Age Of Dragons: Advancement And Downtime
Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> Advancement And Downtime
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Character Progression and Lifepaths
Character progression in Age of Dragons is linked to the character's Lifepath. As a dragon grows older, or has life experiences, his Experience Rating increases.
With Age Comes Power
As a Dragon gets older, he gains experience. For each full year that passes, he gains +1 Experience Level in his current Lifepath.
Note that in-game, time passes at a fairly slow rate: while the GM might narrate that a day, week or even month has passed during a game session, it is not usual for him to wind the clock forward a matter of years.
Instead, between stories the GM will decide how far forward the timeline moves. This is called downtime.
How fast the GM moves forward downtime is up to him. The default assumption is that each story will last 2-3 sessions, and at the end of each story there will be 25-100 years of downtime passing. This isn't set in stone, of course.
Living in Interesting Times
Getting older is not the only way to gain experience.
Player characters, by their nature, are protagonists in the story and often live through tumultuous events, great dangers and special circumstances.
Collectively, these are referred to as "interesting times".
Living in interesting times gives bonus experience level onto the dragon's current Lifepath. For example, if the character is awarded an Interesting Times bonus of +4, he should add +4 to the current Experience Level of his current Lifepath.
GMs can use the following guide as to how large these bonuses should be:
+1 if a player turns up to a session. The events of the session should be by definition "interesting times". If they're not, then the GM is doing something wrong.
+1 if the dragon experiences significant danger. This danger could be as simple as physical danger to himself form combat, or as complex as another character seeking to compromise or diminish his resources.
+1 if the dragon experiences a significant life event. This could be anything from falling in love, to the death of a close relative, to being forced to move lairs.
+1 if the dragon engages in a learning experience of some sort. This could be travelling abroad for the first time, or gaining a collection of rare arcane scrolls to study.
+1 if the dragon has a significant achievement. For example, creating a work of art that has challenged his own capabilities, or defeating a longstanding enemy.
+1 if the dragon has a significant loss. For example, losing an eye, having power stripped, losing their home.
Generally GMs should aim to award between 2 and 4 Interesting Times points per game session, and no more than 25 Interesting Times points per century of a dragon's life.
NPCs generally have an Interesting Times bonus equal to anything between 5% and 20% of their current age, depending on how proactive and troubled their lives have been.
Changing Paths
Generally, a change in a Dragon's Lifepath can be handled during Downtime. At any stage a player can decide to stop adding Experience Level from years onto his current Lifepath, and start adding it to a different Lifepath.
Indeed, a dragon which has followed several lifepaths in his life may switch back and forth between them freely, assigning experience as he sees fit.
Generally a character can't change lifepath during a story, so any interesting times bonus is always applied to the current lifepath.
Note that some Lifepaths have certain prerequisites that must be met before a dragon can change to it. If age is a requirement, the dragon might meet the prerequisite as downtime passes. If particular actions are necessary, the dragon will generally take those actions during game-time.
Senescence
Senescence for dragons happens very different than for mortals.
A dragon will remain at full health until his thousandth year. In fact, thanks to life experience he will usually grow more powerful till that time.
After that, old age will strike suddenly and irreversibly. Every D6 years afterwards, he will lose -1 from Soma, Sophis and Pneuma.
When any sphere rating reaches zero, he dies of old age.
A dragon that dies of old age in this way transmutes physically into stone - akin to pale grey marble but with a slight translucent quality. Dragons call this the sleep of stone. The statue is no more or less resilient than a marble statue, and if broken apart is made of the same stone all the way through. No dragon ever returns from the sleep of stone, and the stone has no especial magical qualities, though certain macabre dragons and mortals might seek to acquire such statues for their own collections.
Note that dragons that die from any cause other than senescence do not enter the sleep of stone, instead rotting away as any other organic creature might.
