XP & Character Development

Macross rewards characters with experience points (XP) at the end of every campaign phase to reflect what they have learned during that time. With XP, characters can increase skills, buy talents, or strengthen characteristics. Guidelines for gaining Experience Points and what exactly to do with them follow.

Gain XP By

XP Penalties

As creatures of pure evil, GMs will always be tempted to find a reason to dock a few points from deserving players, but that will not be happening. There are no experience point penalties in this game, only varying degrees of experience rewards. Some players can expect to receive less XP than others if they do not put effort into their posts, post infrequently, play against their character, do not bother to participate in roleplay not involving combat, or roleplay poorly in general. A GM will not hesitate to give an XP reward of zero during a session, if the GM feels the character has not done enough to deserve a reward.

Skill Use

Whenever a character uses a skill, they may gain a small amount of Skill XP (or sXP), particularly when a character rolls a critical success (a natural 20) or a critical failure (a natural 1), because no matter if they end up blowing themselves up, they still learn something. If a character gains a skill level through sXP, that skill increase will be listed along with their regular XP reward.

What To Do With XP

At specific "break" points in the plot (after a major storyline resolution or climactic battle), the GM may award players with a pool of XP to spend on character improvements. For the purposes of this game, 100 XP converts into 1 OP. Players can take their new nest egg of OP, and purchase more skills, certain talents, or derived characteristics. Apply the changes to your Fuzion character sheets, and send the updated version back to your GM for review. If changes are made in a manner that is not allowed, the GM will ask you to recalculate your sheet.

Buying Skills

During character creation, players needed only to pay 1 OP per level of skill desired. For example, a Hand-To-Hand skill level of 3 cost 3 OP. That was then. Now, to represent a natural learning curve skills cost a number of OP equal to the next level desired. For example, to increase a skill from 4 to 5 will cost 5 OP. To increase from 4 to 6 will first cost 5 OP, then 6 OP for a total of 11 OP! New skills, of course, start out with a cost of 1 OP for a single level in that skill.

Buying Talents

Talents, unlike skills, still cost 3 OP apiece regardless of their level. However, since talents are more innate than learned or trained, only certain talents are available for purchase or further development after character creation:

Buying Derived Characteristics

Characters are never limited from purchasing derived characteristics. Derived characteristics cost a flat rate of OP no matter what level they are at, much like talents. For 5 OP, a player can purchase for their character:
+2 SD
+1 REC
+10 END
+5 STUN
+5 HITS
+0.25 SPD (20 OP for 1 point)
+0.25 LUCK (20 OP for 1 point)

Buying Primary Characteristics

Generally, primary characteristics cannot simply be raised. These form the framework of your character - they do not become more charismatic or dexterous "just because". However, sometimes a GM will choose to raise a certain character's primary characteristic as a result of certain circumstances - perhaps he's noticed that character spend a lot of time at the gym doing weight training, or trying to fit in with his squadmates better despite his poor Presence. Note that in order to pay for the characteristic increase, the GM will subtract 5 OP (500 XP) from the character's next reward (or spread over several rewards).