Character Progression
Characters aren’t limited to the 20 points worth of skills they start with; over time, they gain new skills or improve on the ones they know, learn new techniques and rites, and grow in power through blessings and enchantments.
Progression in the Renewal campaign is by three routes: with experience, through Training and Research, and by becoming a Special Character.
Experience
Every character masters new challenges, gleans fresh insight or learns from their errors, just by dint of having adventures and surviving battles. This growth is represented by Experience – an award of bonus character points granted after each event. These points may be spent on General Skills and Archetype skills just as they would at character creation, including meeting prerequisite requirements, etc.
Experience is awarded as follows.
- Main Events Only: Experience is only awarded for attending the main events run by Curious Pastimes.
- First Ever Event: No experience is awarded after a character’s very first event, whether they were created before the event, or midway through (e.g. because the player’s previous character died).
- First Event Per Year: After the first event a character attends in a year (or the second event, if the first event was the character’s very first event, above), they receive 5 character points.
- Subsequent Events: For each of the next three events the character attends in a year, they receive 1 character point for a maximum of 8 experience points for a character in any one year.
Character points may be spent immediately after the event in which they’re earned, or saved up for later use, along with any unspent character points from character creation. Any unspent character points, whether from experience or left over from character creation, are lost when the character dies or retires.
Note: The above rules apply to the character, not the player – it’s possible, for example, for a player to receive 5 points more than once in a year, if the character they started the year with died.
Training and Research
Characters can also learn new abilities in play, through in character effort. This occurs in one of two ways.
- Training: A number of in character organisations, most prominently the Bastion, offer training in all the standard General Skills and Archetype skills appearing in this rulebook, as well as some unique skills, and some improvements of archetype skills. Different organisations offer different abilities, but characters may only train in the abilities on offer, never invent their own.
- Research: Characters may research new abilities or techniques, or improve on abilities they already know, through independent investigation and experimentation. This may include established techniques already available in game, or may forge wholly new paths – characters are limited only by the laws of the world.
Note: Abilities learned through study don’t cost character points, players earn them through in character effort during time-in, tracked via a resource called Study Units. They do, however, have a value in character points, which counts against the character’s points cap.
Study Paths
Any Training beyond the standard Skills List, and all Research, advances the character along a study path, a loosely-defined area of knowledge and expertise. All study paths build on archetype skills; some suggested paths are offered within each archetype’s description.
Progress along a study path is measured in a character’s skill level, from novice to master; masters are generally non player characters, although see Blaze of Glory, below.
Characters may pursue up to three study paths, which don’t all have to belong to their archetype. They may pursue one study path beyond novice level.
Special Characters
Characters can also be empowered by external forces, rendering them a Special Character. Unlike Experience or Training, these abilities don’t usually count against the character’s Points Cap, but they are almost always temporary or require regular upkeep.
Various routes to empowerment can be uncovered in play; some of the most common follow.
- Ritual Magic: A character can be enchanted in the Ritual Circle, granting them special abilities. This requires the services of a Ritual Team, and – for substantial or reliable results – may have a cost in Ether Spheres. Most enchantments are either strictly temporary, lasting a year or less, or require maintenance by a bound Ritualist.
- Blessings: The gods – or the beliefs of communities – can bestow special powers on those characters who most demonstrate the virtues the gods most cherish, sometimes known as faction specials. This entails tests and trials to prove their worth. Petitioners have to undertake further trials at regular intervals to retain their gifts.
- Bargains: Supernatural beings such as demons and undead can be persuaded to bestow special powers in exchange for some payment or service. This requires the character to seek out a patron, then to agree terms and – sooner or later – to settle the debt. Characters must make more bargains every year to hold onto their borrowed power.
- Surgery and Alchemy: Surgery can graft or transplant parts from more powerful creatures or alter the functioning of internal organs, while Alchemy can enhance, empower or modify the body in a host of ways. Without a steady supply or potions, or regular surgical interventions, the body may reject the alterations, develop Diseases – or simply break down.
Abilities gained by these routes have no prerequisites, even if they normally would. In turn, however, they may not serve as prerequisites for other skills, since the character has not earned a true understanding on which to build.
In some rare cases, abilities gained this way can be permanent – although gaining permanent abilities is always harder and more dangerous than receiving temporary benefits – but in those cases, abilities gained will have a point value and count towards the character’s points cap.
Points Cap
All progression via Experience, Training or Research increases a character’s point total. New skills have a point value up to 12 points, while improvements and techniques have a point value between 1 and 6 points.
There is a limit to this progress: No normal mortal can have more than 90 character points total, including their initial 20 points.
Routes exist in play to forget skills or re-spend points, usually at some cost, difficulty or danger; although if you have an out of character reason for wanting to change skills (e.g. becoming a non-combatant due to health or mobility), please get in touch with the Game Organisation Desk to discuss options.
Blaze of Glory
A character may be allowed to exceed the standard points cap, or otherwise step outside normal restrictions on characters by consciously abandoning mortality. The routes to doing so are difficult and dangerous, but they exist.
The routes to doing so are difficult and dangerous, but they exist.
Having taken this route, the character must either die or retire (becoming an NPC) no more than one year after exceeding the cap. A member of staff will flag this decision to the player in advance and discuss options, but once made, the decision is irreversible.
Examples
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