I always just make sure to do lab work in a season where I've gotten adventure exp.
You can still do lab work this season. You just cannot gain exposure xp if you are already taking adventure xp this season.
Also, if somehow you manage multiple adventures in a season, you can take xp from all of them. All combined adventures constitute one single source.
In the library, I allow you to study more than one book in a season. You can, say, split your study time between two diffenent books, dividing your study total for each in half (round down). This still counts as one source (the library)
How does this work for companions? Specifically, can they 'assign' one of their mandatory exposure seasons to an adventure season, take the adventure xp instead, and still get two 'free' seasons that year?
Mission Improbable is on the planner for being in Spring, which is when Vibria was going to try to scribe some books from Sigmundo's incredibly drool-worthy collection. So, she would only have gotten 2xp Exposure to Scribe, anyway. I was just checking more for future reference than anything else.
Not exactly sure what you mean. Please tell me what you specifically want to do.
In Spring, you take the adventure xp. Everyone got 10xp, magi and companions and grogs alike. It was a long drawn out story compressed into a timeframe of only about a week of game time.
Whatever you do with the rest of the season is whatever you do. Whatever that may be. You can't get any extra xp from it though.
For seasons thereafter, I think companion characters should plot out activities like magi do, you do this in summer and that in fall. Whatever it may be.
For grogs, just give them the abstract 5xp per season and don't worry about details unless you want to (keep in mind that carefully manicured grogs are eligible to one day advance to being companions according to the Grogs book).
For familiars, they only get xp for doing things with you. They get the adventure xp, exposure xp from the lab, and can be taught by you. But they cannot study something else while you study, and they cannot study the same book as you (maybe if you had two copies of the same book, but let us not open that can of worms).
As a companion, Bernhard has two free seasons per year to study or practice or whatever. The other two seasons he works for the covenant or for Vulcanus and gains exposure xp. In 1230, he gains adventure xp in Spring for Mission Improbable. I want to designate that season as one in which he's working for the covenant, therefore using two of the remaining seasons as his free seasons. I think that's allowed, based on the rest of your response.
I swapped around two of Vulc's seasons (making Vibria's chainmail an Item of Quality, and enchanting it) so that the season that I used Bernhard's assistance in the lab was the same season he got Adventure xp. I figure that's not too metagamey since Vulc knew Bernhard was going out in the spring and would have planned for when using his assistance least impacts Bernhard's own stuff.
As a companion, all your time is free. You simply have an arrangement to work two seasons a year. And going on adventure on behalf of the covenant counts as work IMO. So you are good.
That works too
The effect must be identical in every way, including all scores and parameters (uses per day, Penetration, etcetera), and the utilization of a Form & Effect bonus for Shape & Material
It can only be used for your Talisman, and is useless for anyone else. Though it may seem useless, if your talisman is ever destroyed, the text makes it easier to recreate.
No. It can only be used by the original magus, and only for his own talisman.
Same shape & material for form and effect is essential. However, if your Lab Total did not bother with any form & effect bonus, the shape & material becomes irrelevant and you can put that effect into just about anything.
That means my item creation lab texts are useless to other magi, because Vulc always uses runes 
No point in scribing them, since I can recreate my own enchantments from untranslated texts.
What if you have an apprentice one day? A to pass your secrets on to.
And spells that you know and we don't are always useful 
But scribing just about anything will give you the few exposure xp you need. How about starting up a Correspondence?
And shame on you for being such a munchkin that you neglected your Scribe ability 
I didn't munchkin. I came up with the character concept and he studied things that interested him. He's a very intelligent person who is cognitively lazy and frequently oblivious, and that sort of person has a tendency to only stick with what they're good at. I know because I am also a very intelligent person who is cognitively lazy
But you know how to write 
No, I know how to talk, and I type fast. With a pen, I make chicken scratches 
One might argue that proficiency in typing and internet communication is the modern equivalent to formal writing . But your chicken scratch comment agrees with my own theory on Ars Magica scribing. Every magus knows how to chicken-scratch well enough to create raw Lab Texts for all their work, and can chicken-scratch really nicely enough to write them out.
Which now makes me think; it seems plausible to put your exposure xp from lab work into Scribe, representing your efforts to keep your lab texts legible.
Anyway. If you can read, you can write. I withdrew the optional rules for "Well Scribed" etceteras (I think they should be bonuses above & beyond, but that adds more rules and complications, so it is easier to just forgo those options and go with core RAW). If the troupe agrees, maybe we can work out some rule where you can make a quick chicken scratch copy of a book and have it recopied later?
That's an interesting idea. So you can always preserve information, but the services of a skilled scribe can be applied at any time to re-establish the original quality? I like it.
This is what I am thinking...
Take into account the standard -3 penalty for not having the specific ability. We will apply that as a penalty to quality until recopies (stat it as -3 Shorthand). Copy speed is 6 + Scribe levels per season. Chicken scratching it would be 6 + (penalty of -3), or 3 levels per season (9 if copying quickly). That would cover the level of just about any text on Abilities. It limits Arts, but you can choose a high quality Root text and still max out.
For tractate, take away the option to copy quickly.
For Lab Texts,
... lemmy think...
how about you can copy 60 levels that are legible to you only (and those who have deciphered your shorthand)? Someone else can write them out properly at a later time. After learning your shorthand. Or you can do it yourself, already knowing your shorthand. This essentially means it takes you twice as long to properly copy out these spells, but the second part can be pawned off on someone else or can be skipped if you are selfish :mrgreen:
There isn't a penalty for using an ability you don't have. If it's asterisked on page 63 of the MRB, it can't be used, otherwise it can be used, treating the score as 0. The penalty is in the event of a botch is 3 extra botch dice, so at least 4 botch dice.