I have been making grogs, because our current game has not statted out servent types. We have six or seven noble grogs because that fits our back story but we don't have any of the servents described. So, I started to do so, and figured that I should build them at a wide range of ages, some who are in their teens and some who are in their 40's and 50's.
Having done so, I am now responsible for advancing these characters. I am finding it extremely difficult to find good sources for skills like Awareness, Folk Ken, Guile, Charm, Ettiquite, and so forth. It seems like creating a grog at age 10 and advancing him to age 25 leaves me with a seriously defficient character in these sorts of skills relavive to those characters who are created at age 25. Sure, if I have the right enviroment, I can advance him in some sort of profession, either fighting or craftsmen or the profession skill faster than the 15 XP per year normally given. But if I wanted a character to gain 15 XP in Awareness, Guile and Folk Ken over three years, I don't see how to do it.
Base yourself on the AM5 main book examples for Practise...
If someone is VERY busy doing something that they havent done before, or havent done much at least, i think its generally a good and fair idea to give Practise XP instead of Exposure.
All the book examples of sources can be used, allowing XP anywhere from 3 to 8.
More or less slowly reduce the source quality according to the characters Ability score.
Essentially, if Exposure is intensive, responsive or "new" enough to the character, use Practise XP.
Folk Ken, Guile and Charm are Abilities i think will give very high Practise XP if a character tries or is moved towards developing them, falling rather perfectly into the first example in the book.
Ettiquette a bit lower as it doesnt give as much immediate response, and Awareness, maybe the base quality of 4?
I think awareness is a constant ability: when you walk, you must check your path, when you are doing some work, and someone call you from outside, it's awareness...
8xp is normal IMO: it's the same as practicing a language when you are immersed in another country
I am assuming that the grog characters only have two free seasons. So practice as described in the RAW won't cut it, as they need to get 11 XP in two seasons.
Philosophically, I have no problem with adjusting the RAW for practice. Practically, my group is very much an example of troupe play, and the decision would not be up to me alone. I don't think I could get the rest of the players to agree to something else. Not because they would have strong objections but because I don't think I could get them to focus on the question long enough to get a decision.
I can see training for some skills, such as Bargain if the activity was throughout the season. Yelling at the kid that trading a cow for three magical beans is a bad deal is probably not going to cut it. Serfs Parma, but I thought the person training the other person had to be making a living in that skill while they were providing training. For something like Awareness, a soldier grog might be training other soldier grogs regarding how to listen while standing watch. I am not sure how that would work for Guile and Folk Ken, it seems those occasions happen less frequently.
Considering that the max for two seasons of Practise is 16XP, that shouldnt be a problem unless you want to be overly strict about some rule interpretation.
The OP mentioned Awareness, Guile, Folk Ken, Charm and Etiquette.
As you mentioned Awareness is really easy to train.
Young ladies are probably constantly trained in Charm and Etiquette.
Anyone who has a lot of social interaction can easily train you in Charm and Folk Ken.
And if you are the apprentice of a crook or merchant (some would call the latter a sub-class of the former) you probably learn a lot of Guile and Folk Ken.