Episode I: The Freelance Opportunity OOC

I frankly have no idea what it would take to roll over Darth Vader. The brief reading I've done suggests that sheer weight of numbers on the part of a PC group can bowl over even pretty major NPCs.

I am definitely in favor of merit XP. Good roleplay (portraying a character in an interesting and convincing way), active roleplay (initiating conversations or actions with other players and NPCs, using scenes as an opportunity to expand or present character, etc...), and exciting roleplay (elevating the scene through good narrative) should be rewarded. As a player of Exalted (whose Stunt bonuses can and do go up to XP), and the whole Burning Wheel family of games (who have a session-end council decide MVP, Embodiment, and Workhorse rewards of Artha.)

However, it's easy to turn these into rewards for spamming and general extroversion if they're doled out too large or too often. Sometimes the best thing for a character to do in a scene to keep the narrative flow is actually to... stay off-camera. And yes, sometimes players have RL obligations that prevent them from participating at the same pace as others. I am also one of those rare GMs who does encourage participation XP more broadly. Although people see it as punishing players who don't make it, it's also rewarding those players who do show up.

All of this has to be balanced against, I think, the important factor of proportion. If, for instance, you reward good roleplay with 5 XP for a standout post, and you're giving out 10 XP a moth, then that's quite a different situation if you're awarding 30 XP for a chapter, and give out 5 XP for general good roleplaying in the chapter.

I hate to go into "how I would do it," especially since I'm not super informed on the system, and every GM handles advancement differently, so take this with a grain of salt...

But...

I would give a modest amount of XP in frequent intervals (5 every two weeks-ish? I'd try to divvy it up by narrative scene, but well, pbp, especially combat, can get hairy...), and then give, say, 1 XP for a good roleplaying moment that period (make sure to call it out specifically! Vivid writing, good characterization, a clutch stunt or action that transforms a scene, a particularly graceful or interesting suggestion on how to Despair their character... but also a good supporting role, using their character to spotlight another character, being a good foil for dialogue, etc...), and 1 for showing up. Not 100% post rate, but keeping things brisk and not holding things up, but also not disappearing. For a solid B in attendance. By keeping them frequent and small, that lets those awards slowly accumulate. And, as a mature player, I can handle not getting 1 XP because I didn't feel like my character had much to do in a scene. But getting chunked out of, say, 10 XP because I didn't jump a hurdle at the end of the month (one I can't see the top of!) might feel a little sour. But I also think rewarding a player more immediately for doing something great creates a good feedback loop.

Naturally, with a trickle of XP, you'll have to meter story rewards a little differently, but I think there you can get a lot of buy-in from the players. If you're transparent and say, "Hey, I'm going to give pretty big chunky awards at story end until you hit around 150, so we can do Knight-level play, but then I will probably back off and see how it plays out so the XP rewards might get smaller to keep things from spinning out of control," I think your players will understand that. I know I would. And those story end rewards won't have everyone peeking at each others' bonus rewards, because those will have already been given out during play.

Now that I've waxed poetic about XP for, like, way too long, as for gear? It might be good to take a hybrid approach. Give out a standard kit or basics, and then give some credits to personalize and polish it. That kit of basics can do a lot to help us see how you want us to approach the game - camoflage cloaks, electrobinoculars, and ascension guns are going to give a much different vibe than thermal detonators and a squad-wide E-Web blaster.

Any update on when we can expect the prelude and start character introduction?