I am addressing a group of PCs for whom these assumptions are true. I am of course aware that other PCs will lead different lives, and in some cases even be on par with the magi.
A PC who rises in the ranks and has the covenant provide teaching, or who lives their life in the narrative lime light, can do very well in terms of xp. They are not my concern.
I was in fact not assuming one season of `other', but rather 2x exposure and 2x practice, which I think would be the destiny for large groups of grogs and companions. That's who get the slow advancement in-game.
P.S. I was not aware that RAW mandated 15xp/year for in-game advancement. All I have seen dictate seasonal advancement in-game.
I was not aware that RAW mandated 15xp/year for in-game advancement. All I have seen dictate seasonal advancement in-game.
It's not mandated- as a matter of fact, I don't think 15/yr is anywhere explicitly authorized for use after character creation. But Grogs treats it as the default, and proceeds to give a selection of 3- and 5-year prepackaged chunks at that advancement rate. See, for example, p.67:
Non-magus characters receive 15 experience points every year. This is an average value, based on... [...]
Applying yearly experience points to grogs need not
be a chore.
So clearly I wasn't the only one defaulting to 15/year for grogs (and presumably NPCs).
Well, it's awfully convenient if you don't want to advance grogs season by season. Which I don't think I care about. That being said, I don't see any reason why a grog level character shouldn't have 5-6 xp adventures, travel practice, etc.
More fully, I was saying 2 seasons of exposure, 1 season of practice, and one other season. I wasn't assuming you were counting it as a second season of exposure, but I was including that. So, yes, based on what you just said you were assuming the second point as well.
As thepsyborg pointed out, it is not mandated. It is a RAW option, which you are assuming is not being used.
That's a lot of assumptions, without any of which the starting too weak and never catching up situation never even happens. Thus the given average of 15 doesn't force this scenario.
Where is that option stated? I have not seen it other than pre-game.
Only two assumptions: (1) the character does not have access to a teacher/trainer nor is literate, and (2) the character has to work half the year, gaining only exposure in two seasons.
Your Ā«lots of assumptionsĀ» are simply corollaries of the simple assumption (1), which is going to hold true for a lot of people in Mythic Europe. Some troupes actually play some of these.
The observation, under these assumptions, was that the in-game character cannot keep up with pre-game advancement speed. And it can be quite disconcerting to the players to discover that they do not have any development options which will give them more than 12xp/year over a long downtime period. Now, if you have found an option to use 15xp/year for in-game advancement, then the problem is solved, if there was a problem.
Of course not. The scenario I was worried about was when the average drops below 15.
also keep in mind that certaina ctivities will alter the ballance. A post apprenticeship character can take a extra season of study of area lore picking up a few experience points. A season of adventure can put a character as many as 6xp above standard, which will slow the closure between post apprenticeship seasonal ability scores and the standard 15xp/year scores. A simple vacation pilgrimage (as opposed to initiatory) with 10xp as a seasonal adventure can cover years of difference on the closure rate.
Sure. That has been kept in mind, but in a fast-pace saga with enough PCs that a given PC is not played every story, these opportunities are few and far between.
I also bring up pilgrimages because they were a common activity which breaks the stereotype of a insular living in the middle ages- anyone could go on a pilgrimage (with varying resources to accomplish the journey) and the experience will break out of the routine version of existence. For example if a newly graduated apprentice is not finding work they might go on a pilgrimage (and potentially find a different job opportunity along the way, perhaps somewhere without a guild where his skills re better appreciated...) and spend several seasons learning new languages or area lore between seasons of begging even if it were not counted as an adventure.