacCoolin who was said to have brought beer/brewing to the Celtic people. I am not saying that we copy that but there are other ways that do not tie us to a growth of hops or magical mold. 
I updated the House Rule on book durability.
First draft of the caves within the regio.
A natural tunnel leads to a large natural cave. That was the initial extent of the regio when the first group of magi found the location. They extended the caves by digging a side tunnel aroung the central cave, spiraling down deeper into the rock. Four circular chambers were dug out under the natural cave, completing a circuit about 100 paces in diameter with a staircase leading back to the initial tunnel. This allowed the first covenant to cast Aegis of the Hearth to protect everything that was inside of the spiraling tunnel.
When Tandaline found the regio, she arranged for a second spiral to be added, which made it possible for the new covenant to have more space. The new rooms that were added are rectangular instead of circular, with ceilings that are a bit higher.
1 Like
Starting Library Rules (proposal)
Each magus will have spent 3 seasons copying books during apprenticeship. These books will constitute their new covenantās starting library, plus a few more that I will add to round it up some.
Each magus will have had access to 4 points of resources. Each point can be:
- A season of help from a competent mundane scribe to help craft the copy (skill level 6). To benefit from this mundane helper, you need him to help you copy the book during all seasons required for the copy. Remember that the mundane helperās score in Scribe is reduced by 2 when helping a magus copy a Hermetic Book.
- A pawn of vis to infuse into a book. Remember that a book with more than 2 pawns of vis infused in it cannot be exposed to a non-magical aura without being destroyed.
The maximum Level of a summa on an Hermetic Art is 20. The maximum Level of a summa on an Ability is 5. Books on Parma Magica are not allowed.
The Quality of the copy will be calculated as per the House Rules, with the Quality of the original book determined by me.
You can also decide to spend one or more of your seasons copying laboratory text for spells from the Core Book, or for enchantments based on Core Book spell guidelines.
Two examples on how this works:
Alfredus decides to spend two of his seasons copying a Level 20 summa on Creo with the help of a mundane scribe and to infuse that copy with 2 pawns of vis (using all 4 resources points on this), while his third season is to copy lab texts by himself. He has a Profession: Scribe score of 1, with a specialty in copying.
- For the Summa, since he is using a mundane helper, he can use the helperās score in place of his own, thus 4 (6 minus 2). That means he can carefully copy the summa at the rate of 10 Level per season, thus a Level 20 summa. The Quality of the copy will be based on the originalās author (letās say Com +2 and Good Teacher), bonus for any reduction in the original summaās Level (letās say +2), +2 for craftsmanship (score of 4 divided by 2), and finally +2 for the second pawn of vis. Thus a L20Q11 Creo summa.
- For the lab texts, since he is working by himself during 1 season, he can copy 120 levels of spells of enchantment effects, based on his Profession: Scribe score of 2 (taking into account his specialty).
Benitus decides to concentrate exclusively on summae. He decides to go with quick copying, despite the loss of Quality it entails. His resources are spent on 3 seasons for the mundane helper and 1 pawn of vis. In the three seasons he produces 6 copies of Level 15 summae.
- The originalsā quality varies, with the authorsā Com + bonus for reduced level being assigned by the Storyguide as 11, 9, 7, 7, 6 and 5.
- Craftsmanship adds 2 with the help of the mundane scribe, but quick copy subtracts 1.
- Benitus infuses the best of them with 1 pawn of vis. So in the end the qualities are 12, 7, 6, 6, 5 and 4.
- Benitus figures that at a later date he can infuse the books with more vis. If he spends a season on each book to infuse each with the maximum amount of vis, they would end up with qualities of 16, 14, 13, 13, 12 and 11. But thatās 6 seasons of additional work and 17 pawns of additional vis (since one already had 1 pawn infused). But if any of these books is ever taken to a non-magical aura, they will be destroyed.
I like the idea that part of the books are picked by the player and part are picked by the SG.
Considering the starting library, the rule seems fine. It gives a lot of uncertainty on the qualities, but I guess this is realistic.
I like how we've done the copying ourselves. I'm a little stuck on deciding, but I think I've figured out a good way to go. I'm guessing you don't want us to communicate with each other about our choices since there is a good chance we wouldn't know we'd end up together during our apprenticeships.
On a related note, I think we should develop a spell like Doublet of Impenetrable Silk for books to protect them. If it's D: Sun, you can use it for 3 seasons in a year without warping the book. On a related note to this, I'm realizing Study Requirement and Study Bonus could potentially have added difficulty with books with 3 pawns of vis in them.
I'm of two minds regarding communication between the apprentices about the books you copy. On one side, they might not have had a chance to coordinate too closely about it initially. On the other they are all apprentices in a smallish House, and establishing the covenant would not come as a complete surprise. Add to that that you masters may have imposed some of the choices on you...
So how about the first 2 seasons were done before you had a chance to communicate, while the third was coordinated? Or vice versa? So half the effort would be individual while the other half would be more of a group effort?
That certainly sounds reasonable, though implementation will be mildly more difficult. Should we PM you the first one or two seasons, and once everyone has done so then discuss with each other and decide on our remaining season(s)?
Sure, but assuming I invent one (I probably have the best MuAn lab total), I must then spend another season to make my notes usable by other magi.
It then takes each magus a season to learn the spell and unless someone also brings low level MuAn this is a quite suboptimal season.
I'm not sure we'll have so much time to spare Isn't it better to make it an enchantment we leave in the library that each magus uses on the book in in sanctum and brings back ? That's a bit of virtus but it saves quite some time.