Permanence and Flux

I've had this idea since the beginning of Walkabout where players can make temporary changes to their character sheets by writing on them in pencil (which can be erased later), or make permanent changes to their character sheets by writing on them in pen (which can't be erased). The main idea here was when characters have spirit markings applied to their bodies, they can choose to draw pencil markings on their character sheets to reflect the ochre that they'd usually adorn themselves during ritualistic communion with the entities of the Dreaming, or they draw permanent markings with pen to represent a deeper level of connections forged through the permanent tattooing of the skin. It works there, but I'd been wondering how much deeper that idea could go.

So my next idea on those lines is to link it to the ability aspects.

It's not really appropriate for equipment, because that's the kind of thing that regularly comes and goes...in fact equipment might even be better served as a series of index cards.

However, for abilities it seems to mesh with the ideas I've been aiming for. Every culture, every career, and various other elements of the character offer the potential to learn a small range of abilities from the 80 (or more) on offer. So characters don't automatically know the abilities associated with these elements of the character, they're just potentially available. I'm thinking that it should be common practice that players pencil in the available ability aspects associated with their character's features, then they ink in selections from those options once they've spent the experience points, or completed the necessary tasks to permanently link to the bonus. 

Here's a sample from the table I'm working with at the moment.

Wayfarer	Awareness, Dream-Lore, Etiquette, Investigation, Occult, Performance, Ritual
Weaver (Traditional crafter)	Crafting, Gathering, Herbalism, History, Jury-Rig, Performance, Woodcrafting
Wheels (Driver)	Drive, Focus, Instincts, Piloting, Reflexes, Sailing, Technology

Every character is a wayfarer, so they'll all pencil in the seven ability aspects associated with that career. However, a wayfarer who spent times as a traditional weaver (probably from one of the Neo-Tribal groups) will have a different range of abilities and knowledges to one who spent time as a driver along the highways with a Nomad convoy. In each case there's another possible 7 ability aspects, but there will probably be some overlap with certain cultures tending to have skills associated with the careers that are stereotypically linked to them. A character with a wide spread of aspects might have 21 (or more) available to them, while a tightly focused and stereotypical/caricature character might only have 10 or so. Within these options, most characters will start with around half a dozen ability aspects. 

This means that players will have on average about 15 different ability aspects pencilled in on their sheets, and these will function as a "unique" upgrade path for each character. 

Any time a character uses one of their pencilled ability aspects, they don't gain a bonus from it. But if they roll a near-success result, they could choose to learn something about the ability instead. They declare which ability related to the task gets the potential upgrade (by underlining it), and over the course of a session they might end up with a few underlines. At the end of a session, when experience points are spent, they might ink in the ability, then erase the pencil and underline. I'm still working out the best way to deal with character development, but this feels on the right track because it improves things that are used in play, and pushes players to try new things with their characters.