I'm starting a new topic so as not to derail the discussion on magical foci frequency.
One point that comes up time and again in the other thread is House Tremere and their ubiquitous focus in Certamen. However, other traditions and lineages also make sense have magical foci that get inherited to a greater or lesser degree - from lines of Bonisagus magi with a specialisation in longevity through to Ex.Misc traditions who inherit a focus in cheesemaking.
With this in mind, how do you see such foci being passed on from parens to apprentice? Do each of these require a mystery script? As such, does House Tremere Cult Lore need to be something that all members of the House need at least 5xp in? If not, what other means exist? Is it purely in the InVi manipulation of virtues that comes with opening the arts, or is there something else at work here?
How does each apprentice 'earn' their signature House trait? How are foci passed from master to apprentice? Is it a case that apprentices need to gel with their master as much as familiars do in order to continue the master's lineage?
I always thought apprentices gain magical foci in one of two ways:
Their parens has the same foci, and through the training the apprentice receives, he just "gets" the foci. Not really game rules, but if your parens has a foci in say, Elemental Magic, as an apprentice, you are going to be around and participating in Elemental "stuff' constantly, and thus, gain the foci. I use this more when the apprentice is not role-played and the player/troupe feels the it appropriate the apprentice gets a foci.
The apprentice undergoes some rite or is effected in some serious manner during the apprenticeship. Here, and again not canon, the apprentice can gain a foci. I like to use this method when the apprentice is role-played.
Realistically, this does not seem to be covered anywhere in the texts, so play it out as the troupe feels fit.
I think the broader question is how virtues in general, especially house traditions, get passed on from parens to apprentice. This of course includes but is not limited to the Tremere focus.
Opening the gift for Hermetics seems to have similarities to initiation rituals, while not following precisely the same rules. The "script" is the totality of education that the parens delivered over the preceeding years. I would say over the years the "scripts" for each House's training procedures have standardized enough to pass on a single minor virtue, the house virtue, to the apprentice at no cost. I would also suggest that the parens has the ability to structure the training sufficiently to pass on one additional virtue, which the parens must possess, at the cost of an Ordeal which deals out one flaw.
This both preserves the concept of balenced virtue/flaw points at character creation and supports the creation of subtraditions, where the line of one magus preserves specialized secret knowledge.
Because players choose different things , expecially for a Magical Focus , i have played it that they are effectively random.
Everyone has the potential to be the perfect human form.
All stats at 05 for example and every other listed Virtue that affects both Mind and Body
plus all Hermetic Virtues , if you are a Magus.
If someone "inherits" a focus through Lineage , Mystery Initiation or Training during Apprenticeship
they effectively agree to the form their focus takes.
Can you force an unwanted Focus on someone?
For my reasoning , anyone can have any focus they want , unless training or background dictate otherwise.
Mythic Blood is inherited , and you can't choose , in character , the type of focus you get.
Though a player can choose various Mythic Blood options.