I don't think that the SG should simply blanket-ban something like this because it's "dull and out-of-character." If a player wants to do this, then that's a statement about what his magus is like: he's the worst kind of apprentice abuser. Hell, he'll probably try to get 17 years out of the apprentice by setting rigged gauntlets in year 15 and 16, and the seventeenth year is probably going to be dangerous for the apprentice. This kind of thing is completely legal in the Order, and there's a history of magi who do worse things.
So. How are the other (player and non-player) magi in the covenant going to react to this? It's legal, sure, but it's also in massively bad taste. If the magus isn't a Bonisagus, will he ever be allowed to keep an apprentice again, or will someone send a letter to the nearest Bonisagus sans apprentice every time he tries to take a piece of fresh meat? If he is a Bonisagus, will he be able to steal his next apprentice without triggering a hornet's nest? Will someone who finds this action completely beyond the pale call for Certamen to force him to treat his apprentice better, or Wizard's War him to stop this? Will he try to defend his right through Tribunal politics, bribery, naked force or a mixture of both? Or will the rest of the covenant just ask for the lab text so they can do the same to their property?
This kind of munchkinism can sow the seeds of stories, so it's the kind of munchkinism that should be encouraged.
Sure. Encourage, but explain to the player that they won't get everything they hoped for out of it. Some players decide to do things when warned against likely negative consequences. Then when those consequences materialize, they complain. Very familiar.
In all honesty if I wanted to abuse an apprentice I would force him/her to mass produce charged items using the rules for original research and then steal their breakthroughs. Well, my breakthroughs. Also wipe their memories of any seasons of lab work they did. Those are my secrets. Can't let them slip out now can we? Also the apprentice would never leave the lab. Also keep the bugger mind controlled at all times.
Of course, we would need to have rules for the benefits a magus gets for being awake all season doing lab work.
This pertains to one of the Big, Big Problems I have with the Covenants book.
I like leaving the nature of a magus' lab very undefined, and the nature of what he does during that season. A Criamon on the Path of Indolence (Avenue of Exotic Herbal Inhalation, Station of Far Out) is not going to benefit from putting in extra hours in the lab; a disciplined Tremere might already be assumed to be pulling extra hours because that's how they roll; an astrologer sets up his lab outside and does his lab work at night; a Diedne burns a kitten every day in a wittle wicker cage; some magi don't have glassware at all; a Jewish magus (conversation about the canonical incompatibility withheld) who observes all the holidays, fasts on Monday and Thursday, keeps the Sabbath, etc, is able to work this into his season, etc.
So great, you now have extra time during a season. But that means you don't get to sleep on ideas. That means whatever benefits sleep and fatigue provide are gone. That means you have extra time to do things that are best represented by the Experimentation rules! The apprentice still gets Exposure xp. Heck, I might even allow the master to claim the benefit of the apprentice "helping." Core rules for the win.
Much easier than that, Re5 + Co5 might be enough. Adding Int + MT + aura + teaching bonus could bump the Lab Total to 20. Adding Sta + aura might not, but you can fail by 10 points and still cast it right. So {15 + 15 + 30 = 60 xp} should take 4-5 seasons.
I would treat this as a variation of Addled Laboratory Routine (Cov p108), it fits the description and deserves the same penalty.
Isn't something in A&A about sleep deprivation affecting how you store images or something like that? Can someone do a search for "sleep" in a digital version of A&A (I do not have it in that format)?
As written Gift of VIgor seems to imply that you could do that, yes. However, I find this too much, even for magic, and some consequences (like reduced lab totals) would be in order IMS. GoV is somewhat like filling you with caffeine. In the end it has consequences and does not work as it used to. For a short time, no problem at all, but for long time usage it would start to fail.
Maybe you're thinking of the Ever-Watchful Turb? It doesn't remove the need for sleep, merely removes the ability to do so, so I'm not sure it connects to something that is at least attempting to recharge the body. (The Ever-Watchful Turb causes long-term fatigue loss until they just plain pass out.)
There's also the mention of sleep as a non-natural, and how a proper amount is as important as keeping everything in balance. I don't know if they have a concept of sleep deprivation psychosis, but it sounds like getting your humours way the heck out of whack is a definite consideration.
Disrupted sleep patterns is also listed as one of the things that shuts down a regime.
If the master can indeed manage to get two straight seasons of not needing to sleep out of this arrangement, I'd give the master an extra season that is effectively spread over the two waking seasons.
Trying to get both extra seasons means not having your apprentice learn for a season. I'd be fine with player magi doing this as well.
This smacks of the kind of thing that will garner negative reputations, stories of abusive behaviour and reactions from other magi. A benevolent Bonisagus invoking the Code rights to rescue such an apprentice would be what I'd use as an 'early warning' shot. If the player is not doing the required one season a year of teaching, I'd simply confiscate the apprentice.
Also, why is the apprentice agreeing to cast the spell? Remember the apprentice is the caster here, not the magus. It might be enforced by mind control, but that's going to start leaving warping and other side effects.
And finally, if any kind of antagonist is doing this (and PCs can be antagonists), and is not effectively able to be stopped by simply stepping in and slapping them on the hand, then the taking of an apprentice as the spoils of Wizard's War is entirely legitimate. There are always bigger fish in the pond, and even the bigger fish might decide to step in and handle a situation they don't like the look of.
In short: if you want to be selfish and abuse your apprentices for advantage you can. But don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you - and there are so very many ways this one can bite.
"And this wretch used to be the magus known as Theon. Do you recall him and what he did with his apprentices? I like to keep him around as a reminder to others. He never sleeps now, though he surely wants to."