(Answered) Buying additional experience points in character creation

[BiggRigg42]

Page 88, in A Time of War, describes how to buy additional XPs by taking on negative trait points. The max amount of additional XPs allowed to be bought is described with this sentence: "The maximum number of XPs that can be gained using this method is equal to 10 percent of the XPs originally allotted to the characters design, ..."

My RPG group finds the above quote ambiguous; because, we can think of two meanings for it, which will be illustrated with two examples applied to the same case: net example and total example.

Case: we are creating a character with a starting allotment of 5,000 XPs, and 10% of 5,000 is 500.

Total example: a player can only take up to -5 trait points (from negative traits) to obtain 500 additional XPs awarded to the XP pool, and the amount of positive trait points the player takes is irrelevant to this.

Net example: a player may take more than -5 trait points (in negative traits) to obtain a net of 500 additional XPs, provided they are off set by more positive trait points. So, if a player were to buy 5 trait points worth of positive traits (subtracting 500 XP from the XP pool) and -5 trait points of negative traits (adding 500XP to the XP pool [for a net of zero XPs gained]), then said character would be allowed to purchase an additional -5 trait points to gain another 500 XPs to the XP pool. In sum, the player has acquired 5 trait points and -10 trait points; this nets to 500 XPs awarded to the XP pool. 

My RPG group cannot come to an agreement on whether the total or net reading is correct. Thus, we cannot get our game started, please help.

[Paul]

Case: we are creating a character with a starting allotment of 5,000 XPs, and 10% of 5,000 is 500.

This is how you're supposed to do it.
Hope it helps, let me know if you need anything else.

Paul

[BiggRigg42]

This is how you're supposed to do it.
Hope it helps, let me know if you need anything else.

Paul

Thank you. One last clarifying question: if a starting character of 5,000 XP can only buy, at most, 500 additional XP by taking on a max of -5 Trait Points, then how did the starting sample characters on pages 94, 97, 98 and 99 end up with more than -5 Trait Points and, consequently, more than an additional 500 XP from those negative trait points?

[Paul]

Thank you. One last clarifying question: if a starting character of 5,000 XP can only buy, at most, 500 additional XP by taking on a max of -5 Trait Points, then how did the starting sample characters on pages 94, 97, 98 and 99 end up with more than -5 Trait Points and, consequently, more than an additional 500 XP from those negative trait points?

Those were created using Point-Buy, which lacks that restriction. Additionally, you can gain negative Traits during Module chargen; the -500 is on top of whatever you got out of that procedure.
Clumsy example: Let's say you take the University Module (p.72) and that's the only time you ever see anything happen to the Wealth trait: it being at -200 (-2 TP) does not count towards the 500.

Paul

[BiggRigg42]

That explains a lot, and I must be missing some errata. You are saying that the 10% of starting XP restriction does not apply to point-by, and page 88 says the opposite: "The maximum number of XPs that can be gained using this method is equal to 10% of the ... regardless of whether the player is using the points-only or life module method."

Now I am going to hunt down the errata for the book I bought.

Thank you so much.

[Paul]

That explains a lot, and I must be missing some errata. You are saying that the 10% of starting XP restriction does not apply to point-by, and page 88 says the opposite: "The maximum number of XPs that can be gained using this method is equal to 10% of the ... regardless of whether the player is using the points-only or life module method."

Yeah, that definitely shouldn't apply to point buy, since there's no way to get "free" negative Traits.

Now I am going to hunt down the errata for the book I bought.

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=5954.0

Thank you so much.

Sorry for the confusion.

Paul

[BiggRigg42]

My apologies to keep you so busy. However, I looked up the errata, and I have the corrected second printing of A Time of War [2015 - second printing (Topps - PDF released 2014)]. The only errata I can find is for the first printing and can be found here: http://bg.battletech.com/errata/

If what I think you are saying is true (i.e., that point-by characters are not restricted to only 10% of their starting XP, as life module characters are), and if there is no errata for the corrected second printing of A Time of War, then the current corrected second printing of A Time of War contains two FALSE sentences on pages 88 & 89.

Page 88: "The maximum number of XPs that can be gained using this method is equal to 10 percent of the XPs originally allotted to the character's design, regardless of whether the player is using the points-only or Life Modules method."

Page 89: "Purchasing negative traits to add XPs to the character's XP Pool is permitted under this system [POINTS-ONLY] (See Buying Additional experience Points, above). The same 10 percent of the character's starting XP Pool applies to gaining XPs in this fashion."

Or perhaps I am just woefully confused. Sorry again for bothering you so much on the topic.

[Paul]

Agreed, it needs fresh errata. I already posted the one for page 88, thanks for pointing out page 89

Paul