Do you have any special rules/restrictions to regulate character advancement pacing?

[Boge]

We've never played the same characters for nearly enough time for degradation. I think a year and a half game time is the most our characters have aged.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

On a related note, has anyone had the opportunity and desire to use skill or attribute degeneration rules? "You haven't used your Research skill for a year, so it's dropped by a level," or "Congratulations on turning 80. Pity about the -1 DX..." It seems like the kind of realism thing that's good for long-running human-scale campaigns, but also seriously requires player buy-in.

Yes. -1 DX? At 80, it's more like "congratulations you didn't die on your adventures, and congratulations of not having died of natural causes yet".

[GodBeastX]

I give out anywhere from 3 to 10 cp per session. I never had a problem with characters inflating too fast. Players tend to broaden their characters more than focus in my group.

The rules I employ is character points can only be spent in places without hazard where someone could theoretically have time to waste. This usually equates to "When you are in a town, you can spend points." I also limit growth to 1 level of anything per growth moment. You can raise a skill +1 but not +4 as an example. And of course, you can only spend points on something you rolled or used or studied.

It's usually because all the challenges I present aren't just focused around one skill. If you always make someone swing a sword to win, is it so crazy that they will naturally want sword skill higher? Players use a plethora of skills and techniques in encounters. That's really the secret to keeping characters balanced and not out progressing the story too much.

Of course, I'm also fine with characters have incredible skill levels these days. A person who is a sword master just makes it so I can run crazy high adrenaline combats where there's just chaos in the wake of the fight. Such as after I played a session of Vermintide video game and I just decided to rush players in the sewer with a mass of were rats. Completely outnumbered and half the party huddling around a torch in the dark was a lot of fun to run!

[Rupert]

I think, having seen the effects of very long campaigns on character skills and attributes, when I next start a fresh game I'll be putting a cap of 15 on attributes, and using "know your own strength", so ST is on the same scale as the other attributes. I'd then allow a UB to raise an attribute to 16, and make it a big deal to get that UB, so any character would be very unlikely to ever get it for more than one. A skill cap of something like Attribute + talent + 10 seems like a good idea.

In my current game, due to players being deaf and me not paying attention some of the PCs have gun/beam skills over 30. Apparently my saying "skills over 25 are probably needlessly high, and over 30 are unreasonable and mostly pointless" was taken as a vague guideline. Also, saying "if you didn't use any skill that you want to raise in a session, just save the points until you do, or for an attribute or advantage, etc." fell on deaf ears, too. OTOH, the longest running PCs have been around long enough to go from 200-250 points to 1000+ points and have attributes in the 17-18 range across the board, so I don't really want them putting more points there.

By the way, guys with laser rifles and skill-30+ really have wasted their points unless they really look for opportunities to snap-shoot targets from over 300 yards, or shoot them in the skull in near pitch-black conditions. The player seems to have no idea just how good this level of skill is, and never seem to think that he could aim for armour chinks, not bother aiming at all most of the time, and so on. It's weird.

[Lord Azagthoth]

Originally Posted by Rupert

In my current game, due to players being deaf and me not paying attention some of the PCs have gun/beam skills over 30. Apparently my saying "skills over 25 are probably needlessly high, and over 30 are unreasonable and mostly pointless" was taken as a vague guideline. Also, saying "if you didn't use any skill that you want to raise in a session, just save the points until you do, or for an attribute or advantage, etc." fell on deaf ears, too. OTOH, the longest running PCs have been around long enough to go from 200-250 points to 1000+ points and have attributes in the 17-18 range across the board, so I don't really want them putting more points there.

My campaign started at 85pts and after 4 years they are at 280CP. But the attributes are limited to a maximum deviation of racial average (±3 at creation and ±5 during play) with some attributes reaching 14 or 15 but most are at 9 to 14. I also limit the players to spend more than 1CP per scenario on a skill unless they have a Talent (which allows them to put 2CP on a skill)

[Boge]

For those of you that have a skill cap based on ATT, like ATT+10, how do you discourage players from starting with a maxed stat? (I don't like the word "discouraged", but I can't think of a better)

It seems it would be most efficient, especially for a long played campaign, to start with as high stats as possible. How have you found your players handling this limitation with their character building and progression?

[Lord Azagthoth]

Originally Posted by Boge

For those of you that have a skill cap based on ATT, like ATT+10, how do you discourage players from starting with a maxed stat? (I don't like the word "discouraged", but I can't think of a better)

It seems it would be most efficient, especially for a long played campaign, to start with as high stats as possible. How have you found your players handling this limitation with their character building and progression?

Don't give them the points to max everything out. My campaign started out with 85pt characters. Some players even started with lowered attibutes (and Social Stigam (Minor)) just to be able to buy the Talents they wanted and during play to be able to raise the attributes a little.

[Boge]

Are there attributes you don't allow them to increase during play? Some would argue you can't really increase your IQ, but rather your IQ based skills. It wouldn't make sense.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by Boge

Are there attributes you don't allow them to increase during play? Some would argue you can't really increase your IQ, but rather your IQ based skills. It wouldn't make sense.

Since IQ doesn't only represent real IQ but also general knowledge, I don't see any problem with letting players improve it. An adventure can teach you a lot of things about the world and yourself. It may even change your manner of thinking.

[AlexanderHowl]

You can develop your intelligence though, it is just training your brain to create more efficient structures. Neurons are constantly formed new connections, which is representative of people gaining IQ, improving Per or Will, developing new mental advantages or removing old mental disadvantages, and learning new skills and techniques. IQ is a biological trait, so you can improve it through practice and training.