AGE - A Different Way to Advance Abilities and Focuses

At the moment in Fantasy AGE the cost of improving ability scores and focuses is very simple and does not factor in the relationship in the AGE ability tests. Ability advancements affect all relevant focuses and focus only affect themselves. It would be nice if the was a cost formula took that into consideration.

Naive option

A first option is to value an ability advancement compared to all the focuses in under that ability. However the cost for various abilities would be different. A willpower advancement would only cost 4 (since there are 4 focuses) and intelligence advancements would cost 19 or more (depending on arcana in the setting) since there are so many under that category. Using this method does seem absurd give that discrepancy.

Pay for Everything 

A second option is that you only consider the focuses that the character knows. Let's start of simply with saying a focus is the base statistic since it's specific. Those increases will cost one advancement. Let's explore three cases where you would try and increase an ability score.

  • You have no focuses and increase ability score from zero to one, this will cost one advancement to set a minimum cost.
  • You have one focus and increase ability score from zero to one, this will cost one advancement since you are improving the focus by one.
  • You have two focuses and increase ability score from zero to one, this will cost two advancements since it increases two focuses by one.
In order for it to not matter if you invest in focus or abilities first we need one more rule for when adding a new focus. Since this is increasing the number of different focuses we need to factor in the cost that would have been paid if it had been there from the start. This additional cost is equal to the current ability score. If you had an ability score of 3, then a new focus would cost one plus three for a total of four. Subsequent improvements to this score will only be one.

We can write these rules as:
  • The number of advancements required to increase an ability score by one is equal to the number of different focuses currently known. If none are known then the cost is one advancement.
  • The number of advancements required to add a new focus of +0 is equal to the current ability score.

    This is quite balanced and over all advancements spent in an ability category will be the same no matter what order the advancements were used in. This may encourage two kind of character progressions where advancements are spent at a minimum.

    First will be a deep investment into a single focus for an ability. If you stick to a single focus then it's increases and the ability increases will always be 1. You will be able as deep as you want for a 1 to 1 cost. For example 5 Fighting with 3 Heavy Blades will only cost 8 advancements.

    Second will be a broad investment in many focuses with zero ability score. That will mean the cost of the focus advancement will be one no matter how high.

    Guided with Constraints (Recommended)

    A third option uses the "Pay for Everything" formulas but uses some constraints to remove the calculation needed for prices, as well as hide some of the cost in a simple cost calculation.

    • The number of advancements to improve or add a focus is equal to one
    • The maximum number of different focuses allowed is equal to the current ability score.
    • The number of advancements to increase an ability score is equal to the new ability score

    These rules are simple to follow and don't required any calculation. Costs are either one or their own value. The increasing cost of abilities also convey their flexibility while the constraint on the number of focuses. A character that doesn't spend advancements adding new focuses will technically be overpaying. Willpower for sure will be overpay since there are only 4 focuses and Willpower is a main spell stat that will be maxxed. I don't think this a huge problem though and the simpler rules feels way better than the complex formulas for getting it perfect.

    Integration with AGE

    Here is the list of rules that you would need to change or be aware of when using this guided constraint system.

    • You can keep focus advancements as +2 improvements you just need to count the cost as two advancements
    • Remove the Level 11 automatic +3 improvement. You can keep the double focus however and improve to +4.
    • You will need to replace the AGE ability and focus advancements with new generic advancements so you can spend them interchangeably.
      • Start with granting 3 advancements per level (1 for ability, 2 focus)
      • If the progression is to slow or two fast, increase or decrease the number granted per level
    • Leave the talents and stunt advancements the same


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