LEVEL PROGRESSION

After kicking around several ideas, The Keeper and I have come up with the following procedure.

To start with, we're not going to deal with XPs at all. What we decided on was that two full missions would generate a Level Progression. We try to set up missions so that each one should give you half the necessary XPs for the next level. Thus, if the mission doesn't get fully completed, then some of the XPs wouldn't have gotten earned.

That's not to say that all missions HAVE to be completed fully. Missions are interactive between the GM and the Players, so if the Players don't finish a particular mission, then it's probable that the GM didn't fully or properly present it to them. That's essentially what happened with all three 1st missions. While we, the GMs, had other things on the back burner, for whatever reason they never came to a full boil.

This isn't a problem, nor was it wrong, nor was it anybody's fault really. That's just the way it worked out. Hopefully I'll get better at presenting the missions in all their TPK glory!


So, that being said, this is the rule:

Two complete adventures equals one level progression.


REWARDS

We feel there should be some other 'reward' for completing a mission. Those fall into four categories: Action Dice, Bonus Feats, Bonus Skills and Bonus Vitality Points.


ACTION DICE

These are supposed to be awarded for good role-playing. Since they are something that gets used up, they aren't really a game-breaker.

'Good role-playing' is a very hard topic to nail down. It's very subjective. Some ways this happens is:

You think of some clever way around a problem.
You write something that makes the GM (and the others) laugh.
You delve into a bit of background for your character.
You write a flashback scene.
You role-play (as opposed to roll-play) a scene with an NPC very well.


BONUS FEATS

There are some gamers out there that feel characters should gain a feat every level. Their argument is primarily that this won't unbalance a game because the benefits of most feats don't come into play every adventure. The other part of that is the GM truism: if you gain immunity to cold, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll never, ever, EVER run across that situation again.

So a reward at the end of every mission (fully completed or not) is 1 Bonus Feat. However, there is a caveat to that: with the exception of specific skill feats (see Bonus Skills below), it should be connected to the last mission. For example, if Hilda was shooting arrows at a lot of Jaffa on the mission, she might reasonably pick up Far Shot as a bonus feat.


BONUS SKILLS

The idea here was that characters would spend time between missions honing their skills. This certainly seems sensible for the academics, though physical skills are a little harder to accept, and there are a few nebulous ones.

Rather than deal with specific skill or skill point options, use the following:

1. You can choose any Basic Skill Feat as long as you used at least one of those
     skills on the mission.
2. You can choose a Basic Skill feat up to 3 times. Bonuses stack, but not the
     critical.
3. You can choose Advanced Skill Mastery, Grand Skill Mastery or Perfect Skill
     Mastery as long as you meet the prerequisites.
4. You can choose False Start, Training, Cross-Training or Unlocked Potential.

New Skill Feat
Cross-Training
     You have picked up a bit of knowledge and skill outside of your field.
Benefit: You choose two Cross-Class skills; they become Class Skills for you.


BONUS VITALITY POINTS

If the situation seems to warrant it (extensive combat, injury, serious, wounds, unusual physical exertion, etc.), I may award extra Vitality Points. At most, it would be only 1 or 2, and it isn't going to happen every mission (well, who knows). In very rare instances, I might award an actual Wound Point.



This isn't carved in Ancient yet; I'm open to discussion on the matter.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:02, Tue 13 May 2014.