Progression
That's something I'll never forget.
Even at the start of the story, characters in Charge are talented and proactive.
After all, they are the protagonists of our story. If they fail at a task, it's probably more because of unplanned circumstances than because of their lack of skills.
As time advances, the characters evolve and become more versatile, but this will only happen at certain milestones.
Sessions
**At the end of each session**, each player can look at their character sheet and **update their character's details**.
You can use this opportunity to update their ties, appearance or even their concept if something important happened in the last session.
This is optional, but you can view this as an opportunity to update who your character is after each session and how they evolve over time.
Milestone
A milestone happens at the end of a big event in the story. This will usually happen every 3-5 sessions. Players invest those milestones in their respective talent tree to make their characters stronger and more versatile.
A talent either gives a new action dot to invest in a character's actions, or a new situational talent which gives a temporary boost to their character in specific circumstances.
When a player gets a situational talent, they need to decide on a specific situation that activates the talent. The player chooses what they think works best for their character and note their decisions by filling in the blanks on their character sheet. For inspiration look at what has already been established in the world, and pick something that makes your character shine.
The GM will probably feel when it's time for a milestone, but as a player you can always remind the GM "Hey, this looked like an important event in the story, would this be a milestone?".
Just go with what feels right and adapt if necessary.
Gaining a new talent will feel like a breath of fresh air. It won't make your characters overpowered or god-like, but it will make them more flexible, or more specialized.
Progression Curve
Just as a reminder, the longer it takes for a milestone to happen, the longer it will take for characters to become stronger.
This is important to keep in mind depending on what kind of progression curve you want to have.
Do you want to have a short campaign where characters will grow stronger pretty quickly, or are you looking for a year-spanning campaign where the characters will mostly evolve by changing their character details and where milestones will be more scarce?
You could go as low as giving the player character only 2-3 Talents during an entire campaign, or reward them more often.
There isn't a right or wrong answer here. It depends 100% on what kind of campaign you want to have. This is also something you can discuss with the group to make sure everyone has the same expectations.
Starting Talent
Some groups already have a pretty good idea of who their character is and what they are good at.
If that is the case with your group, it might be a good idea to offer them a starting talent in the form of +1 Effect when.
This will give them an edge in certain situation, without breaking the balance of the game.
There's an adapted character sheet to get you started.
Situational Talents
Certain talents are situational. That is, they are only activated when you are in a certain context and using a specific action.
For example, when you get a 1 Effect when, you will need to finish the end of that sentence by choosing one of the 12 Actions and a certain Situation that will activate the talent.
Just look at what as already been established in the world, or your character's details, for inspiration.
To keep the flow of the game balanced, the GM will have a veto on what situation is good enough for your talent. Don't hesitate to experiment with this and fine-tune later if necessary.
The fact that writing up situational talents takes a bit of work is the reason why you don't get any talent dot by default at character creation.
We want character creation to be as streamlined as possible. Take the time to understand and discover who your character is first.
Later in the campaign, when a milestone occurs, then you can think of new ways to make them truly unique using talents.
Yann's character is a monster hunter. Consequently, he's pretty good at Studying and Muscle in general. Yann also just got a new talent dot and would like to excel at tracking monsters specifically. Because monsters aren't encountered that frequently in the game, he asks the GM if his talent could be "Reduced Risk when I'm Shooting monsters". The GM agrees. Now, Yann's character should be feared by most creatures roaming the lands.
In another session, the GM realizes that Yann's talent is perhaps too generic, and could be tuned a little. He then asks if it could be rewritten as something like "Recuded Risk when I'm Shooting monsters in the forest" or something along those lines. Yann agrees, saying "My character lived in the forest all their life, and would probably be intimidated by big cities. I like it; let's go with this for now!"