<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Another question: I keep seeing the various 'Action Die' things and thinking 'well, I only have 3 of those, how often am I actually going to use that? </blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Three to start with, but you can gain them when I award myself action dice to spend on NPCs (beyond the pool I start with, based on the number of PCs and 'threat level' of the adventure), and I can give them as awards for good roleplaying, humour, thematic actions, self-inflicted complications and general awesomeness. I tend to be pretty liberal with them, so you should see a steady supply.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I think part of the confusion for me is the 'each session' statement about the Action Dice pool refreshing, because in a PbP environment the idea of 'session' is not at all clear cut.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Depending on how things go, I might treat a session as an 'act' of 2-4 scenes, or some arbitrary measure like every 2 pages of posts.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I am still not really clear on the whole Lifestyle thing. I can see that the system sort of divides between a 'storytelling/cinematic' approach of 'you only need to worry about a few signature items/things, so you can only have a few signature items/things' on the one hand with regards to magical items/properties/companions? But at the same time there's this silver economy and the two of them seem to be totally detached except in the fashion in which Charisma gets divided between them, and therein I get confused.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>You're right, they are detached. Mundane equipment (and, in the core rules, not so mundane stuff like potions and scrolls) is bought by silver, which you pick up in-game and can earn a small amount each month from Panache, and the amount you can keep long-term is affected by Prudence. Charisma affects this via Lifestyle.<br/><br/>But iconic and less quantifiable stuff, like magic items, property, contacts and renown are bought with reputation, which comes from completing adventures and is modified by Legend, a stat based on your class and level. In all honesty, I have a hard time grasping what Legend is meant to represent in-game; there's no rhyme or reason I can find as to which classes have high, medium or low progression in it. Legend is not affected by Charisma.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I'm just not clear on the system in that regard, at all. Is it cumulative between Careers? For example the Lancer at level 5 has +4 Lifestyle, while a level 1 Beastmaster has +0. Does that mean a 4 Lancer/1 Beastmaster has +4+0? Or 0? I am pretty sure that the levels aren't cumulative within a career (I.E., a level 1 Lancer has +2, a level 2 Lancer has +3 NOT +2 &amp; +3 = +5) right? But what happens you jump to an Expert Career whose level 1 Lifestyle is lower than your other Career Lifestyle?</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>It's cumulative in the same way as BAB and base save bonuses. You add up the Lifestyle bonus of your current level in each class you have. So Lancer 4 / Beastmaster 1 would have +4, yes.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Character-wise, it would seem sensible for a young girl coming out of a barter society to have about as much economic prudence as a rock. Savings? Banking? What's that? We've just got past the point that you silly people will take these little lumps of metal in return for stuff that's MUCH more useful...</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Entirely reasonable. The campaign qualities reinforce that - the Wastrel Heroes quality means that, by default, you keep 0% of what you acquire during an adventure over the long run (just like how Conan never seemed to be able to hang on to any of those jewels he pilfered from one story to the next). So you could invest in Prudence if you wanted to have your character start to build a small nest-egg / rainy day fund, but Panache in general seems like a more characterful trait for the swords'n'sorcery genre, and I chose the rules to reflect that.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yes, I see what you mean about the diversification. I will fiddly with that some more. This is still very much 'plug stuff in...what just happened?' stage for me and I can't say I fully understand the ramifications of everything (for instance, it seems like a high +Def is a lot better than DR, because if you don't get hit, who cares what your DR is?</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>I'm not a veteran of the system, but my sense of it seems to be this: DR is generally low (the best possible armour, dwarven articulated plate with all the trimmings is DR 9, and a red-dragon-equivalent's scales are about 7); armour piercing weapons tend to be able to ignore a fair bit of it; dealing damage is slightly weighted towards getting more attacks than boosting the damage of each hit; and vitality points can rise high enough in higher level characters that hacking through them becomes less optimal than, say, inflicting subdual damage to render foes fatigued or stress damage to break them psychologically.<br/><br/>So I don't rightly know whether damage reduction or defence is the best route to hide-preservation in FC. I suspect a blend of both would see you right - especially achievable, since the house rules mean that you can get DR from your Appearance instead of your armour.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I will say that I was amused by the idea of this 110-pound 17-year-old girl who had some kind of heroic ancestor spirit in her that drove her towards combat and gave her the strength to toss people around. Did you have any opinions on the (obviously sketchy) background concept?</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>I really dig it. Ghost Eaters is a deliciously evocative name. I liked the touch about her being culturally/legally designated a male - reminds me of a culture I read about in anthro class, where women were sometimes permitted or required to marry inanimate objects like tentpoles, in order to be considered honourary men (a dubious honour  :P ). I can definitely work with it. I take it she's lesbian or bi with a gynophile preference, as per your O/Os?