Character Death

In the event that one of your characters dies, you can transfer 1/2 their total XP (spent) to your next character of that type - i.e., the XP of your dead mortal can only be used for your next mortal, the XP of your dead Terrestrial can only be used for your next Terrestrial, and so on. 100% of your unspent XP transfers over to your next PC, however.

Retirement

You can also retire a character before their death to use them for XP.  This removes them from play.  Sometimes, with the player's consent, a retired character might become an important NPC. Such NPC's are not protected from death, but the ST's may consult their original player for guidance on how they might act under durance.

Taking Characters Out Of Retirement

If you retire a character and realize that you're having less fun with your new character than you were with your old one, you can retire your new character instead and take up your old one. You can't ever have more than one character retired 'on deck' at a time; if you retire your current character and make a new one instead of taking up your old one, either your old character or your current character is gone for good. You don't retain any of the XP you gained since the old character was retired, but neither does the old character lose XP.

Putting Characters Back In To Retirement

No problem, but realize you can only have one current character and one retired character per slot.

Retirement Illustrated

Let's briefly provide an example of how this system might work.

Peter makes his new character, Stan Solar. Player Peter has never retired a character before.

Peter retires Stan Solar to make his new character, Larry Lunar. Right now, Stan Solar is 'on deck', and Peter is playing Larry Lunar.

Peter retires Larry Lunar to make his new character, Sidereal Steve. Peter must decide whether to keep Larry Lunar or Stan Solar 'on deck'. He chooses Stan Solar, and Larry Lunar can't be brought out of retirement. Larry Lunar is gone for-ever. Now Peter is playing Sidereal Steve and Stan Solar is 'on deck'.

Peter brings Stan Solar out of retirement, and puts Sidereal Steve 'on deck'. Now Peter is playing Stan Solar and Sidereal Steve is 'on deck'.

Peter decides that Stan Solar was boring after all, and retires Stan Solar, bringing Sidereal Steve out of retirement. Stan Solar goes back to being 'on deck'.