Man, being sick and getting behind on work sucks. I'll start posting tomorrow.
I feel for you, J. I missed a month of work last year because of a pneumonia, so I know how exhauting it can get. When I started coughing a little blood, I decided it was time to see a doctor... Took me two more months before I had all my energy back.
Hello all. I spoke to Jonathan and I'll be joining this saga as well.
Here are some initial thoughts and questions:
1.) Speaking of Hermetic Alchemy and Philosophic Alchemy, one concept I was thinking about was an ex Miscellanea magus with Hermetic Alchemy and Philosophic Alchemy as his bonus virtues (from a Society of Alchemists within House Miscellanea). It's a concept I had for a previous saga that didn't go the distance, and one that I'd only barely explored.
2.) Thinking of overarching goals to have, I was wondering about possible integration of aspects of a hedge magic tradition. Typically such a goal is a pie-in-the-sky goal within the scope of a PBP game, given the huge number of seasons required to do it, many associated with stories. Is it possible to have some of those seasons spent in character generation to make the achieving of the integreation more realistic within the scope of the game?
3.) Another overarching goal possibility is, of course, trying to learn more about the magical plague. To that end, I wonder about the flaw Minor Immunity. Could that be used for Minor Immunity (magical plague)? It might be interesting if my character were fleeing a plague-ridden covenant. This virtue could explain how he didn't catch the plague. He might be moving to an isolated covenant so he can study his notes. (Perhaps looking for a cure as a breakthrough?)
4.) Regarding BPs, I know there's a rule on the amount of vis you can have, but what about vis sources? I'm not thinking of ways to get around the vis limit. Rather, I'm thinking about the covenant we ultimately start. It would be very nice if we were able to start with some vis sources, assuming that's possible.
5.) I am also interested in how we should handle mysteries for which there are no initiation scripts.
6.) Do familiars advance over time? I'm thinking in particular how your familiar learns Magical Theory. Is it only when you train it? Does it get periodic experience? can you have someone else train it (e.g., a teacher bought with BP)?
One potential problem I see with this is how little the characters know about the plague. Even if your character was somehow immune, other magi have no way to know that such an immunity exist. So if it becomes known that your magus was directly exposed, others might not want to let him anywhere near them. And even if he can somehow prove that he is immune, what is to say that he isn't a carrier anyway and con infect other magi?
So it is a matter of carefully crafting his background. I don't think that I would have a problem with the immunity itself as a minor virtue. But of course it is Jonathan who will have the last word on this.
Welcome, Trogdor!
I used some of my build points for a source of Imaginem vis. I'm assuming that wherever we found our new covenant, we'll see these as we scout for locations. It's five Build Points for one pawn/year, IIRC.
On 6) we briefly talked about advancing familiars and the direction was to keep it simple and (I think) circle back to this.
Same with purchasing a Teacher with BPs.
And welcome guys!
Thanks IBT.
I'm focused in on a character concept, but I'm waiting for an answer to my questions before I finalize it.
While I'm at it, here are a couple of other questions that came up.
7.) Assuming we can initiate in mysteries, and can make up appropriate initiation scripts, what should we assume are the Pre and Org Lore for the mystagogue initiating us?
8.) What spell masteries are we allowed to take?
I'm also very much interested in knowing how one can advance a familiar after it is bound. But until we get a definitive answer from Jonathan, here's what I will do.
The familiar does not learn by itself during character creation. It needs to be taught by his magus to increase any of its abilities (or learn new ones). Teaching a familiar counts as a season not advanced for the magus and gives the familiar 10 xp. Essentially, the magus is forfeiting his season for the benefit of his familiar. This is still worthwhile for the magus, as it is easier to raise his familiar's score in Magic Theory than his own.
When I educated my familiar I had my character learn teaching first then took the season to teach. Worked out to 10xp per season. Your way would have saved me seasons.
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How could that be? Teaching Source Quality = Com + Teaching + 3 + bonus (bonus is +6 when teaching one-on-one and +3 when teaching to two students).
After raising his Teaching score to 1, my magus has a Teaching Source Quality of 11. So I'm not gaining anything by doing it this way. Considering your magus' stats (Com +1), he wouldn't either.
I don't see how it matters a huge amount. using an actual Teaching SQ is more precise, but the 10 xp/season for your familiar is a decent rough approximation.
Though, of course, jebrick is right, if you use the 10 xp/season, you don't technically have to learn Teaching, which could save you a season (or half a season).
I know. 
But since Jonathan mentioned that he wanted to keep things simple for familiars, I figured using the magus' standard xp allotment for a season spent on the familiar made more sense.
And since I'm not trying to optimize advancement too much, it makes sense for the magus to have tried learning how to teach at least a little before he did so. Or to simulating the fact that teaching his familiar would have given exposure xp during play. 
For my part, I think taking 10 xp a season for your familiar instead of for your magus is a perfectly reasonable option. But it's not my decision.
Here's a minor question: how long has the magical plague been around, and what has been its course of development?
I'm just curious for purposes of planning a proper back story.
Thanks. And here I'd picked Confluensis as a starting covenant pretty much at random. Might be time to rethink that plan ...
... or maybe I can work with being originally from there but having moved. I don't want to be a pariah, though. I did want to be from either Normandy or Rome so that the tragedy would really hit home.
For convenience, I'd rather keep it simple, so let's say that 10 xp that the magus normally takes for a season of advancement goes to the familiar, and the magus adds another 10 xp to the ability that tracks seasons skipped for labwork or whatever.
I'm not really clear on what you're asking here. First you talk about Hermetic Alchemy and then integrating hedge magic. To the best of my recollection, integration is original research, but I may be forgetting an alternative...
No one is immune to the plague. You can still flee the plague-ridden covenant of Confluensis. Keep in mind that Confluensis is primarily a House Guernicus covenant, so I'm not sure why an ex Misc is there. Also, the Covenant is deeply involved in the administration of Normandy, at least until it's demise...
Vis sources will take effect upon saga start.
We will make them up together. Along with the Mystery Cult if need be.
Answered above.
I'll set them as we create the Initiation Script.
Just the ones that are available normally. If they are stated as belonging to a House, such as the ones for House Mercere, then they are there. The Order is less cooperative. There are still a lot of them.
I'm working on a replacement magus for Hilbert (poor guy, [strike]his sodales made him disappear[/strike] he didn't make it through the plague ... He was such a promising magus 
)
The boy is named Atlas - his birth name is not known, and you wouldn't pronounce it correctly anyway. Atlas was born somewhere in the eastern steppes, and he first encountered the order when he entered the Novgorod tribunal. He is from an ancient tradition of wandering wizards, cursed from the birth and forced to travel in order to escape some unexplained threat.
In order to reflect this tradition, I picked as ex-misc virtues/flaws :
Major hermetic flaw - Restriction : must have traveled at least 1000 steps since dawn.
Major general virtue - Ghostly Warder : The ancestors from his tradition follow him to give advice - something akin to Sulik. There is one ghost, but it has multiple minds, and Atlas will join them once his time comes.
Minor hermetic virtue - Personal vis source : Due to his constant need to travel, Atlas has developped a knack for finding vis where no one would expect it. This is translated into rules as a vis source of any kind. The specific kind/mix of vis found during the year is left to decide for the SG and may vary. Being a wanderer and not taking notes of his findings, different "finds" cannot be cumulated over time.
Is the major hermetic flaw handicapping enough ? 1000 steps are about 5 minutes of walk on a good road, provided Atlas can walk.
I would also like to find a way for Atlas' travels not to interfere too much with his activities as a hermetic magus, as magi traditionally revolve around lab activities. Are there any ways for a travelling magus to progress reasonably ?
It sounds like your character will use Free Study and Study Bonus. You can study from vis anywhere.
Does anything prevent your mage from simply walking in a circle, so that you return to the Covenant after your morning exercise?
Your restriction doesn't seem quite strong enough. The delay before the Restriction is the problem. A Restriction seems to be that I can do something to you and your magic is nullified, or you are unable to affect certain targets. This isn't much different from a regular magus. Maybe change it to a Necessary Condition, that you must take three steps in a line? This would stop your magic if you were confined.