I'm an older gamer, with most of my ArM experience being back in 3rd Edition. I have played some 4th and 5th edition as well, but not nearly as much as I'd like. Having recently discovered there's actually a fairly lively community here, I figured it was worthwhile to cast a line out and see whether I could get a bite.
My background is in anthropology, and as a result I tend to do a fair bit of research while making a character. I love integrating a character with details of RL history as well as minor mythological elements.
Generally speaking, it's probably fair to say that I prefer lower-powered games, or at least games where there's ample time to grow into one's heritage. I like in-character interacting with the mundane world and with the kind of politics spawned from magical heritage or mystical encounters, e.g. faerie stuff, church misadventures, trading and exploring, researching legends, and so forth.
Last but not least, I do own the 5th edition core rules and several of the expansions for it, but not every single book. My favourites among the books that I do own are probably "Houses of Hermes - Mystery Cults" and "Guardians of the Forest" [to give you a feel for my preferences, such as they are]. I cannot say I have a single favourite tradition, as much depends on the concepts I am working with at the time. As seems typical for me, I tend to have an easier time building a character around flaws than merits. My knowledge of the current game lore is probably very dated (especially regarding defined magi), but if the rest of my listed preferences and quirks sound interesting to you, I am sure we can work around that.
Thank you for reading, and I hope it will be of interest to some of you, and your sodales.
I've read over some of the things going on in that Covenant, and although it's cool and done in a positive spirit, it's way too much High Fantasy for me. I prefer lower-powered magic and a less "everyone is an archmage" campaign style. Doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with Light of Andorra - it's just not for me.
As an aside, I've always found it awkward to make a character very far past their gauntlet. It's much harder to get into character when they have decades of history under their belt. And when you don't, you're bound to be too weak to join an experienced group as anything but lab assistance.
I'm currently running Stealing the Future here, and can use an extra player.
It's a heavily modified game, as I've made some modifications to how summae, tractatus and teaching impart experience.
The premise for the game is the first Hermetic School for the Arts, and there have been two Hermetic Breakthroughs, the first by a Bonisagus (current headmistress) to teach the Arts to more than one person at a time, and the second is an Aegis that suppresses the effects of the Gift upon mundanes by a Tremere (assistant headmistress). The setting is the Transylvania Tribunal.
I'm currently working through the first year of apprenticeship (where Arts and other Arcane skills are taught). All students had a Latin year, which happened before actual play. You can draw up an apprentice character to start in the first year, and we'll just pretend you'd been there all along. You can also begin working on another character, a professor who will come along in the second year, which gives you several weeks to make a concept. I know you don't care for a lot of advancement past the gauntlet, but the idea is for the students to get the bulk of the stories, while the professors provide mostly background (although they can be played, too).
Just an FYI, if you design a character with Supernatural Abilities/virtues, you're going to have to deal with some modifications to the advancement schedule. You can certainly make a character like that, but these characters need one on one opening of the Arts to preserve the Supernatural abilities/virtues.