Simple Labs
Avoiding Economics and Keeping Score!
This system doesn't use the upkeep mechanic, gets rid of a lot of stacking and fiddly bits, and turns every modification into a bit of an abstract, rather than the virtue/flaws system Covenants uses. It does steal a lot of terms and ideas from their numbers, though. There's a bit of shenanigans ignoring logic as part of fun game balance; I'm running on the concept that a lab must be arranged to channel sympathetic bonuses from lab mods to benefit from them; Having sixteen different dragon hearts preserved in crystal around your lab doesn't help if most of them are stored in a box in the corner, and pulling them all out at once will probably create eddies and flows in the aura that ruins the attempted power boost.
Every lab may have one free mod built into it as part of the construction and setup; Whether this is a sturdy construction from being built of magical stone, or the lab being a flying tower. A flying tower built out of sturdy magic stone could theoretically have both, however see the above point about sympathetic lab arrangement.
Beyond the free lab mod, the number of mods that can be active at once is limited by the size of the lab and the skill of the magus (similar to in Covenants). The maximum number of bonuses you can give to your lab is your Magic Theory + Lab Warping. If you are using a lab you are unfamiliar with, you cannot utilize the resident magus's customizations easily. Every season you work in the lab will let you use one additional native mod of the lab.
Every lab mod must come from an adventure, a magic item crafted for the lab, or an experimental event (Story/special).
Adding or changing a mod to your lab requires a season. If you have access to numerous mods from a series of events and adventures, you can rearrange the mods active in your lab in a single season. Pick your favorite three crystallized dragon hearts. You can install an item into your own lab as part of building it, or as part of the Adventure xp season if it happens early enough in the season.
Now the fun part: every modification installed grants either +1 to an Art, or +2 to a specific Technique and Form combination. Alternatively, your storyguide might allow it to give +1 to a lab activity (LR, item crafting, familiars) or +1 safety (reduces botch dice in the lab activities)
With storyguide approval, a particularly powerful or potent adventure or breakthrough could give +3 to an art or +5 to a specific Technique and Form combination; this will also give your lab Warping, as per Covenants.