How I coach Experiences that aren’t too broad | Rejected vs approved at my table

At session 0, someone always writes Lucky. My job is to stop glue phrases like that before session 1, not to hand out another official-style list. An Experience is a phrase you spend Hope on, and each player makes two at +2. If a phrase is too wide, they will reach for it on every roll. If it is too narrow, they will never spend the Hope. I coach for the middle, with a reject and approve test I can say out loud.

The reject and approve test

Imagine spending Hope on the phrase twice in one session. If you cannot picture two different rolls where it is true, and plenty of rolls where you would refuse it, rewrite it before you start.

A specific phrase names a life, a job, a debt or a habit you can point at, like “Grew up on river barges”. A broad phrase applies to almost any roll, like Lucky, Survivor or Good at stuff. A mechanical phrase sneaks in a special ability, like “Always crit on doors”, and that is not an Experience at all, so I shut it down.

The coaching line I use is this: give me a phrase I could refuse on half your rolls and still say yes to on a real slice of your life.

Rejected at my table, and why

• “Lucky” is always on.
• “Good at everything on boats” is still glue, just longer.
• “Charming” is a Presence score wearing a hat.
• “Streetwise” usually means everything in a city.
• “Survivor” fires on every near-death moment, which is most of the game.
• “My dead mentor’s secret technique” is a plot we have not written yet.
• “The Chosen of the River” is a title, and titles do not help a Duality roll.
• “Strong” is a trait you already have.

The first five are breadth problems. The mentor line asks for fiction we have not earned, and the title and the trait are not Experiences.

Approved phrases, and when they ate Hope

These have all been on a sheet at my table, from one-shots and from our Motherboard campaign, and each one earned its Hope more than once:

• “Grew up on river barges” covered rope, ledgers, the smell of the water and a lie about the tides.
• “Night clerk at the salt warehouse” meant talking to the clerk on the landing and finding the door that is never locked. It would not climb a cliff.
• “I still owe the watch a favour” covered debts and doors, not every fight.
• “Reads a room before it speaks” was for Social reads, not sword swings.
• “Mends nets, and other people’s plans” covered fixes and quiet prep.
• “Hauled cargo on the Embrace docks” is on Ratchett, a Clank Warrior in our campaign. It fired when he lifted a fallen gate off a survivor and again when he knew how a cargo crane would swing, but never when he wanted to talk his way past anyone.
• “Hunted the south-west shores of the Echo Vale” is on Tak, our sniper, who grew up with a tribe that shuns technology. It fired on tracking and on a long, patient shot, and it stayed quiet in a room full of machines.

Each phrase can matter more than once without covering every roll. That is the evidence behind the coaching, not a list to copy.

Spend the Hope when it is true

A player spends a Hope to add an Experience’s modifier to an action roll or a reaction roll, and they can spend more than one Hope if more than one Experience genuinely applies. You decide together whether it applies before the roll, unless a feature says otherwise.

If someone wants “Grew up on river barges” to intimidate a courtier in a dry hall, ask how the barge life shows up in that moment. If they cannot say, it probably does not apply. The phrase does the work, not you. Arguments about scope in the middle of a roll are their own problem, and I will cover them in a separate post, but the cheapest fix is the phrase you agree at session 0.

When characters level up, levels 2, 5 and 8 each add a new Experience at +2. The advancement that increases Experiences lets them pick two they already have and add +1 to each. Write phrases that can grow.

What I would print tonight

Ask each player for two Experiences that are jobs, debts or habits. Run the twice-in-a-session test, reject Lucky and its cousins out loud, and rewrite before you start.

The Dirge sheet on the character sheets page puts the Experience lines where eyes land, if your table needs the reminder on paper.

When a phrase needs a face at the table, I pull one from the PC portraits set.