Boons & Banes Overview

What are Boons and Banes ?
Boons and Banes are a way for a player to express themselves by adding bits of detail and flavor to your character during the creation process by adding small benefits or drawbacks to your character to reflect where they come from and what they bring with them on their new adventure into the world of Alwaus. They also can be an extra way to generate an extra slice of experience points (in the form of banes) or as a way to further strengthen a character's skillset with the addition of boons. Like skills and talents, they are simply an extra way to showcase what distinguishes your character from other characters in the world of Alwaus, while providing additional building blocks to flesh our your character's backstory and history before the adventure started. Boons and Banes are both completely optional and you are not required to take any for your character during the creation process.

Why Use Them?
The primary reason to use Boons & Banes is to foster co-operative roleplay between the GM and the players, and to give a tangible reflection of a character's backstory through a mechanical interaction in the game rules. If you are building a character that grew up a street urchin in The Port City of Rystanburg you would likely build them with at least one skill in the streetwise or skullduggery skills to reflect the guile they've relied on their entire life to survive. You might also look at taking the Light Sleeper boon to reflect your character's protensity to "sleep with one eye open" after a life spent living on the streets. Or perhaps instead you take the Wanted: Locally bane to reflect your character's reputation with the city guard of Rystanburg, and how the occasional wanted poster can still be seen of your character's face from their last visit to the kaldari city. Both are excellent ways to give a sense of depth and realism to your character's past and as a player you might want to take one or even both of them.

How To Use Boons & Banes in Genesys
When proceeding through the Character Creation steps in Genesys, Boons & Banes should be selected during the "Invest Experience Points" section, however experience gained from Banes cannot be used to increase the characteristics of a character and must instead be allocated to Talents, Skills, and Boons. As a general rule a character is restricted to choosing 2 Boons and 2 Banes at character creation, however the GM can permit this number to be exceeded should they reason the number of banes makes sense for the character and is not using overlapping abilities to gain an unbalanced mechanical advantage that was not intended. A character gain 5 exp for each Minor Bane that they take on for their character and gains 10 exp for each Major Bane they take on for their character. Experience gained in the matter is allocated immediacy to the character to either spend right away or to save for a large experience point expense. Experience points from banes are given at this stage to ensure that they are not spent to increase a the Characteristics of a player's character during the character creation process. Once the adventure is underway, the GM should keep a character's Boons and Banes in mind and try to interweave them into the story in the same way that a character's background and motivation can be drawn upon.
When a character selects a Boon or Bane, they slot the new ability into their Talent Pyramid as if it was a talent with the rank listed on the "Rank" section of the Boon or Bane being added to the character. In the event that a Boon or Bain requires a Tier 2 Talent Slot where a slot is not currently available due to a lack of supporting talents of a lower rank - the Boon or Bane can be "forced" into the slot despite not having the appropriate lower talents. The Talent Pyramid then continues to be developed around the Boon & Bane as if it was a normal talent. Because the pyramid is filled out a in linear fashion the unsupported Boon or Bane will then later be supported as lower level Talents or even Boons & Banes are gathered.
Getting Boons & Banes After Character Creation
As Boons & Banes are both designed to reflect the historical elements of a character's background, they cannot be purchased at will by characters after character creation without the GM's approval. That being said, GM's may sometimes award Boons for large character and story moments, at what point the player must slot the Boon or Bane into their Talent Pyramid as normal. Banes in a similar fashion can also be levied against the player to mark failures and pivotal story moments. As banes are permanent alterations to a character it is important to have a discussion with your players about this element before you implement it, as having a permenant change afflicted against a character without their consent can quickly lead to negative play experiences. Whenever a Bane is levied against a player it always placed into their Talent Tree as a Tier 1 Talent - regardless of the Banes normal ranking.