Hi all,
If you are doing a lab-project which only uses 2/3 of your lab-total can you spend the extra 1/3 of your time out of the lab doing something else. e.g. read a book, train etc.
You don't get exposure XP from your lab-work, but you can gain a portion of XP from your extra stuff. Of course it has to be something sensible like a full month or something. Just spending 5 or 6 days reading a book won't do much.
You could either
A) you are awarded a portion of XP based on how much you dedicated
B) you build up time towards a seasons work and gain XP when a full season is reached.
I'm leaning towards A, as I think there are rules somewhere for only studying for a month or so...
I allow this, as long as the lab work is done first, to maintain synchronisation with the celestial spheres (ArM5, p103). I don't let people study for less than one month, however.
You could get XP from exposure, but you wouldn't also get XP from whatever study you did in the remaining time. Only one source of XP per season, but I always allow my players to choose whether to take the 2 xp from exposure to lab work or 1/3 of the Quality of a summa (or whatever proportion it is). Of course, if they take the exposure, they might as well not bother with the study...unless the Quality of the book is a lot lower than you thought it was.
I work on months rather than seasons. This means 1 EP for exposure per month, which may well be allocated by the storyguide to something not very useful in the mind of the player (like another dialect).