What are the Power Levels?

[blackheart]

Sorry if this has been answered allready.

I know about "Submerged" and "Getting Feet Wet", but what are the full spectrum of campaign levels available?
Thanks.

[iago]

Quoting the book:

Feet in the Water (6 refresh, 20 skill points, skill cap at Great): At this level you are just getting started with your supernatural life. Highly customizable templates aren’t going to be able to add much, so this is really the “enhanced mortal” game—you can do stuff that even the best of humanity cannot (but only barely). Typical characters might include a Focused Practitioner (page 76), a Lycanthrope (page 79), a Minor Talent (page 80), a Red Court Infected (page 80), a True Believer (page 82), a weak Were-Form (page 82), or a White Court Virgin (page 85). Some base templates are technically affordable, but you’ll seem pretty weak until you can afford some upgrades. These include a Champion of God (page 73), a Changeling (page 74), an Emissary of Power (page 75), or a Faerie Court Knight (page 78).

Up to Your Waist (7 refresh, 25 skill points, skill cap at Great): This level really represents “name level” for a lot of the templates—that point at which you can definitively be respected as being “that thing,” whatever it is. You might not be all that experienced, but at least you start to register on the supernatural sonar.  The Sorcerer  template (page 81) opens up as an option, or you can customize the first level options pretty well.

Chest-Deep (8 refresh, 30 skill points, skill cap at Superb): At this point, you’re playing with at least minor-league power. You’ll have taken a lot of the upgrades to many of the templates at this stage. Wizard (page 86) and White Court Vampire (page 84) are now character options.

Submerged (10 refresh, 35 skill points, skill cap at Superb): You are a major-leaguer; refined customization and combination are options for all templates—it becomes possible at this stage to be a Champion of God with a Sword of the Cross, or a Werewolf who can do earth evocations, or a Red Court Infected who becomes the Emissary of the Buddha as a way of taming his impulse control. For the stronger templates, this power level provides some tweaking; for the weaker ones, it provides the chance to make your character supernaturally one of a kind.

Of course, the components that make up each power level are completely tweakable. You could break from these if, say, you wanted low power (6 refresh) but highly competent (35 skill points, Superb skill cap).

[SoulCatcher78]

Is it recommended that everyone start at the same point (feet wet) or would it be easier to base that on the type of character that they are designing (Wizard = chest deep, retired cop = feet wet, etc)?  Granted a lot of this will differ from game to game (my rural beginnings idea makes me think that no character should be above Up to your waist so that it's challenging) but is there a suggestion?

[iago]

It's all about the sort of game the table wants, really. If folks are jonesing to have at least one wizard at the table, you shouldn't be looking any drier than "Chest-Deep" for example.  We expect a lot of Submerged games, to be honest.

[breaker]

So, the levels never really go up so much as to make the late-obtained templates as customizeable as the lower ones are at submerged? For example, I'd never do this, but to make a vampiric knight of the cross would take both highly specializing a lower template and heavily modifying a higher one, if the game levels were to continue passed submerged, it would be an option I would assume? Or are there conciquences for making games go beyond the default levels?

[iago]

Yeah, you give your players enough refresh points to spend, they can do all sorts of crazy stuff.

[Ancalagon]

so Harry at the beginning of the series was already at the "submerged" level of power?  dang....

[iago]

so Harry at the beginning of the series was already at the "submerged" level of power?  dang....

Oh yes. Already in over his head, after all.

[Ancalagon]

So in this way, the various "were forms" would be balanced?  For instance, a feet in the water power level character could be say, a were sloth, while to make a were-tiger you would probably need significantly higher... that works

[svb1972]

So in this way, the various "were forms" would be balanced?  For instance, a feet in the water power level character could be say, a were sloth, while to make a were-tiger you would probably need significantly higher... that works

Were guppy!

[breaker]

Were guppy!

were mole rat

[iago]

So in this way, the various "were forms" would be balanced?  For instance, a feet in the water power level character could be say, a were sloth, while to make a were-tiger you would probably need significantly higher... that works

Yeah, if you want a particularly powerful shapeshifted form, it's going to cost you a lot, requiring a higher base refresh component to the campaign's power level in order to make it a viable PC (i.e., with net positive refresh after paying for the powers).

Also keep in mind that what we're talking about is STARTING refresh levels for a campaign. Characters are going to grow over time, just as Harry has, and one of the ways they can grow is in terms of their raw power potential (Refresh level).

[TheMouse]

Out of curiosity, what is the assumed rate of Refresh increase? A point every 10 sessions? Every 20 sessions? Or is it more of a "when you feel like it" type thing?

[Bosh]

I might be wrong but I think that when your character advances you can either gain skills, stunts or refresh.

[TheMouse]

I might be wrong but I think that when your character advances you can either gain skills, stunts or refresh.

Stunts cost Refresh. Logically, that would seem to imply that Stunts are not their own form of advancement, but a result of Refresh advancement.