Advancement

[tormuck]

I'm having difficulty finding anything in the book talking about anything along the lines of XP, Character points, etc for when an 'adventure' is completed.

Am I understanding that there is no advancement per say and the characters can only be altered through the GM as the Chronicle progresses?

I love the system, just trying to get a better feel for it.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I'm not the author, just an enthusiastic practitioner, but I'll hop in anyway.

Yes, you are correct. There is no system/mechanic to improve or otherwise change ability rating of characters in Little Fears.

The Soul, Fear, and Innocence scores are the only values on the sheet which change (oh, and damage of course, but that's not really what people usually mean when talking about character development). These values are more "about" the character than they are "what the character can do."

I am speculating, but I suggest that Little Fears has absolutely no need for an ability-improvement system along the lines of, say, D&D or RuneQuest. To my mind, the game is designed to experience or artistically develop the concept of terrors faced by children. The concerns include (1) where the terrors come from and (2) what the children do. Increasing the children's ability to deal with the terrors over time is not part of that picture; in fact, it would change "what the game examines" drastically.

Jason, I'm interested in how you'd explain or express your decision not to insert such a system into the game (notice I didn't say "to leave it out," as that would imply that it should have been there).

Best,
Ron

[Jason L Blair]

Well, I am the author and an enthusiastic practitioner. :wink:

My rationale for not including an advancement system was that I felt it would take away from the focus of the game which is "children fighting monsters."

The inclusion of an advancement system or even gradiation between the ages of the character (both of which I've been chastised for) just felt wrong. I was working off a core, off a certain feeling I wanted the game to have, and including those things didn't mesh with the vision. The system design is my best attempt (at the time at least, I am working to improve) at putting immersion at the forefront. That's why text dominates the sheet, why the mechanic is so simple, and why I removed the concerns of advancement by not including a system at all. "If it's not there, you can't worry about it." That's my take on it, anyway.

Others have made their own changes to the system, which is more than fine by me, and one of my biggest proponents, PeterAmthor, has his on http://www.bitterreign.com. Check out his changes for ideas if you want to adapt his or plug in your own.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jason@key20.com or post on this forum (which I check almost everyday though I usually delay response to let others stamp their take if they want to).

[peteramthor]

First off thanks for the plug Jason.  Really appreciate it and following that sorry about the virus that accidently got sent to you from my account when I caught.  Hope it didn't cause to much trouble as it made me want to rip my hair out.

Now my thoughts on character advancement.

Only thing I do in way of 'experience points' is this.  Upon creation I have my players pick a birthday for thier child.  Then on that day they recieve a Playground Points and of course lose a point of innocence.

Now in play I give the players other stuff to view as advancing thier characters.  Experiences that give them back soul and innocence and take away some fear.  There are various ways of doing this.  I've used another survivor of Arcadia who has the ability to give back innocence.  A priest who can help them gain soul back and a child with faith who I gave a chance to gain back soul as well.  Overcoming certian doom in closetland and escaping back into the real world can help them lose fear.  They made it there and back once, who says they can't again and this makes the things look a little less scary.

Objects are another good way of reward.  Hand me downs of minor powers are a special bonus.  As are giving objects the children have belief in become easier and easier to use.  The later is done by giving them an extra die to roll when trying to pull of a belief quizzie if they are using something that they have always believed in for several games.

Also since I run long term campaigns I give them enemies that take them several games to overcome.  Not just one shots and quickies.  

This is how I usually handle it myself.  Hope this helps.

[Ron Edwards]

Peter,

If I'm reading you correctly, you do not include a system for improving attributes (e.g. Feets) or adding advantages (e.g. Brave). Is this correct?

[I ask because I'm pretty sure that's the sort of "improvement" that the original poster was asking about.]

Best,
Ron

[GreatWolf]

If I'm reading Peter right, he gives out one Playaround Point on a PC's birthday.  That could then be used for positive Qualities or attributes.

[Ron Edwards]

Ah! Got it. Thanks, Seth.

Still, it's pretty limited from a traditional-RPG standpoint. One Playaround Point per birthday ...

I've been thinking that I'd like to play Little Fears using a one-scenario-per-year structure. This might be a good framework to use for that.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

See, Ron's idea sounds really good. I'd think that it would really focus the campaign around the loss of innocence over time. Inexorably the characters will reach the time when they no longer can participate in the adventures, so there is a pressure to acomplish things before that time arrives...

I'd play until all the characters were out of Innocence, and then do one more adventure in "Real Life" to end the campaign. The last adventure would involve the characters changing from believeing that their adventures had happened, to thinking that they were just nightmares and rationalizations of bad memories and the like, and would (hopefully) produce a picture of what kind of people they would be in the future (somewhat like Ron and Clinton's future stories).

Mike