Training

What is a story within the Dragon Universe without training? Refining oneself through pushing themselves to the limit, gaining greater strength, and then showing it off is quintessential to the Dragon Ball experience.

Training

Training in DBU is usually an activity that is engaged in for prolonged periods while outside of combat, but it can come in many forms. Training can be physical exercise, practice with skills, refinement of Techniques/Transformations, or otherwise.

When engaging in training, there are various rewards you can give to your players. You should consider giving more rewards in relation to the narrative importance and factors influencing their training (such as gravity and the influence of a mentor). These are potential benefits from training:

• Power Levels are the safest bet. They show a general increase in power and skill.
• Transformations. They may be awoken by training, or given as a reward for overcoming challenges. Results of Training is a great Awakening to give if the Character isn’t training for any particular new Transformation.
• Mastery, to show time spent refining a Transformation.
• Gravity Acclimatization, typically done during training at high gravities.
• Signature Techniques or the creation of a Dramatic Finisher.

There is another type of benefit you can give, however, achieved through risk: Training Bonuses.

Training Bonuses

When players are engaging in training, give them various Challenges. These Challenges may require Skill Checks, but more often than not they should make use of Attribute Checks.

Among normal Challenges, there are Training Challenges. They are usually done at the end of a variety of Challenges, with the previous Challenges measuring up the final difficulty of a Training Challenge. After completing a Training Challenge, players should be rewarded regardless of if they succeed or fail with the intended benefit of the training. At this point, the Training Challenge is about ‘sticking the landing’, but their efforts to this point have brought them to reach the climax of their training. Instead, succeeding at a Training Challenge can grant a Training Bonus, and failing can apply a Training Penalty.

Training Bonuses. Training Bonuses are small bonuses that will last for the duration of your next Combat Encounter, typically to represent the dramatic results of your training. Your ARC will decide what Training Bonus is the most fitting for the scenario, but they can come in various forms:

• Dynamic. It can be more fun and interesting to give a bonus that fits directly the forms of training gained here. It should be a bonus of similar importance to those below.
• Energized. Increase your Surgency by 2(T) and you may use the Surge Maneuver an additional time during this Combat Encounter.
• Training Power. Increase your Combat Rolls and Soak Value by 1(bT).
• Transformation Power. Increase your Stress Bonus by 2. Additionally, increase your Combat Rolls by 1(bT) while you are in a Transformation you gained during Training.

Training Penalties. Training Penalties are small penalties that come from overtraining, mistakes made while training, and not properly resting. They last for the duration of your next Combat Encounter, but if you use the Rest Adventuring Maneuver beforehand, then you lose any Training Penalties you would be suffering from. They can come in various forms:

• Dynamic. It can be more interesting to give a penalty that suits specifically the problems arising from that instance of training. It should be a penalty of similar importance to those below.
• Exhausted. The Character gains a stack of the Fatigued Combat Condition they cannot remove through any means.
• Injured. Set your Maximum Life Points to 3/4 of their usual value.
• Overly Stressed. Reduce your Stress Bonus by 2.

Training Influence

Sometimes, people will be training under the guidance of a mentor figure or another Character that is leading them in a certain direction. In these instances, you may be choosing specifically what players are trying to learn themselves. Do make players aware, however, that by training under a certain teacher, they will have less choice in how their training plays out.

You can reward this by granting this mentor’s Signature Techniques or potentially even Unique Abilities or Transformations that you would normally limit within your setting. A great example of this is the Spirit Bomb and Kaioken, taught by King Kai.

Downtime

Long periods of time, usually measured in months, that can occur between arcs of your campaign are usually met with the idea of Downtime. During this, you can have Characters change up their builds (see — Style Change), or have them spend time to ‘catch up’. If one Character was obviously stronger than the others at the end of a story arc, you can have other Characters gain Transformations, Mastery, Power Levels, so that they feel equal and ready to take on the next arc of your story. It may feel a little anticlimactic, but it’s a good chance to review the balance of strength between your players and make sure that everyone is able to feel just as important as each other.