Propose house rule:
If a PC has completed a career and taken the dedication bonus, he will always have the option of playing a session 'in' that career, even if he is developing a new career.
i.e. An ex-soldier, who is now a Burgher, finds his town under attack from Orks. He manages to get into his old chainmail and frees his sword and shield from their mount above the fireplace. He then marches out to help defend the town.
He can now socket those Tactic talents that have been idle for years.
Nice idea.
.........
I've read a lot of house rules for this new edition and found more than a few of them to be convoluted, unnecessary, and/or too far of a departure from the feel of the game, but this idea is simple, elegant, and easy to implement. Maybe too easy though...it seems that there should be some price to pay. Something that represents the internal struggle of the character having to return to a past s/he left behind. Course good role-playing could account for this too, but maybe something else might be good to have for more mechanically inclined players/GMs. Something less than an advance but more than a single stress or fatigue point. Perhaps a number of stress or fatigue points equal to the career trait difference. So from burglar (thief I guess) to soldier would be three stress or fatigue. Maybe still too steep. Well either way I like the idea.
Imo shifting to a prior career should 'make sense' in the context of the situation the PC (or NPC) find themself - for the GM to adjudicate. The situation I used as an example would count. Btw a 'Burgher' is a high status commoner, a leading merchant or town official.
Similarly an ex-smuggler, now soldier could desert the army and return to smuggler (smuggling himself!). Context is king here.
Giving it a cost-mechanic doesn't make a lot of sense imo. We are not talking about change in the middle of an encounter or even a rally step - any stress would be recovered very quickly.
P 38 WHF01
"Finally, it’s important in case a character ever decides to re-visit a career they previously played. When returning to a previous career, it is always considered a compatible transition – so only one advance is required to move back into a career a character already has been in. This applies even if the character’s current career and the previous career would otherwise be considered incompatible."
"Reiklander characters have a special racial ability called Adaptable. This ability reduces the cost of career transitions by one advance. With this special ability, Reiklanders can reduce the transition cost to zero, which may allow a Reiklander to move directly into a compatible new career for no advances."
So in fact my 'House Rule' is canon for Reiklanders.
Fresnel said:
P 38 WHF01
"Finally, it’s important in case a character ever decides to re-visit a career they previously played. When returning to a previous career, it is always considered a compatible transition – so only one advance is required to move back into a career a character already has been in. This applies even if the character’s current career and the previous career would otherwise be considered incompatible."
"Reiklander characters have a special racial ability called Adaptable. This ability reduces the cost of career transitions by one advance. With this special ability, Reiklanders can reduce the transition cost to zero, which may allow a Reiklander to move directly into a compatible new career for no advances."
So in fact my 'House Rule' is canon for Reiklanders.
And in fact my only issue with your house rule is, because it is already allowable for Reiklanders, you are subtracting from that race if you allow this ability for all races. I could make a house rule that Dwarves and Elves start with 25 points to spend at character creation, on the surface it just looks like I'm adding an bounus to these races, but in reality what I am really doing is taking something away from Reiklanders, since they are the only ones who get this perk now, making it standard makes that race less appealing. Your house rule does the same thing. Is it on the same scale?? Probably not, but it is something to consider.
BCA said:
And in fact my only issue with your house rule is, because it is already allowable for Reiklanders, you are subtracting from that race if you allow this ability for all races. I could make a house rule that Dwarves and Elves start with 25 points to spend at character creation, on the surface it just looks like I'm adding an bounus to these races, but in reality what I am really doing is taking something away from Reiklanders, since they are the only ones who get this perk now, making it standard makes that race less appealing. Your house rule does the same thing. Is it on the same scale?? Probably not, but it is something to consider.
My house rule allowed characters to use a previously completed career cards (essentailly the talent sockets) - if the Dedication Bonus was brought. The Reiklander 'Adaptability' allows free movement to any career, complete or in-complete, dedication bonus or not. So Reiklanders still have an advantage.
In regard to career progression, Elves and Dwarfs would still need to pay 1 advance to formally transition to a previous career. They might want to do this in order to transition out to another (more compatable) career.
One amendment I have been considering is that the Dedication Bonus transition advantage (-1 advance), can only be applied once from each career.
Great idea. This also gives an incentive for completing more careers to have more options.