Incompetent starting characters

[Donald]

After a certain point, things become somewhat more difficult to obtain level to level. That is, it takes more than just a year of age to become a hero. So only some years count. So to speak. Or, rather, the GM should only give Advanced Experience for age very carefully after a point.

There's also the point that a character should spread the bonus over all his keywords, not be allowed to concentrate on improving one while ignoring the others. I would also make sure the character's backstory supported the improvement - a soldier would have to be able to find employment in the period. If he were laid off due to lack of wars for part of the time then I would make him take  another occupation and put the improvements into that. On that basis you'd get a 46 year old character (30 points of advanced experience) with Warrior 3w, Farmer 8w, Heortling 10w and Common Magic 7w. Seems reasonable to me where warrior 7w2 with all other keywords at 17 doesn't. Even a second homeland might be applicable if a Heortling spent a decade in Pavis or the Lunar Empire.