>>2) Exp/Obs exp is good when it comes with the level.
>
>I don't know what this means, exactly. Anyway, my preference
>would be to just get rid of EXP/OXP (giving no ####s about the
>impact on edges), but our PR firm has advised me against that
>in the strongest possible language. Sometimes I wonder what
>we're paying them for.
>

If PR firm stand for Public Relation firm, I would suggest you to trust people really involved in a situation (here CF players) over people who claim to be "experts". I'd be really curious to see if your PR firm can bring strong arguments to keep OXP/EXP or if all they have to offer is a "professional advice" coming from their supposed "expertise".... I never tought about the question but I see some players have really good insights/arguments for dropping ExplorationXP and ObservationXP. I especially like what ibuki brought up:

"Explore and observe is an interesting way of encouraging exploration the first time you do it. After that it's just a chore, which you're vaguely obligated to go through with every future character. There's probably no single, small change that would make me want to play more than just removing it entirely."


And if you want to keep edges, you could allow a certain amount of EdgesXP per level (with maybe a little extra for roles?) so people could still pick edges to customize their character.

And before following more of your actual PR experts advices, maybe you should ask them to explain you again why they're unable to stop CF numbers going down...? I'm sure you're doing your very best to keep the game up and interesting, so please don't take this as a personnal critic. My point here is just to remind you that it's not a bad idea to consider players point of view, especially when they take time to elaborate their ideas.

Thanks again for the time you put to keep this game up and runing!