Here is how I do it. Just in case anyone else finds it useful.
I tend to assume 17 is the ability for a new adult at the beginning of their career.
I then lean on the advanced experience (+1 to a keyword per year), dividing the increases between professional and religious keyword according to commitment
So a 24 year old Destor devotee and warrior would have 7 advanced experience points split about 4 to devotee and 3 to profession so Warrior: 20 Devotee of Destor: 1W
For more 'significant' narrator characters, such as members of the ring, I add the saga increases to this (an additional 3 hero points per year to spend on skills), but still spend them according to time commitment. So if the 24 year old was to be 'signigficant' I would note that I had 21 additional points to spend. I might then add them to his abilities when needed. So our devotee would have 14 points on his devotee abilities, probably about +4 divided among his Combat, Wind, and Movement (3 points to increase an affinity) and another 2 points to a key feat. The he would get 7 points to spend on a skill, perhaps Sword and Shield Fighting giving us a 'significant character' who looks more like:
Warrior: 20 Devotee of Destor: 1W
Combat Affinity: 3W (SwordHelp 5W)
Wind Affinity: 2W
Movement Affinty: 2W
Sword and Shield Fighting 7W
Proably a good candidate for a weaponthane
Doing the additional math here is less useful 'on the fly' so I avoid it for the 'mooks'. Once you get used to it you can quickly figure out a mooks abilities by having an idea how old they are and still have an idea what level more 'screen time' npcs should have.
It also tends to mean beginning npcs exceed their age group because of the points bonues they get on starting, and can rise more rapidly. If I was not playing a lot of adventures per year I would tend to give the heroes saga increases as well as anything earned from adventures. That tends to alleviate the issue that getting keyword bonuses year-on-year represents quite a few points for individual buy-in.
Ian Cooper
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