Experience, Levels, and Advancement
Experience Points
Characters now receive CPs rather than EPs.
GMs should award each character about 1 CP per episode. The GM may award 0 CPs if the episode was very short, or if a player role-plays badly, of if a character was not particularly challenged. The GM may award more CPs if the episode was very long, or if a player role-played extraordinarily well, or if a character was faced with incredible odds, or if a character makes a hefty cash donation to a charitable organization. No character should earn over 3 CPs for any one episode.
Experience Levels are now purchased with CPs. It costs 4 CPs to purchase an Experience Level. All characters still begin at Experience Level 1 for free, but beginning characters may not purchase any extra Experience levels. Each player MUST invest at least 1 CP toward the purchase of his/her next Experience level after each episode involving combat. Experience Levels are a slightly cheaper way to gain overall combat bonuses than buying Heightened Defense and Heightened Expertise.
Note that a player is not forced to spend a CP on Level due to combat, nor is he/she necessarily limited to spending only 1 CP per session on Level. -B.
Advancement
Any remaining CP award may be spent to purchase more Basic Characteristic points, Powers, or Skills. All purchases are subject to GM veto: if your GM doesn't think it makes sense for you to buy what you want to buy, then you may not buy it. This applies to spending points on Experience Levels, too: unless a character is spending a lot of time on combat training, they shouldn't be allowed to spend any CPs on Experience levels other than the 1 CP required per episode with combat.
In particular, to increase any of your Basic Characteristic scores past certain thresholds requires a darn good excuse. For example, it is not possible for a normal human to increase their Strength above 18 unless they mutate, or get cybernetically enhanced, or take a super formula, or undergo any other origin-like event. These thresholds are: 18, 33, 48, 63, and 78.
My campaigns ignore all but the first of these thresholds (i.e., 18 max., unless the Heightened Characteristic is possessed, or an origin event occurs to give the character same). As to when CPs can be spent, that's typically done after/between adventures. However, if a character under duress has a few extra CPs lying around, I would allow them to be spent "on the fly" (even during combat), to simulate how, under extreme conditions, comic book good guys frequently find new reserves of strength or suddenly develop new uses for their powers (or, yes, even new powers entirely). No matter how they're spent, however, spent CPs are spent: no "taking them back." -B.
Charisma Points
There are no longer any Charisma awards. If a player wants their character to gain Charisma, they may ask their GM for permission to buy Charisma points with their CP awards.
Remember that Charisma is no longer a measure of "how good or evil" someone is, nor is it a measure of how the public views the character; it is merely the character's force of personality and ability to influence others. -B.
Experience Level Bonuses (formerly known as Training)
These are obsolete. Players now buy more abilities with their CP awards. Buying an Experience Level ONLY gives you the combat bonuses associated with having a high Experience level.
Well, that and more Inventing Points, and the enchancement of certain powers, etc. -B.
