Advancement
Your character improves by earning XP and spending it. Earning is the GM's job; spending is yours.
Earning XP
The GM awards XP at the end of each session — you don't have to ask, and it isn't withheld as punishment for a bad session.
| Session | Award |
|---|---|
| Standard | 10 XP |
| Great roleplaying, real cooperation | 12 XP |
| Little achieved | 8 XP |
You may also earn a Wrath Point for completing your character's Objective — a d6 prompt from your Faction's table, rolled at the start of every session. Roleplay it well and the Wrath is yours. It is separate from XP and, at one point a session, well worth having.
Awards are logged on your sheet as a list of entries — each with an amount and a reason. That log is the record; everything else about your progression is calculated from it.
Spending XP
Raise Attributes, raise Skills, or buy Talents. Costs are cumulative and identical to character creation — raising Toughness from 3 to 4 costs the difference between the two totals, not a flat fee.
There is no restriction on when you spend. If you have the XP, you can improve.
Rank
Rank is standing within your Tier, and it rises on its own as you earn.
| Lifetime XP earned | Rank | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 0–39 | 1 | Initiate |
| 40–79 | 2 | Veteran |
| 80+ | 3 | Champion |
Two things matter about Rank:
- It's derived from lifetime XP earned, not XP unspent. Spending doesn't reduce it.
- It never goes down. Once earned, always yours — including across an Ascension.
Rank feeds directly into abilities that scale with it. A "+Rank" bonus die on an ability is worth more the longer you play, and several abilities that look modest at Initiate are substantial at Champion.
Ascension
Ascension moves your character up a Tier — from the people trouble happens to, toward the people trouble is about.
It becomes available once you have earned 100 XP within your current Tier. Your sheet tracks this and tells you when you qualify.
Ascending raises your Tier, which immediately improves several derived numbers — Maximum Wounds, Maximum Shock, and Wealth all scale with Tier.
Ascending is not free, and the package is not optional. Every Ascension takes one of two roads:
- An Ascension Package — a bundle of Talents, wargear and story representing what happened to you. Costs its multiplier times the Tier you ascend to. No Rank requirement. You may take only one per Ascension, however many Tiers you cross.
- Archetype Ascension — a promotion to a higher-Tier Archetype within your own Faction. Requires Rank 3 and enough XP to meet the new Archetype's stat line. Costs no package XP, but usually more in practice.
The one exception: when the GM declares a Milestone Ascension for the whole group, they may waive this, provided you come up with a reason your character grew.
There is also a third route in the other direction — see Creation Ascension in Making a Character, for starting a campaign with an Archetype below the game's Tier.
Your Rank carries across. A Champion who Ascends to Tier 2 is still a Champion. The count of XP earned within the new Tier restarts for the purpose of the next Ascension, but nothing you've already earned is taken away.
What to buy first
No universal answer, but two observations.
Attributes are quietly efficient. Each one improves several derived stats at once — Toughness alone raises Wounds, Resilience and Determination.
Skills are narrow and cheap early. Getting a Skill from 0 to 2 costs 6 XP and turns something you can't reliably do into something you can. Broadening beats deepening at low Tiers.