This proposal is a Work In Progress.

This page lists a short analysis and two proposals. These proposals are listed on the same page for convenience; they can each be evaluated and accepted/rejected on their own.

The Experience Cost Review proposal is an attempt to fix the awkward experience cost curves of Abilities and Attributes. This proposal is largely based on new insights gained after a year a play.

The Advanced Training proposal is an attempt to add the option for characters to train specific activities, and to increase their competence in these activities.

Todo:

• Experience Review
• Thinking on Specialty & Advanced Training (Excellency?)

See also the Experience Costs in the book.

In the current form, the system offers very cheap first and second dots in abilities. At a cost of 3xp, the first dot is in effect a very large step up from having nothing; in a third of the cases even the difference between getting a penalty die or not even being able to roll. The second die “doubles” your Ability—ignoring Attributes for the moment—for just 2xp or 1xp.

The higher dots cost progressively more. Yet when looking at it through the mathematical lens of seeing what the higher ratings do for a character in the system, they offer only slightly increased benefits (in the form of unlocking access to certain disciplines) beyond a simple increase in expected dice roll results.

An analogous argument can be made for the costs of Attributes. The greatest benefit of an increased Attribute rating is a larger dice pool, which in turn increases the expected dice roll value. The increase in expected value is constant, whereas the price per dot increases.

The following table is a proposed new experience cost table, where Abilities and Attributes have been given constant experience costs, to better match their expected value increase. As these experience costs are changed, there are some other costs that might also require changing. Traits marked with are unclear on how they should be converted. Suggestions are obviously welcome.

Trait	Cost
New Ability†	6
New Favoured Ability†	5
Ability	4
Favoured Ability	3
Specialty†	3
Specialty in Favoured†	2
Discipline†	8
Bloodline Discipline†	7
Attribute	12
Virtue	Current Rating x 2
Willpower	Current Rating
New Background‡	3
Background‡	(Current Rating x 2)
Ritual†‡	Varies

† These Traits usually require training and tutoring. Either for the first dot, or for subsequent increases. Consult your storyteller if necessary.

‡ Usually requires roleplaying

Notes:

• Virtue : Changes in virtue have not happend in any single instance over both games. The Virtues are situated such that they more of a guideline on how a character would react, and (currently) have very little numerical impact. They might see some use as prerequisites on Disciplines and Rituals, but overall have very few ties to the operational mechanics.
  • Brend: I see no reason to change these right now, since we have zero data points to judge their value on.
• Willpower : Higher Permanent Willpower has a clear benefit, both in resisting effects and in being able to have more spendable Willpower Points, as such, the increasing costs seem reasonable to me. (And the fact that PCs starts at Willpower 5 helps with the cost/benefit ratio.
  • Brend: I think that Willpower costs are fine as they are.
• Backgrounds : Backgrounds are somewhat of an oddity. A background in effect describes a tie between the character and the world, in the current system they are represented as ratings, and for some backgrounds this makes sense (Resources, Backing, Herd, etc.) for others less so (Retainers). Most backgrounds are designed so that the an increase to higher ratings gives a commensurately larger benefit, so the increasing experience cost seems plausible.
  • Brend: I do not want to overhaul the background system, and it seems to work fine right now. Of course, changing the costs for Abilities and Attributes changes the relative “power per experience” position of Backgrounds. We can address that later, should it become a problem.
• Ritual : Rituals are already flatly priced in the 2-4 experience range; this was done so they cost between ¼ and ½ of a discpline. Since Disciplines do not change, it stands to reason that Rituals need not change either.