Experience

This page covers the mechanics for experience in this TTRPG system.

Experience is used to advance a characters’ mechanical character traits.  This can include increasing attributes & skills, purchasing powers, or assets.

Earning Experience

At the end of each session of the game, the GM & players will go through the following checklist.  The GM will award experience based on this checklist.

This should average 5-6 experience earned per game session, with big spikes when a long term goal is completed.

A Note On Goals

Players are incentivized to take on as many long term & short term goals as possible.  The gamemaster needs to rule on what goals are (un)reasonable.  Going to the bathroom isn’t a goal.

Long Term Goals

The player characters shouldn’t be completing a long term goal every session, or even every other session.  A long term goal should be completed once per story, which could be anywhere from 5-20 sessions.

Short Term Goals

It is reasonable to complete a short term goal every 1 or 2 sessions.

Spending Experience

You may spend experience on: increasing attributes, increasing skills, purchasing powers, &  assets. The tables below show the experience cost of each type of character trait. Powers have a buy cost in the powers tables; multiply this buy cost by the Exp Cost multiplier in the table below.

Increase Attribute Rating

Increasing an attribute has a flat experience cost (not a multiplier) based on how high the new attribute rating will be.  Details are in the table below.  Example: Sam wants to increase his physical attribute from 5 to 7.  Sam spends 10 exp to raise it from 5 to 6.  Sam then spends 15 exp to raise it from 6 to 7.  The total cost for Sam to go from rating 5 to rating 7 is 25 experience.

Increase Skill Rating

Increasing a skill has a flat experience cost (not a multiplier) based on how high the new skill rating will be.  Details are in the table below.  Example: Sam wants to increase his physical awareness skill from 5 to 7.  Sam spends 5 exp to raise it from 5 to 6.  Sam then spends 8 exp to raise it from 6 to 7.  The total cost for Sam to go from rating 5 to rating 7 is 13 experience.

The Unbreakable Rule

Players may not spend Experience during a game session.  It must be spent before or after a game session.  There are 2 reasons for this:

• If you allow character traits to be purchased at any time during a game session, held experience becomes the most powerful stat in the game.
  • If a player runs into a problem they can’t think their way around, and you’re allowing experience to be spent at any time, the player will simply purchase the solution to their immediate problem.
    • This makes for terrible games.
• It slows down the game when everyone is figuring out what to buy.

Plugin: Training Time

Training time is optional, and chosen by the Gamemaster. There are many ways to make character traits purchased with experience take time.  Here we outline the most important factors, and provide a list of examples for training times.

Training Time & Realism

Any attempt at realism will be antithetical to fun.  Fiction is full of unrealistic training times.  The most common trope here is the training montage.  Embrace the lack of realism.

Training Time: Slow

Training times require the character to spend at least 4 hours a day in training.

Attributes: New rating X months

Skills: New rating X weeks

Powers: Buy cost X weeks

Assets: New rating X weeks

Training Time: Fast

Training times require the character to spend at least 4 hours a day in training.

Attributes: New rating X weeks

Skills: New rating X days

Powers: Buy cost X days

Assets: New rating X days