Except you could add 2 correspondences a cycle, which by the end would be an extra 48xp per year.
I thought the limit was one correspondence at any time.
Edit: p90 of Covenants indicates the magus can only get benefit from one in each season but I suppose you could have many arranged topics for your advancement. And why not allow multiple subjects between the same two Magi?
Imo doing them at this level is getting strange in the context of accelerated advancement.
I'm not sure I understand how correspondence works anymore. Anyone care to clarify how we are doing it?
Each season you receive a letter corresponding to a particular ability or art. If you study that ability or art that season you gain an additional experience point. In addition every 12 correspondences (24 letters back and forth) allows you to make a "tractatus" on the subject at (your Com+7) SQ.
This is a slight departure from the normal rules; Trogdor defined this in the players wanted thread and I suggest adding it to the House rules thread when he gets back.
Okay, let me clarify. You can still only have one correspondence in a season. Consider that there's only so much time in a season to digest the previous letter and get a proper new letter written with enough thought put into it for it to be worth it. But you can have multiple correspondents out there who you might have letters outstanding for. Consider that you might have three correspondents, one in Creo, one in Philosophiae, and one in Magic Theory. You might spend two years corresponding just with the magus in Magic Theory. But you have the option at any time to send off a letter in Creo or Philosophiae instead. Yes, there might be years between letters. But these are magi who have the patience for that sort of thing.
The advantage to having multiple correspondences is not in getting multiple xp per season, it's in having the flexibility to correspond on different subjects when you do correspond.
You start with one Correspondence in one subject with your parens. If you never get another, you can only ever correspond on that one subject. But if you get a new correspondence, you can swap subjects. And if you have five different correspondences, then you can swap between five different subjects, though only ever having one correspondent per season.
I apologize if that wasn't clear at the get go.
Do you need to study the subject of the correspondence during the season in question, though? It seems magnus' advancement doesn't presuppose this, but I interpret silveroak and kuji as meaning it should.
The rules are not quite so clear as all that. They say:
So, it doesn't say that it has to take place in a season that you're studying the subject. Rather, it has to be "on a theme that is associated with the magus’s research or reading." My intention was to say that when you took a correspondence adventure (or just stayed with your initial correspondence), you had determined that there was a theme associated with your research or reading that you shared with your newfound correspondent. As a result, you could, once per season, write a letter to one of your correspondents on a relevant subject (though you could choose the correspondence and subject from your available correspondences).
My feeling is that a correspondence is something quite apart from what you're doing in a season. It's your thoughts on a particular subject that you share with another maga, who shares hers in return. I'm not sure why it should be tied to your research. For example, you might have a long-running dialog about philosophiae with a magus from another covenant - say you like to discuss astronomy. You share your thoughts with him on astronomy and he does the same with you. What does it matter that you invent a spell, or read a text on Rego, or study sword fighting? Your conversation with him is about astronomy. You probably write your letter in teh evening after you finish your work in the lab (one reason you should be limited to only one correspondence per season). Heck, even if you gained points in Philosophiae some season, it might not have anything to do with the theme you two share. You might read a tractatus on rhetoric to gain your xp in Philosophiae. What does that have to do with astronomy?
In any case, that was my intention based on the rules as I understand them. However, if the troupe would prefer that I apply a house rule more restrictive than what the rules in Covenants provide, I'll do so.
So in effect it is a 1xp boost on each season, relating to one topic. If we want more than one topic then take additional correspondences. That was where I started from and happy with it.
Btw I'm also planning to use the "Meet Somebody" season as a way to justify some internal contacts, growth of reputation, and that kind of intangible.
So if I have a correspondence fo magic theory, for example, and am doing lab work where my exposure is not in magic theory, I can still add 1 xp to magic theory? I need to go back and add some additional xp...
... okay philosophae seems ridiculously vague for this. Between metaphysics (study of the nature of existence), natural philosophy (study of how the world works) and moral philosophy it seems hard to find a season that doesn't warrant this bonus...
I may not have explained things clearly.
As I see it, you don't need to justify your correspondence as being related to your current research at all. It's what you think about in your off hours to clear your head, quite apart from your day work. Say you're working on inventing a CrHe spell, intending to gain 2 He xp for the season. That's what you're doing during the day. At night you can relax with a cup of mulled wine and start responding to that letter you received from your sodales about Faerie Lore.
The correspondence is happening in parallel to your daily work, not in tandem with it. Essentially you're keeping two projects in mind: the one you're spending the bulk of your time on, and the side project that you work on in your off hours. That's why you get more xp for your seasonal work than for your correspondence.
Does that make sense?
so essentially each letter is a 1 point tractus that only 1 person can use, until it is bundled, but can be read alongside other activities?
Essentially, yes.
Added a comment on Affinities to "Everything Else."
Can I get my talisman physically crafted by a Verdi as an item of quality? Or does the magical activity for an IoQ exclude it being used as a talisman?
What would be the purchase price for IoQ ?
I'm thinking of purchasing a few, like crown if that is ok for my talisman, or sceptre (which I assume is like crown, as its mentioned in the IoQ text but not in the form and material list). eg. Saddle for ride skill, Quill for scribe skill,
Here's the thing. When you attune a talisman, you can get shape and material bonuses. This is the same bonus you get from an IoQ and, as I see it, comes from the same place. So, for example, if you had an IoQ crown that gave you a +3 to control people, you couldn't double dip and get +6 to your ReMe spells to control people if you attuned to that shape. You're already getting that bonus from it being an IoQ. There's no more for the item to give.
That having been said, I don't think there's any reason you couldn't use an IoQ as a talisman.
What is the generally accepted price for an IoQ in other sagas? I'm inclined to go with the flow on this one.
I have no problem with people buying IoQs. You've had the opportunity over the years. Just don't go overboard.
Okay, I made a mistake, and I can see it now. I threw in the Adventure option of getting 10 BP because I thought it would be an interesting way to give you an edge when it came time for building a covenant. I never intended it to be an option for gaining 2 vis/year every cycle. I can see now that allowing 10 BP as an option for adventuring was a big mistake on my part. I'm afraid that my only option now is to retroactively remove that option and apologize to my players for making that terrible error.
Allowing the 10 BP to convert into vis makes a difference of hundreds of vis over 6 cycles. That unbalances things far too much.
I'm sorry I ever listed it as an option, and I regret putting anyone to any trouble in their character design.
I also clarified that it takes two seasons to have a skilled craftsman make a major virtue for the lab.
Probably 2 vis. 3 per 10 spell effects levels is pretty standard, so 2 vis is slight less but still basically double the vis cost that the Verdi expends.
Standard price to make an IOQ is 1 vis, to buy an IOQ is 3 vis.