Core loops: Advancement

Advancement

Advancement gives you more control over the fiction for less Stress. You earn XP, called Force, when things go badly wrong or when you push the fiction against your character:

• A bad outcome on a roll
• Rolling from a desperate position (i.e., if it fails, you are REALLY going to get hurt)
• Voluntarily asking to take a negative relationship tag with another character (deciding, i.e., "This person doesn't like me.")
• Action against your character's own interest - but true to their personality

When you accumulate enough Force, you can spend it in two ways.

• A new ability. Abilities are fictional permissions that say: this character can do something extraordinary, and they don't have to roll for it. You decide the limits or extent of the abilty.
• Upgrade an action rating. Action ratings are your skill points. Typically 0-4, they represent how many dice get rolled in an effort. More dice = better odds. The default game has three basic ratings - Physical, Mental, and Social. You can create as many action ratings, aligned to whatever categories you like - just add them to the character sheet and update the "Risky action" instruction to update the examples.

You make Force spend decisions during an action roll, when you are deciding how important it is to you to succeed. In this way, you only gain advancements that immediately matter.