Experience Points

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” Every battle scar, every spiritual vision, and every failed plan teaches a valuable lesson. “The spirits are capricious.” “Be wary of the Shadow Lords.” “Silver is painful.” By those experiences, the Garou grow and improve. 

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A great deal of what characters learn is beyond the scope of any game system to reflect. In many cases the more mundane aspects of growing older — and, one would hope, wiser — are reflected in the players’ increased confidence and perspicacity. Learning to lock your car when you leave it in a public parking place is simply common sense, not really a skill that can be purchased. Emotional transformations are role played, not bought. 

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Sometimes, though, characters improve themselves in skills magical or mundane. A system of rewards, called experience points, is used to reflect these more quantitative changes. Experience points reflect the Traits that a vampire hones as time passes. 

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After each chapter (our term for a game session), you award a number of experience points to each of the player characters who participated in the game. The player keeps track of these points, and she chooses when and how to spend them to improve the Traits on their character sheet. 

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Experience points can be used to improve Attributes, to acquire new Abilities or enhance ones the character already has, to raise existing Disciplines or purchase new ones, or to increase Virtues. Backgrounds may not be purchased through experience points, though they may be acquired through role playing if, for example, the character makes a new friend, acquires a windfall, or commits diablerie. The costs for all of these different changes vary greatly and will be outlined on each species specific pages.

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New Traits

Increasing existing Traits can be done fairly readily, so long as the character uses or practices the Trait in question. Learning new Traits, however, is a little more difficult. Even a vampire can’t simply pick up a functioning legal knowledge or learn to fight if he doesn’t know even the basics (to say nothing of learning a new Discipline). Thus, learning an entirely new Ability or Discipline requires some tutoring and study, in addition to the required experience-point expenditure. This study can be simple (a night-school course to learn the basics of Computer) or brutally difficult (months or even years of mind-bending rituals, formulas, and blood manipulation to learn the first dot in Thaumaturgy), but it must always be accomplished. Having the Mentor Background helps, but even a mentor can teach only what she herself knows. 

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Players can earn XP in a variety of ways.  The easiest is simply just being on sim and roleplaying. Everyone gets a 3 XP weekly grant if they're on sim playing 3 or more times per week.

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The second way Players can earn XP is by turning in their rp logs.  Only one person from a scene needs to turn a log in.  Log XP will be tabulated and added to your huds once a week.
 
There will also be XP earned for Storyline Events run by STs.

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There is a weekly cap of 15 XP.  If you make the cap great, if not, never fear.  There are no penalties for not making it.

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If Players are going to be gone for a little while and don't want to miss out on XP, they can turn in what we call a Downtime.  A Downtime is a recounting of what your character has been doing when you weren't here actively rping.  It can be in short story form, a summary, a timeline, etc.  You can include rolls or not.  The only rule is that it has to be more than one line.  Downtime XP has a cap of 10 XP per week that can be earned along side regular XP.  

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Below are the general guidelines for how XP is awarded.  There will some times be more or less awarded depending on the importance, dramatic effect, severity, etc of the scene.

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Awarding Experience Points

Awarding experience points is a double-edged sword. As a Storyteller, we can hurt the chronicle by giving away too many as well as too few. If we give more to some players than to others, it might seem as if we’re playing favorites, and you also risk unbalancing the game. However, the characters who do the most, who take the risks and learn from their mistakes instead of simply sitting on the sidelines, deserve the experience points to reflect the changes they’re going through.

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End of Each Chapter

At the end of each game session, or chapter, the ST should award the characters between one and five experience points. One point is awarded automatically, simply because the character experienced the chapter’s events. Despite ourselves, we tend to learn from the follies of others as we do from our own. 

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One Point — Automatic: Each player gets one point at the end of each chapter.

One Point — Learning Curve: Ask the player what his character learned in the course of the night’s events. If the ST agrees with the answer they can give the player one experience point.

One Point — Roleplaying: The player carried out the role of her character well, not only entertainingly but appropriately. The player performed as the character should in the circumstances. Truly inspired roleplaying might merit two experience points.

One Point — Heroism: On rare occasions even vampires can truly behave as heroes, risking all to let friends or even strangers escape from disaster or death. If a character acts heroically and manages to survive, he should be rewarded. Some players might try to take advantage of this idea. Don’t let them. Stupidity and suicidal behavior should not be mistaken for heroism.

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The End of the Story

We might decide to give extra experience points at the end of a story, if the players have done their part and the characters have faced down substantial trials.  Only a few points should be given this way, as they are effectively “bonus points” for a job well done.

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One Point — Success: The characters achieved all or part of the goals they set out to accomplish. Even minor victories can be rewarded if they pushed the game forward.

One Point — Danger: The characters survived against harsh odds and grave dangers.

One Point — Wisdom: The player, and thus the character, came up with a brilliant plan or even a spontaneous strategy that enabled the coterie to survive when it would likely have failed otherwise.

 

More points can be awarded if the ST decides they should be, or if they want the characters to advance more quickly than they currently are.

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Spending Experience Points

Most costs are based on the Trait’s current rating multiplied by a particular number. If, for example, a player wanted to increase her Politics from 3 to 4, it would cost six points, whereas a Level Four tribe Gift would cost 12. If the player wants to gain a new Ability the character doesn’t currently possess, she pays three points to get the first dot. Traits can only be raised by one dot per story.