Character Progression and Leveling Up

A character levels up after significant milestones in their life or their story.  Levels should be granted when the Dealer feels a significant milestone has been reached.  If a play session is 3 to 4 hours long, it is recommended to grant a level up every one to two sessions, or after about 6 to 7 hours of play time. 

Whenever a character gains a level, they gain 4 Skill Points and 1 card upgrade.  Additionally, at level 3 and every 3 levels thereafter, Players may increase their 3 of their character’s Primary Potentials by 1.  Finally, a character gains an additional recovery point at level 4 and every 4 levels after.

• Every Level: 4 Skill Points, 2 card upgrade.

• Level 3 and every 3 levels after: 3 different Potentials can be increased by 1.

• Level 4 and every 4 levels after: Maximum recovery points increased by 1.

Increasing Your Skills

Each level a character gains 4 Skill points which they can spend on General Skills in the same way they did when you created your character. Remember, General Skills cannot have more points in them than their associated Potential.

Specific Skills

You can learn new specific skills by spending Skill points.  Whenever you learn a new Specific Skill or gain a rank in a Specific Skill, you may also increase the Specific Skill’s associated General Skill.  You increase the General Skill by advancing along the skill tree. The number of Skill points required to advance a Specific Skill is equal to the new rank of the Specific Skill.  See the lists below for the details.

Standard General Skills

• 1 Skill Point: Rank 1 in a Specific Skill

• 2 Skill Points: Rank 2 in a Specific Skill

• 3 Skill Points: Rank 3 in a Specific Skill

Weapon Skills

• Same progress as Standard General Skills

• Rank 3 is the max for these Specific Skills

Resist Physical and Resist Mental General Skills

• Same progress as Standard General Skills

• Rank 3 is the max for these Specific Skills

Magic and Powers

• 1 Skill Point: Learn a new Style (gain a free Effect to pair with that Style)

• 1 Skill Point: Learn a new Effect for a Style

• 2 Skill Points: Make an Effect an Effect +1

• 2 Skill Points: Increase Effect Duration to (2)

• 3 Skill Points: Make an Effect+1 an Effect +2

• 3 Skill Points: Increase Effect Duration to (2) from (3).

• The Effect enhancements cap at +4 Influence and a duration of (4) turns

Card Upgrades

Card upgrades are granted on leveling up, when the Black Joker is drawn, and can be periodically awarded to Players by the Dealer. A card upgrade is a Player’s method to permanently modify and upgrade their deck of cards. When awarded a card upgrade, a Player may swap one card in their character’s deck for another card from a standard 54 card deck of playing cards. This card swap must follow the rules below:

• For number cards, the card being added can be no more than 1 higher than the card being removed.  The suit does not matter.

• Aces cannot be added or removed from the deck.

• Jokers cannot be removed from the deck.

• There cannot be duplicates of cards in the deck, For example, you can only have one 6 of diamonds.

• A Jack can be added without removing any cards.

• A Queen can only be added if a Jack is removed.

• A King can only be added if a Queen is removed.

For example: Samson just reached level 2. His deck currently consists of the 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s, both Jokers, the 5 of diamonds, the 3 of spades, the 7 of hearts, and the 3 of clubs.  Samson wants to replace his 3 of spades with a 4, but all four 4s are already in his deck. He must first upgrade a 4 of any suit to a 5 of any suit before he can upgrade his 3 of spades to a 4.

Additionally, Samson would like to add a Queen of clubs to his deck.  He does not have a Jack, so he first must add a Jack so he can later replace it with a Queen.

To accomplish both goals, Samson’s card upgrades would look like this:

1. 4 of spades to 5 of diamonds

2. 3 of spades to 4 of spades

3. Jack of Hearts added

4. Jack of Hearts removed to add the Queen of Hearts.

He will need to wait to gain four levels, draw the black Joker four times, or a combination of the two options to complete these goals.

Level up Equations

Skill points = Level * 4 +12

Card Upgrades = Level - 1

Potential = level/3 (rounded down) + 24

Recovery = level/4 (rounded down) +2