I have a question for Ciosa and Coffee:
How does the game-mechanics of character advancement work, or will we worry about that at all?
Specifically - if we gain 'experience' how is it spent? I imaging mostly on gaining and improving Aptitudes, but are traits immutable?
How about Hindrances and Edges? Can you gain, modify, or lose them?
How would the following scenario play out with the game mechanics?
Belongings 4 is a saloon - suppose you have the best damned saloon west of Chicago, and is represents Belongings 5.
Okay - so it burns down. If you have insurance, does your "Belongings 5" turn into "Dinero 5" from the insurance payout?
What if you don't have insurance, and the building and all your stock in it are a total loss - do you lose those 5 points of Edge, never to get them back?
Or perhaps you can only get them back though the game's "experience" system?
There will be progression in the game - I'm actually looking at a number of different methods of assessing 'Bounty' as experience is called. There will be a flat amount for participation, but I'm looking at the prospect of also having a player vote system on a monthly basis where a well-played character or a lovely bit of drama could net the participants an extra reward. This is still up for debate, and I'm planning to open the debate for players when I start the OOC thread tomorrow. (Along with some other prospects.)
After gameplay starts, certain edges will become 'free' to gain in play, and 'free' to lose. I'll have the bank offer an insurance system against theft or arson, but it will cut slightly into the profits of a business to take advantage of it, and repeated firebombings may raise a premium. But in general, PCs will be able to acquire some of these advantages in game through a combination of roleplaying and background. As an example - if a gunslinger stalks into town and gets a job protecting Sweetrock's mines (and lives through the month) he'll have the Dinero 1 or 2 advantages. If a character manages to convince someone to sell a business and offers a price they find acceptable, they can gain the belonging. Some edges are fixed - you can't acquire a mysterious destiny or an arcane background after game start. (Unless the mysterious destiny is transformed into one.)
However, I am going to be fairly liberal on what can be bought - things like being level-headed could be available to a character who's survived several gunfights. I strongly believe in character advancement matching role playing, though.
I'll be putting up explanations of the game's Help Wanted/Classifieds adventure system later, as details are hammered out.
In general, I don't intend to strip an advantage without an enormous cause in game, though. That doesn't mean NPCs won't be interested in acquiring your character's belongings, or perhaps trying to set up a 'protection tax' on their income, however. But these will be parts of the story, as greed is going to be a powerful motivator in the game.
