Opening the Arts Confusing me!

It would make a certain amount of sense for Unaffected By The Gift to be a common virtue among Redcaps and covenfolk, probably through a combination of training, practice, and exposure, but I don't think I've seen that asserted anywhere.

Or just bend custom and teach Parma early.

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Yeah, the canonical justification is the Exposure rules (In Grogs, I think) - ie, it takes 10 years for someone to become used to a specific magi's (or group of magi's) gift. I think it grows as an ability, but I don't recall how much exposure XP you get per year. I also don't recall if it actually cancels out the penalty, or if that's just how long it takes for the Gift to stop affecting your grog's Loyalty modifier. So I'm all about not remembering the actual game mechanics, apparently. :slight_smile:

Another variation would be to actively seek out grogs that had Unaffected by the Gift, in a similar way that one would seek out Apprentices. (Intelligo Mentem effect, sight-based, instead of Intelligo Vim.) This could likely be a justification for having the Loyal Grogs virtue - it's not that they're specifically loyal, it's just that they don't hate you.

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There is a boon in covenants allowing a supernatural effect. Why don't you use it to have a localised effect like "unaffected by the gift' ? It would allow a school and the place could also become a favored site for negotiation with mundane. That could make interesting stories. Of course, you should have a hook concerning those disturbing dipomatic events.

keep in mind as well that arts can only be taught one on one (though they can be read...)

Sure - but the best way to learn magic is from the Roots, and it's entirely possible for an entire class to "read" from the same text at the same time. (And, frankly, more efficient for everyone involved). As such, I would imagine that such a magic school would take a hint from medieval universities, and have professors "read" a text every day, and have class discussions about it. (Unless this technique can't be used for arcane abilities - I think it can, though.)

This allows the professor to control the book itself (ie, keep it from being damaged), while at the same time grant the students the benefit of quality writing. The disadvantage, I would imagine, is that it doesn't impart the house Virtues on the students.

While the "season of instruction every year" requirement would likely be met doing this, you'd still need to get the house virtues taught (by osmosis, if nothing else) - which means that each student would have to be paired up with a relavent Magi for long enough for the transfer to occur (I think its 12 seasons.) This does assume that the Order would still require that such a school have the virtue requirement, of course.

In the 5th edition, I would consider this to be 'Teaching' (even though there's a book involved).
And Arts cannot be taught in a group forum.

This may be possible depending on your definition of Ā«readingĀ», but I think it ruins the spirit of apprenticeship. One could argue that individual pacing of the progression is critical for learning the arts, and this is obtained both when reading individually (self-pacing) and with one-on-one teaching, but not with lecturing.

The book states specifically that the master is obliged personally to teach the apprentice for a season per year. Thus class teaching would imply that one professor has a dozen apprentices. But I do not really understand how Bonisagus fosterage fits with this requirement.

Personally, I would house rule this out for arts, and use the school setting mainly for Latin and Artes Liberales, for Hermes Code and Lore to the extent that one bothers, and just maybe for Magic Theory. These skills are so important and do take so much time, that it is worth doing.

Group study from a book is described in the 1st printing of RoP:D, pg. 132, in the Jewish scholastic section. (I think it may have been removed in later printings, but it references the fact that this technique is commonly performed in Universities. Although in A&A, a similar section describes the fact that everyone brings their own book - so it's not identical, as it seems that in the Jewish tradition, they're literally reading the same scroll/codex - at least, that's my interpretation.) Essentially, the Study total is (sum of all XP gained by everyone)/(# of students +1). It explicitly mentions that Supernatural abilities can studied this way.

The description really does seem to be referencing the idea that multiple people can read from the same book in the same season, as long as they're willing to cooperate. Also, your concerns are directly addressed in the mechanic itself - everyone's XP is averaged out, and it's more efficient to study it by yourself.

And frankly, having one more advanced "student" in the mix who is actually reading the text out loud, making sure the book doesn't get damaged, and occasionally asks leading questions, doesn't seem to change the underlying mechanic - it's not adding anything via the Teaching ability or the Strong Teacher ability.