Leveling Boris Nikolai

[BorisNikolai]

Question for the game masters...

Good evening,

I had a great time last year playing episodes 1&2 of Rogues at Origins, and have registered for episodes 3&4 this year. After last year, Boris Nikolai had 14 experience points to spend. I'd like to make sure he's spending his points correctly.

Boris has been living rough in Canguine, not quite on the streets. When he can't find someone else's bed to sleep in, he's been using his owl form to sleep in other peoples' attics and eaves. I figured 10XP for Urchin Skill (+1 Stealth, +1 Survival, Street Navigation 1) would do a good job of portraying that he is becoming familiar with the city from the ground up.

As he has been spending more time in an animal form, I'd like to buy him his first point of Pyryem's Speak knack. I believe this is 2XP.

He's also met a nice Avalonian druidess, Annwn. Boris is teaching Annwn Ussuran, and Annwn has been teaching Boris (who can... mostly... speak Avalonian) how to read it. I'm struggling to confirm this, but I believe it is 2XP to add literacy to a language which a character can already speak. Is that correct?

That would be all of Boris' points. If I've erred, please let me know and I'll make fixes. Otherwise, he'll be good to go for Origins.

Thanks in advance

[salamanca]

You are pretty close.
Urchin will cost you 10xp. You gain rank 1 in any basic knack you do not have among the 3 you listed. But if you have any under other skills, they do NOT increase.

Rank 1 Speak is 2 points.

Technically, Literacy (and languages) are advantages and cannot be added with XP. BUT GOOD NEWS!!! We hate that technicality and have since 2001. You may spend XP to gain literacy (or buy a language) but it costs 3 times the HP cost. That means your Literacy is going to require 3 points. (Feel free to hold those 2 points and become literate at the end of Episode 3 when you get a couple more XP)

As for what you are changing, don't forget to mark it on your Episode 2 sheet for tracking purposes. (And I will initial the changes at Origins.

[BorisNikolai]

Thanks for clarifying. I had not realized the synergy for skills only worked at character creation. I may look at another skill instead.

Good news on the literacy tweak. There’s always something weird like that in RPGs. “Wait, I can learn a whole new language, but I can’t learn to read one I already speak?!”

I might just buy the literacy for now and save up to bump a trait between eps 3 & 4.

[salamanca]

Officially, languages are advantages. Which means by the book, you cannot buy those with XP either.

It was a dumb blanket rule when it was written but saved 3 pages of clarifications.

A smarter editor would have split advantages between ones you can gain (like languages and Patrons) and things you really shouldn't be able to suddenly have (like eagle eyes or small)