During the course of play, characters are awarded Experience Points in Stat areas that the GM feels the player is deserving. Players may allocate said points in any skill from that Stat area that they can claim to have used recently.

Experience Point Cost to advance in Skill Rank is equal to the Experience Points Costs listed over the Rank(s) being gained. Ie., from Rank 1 to 2, Rank 2 is being gained, thus the cost is 2 Experience Points, as listed above Rank 2. Whereas to go from Rank 2 to 4 Gains Ranks 3 and 4, and Costs their respective costs - 4 and 6 Experience Points, yielding a total cost of 10 Experience Points.

Experience Point Cost to advance any Stat is equal to the Experience Points Costs listed over the Rank(s) being gained. Ie., from Rank 1 to 2, Rank 2 is being gained, thus the cost is 4 Experience Points, as listed above Rank 2. Whereas to go from Rank 2 to 4 Gains Ranks 3 and 4, and Costs their respective costs - 8 and 12 Experience Points, yielding a total cost of 20 Experience Points. Note that no Stat can be raised beyond Racial Maximums through this means.
8 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cost: Between 6 and12 Experience Points EACH. (Or more if decreed by GM.) This form of advancement is NOT instantaneous. Players must inform the GM as to their allocating said Experience to Negating a Disadvantage, and what their character is doing to achieve this. (ie., medical/psychiatric treatment,working out, studying, meditating, etc.) The GM then determines when the Disadvantage has been Negated. (Usually this is dealt with DURING the adventure/campaign.)

These are gained regardless of where Experience Points are allocated.

A.) At Level 1 Players may re-roll 1 die per skill roll, at Level 2 Players may reroll 2 dice per skill roll, etc.
 

B.) Combat Results are determined based on Players' Level on the Combat Chart, with Manifest Injuries being thusly lessened.

One of the most confusing aspects of Level Advancement in Ad Astra: The New Age is that one's Character's Level is determined by the total number of Experience Points awarded, and that the act of spending Experience does not remove it from the tally of Points awarded. (ie., if a Character is awarded 20 experience and spends 16, they have 4 remaining to spend, but still reach 2nd Level for having earned 20 Experience.)

Thereafter, the progression continues every additional 60 Total Experience Points

GMs herein are given a great deal of leeway, with the main purpose of Experience Points being a tool for GMs to reward GOOD Role Playing and, by withholding Experience Points, admonish BAD Role Playing. So of course the question becomes, "what is good role playing"? The answer is, whatever the GM (and by consensus the Players) considers it to be. A failing of many older RPGs was that the rules for rewarding Experience Points institutionalized the 'Hack-And-Slash' mentality; advancement almost exclusively came to those who killed the most monsters and found the most treasure. Addendums might 'allow' the GM to award additional points for good role playing, but it was clearly not supposed to be the point of the game. In Ad Astra: The New Age, our intention was to make good role playing the point of the game. That in mind, here are some GUIDELINES for GMs on what behavior to reward, and what not.

A.) As civilized beings, trying to solve every situation with violence is unrealistic. Even Jingos have morals, and criteria for when (and who) they will fight. Fighting off a band of thugs who attack the party should get experience. Getting into a barfight should not. The exception to this would be if based on the character's personality traits getting into said brawl was apropriate; the Player's character is very nationalistic and could NOT allow a bar know-it-all to disparage his homeland, etc.
 
 

B.) Players should be rewarded when, despite the fact that doing a given course of action will negatively impact on them, they nonetheless do so since it's what their character would do in that situation. For example, if a party is infiltrating an enemy camp, and a Player's character who is completely honest is captured, if the Player's character answers all their interrogators questions properly reagrdless of the danger it puts them and the party into, such an action should be rewarded. (admittedly, the character could have refused to talk, but...)
 
 

C.) Players who take a course of action completely unexpected. Regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, being adventurous should be rewarded, even if only in Experience Points.
 
 

D.) Players who get into character enough to feel and share actual emotion over what is happening in the game should be rewarded for this, as it only heightens the experience for everyone involved. Please be aware that this does not refer to the power-gamer who throws a tantrum when his character's weapons are taken away....