Sounds like a very cool game. Thats quite a deffinite set of parameters, let me see if I can have a go at helping.
One idea I toyed with that as previous experience you could roll 2d6 and add that to 14 to get the starting age. And take those points as keywords. As you are going to run a high-ish level game then I would allow someone to put them all in the magic keyword - but as Mike has pointed out, I have faith in people that they wouldn't necessarily stack (and TBH it wouldn't matter if they did in mine or from what I gather Mike Holmes' game...evil narrator grin!) You could do a two or three for one on magic but I wouldn't bother for the game you're talking of.
Another idea I had was to go sort of Hero Wars, but apply the 5W and two 1W to keywords. I would go a step further and say maybe 10W 5W 1W or 5W 1W 17 - giving people a natural step up.
A typical HQ occupation keyword has c. 15 abilities, the heortling homeland having similar. The above would give frankly loads of free hp but not feel too unbalanced.
Also, perhaps make keywords cost 8 to increase by 1, magic keyword costing 16 to increase by +1. This gives an incentive to increase keywords. Don't forget you also get a fourth keyword on character gen - the 100 word narrative keyword. Choose where you would like to pitch it. 13 17 1W or 5W. I always have thought it *felt* wrong that the stuff you wanted your character to be about essentially the stuff in your narrative you had to work hard to get to the level of say, wilderness survival from your homeland keyword IMHO.
I claculate that your players will need to accrue c. 800 hp over the arc of the campaign. Which should put them around the 15W or 5W3 range, based on the above. thats around 26 to 28 Hp per year, or 5 or 6 points per season. What you could do is maybe say each season you get a character development point. +1 to a keyword or gain D10 - - player choice (1's roll again). Want to put your magic keyword up? 2 character development points.
Of course, all of the above is extraordinary experience for PC's. What you might want to do is double the experience when active, halve it when *inactive* if you feel that gives a better feel. I would suggest that you do not try and apply this to NPC's or the would would be full of 60 year old Harreks, and don't even start about the Brithini. Could this tailored system work for the game you describe - I think so.
Regards
Rob
> How do I get them there? Obviously I'll have to do some "and a year
> passes" gaps, but I need a feel for how fast they should be
advancing. I
> need a feel for what level people should be at at intermediate
dates.
> The extent to which stats go up and down as they take time out from
> adventuring. And I need it consistent with the published
NPC/resistance
> numbers, so "make up whatever you like" isn't going to help. At
the very
> least, I need a feel, and "some" isn't quite precise enough to
help.
>
> > That's one contest that seasons to perform. So they get
> > directed HP for whatever skills they used.
>
> Fine. How many HP?
>
> > If a long passage of time happened - let's say my players
> > left Dragon Pass and decided to homestead in Wenelia for a
> > decade ... give out points appropriately (and maybe a stack
> > of "spend-it-anywhere" points).
>
> How many, and how big a stack? You've got the feel for this. Don't
tell
> me to use mine, I haven't got one. Getting one is most of the
point of
> this conversation!
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