Character Advancement
Rules for improving character abilities after completing story milestones.
Character advancement is a reward for overcoming challenges, completing objectives, and achieving significant milestones. During character advancement, players are granted the opportunity to improve their characters.
Pacing
Pacing refers to how quickly or slowly characters grow and improve over the course of the game. It's about finding the right balance between the frequency of minor and major milestones. Controlling pacing can be challenging representing the intersection of how a director manages scenes in relation to story arcs, and player choices. If character advancement happens too quickly, it may lead to characters becoming overpowered too soon. On the other hand, if it happens too slowly, players might feel like their characters are stagnating.
As a general rule of thumb for longer campaigns, major milestones will typically be separated by 2-4 minor milestones. Minor milestones will depend heavily on story structure. For groups that structure a campaign to accomplish a job/mission/quest once per session, minor milestones may be awarded at the completion of every session. For longer campaigns with more traditional story arcs, minor milestones might be accomplished every 2-4 sessions.
Pacing should be discussed by the group during Session Zero.
Minor Milestones
Minor milestones occur when the group successfully completes intermediate objectives or overcomes significant challenges within a story arc. After completing a minor milestone, players can choose ONE of the following:
Add a Boost
Add a Skill to an existing Skill Set
Upgrade a Skill Set (from d4 to d6)
Major Milestones
Major milestones occur when the group completes major quests or resolves a significant plotline. After completing a major milestone, players can choose:
Two Minor Milestones
OR ONE of the following:
Add a new Skill Set (starting with an ability rating of d4)
Upgrade a Skill to a Specialization (starting with an ability rating of d8)
Upgrade a Specialization (increase from d8 to d10, or d10 to d12)
Improved Stress Management
Characters improve their ability to manage stress as they gain experience. After completing a major milestone, all characters can increase their maximum stress by 1 point.
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