Your character begins life with innate talents reflected in their statistics, but true capability comes from training and experience. In Alacrity, you customize your character’s abilities right from the start using Experience Points (XP). This initial XP pool allows you to raise skills beyond their base value, learn specialized techniques (like Magic or specific combat maneuvers treated as ‘effects’), and truly define your character’s starting competence.
The amount of starting XP you receive depends on the style and power level of the campaign your Game Master (GM) intends to run. Before you spend any points, confirm with your GM which of these levels applies:
- Low Power (100 Starting XP): Recommended for gritty campaigns where characters are novices, perhaps just starting their adventuring careers. Expect to be competent in one primary area, but largely untested elsewhere. Failure will be a common learning experience.
- Medium Power (150 Starting XP): This is the standard assumption for many fantasy adventures. Characters are capable and have likely seen some action. You can achieve solid competence in your main role and have some secondary skills to round you out.
- High Power (225 Starting XP): Suitable for campaigns beginning with already established heroes or for one-shot adventures featuring powerful individuals. Characters will feel notably skilled, potentially having multiple areas of expertise or pushing a key skill into the realm of mastery (above 60%).
Spending Your Starting XP:
Use this pool of points during character creation by following the XP cost rules detailed under “Skill Baselines and Advancement” earlier in this chapter:
- Initiating a skill: 10 XP (starts at governing stat baseline)
- Improving a skill (up to 60%): 1 XP per percentage point
- Improving a skill (above 60%): 2 XP per percentage point
- Initiating the Magic skill: 20 XP (starts at Mind baseline, grants Mana Points equal to skill)
- Learning an Effect (spell/special ability): 5 XP (requires GM approval/in-game discovery context, even at creation)
- Boosting a primary statistic: 10 XP per +1 point (up to a max of 20)
Spend your points carefully to build the hero you envision, ready for the challenges ahead!
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File Created: 05/03/2025 Last Modified: 05/04/2025