“You don’t walk the frontier without picking up scars. Some you wear on your skin. Others, deeper.” — Sandra “Lark” Vance, Dust Runner captain

Growth in Perseverance doesn’t come from gold or glory – it comes from grit, consequence, and hard-won change. In this post, we explore how characters evolve in QuestWorlds through defeats, flaws, breakthroughs, and bonds – and how that growth can reflect the harsh, personal nature of frontier life on Perseverance.

How Experience Works in QuestWorlds

In QuestWorlds, character growth is fueled by experience points (XP). You earn XP through narrative consequences, not routine success:

• 1 XP when you suffer a defeat, even a minor one.
• 1 XP when a flaw or hindrance is used against you in a contest.
• You can only gain XP from the same ability or flaw once per session.
• You may earn up to 5 XP per session.

XP is meant to reflect struggle and growth – your character learns when things go wrong or when their limitations shape the story.

Milestones, Advances, and Change

Once you reach 10 XP, you earn an Advance. You can use it to:

• Add a new ability or breakout
• Add a new flaw (to reflect new hardship)
• Drop a flaw (if a struggle is resolved)
• Rewrite a supporting character

What you can’t do, by default, is change an existing ability. But that’s where Perseverance brings something new.

Rewriting Yourself: The "Rewrite Advance"

Sometimes, survival doesn’t just give you new skills – it changes who you are.

A “Young and Idealistic” character becomes a “Not So Idealist Veteran.”
A “Hotshot Pilot” learns restraint and becomes “Grimly Professional.”

In Perseverance, we introduce the Rewrite Advance:
You may spend an Advance to permanently rewrite one ability, breakout, or keyword to reflect growth, trauma, or transformation.

Rules:

• No mechanical bonus is granted – just a new name and narrative framing.
• You can’t rewrite an ability’s scope (unless your GM agrees).
• You must justify the change in play – via loss, conflict, revelation, etc.
• You can only rewrite each ability once.

Examples:

• Young and Idealistic 10 → Not So Idealist Veteran 10
• Commonwealth Patriot 15 → Knows How the System Really Works 15
• Fast Talker +5 → Manipulator +5

Optional twist: Pair your rewrite with a new flaw that shows the cost:

“Community First” → “Doesn’t Stick Their Neck Out”

• Flaw: Haunted by Abandoning Others

Character Growth in Action: The Education of Clara Juno

Let’s walk through the transformation of a character – Clara Juno, a Dustborn courier from a canyon settlement – across several defining episodes in her life. This isn’t a full session log, but a series of narrative highlights that show how failure, flaws, and hard decisions lead to XP gain and personal change.

Each “chapter” reflects a key moment of growth that might happen over the course of several sessions of play. The XP progression is cumulative, but abstracted – we’re focusing on the turning points that matter.

Chapter 1: Dust and Dreams

Clara Juno rides alone, the youngest courier in her region. She dreams of joining a smuggler crew like the legendary Dust Runner, and she believes that honesty and speed are all she needs to get there. When a dying trader begs her to deliver a mysterious package instead of her assigned cargo, Clara refuses – it’s “not in her contract.” The man dies alone, and Clara delivers her shipment on time.

But when word spreads of the package’s importance, and how Clara walked away, her reputation suffers.

Mechanics:

• Flaw invoked: Naïve Faith in Rules (added at creation)
• Clara suffers a zero-degree defeat in a social contest with a local fixer.
• She gains 1 XP for the flaw and 1 XP for the defeat.

Chapter 2: Things You Can’t Outrun

Later, trying to prove herself, Clara volunteers for a run across the salt flats during a storm. She pushes her skiff too far. A failed contest puts her vehicle out of commission and leaves her stranded in a dust surge. She’s rescued by an outlaw named Roan who doesn’t ask why she was there, only what she’ll do differently now.

Mechanics:

• Another XP from defeat (pushing too far)
• Temporary tag: Rattled by the Storm (–5 on any travel-related contests that session)
• Clara hits 5 XP total at this point.

Chapter 3: Learning the Hard Way

Clara’s next delivery takes her to a settlement ruled by a corporate-backed sheriff. She witnesses the abuse of a local rancher but stays silent to protect her delivery. Later, that same rancher saves Clara when smugglers ambush her outside town. She loses the shipment – and a friend.

Mechanics:

• GM invokes her flaw again: Naïve Faith in Rules
• Another XP for flaw, another XP for defeat
• She hits 10 XP and chooses an Advance

Advance #1:
Adds new Breakout under “Dustborn Courier”: Knows the Unwritten Rules +5

Chapter 4: The Package You Didn’t Take

Clara returns to the place where the dying man tried to hand her that package weeks ago. Turns out others took it – and sold it. The contents? Evidence of a corporate coverup, now lost. Clara’s name is mud among the riverfolk. A child spits at her boots. She remembers the man's eyes.

Mechanics:

• Clara takes a new Flaw: Haunted by the Choice She Didn’t Make

Chapter 5: Clara Juno, Dust Runner

A year later, Clara walks into Fallpoint wearing scavenged armor and carrying a Commonwealth seal from a Ranger she outwitted. She negotiates with the Dust Runner crew on even footing, laying out her proposal to smuggle banned medicine upriver – without asking anyone’s permission.

She’s changed. She’s earned it.

Mechanics:

• Clara earns another 10 XP, spends them on:
  • Advance #2: New Standalone Ability
    Reads the Room Like a Map 10
  • Advance #3: Rewrite Advance
    Rewrites Keyword:
    Dustborn Courier 15 → Frontier Operative 15

Clara Juno: Before and After

Starting Out:

• Dustborn Courier 15
  • Naïve Faith in Rules (Flaw)
  • Fast Skiff Pilot +5
• Scavenger’s Instincts 10
• Sharp Eyes 10

Tagline: “If I run fast enough and follow the rules, I’ll make it.”

One Year Later:

• Frontier Operative 15 (rewritten keyword)
  • Knows the Unwritten Rules +5
  • Reads the Room Like a Map 10
• Scavenger’s Instincts 10
• Sharp Eyes 10
• Flaw: Haunted by the Choice She Didn’t Make

Tagline: “I don’t run anymore. I plan, I watch – and I choose.”

In Play: Let the Dust Change You

Characters in Perseverance evolve – not through loot, but through loss and loyalty. Let characters:

• Earn Breakouts from grief.
• Rewrite themselves after betrayal.
• Gain flaws from failure – and strength from surviving it.

The frontier doesn’t care about your ideals. But it will test them – until something breaks or hardens in their place.