Experience Points

Experience points represent your growth and development as a character. Three types of points are used: Knowledge Points, Reputation, and Talents. Talents are the main type of experience points.

Out of the three types of experience points, only talents determine your level. Knowledge points and reputation are points that do not count towards your total talents or level. They are gained in their own way that allows you to develop your character outside of standard leveling.

It is recommended to reward all experience points at the end of sessions as it's difficult to improve characters mid game.

Lucky Coins as Experience

While Lucky Coins are typically only given out for immersive gameplay, they can also be used as an alternate form of experience. When a character does something that would generally grant experience but doesn’t fit the other types or is more of a personal achievement a Lucky Coin can be used instead. See Luck for more information.

Knowledge Points (Crafting)

Knowledge Points can increase anything related to crafting for your character. This includes paying penances for crafting traits, purchasing crafting masteries, learning recipes, and anything directly connected to crafting.

Buying Masteries

Knowledge points can purchase crafting masteries in place of the talent cost.

Increasing Statistics & Skills

Knowledge points can boost your crafting and mechanical skills, but they cost more than talents. You can enhance your character’s secondary attributes without sacrificing talents by gaining knowledge points. Be aware that the standard rules for increasing your statistics and skills still apply, even when doing so in this way.To increase stats, you need to spend ten knowledge points per point or five knowledge points per skill point in the relevant skills.

10 Knowledge Points = 1 crafting or mechanical statistic increase
10 Knowledge Points = 1 crafting or mechanical associated skill into expertise
5 Knowledge Points = 1 skill point in 1 crafting or mechanical associated skill

Learning Recipes

Once you have got a crafting recipe, you can use knowledge points to unlock the ability to craft the item.

Paying Trait Penances

Knowledge points can pay the cost of a crafting trait penance. Knowledge only replaces the talent price. 

Rewarding Knowledge

Giving out Knowledge is done through successful crafting and ala cart as needed. See the crafting chapter for more information on how knowledge can be used. Lucky coins can be exchanged for five knowledge.

Reputation

Reputation is used for social aspects of your character. They can pay penances for social traits, gain bonuses to social checks, buy favors, increase your persona statistic and its associated skills, and anything directly connected to social interactions.Once reputation is spent, it is gone and the only way to get more is to gain it from conversations involving social skill checks. It is possible to gain more reputation while roleplaying out a favor you recently purchased. 

Buy Favors

When you have enough reputation, you can purchase favors which are listed later in this section.

Buying Masteries

Reputation can purchase social masteries in place of the talent cost.

Increasing Persona & Skills

It is possible to use your reputation to increase your persona statistic and its associated skills. However, it is at a much higher cost than talents but has the benefit of not counting towards your total talents or level. As you improve your statistics and skills like this, remember that the regular rules for their advancement are still valid.Spend ten reputations to increase persona or spend five to gain a skill point in associated skills.

10 Reputation = 1 persona statistic increase
10 Reputation = 1 persona associated skill into expertise
5 Reputation = 1 skill point in 1 persona associated skill

Paying Trait Penances

Reputation can pay the cost of a social trait penance. Reputation only replaces the talent price.

Social Skill Bonus

When spending reputation to increase the bonus to a social skill, check each point of reputation used increases the bonus by +1. Once the reputation is used, regardless if the check is successful, cannot be used again and is lost.

Rewarding Reputation

When performing social skill checks, if you are successful you can gain reputation. Reputation rewards should be limited to one to three per conversation, regardless of the number of successful social skill checks. Starting another conversation with the same person is continuing the first one. Therefore, reputation should be rewarded based on the total conversations, not individually. Social skill checks against friendly allies cannot reward reputation.

1-3 Reputation Rewarded for a Conversation(s) Involving Successful Persona Based Skill Checks.

Lucky coins can be exchanged for favors. You can exchange one lucky coin for one favor that costs fifteen or less.

Reputation is not always the reward for conversations or roleplaying. Players may roleplay for fun with no story or character advancement. It’s simply players just having fun with their characters. When this happens, just have fun and don’t worry about giving out reputation as the situation doesn’t call for them. Instead, it would be a good opportunity to pay attention to the players to give out lucky coins.

Don't reward reputation to players who don't roll skill checks, even if they roleplay well. This can quickly lead to favoring the more charismatic outgoing players while leaving the shyer/ recluse players in the dark. That can quickly lead to upset players and even game ending consequent. If a player's roleplaying matches their character's personality and fits the game, reward them with a lucky coin. It’s a way to say thanks for committing to the game in your own way without unbalancing the group and potentially pissing off other players.

Favors

Favors are using your reputation to win over another person or people. It is being able to understand and know how to make them automatically agree with you or allow you to get away with more.

How much a favor costs are based on how workable the task being attempted is. The more challenging favors, such as hiring an assassin, require a lot more reputation and knowhow to achieve. Therefore, it is one of the higher costing favors. A cheap favor would convince an innkeeper to let you sleep on a bench in a common area instead of paying for a room.

When using a favor, you spend the reputation listed as the cost and immediately gain the described favor. Roleplaying is necessary for most favors. For example, hiring an assassin requires communication. You would have to gather information, but know that you will find what you are looking for.

Barter Favors

Barter favors allow you to gain discounts on purchases based on how much reputation is spent. The purchase can be for up to three items, but must be all within one transaction.

Lodging Favors

Lodging favors allow you to get free lodging for up to three days. Companions can stay in your lodging (should you allow it) based on the room size.

Social Favors

Social favors are favors that involve getting something from other people.

Hire an Assassin

Hiring an assassin involves learning where to go and who to talk to. Spending the cost of this favor gives you that information, and the assassin will perform one task as part of the cost. This task is limited to assassinating a maximum of one target that is below king status. Wanting to target multiple people or higher status individuals requires paying additional coin. The game master should determine the coin amount based on the story and the situation. There is a 25% chance the assassin will fail with their mission should their mission be a solo one.

Hire a Bodyguard

The bodyguard will protect the one who asked for the favor and one other person. They will protect them for up to one week but can be paid to extend that duration. The price is determined by the game master based on the story and the situation.

Temple Service Favors

These favors allow you to gain free services from a temple. Temple service favors are all onetime use.

Transportation Favors

Transportation favors allow you and up to three companions a free one-way trip between two major cities.

Revamping Characters

There might be times in a campaign when your character ends up developing in a completely different direction than you originally had planned. Your character's story may prevent future growth and waste abilities/experience points. This is where revamping your character comes into play.

The more you focus on a specific set of skills and less on another, the more it is natural for the neglected set to become rusty. Simply put, you forget how to perform those abilities. For example, if you created a tech-savvy character but didn't use any tech skills. Now you're level four and you have parts of your character that are holding you back from your true potential—becoming an all-powerful wizard! You can trade your steam power abilities for their original experience point cost by revamping your character. This includes abilities gained during character creation.

You can trade abilities that cost experience points for revamp experience points, but each character can only revamp twice. The first time is before you reach the maximum character level. The second time is at the maximum character level.

The limitations of revamping your character are:

• Any ability being revamped is lost and your character can no longer use it or gain the benefit from it.
• All ranks of an ability are lost. You cannot remove a single rank, but keep the lower ranks of an ability. It’s all or nothing.
• If removing an ability with ranks, you get the total cost of all the ranks that you currently have.
• The total experience point cost of the ability is returned to you as revamped experience points (i.e. spending knowledge on crafting masteries returns knowledge; spending talents on combat masteries returns talents).
• You can't get back the cost of abilities that require coins, only talents.
• You cannot remove an ability that is a requirement for another ability unless you remove both abilities.
• Any experience points revamped from statistics or skills can only be used on other statistics or skills. So, if you remove talents from thievery, they have to be spent on another statistic, such as might. Talents used on statistics cannot be used on skills and vice versa.
• Statistics cannot be lowered below two.
• Expertise skills can be reverted to untrained (except unarmored). All skill points are removed from the skill if this is done.
• Experience points cannot be exchanged for other experience points. Talents come back as Talents, Knowledge comes back as Knowledge, and Reputation comes back as Reputation.

When purchasing new abilities with revamp experience points, all requirements of the abilities must be met. This includes purchasing abilities that are labeled for character creation.

Talents (General)

Talents are the only type of experience points that directly affect your level. The more talents you have, the higher level you are.

Talents are the all-around experience points that are mostly given out during combat but can be rewarded a la cart if needed. They can be spent on anything the player chooses. If giving talents out ala cart be careful why and how you are giving them out. All players involved should gain a la cart talents otherwise, they shouldn’t be given out at all. If you want to reward players but don’t want to increase their levels, try giving one of the other experience points or lucky coins out instead of talents.

All talents, regardless of how they are gained, go towards your total talents, which determines what level you are currently at. When spending talents, make sure you are not subtracting them from the total talents as that will mess up determining what level you are. So, add up all the talents you are being rewarded to know when you will get to your next level.

Rewarding Talents

The suggested amount of talents listed below is just that, a suggestion. If you, as the game master, are looking to have a slower paced game, then you can reward fewer Talents throughout the game. Just make sure it’s not too slow. Likewise, if you’re looking to play a quicker game, then increase the number of Talents rewarded.

Suggested Talent Distribution

Leveling

The more talents rewarded to you, the higher level you become and the more Wisdom you gain. Each new level, after level one, you gain your new level in wisdom. Wisdom is like talents, but it doesn't affect your level or total talents, and you can use it freely.

Every level gain your current level in wisdom

For example, if you reach level three, you would have three wisdom to spend on top of the normal talents gained from reaching level three.

• One skill point to one instinct.
• Half your level in skill points towards basic skills.
• Maximum health equals level minus one times vitality plus vitality times sub-species multiplier.
• Maximum Health = (Level -1 x Vitality) + Vitality x sub-species multipler
• Maximum essence equals level minus one time channeling plus mental plus channeling times two.
• Maximum Essence = Level -1 x Channeling + (Mental + Channeling) x 2
• For those without essence, (blood channelers) add vitality and half channeling time your level minus one to your health.
• Total Health = Level -1 x (Vitality + 1/2 Channeling) + starting essence

Total Talent Count

Make sure that when collecting your talents to keep count of your total talents (even the ones you have spent) on your character sheet. This will tell you your current level and how close you are to the next level.