Let's say a character died. In the dark grimness of the Empire, this is hardly an unexpected event. How do you handle the replacement PC? I could see three ways: Sucks To Be You: the new PC is a new PC, period. He starts with whatever new PCs got at the beginning of the campaign. Instant Awesome: the new PC starts off as above, plus gets free XP / Advances equal to the rest of the party. New Guy Learns Quick: the new PC starts off as in (1), but gains XP / Advances at an accelerated rate, until he's caught up with the rest of the party So, what does your group do?

monkeylite said: There's some bits in The Winds of Magic that makes it clear that wizards can pursue non-magical careers without being considered to have left their College. That's good to know. Thanks, N

Fresnel said: (...) many people wish to play 'close' to canon and so want to know what the canon position is. If an issue is ambiguous like this one it can generate a lot of stress within a group – which is never welcome imo. Canon is set by the current Line Editor and he has made an answer in the FAQ that relates directly to this issue. Unfortunately this answer takes a hard-line literal view of careers. Q: Career Transitions: Leaving a “Casting” Career A: … From a setting standpoint, such a career transition is highly unusual. Leaving an established Empire Cult or the Colleges of Magic would meet with suspicion, questions, and possibly persecution. A wizard leaving the sanctioned and approved Colleges of Magic could well be branded a hedge wizard, sorceror, or dangerous renegade and find himself targetted by zealous Witch Hunters. The answer clearly assumes moving to a non-casting career = leaving/resigning from the character’s cult or college. Unfortunately this rigid vision of careers is not explicit in core rulebook. In fact the core rulebook in generally very liberal with respect to advances/careers. As I (and others) find a rigid view of careers conceptually problematic and impractical (if broadly applied) within the game, we are not inclined to adopt it based on one FAQ statement. Exactly, it's that quote that has me wondering how literal the "career card" is meant to be taken, especially for careers beyond the first. The FAQ does seem to imply that taking a career other than Apprentice & Acolyte means "leaving the colleges", but it's never explicitly stated. I personally feel fully empowered to tell canon to go get stuffed if it's stupid, but the developers spend more time thinking about this stuff than I can, so it's my hope that they'll have a good reason for whatever they decided was the default. Thanks, -- N

Silverwave said: If you want a more "official" answer, look on p.14 of Tome of Mysteries, under Discipline. You can read about renegade wizards. But I guess if a wizard makes the decision by himself to go for another career while still serving the order, it could be tolerate (though he will need very good explanations when I'll be brought in front of the Wizard Lords). That's hardly an answer, though, since it refers to no game mechanics. Unless I missed something that says changing your Career card = leaving your College? Fresnel said: This issue also concerns how literally your game takes the whole concept of 'career transition'. To what extent does the PC advancement game mechanics intrude into the perception of the characters? For instance a Wizard Apprentice might have been told to gain a years 'field experience' before returning for further training. The way the system works he might complete his Apprentice career within a month of a campaign. What does the player do with advancements then? Spend all further advances on non-career, transition to Acolyte without returning to college, or pick a career that fits with the circumstances of the campaign. Exactly. Scholar / Student / Scribe could be a decent fit for any Wizard, and Thief or Scout might match a Grey Wizard well, while it seems to me that Zealot actually lines up nicely for a Bright Wizard.

Yeah, I know we can change what we want in the game's setting, but I'd like to have a firm grasp on what it's "supposed" to be like before I go suggesting changes. Thanks.

FAQ: From a setting standpoint, such a career transition is highly unusual. Leaving an established Empire Cult or the Colleges of Magic would meet with suspicion, questions, and possibly persecution. A wizard leaving the sanctioned and approved Colleges of Magic could well be branded a hedge wizard, sorceror, or dangerous ren- egade and find himself targetted by zealous Witch Hunters.So, if my Wizard goes crazy and wants to become a Zealot of Sigmar, and eventually a Witch Hunter, he will be targeted by zealous Witch Hunters?

We used the standard random generation ("choose race, take the first 3 that fit your race, choose 1"). Dwarf Agent (mine) - Very lucky that I decided to train Weapon Skill for my Dwarf bonus, since we see a lot of combat. I'm considering going into Bounty Hunter -> Pit Fighter -> Ironbreaker. Human Thug - Another melee-centric guy. He might be going towards Zealot to get into Witch Hunter. Human Thief - The Thug's brother, tends to prefer ranged combat. Might go towards Scout. It's kind of painful playing with no divine or arcane support. Our party card is Gang of Thugs.

mac40k said: In the section on Talents, Page 20: "Only active talents can be replaced – a character can not replace an exhausted talent card." By extension since you can't swap out an exhausted talent, the question of recharging while swapped out is moot. Thanks! I had somehow missed that, but it says so in two places on that page.

Does a Talent recharge while swapped out? Can I swap a Talent which is currently Exhausted? I can't find any rules which say NO to this, but I'm not sure how exhausted Talents are supposed to work.