I'm running a game of Only War with my players part of the Vostroyan Firstborn. One of them can take an Advanced Specialty and I had a few questions:

1. Under "New Talents" for each Advanced Specialty. You just get those? No spending xp or anything? You also don't have to spend xp to gain the Specialty in the first place?
2. If you do simply gain those talants do you get 100 bonus xp if you would receive a talant you already have like in character creation?

And this other question is a little more specific. So I know that the Advanced Specialties replace your exsisting Aptitudes. However, does it only replace the Aptitudes from your original speciality and not ones from other sources?

In this case Vostroyan Firstborn have Ballistic Skill as a starting Aptitude. If one were to branch into a specialty like "Sharpshooter", which has the Aptitude, would they be allowed to choose a Characteristic Aptitude like in character creation?

Thank you for your time! Hope I wrote my questions clearly enough.

As far as I understand the rules:

1. Yes, you just get talent(s) just as with a starting character. Although advanced specialties have a lot fewer talents than the old specialites.

2. I'm not aware of that rule, but if so that's a reasonable assumption.

3. Advanced specialites overwrite the Aptutides from previous specialities, not from regiment. So you'd keep it (and would be able to chose another if you would also get it from the advanced speciality). Having BS from the regiment is very powerful.