As characters progress in their stories, they grow and change. One of the ways that Ask Again Later reflects this is through the Character Advancement system.

Experience Points

At the end of each season, characters gain a number of Experience Points (XP). This is usually 5 XP, but is subject to change per Storyteller discretion. Players submit their XP expenditures by editing their character’s sheet in the character system.

XP Costs

The following is a list of XP costs in Ask Again Later. As a note, these are flat costs–it takes the same amount of XP to raise a Skill or Special Training from 0 ranks to 3 ranks (6XP) as it does to raise from 2 ranks to 5 ranks (6XP). The same is true for Advantages that have variable costs, and Attributes.

Advantages: 1XP per rank

Skills and Special Trainings: 2XP per rank

Attributes: 3XP per rank

Transferring Ranks

In addition, players can remove parts of their character’s mechanical build at season or arc breaks, called Transferring Ranks. This might be because of consequences from the previous season, or because a player has realized that some of their character’s mechanics haven’t been meaningful or interesting to play. Removing those elements gives the player XP back as per the costs above, and any request to Transfer Ranks requires emailing the ST team with a brief justification or explanation. Players can spend their character’s newly gained XP as usual.

Challenges and True Selves

Characters might also grow or change by gaining and losing Challenges or by changing their True Selves. If you’d like to make any of those changes, talk to your Storyteller.