Affinities (for Abilities and Arts) state that "All study totals for one ability are increased by one half" and "Your study totals for one Hermetic Art are increased by one half, rounded up".

1) Are study totals rounded up for both? I believe the answer to be yes.

2) What is a study total? In Chapter 10, Long Term Events, where experience and advancement are discussed, there is no reference to the term "study total". On the surface, study total appears to be experience points gained from reading summae and tractus, studying from raw vis, being taught, being trained, and practicing. This just leaves out adventure experience and exposure.

3) But under exposure, the text states "A character can learn simply by being exposed to the thing to be studied." This certainly implies that exposure experience is study experience.

4) And under adventure, "A character may chose not to take experience from an adventure if the adventure was short enough to allow other study." This may imply that adventuring is a form of study.

5) Is the intent of an affinity to allow then the increase of experience points gained for the requisite ability or art by one half (rounded up), no matter how gained, or are there certain aspects of experience point gain that are considered study and some non-study?

I am leaning towards allowing all xp gain to be effected by the relevant affinity if appropriate, i.e. 4 experince points gained through adventuring can be placed into an abililty or art that that charater has an affinity with and those 4 experience points will then count as 6.

I am looking for feedback from the Atlas gods or playtesters who may have discussed this and general feedback from all.

On to the next post.

1) all fractions are rounded up in 5e, as a design rule.

2) generically: source Quality + user's Virtues
specifically in this case, any XP allocated to the attribute.
As written, you add 50% and round each time you allocate XP; but it can be more practical (eg if using a spreadsheet) to keep the base XP and work in a factor of 1.5 on the XP

3) yes, so if you allocate 1XP to an Art or Ability you get 2; if you allocate 2 you get 3
It's a snail's way to munchkin, or an honest way to allocate XP, depending on how you look at it.

4) yes. "Adventure XP" is there for those who feel happier with it than regular study; just make Adventure XP conform to the main study rules, pretend it is a "Source" with a "Quality" of type "Adventure" and the problem disappears.

5) yes, just add 50% -- K.I.S.S. applies