Did some characters become more game-breaking than others? Was it difficult to set up meaningful encounters without swamping the PCs with small armies? Did the game shift onto a more political/world-changing footing, rather than simple physical conflict? Were there any particular abuses of advancement? How many is too many sites to be attuned to? Were the players able to see a good time to retire their characters and return to more challenging power levels?

On a side note, how do people handle the Scrappy Kid getting older? Obviously the unique schticks go out the window, but what about Attributes? Their Body has to rise, since they're growing bigger and stronger. But would Ref fall? Presumably they'd be an exception to the attunement requirement to increase Attributes?

Lots of questions, I know, but thanks in advance for any responses.
Kiero

I find the trick is to give the less combat-orientated characters something meaningful to do during combat; such as trying to defuse the bomb or dealing with the less hazardous NPC (films pull that one all the time). I try to a void duplication of areas of expertise in the party, so for every character there'll be one thing they do better than the rest.

Skills inflation is a worry, but I've got a house rules on my website I use to try and cap it.

Hmm... Scrappy Kids getting older... I'd say make them go the long way round and pay the XP for any stat increase. Or say they can buy that 5th point of BODY (Average for a human) by sacrificing their Squirmy schtick. But what self-respecting GM would let any Scrappy Kid reach adulthood without a truly sadistic rite of passage?

I like to think of it as something that you work out with the player. For us, it was actually an age thing. For example, Billy Blaine is 13 right now. When he reaches fourteen (if he survives that long), we'll probably nip one of his Squirms. If he reaches sixteen, we'll probably get rid of the other and the Distraction.

That said, we have a high-powered game in which the Dragons - after quite a bit of work - have secured a partial grip on 2056 with three other factions in a very loose alliance. Because FS sites (including House on the Hill) play a large part of the game, we actually use a lower scale for getting XP - after each session, they get only 1 XP for each FS site they hold.

To limit this I have enforced a house rule. Improving a character's highest AV requires to have earnt already twice the new AV experience points since the last time the highest AV was increased. This leads to a smoother power increase and more time to discover the setting before moving up to higher threats.

While I am on the subject of xp, I have also lowered the price of skills to the new add-on to the base attribute instead of the new AV (e.g. guns +10 (15) will cost 11 to raise to 16). A new skill costs 3+ base attribute rating to acquire. Otherwise, archetypes without powers (e.g. big bruiser, thief...) had it too hard.

In the tradition of cinematic movies (and the dragon faction), the players tended to remain reactive rather than proactive, usually thwarting the plots of the baddies. The latter cases did concern major plots by the main factions and could not be solved only by combat though. Politics increased mainly due to the increased cast of NPC allies, nemesis and contacts the players had to juggle.

I did not experiment with letting the players personnally attune to more than 2 minor Feng -Shui sites as recommended by the rules (see p167). They did burn a few sites. In the end, they set up a protection company for their suburb in contemporary HK co-owned with the local persons of influence (read feng-shui site owners and wealthy shop owners), and attuned to 3 Feng-Shui sites without attracting negative attention from the Ascended.

Players did not see fit to retire their players until they went in a blaze of glory just before the group would have to split.