Laboratory of Bonisagus is a ritual and so takes Vis. Plus Ryu invested original bp/vis to get the Tireless Servant.
But Upkeep can be an issue, too. We cannot all have Upkeep +5 labs very easily because of the draw on resources. So I tend to prefer that all lab costs come out of a magus's salary, and then just augment every magus's salary by an expected amount of silver per year, say 15 lb. If you need more silver than this, take and extra 10 lb of silver and 1 fewer pawn of vis.
Forgot about the ritual. My bad.
Marko, can you clarify your statement regarding free virtues being 'inconsequential'? I took it to mean we can choose any free virtues we like for our labs, with no cost in time or BP. Is that what you intended?
This sounds good to me, provided we can reestablish our income sources in order to afford such a monetary salary. Just to make sure I understand the Upkeep rules, an Upkeep 6 lab will cost 21 pounds of silver per year, or 31.5 if more than two seasons of labwork is done, correct?
My bad. I wrote 15 lb. thinking the base lab was 10 lb. per year. I forgot about that /10 part. Something like 3-6 lb. per year as a standard might work, and then get silver in place of vis if more is needed. I'm not sure how much mundane income we really have, though, especially after the disaster.
OK. Thanks for the clarification callen. (What a headache these mechanics are...!)
So on setup, Vulcanus will have the following:
Flawless Equipment, Flawless Tools, Spotless, Dedicated Building, Grand Entrance, Studio (+1 aesth), Precious Ingredients; +Tireless Servant
GQ +4, Upkeep +6, Safety +1, Warping 0, Health +1, Aesthetics +5, Items +2, Vis Extraction +2, Creo +1, Rego +1
Maintenance cost: Upkeep +6 costs £21 a year. Vulcanus doesn't think of the mundane cost as any kind of drain on the covenant because the investment in his work will return a hundredfold.
Unless you spend three or more seasons in the lab, which makes it 30.5.
Have I mentioned that I love Vulcanus's casual arrogance about his crafting? 
Thanks Actually, if any of this had been talked out in character, Vulcanus would have ended up talking himself into Priceless Ingredients (what's an extra £15 per year when you're a genius?), which is why I did it out of character 
I want you to play with power. I have nasty nasty things planned, and you are gonna accuse me of trying to kill you eventually. I play with a higher might scale (which is why I adjusted how Wards work).
I like Callen's idea of adding a monetary component to magi salaries and deducting upkeep.
And as for the Hammer Ryu spoke of, I have to look it up and think on it. I has interwebs at my new place so I can do more stuff faster than using this phone.
A Lab Tex Library is coming soon. I am now accepting wish lists from people 
I'm going to assume this means 'yes, free virtues really are inconsequential'. 
Wow, it's like Christmas come early. Do we need to stick with published spells/items or can we get creative?
Whatever. He didn't double-dog dare us.
How many craftsmen and how much time will it take to get the smithy up to +3 innovation and +3 raw materials?
This is the one place where I find C&G to be flawed. I really love the book. However, it doesn't translate well between the abstract idea of the workshop and the real-time/cost to do things like this, especially when your workshop will be subsidized by a covenant. The rules essentially require some sort of house rule to function. My preference, when things are subsidized, it to say it takes nothing to maintain yourself and so all the points can be devoted toward improving things or getting work done for the covenant. It seems to be simplest band-aid.
Chris
I'm still looking for an answer to a recent question: is it a significant change or a complete change to adjust a ReCo base 15 instantaneous movement (teleport) to a ReCo base 15 controlled movement (flight)? Since the base and the TeFo are not being changed, I believe that makes it significant. But I wanted to double-check.
What is the duration of the effect?
If you have the original mastered, just cast it repetitively and you will travel at pretty much the same speed.
My thought was to bump it up one from Momentary to Concentration. This would also add a magnitude to the final effect. Guillaume wants to develop a flight spell later, but this should do for the moment.
Sounds like a Major change, altering both duration and the applied effect.
Oh, whew. I thought I was just lacking basic reading skills or something. Because I can look up how many Labor Points I need, but nowhere could I find out how to generate Labor Points, as in, who can do it, how much time it takes, and just how many assistants can you shove into this workshop anyway.
There is a section on labor points earlier in the book. It's essentially its own little chapter. Labor points are based on your Ability and a multiplier based on your Poor/normal/Wealthy status. Leadership tells you your assistant limit. But how does Poor/normal/Wealthy come into play if you're subsidized? I don't find any of the calculations hard, I just think the system falls apart when you look more carefully at the numbers.
On that note, the cost of a lab also falls apart under careful examination of the numbers. Upkeep is really wacky. My pen-and-paper group never uses Upkeep as it is written in Covenants.
Merry Christmas Andorra!
Every character awakes Cristmas morning with a point of Confidence gained.
Every magus who hung their stocking recieved a pawn of vis from a faerie jentilak (Pappa Noel).
And all characters must make an aging roll for the year. Hope all goes well
Should we all just assume a living condition modifier of 1 (in our favor - forget if that's plus or minus)? I'll have to check Apprentices thoroughly for Mica; this may improve her ability to assist in the lab.
Merry Christmas to you too Vulcanus is only 34 though, so HAH to the rest of you!