by Jacob » Thu May 21, 2009 2:30 pm
Regarding the later addition of Qualities: a few points.
1) Starting characters are plastic. In this case, that means that you can try the game out, say "well, LE is awesome, but I can't hack the physical rigors of being an Academic. I needs me a gun," and redesign your character into a hunter or some such. Specifically: you are allowed to rewrite your character after your first event.
2) Subsequent manipulation of Qualities is more difficult. Racial advantages can be taken later without too much trouble--in my mind this would represent a character "embracing their roots" in one way or another, or possibly simply maturing or some such. Generic Qualities are much more difficult to come by after character creation. While it is theoretically possible, it would require significant roleplaying and in-game action in addition to the CP cost if you were to take an Advantage (and some would be fairly well impossible), while Hindrances and Complications would require an odd orchestration between staff and PCs ("Could you guys host a poker game so I can lose a mind boggling sum of money and become Poor? Thanks."). Generally, Qualities represent inherent, societal, or long-honed abilities or circumstances. Wealthy, for example, represents access to truly staggering sums of money, and likely an estate and servants and such. Similarly, Test Subject is a stand in for a horrific set of circumstances conducted over quite some time. It is hypthetically possible to become independently wealthy over the course of the game, as it is possible to have horrible experiments performed on your character. Neither would be easy, though, and I would heartily advise taking such Qualities as part of the character creation process. Similar logic can be applied to changing the levels of Qualities.