A lot of people have discussed some alternatives to the Milestone advancement in the core rulebook. I can see why since it involves a lot of voting and people might want something a little more like the XP system seen in other RPGs. For those of you searching for an alternative, readers Michael Freeman and WhoIAm are here for you!
The crux of this system is using Episodes as a currency for advancement. When you’re part of an episode (whether that means a game session, a mission, or something else for your group) then that participation gets recorded. You then spend those episodes to advance your character. The options are the same as Milestone advancement but the different mechanism for rewarding advancements gives some more control to players and GMs alike. If this is appealing to you then you can thank Michael and WhoIAm for their good work!
I think there are two things worth pointing out about those replacement rules:
1) The system results is a much faster skill progression. I, personally, think this is intended and desirable, but others might have a different opinion on that.
2) Every 6+ episodes change reduces the maximum Determination by 1. So after 3 such changes, you end up with a maximum of 0 and no way to improve it again. This effectively renders the entire mechanic of Values useless, because there is no way to use them. In my eyes, that is very much game-breaking. However, the fix for this is obvious: Either, introduce no reduction of the maximum Determination or introduce an option to increase the maximum Determination at the “6+” or “3” level (depending on your preferred speed of progress).
Hi Gondlar.
1) Yes the system results in faster skill progression if you want to max out skills, but I think it is done at a decent pace.
2) The idea of reducing Determination by 1, is based on other 2d20 game ideas, where by increasing your compentiancy reduces your luck. Under this system, you can still gain determination for playing into or going against your values, you just can’t bank them for future episodes. Would making this clearer help?