Is working towards a specific merit sufficient for a long term aspiration?

[ShadowcatX]

I was working on making a character and was wondering, the character, as is, doesn't meet the requirements for the merit, efficient killer. I was wondering if working towards that would be an acceptable long term aspiration? It's kind of meta, which I'm not thrilled with, but it does seem like it would give some good guidance, the character would have to seek out ways to increase both purity renown and medicine.

[Lorekeeper]

I wouldn't say it is, but an alternative could be getting something in-story that would justify your character having that merit later (e.g. wanting allies, could have the aspiration of "build connections in [x group]", or for resources, "get a promotion at work" or "get my drug problem fixed (so they aren't spending money on that instead)"). For efficient killer, perhaps the aspiration could be "complete a course in anatomy", which could justify getting medicine dots.

This way you can actually have multiple aspirations leading to the goal instead of one meta aspiration for achieving the goal. Something for medicine, then another aspiration relating to improving their Purity renown, and maybe another for applying their knowledge of medicine in killing someone/thing

[Father Enoch]

I'm going to be that guy and say it is. At the most, I'd ask for you to write it in Watsonian, or in-game terms. For example; describe gaining high ranks in Resources as "Build your fortune," or gaining Status in the Invictus as "Join the Inner Circle."

[Heavy Arms]

Eh, I don't see a reason to be all that picky about it. Considering the books let you have Aspirations that are not explicitly your character's desires (you can have an Aspiration for one of your Touchstones to be put at risk), there clearly isn't a requirement to be, as Enoch put it, Watsonian about it. The goal of Aspirations is to communicate to the ST stuff you want to have come up.

The important thing here for something like wanting to buy a Merit, is that you're asking to make it part of the story. Instead of just earning your Beats and spending your XP to get the Merit when you have enough banked, you're asking for your ST to make the learning part of the plots going on. That you want to play out finding a teacher, studying under them, etc. Or however the process goes.

That's the key part over whether you write yours in-character or not. It's if you want the process to be part of the story, and subject to the whims of play, vs. something you can buy along the way.

[lnodiv]

I wouldn't bat an eye at this at my table. I wouldn't even need it to be in in-game terms, since aspirations are an OOC mechanism.

[Satchel]

Add me to the side that says phrasing the Aspiration in pure mechanical terms is a bad move; the purpose of Aspirations is to set goals (aspirations, if you will) for yourself and the Storyteller as co-authors for the character's part in the story, and that means the Storyteller needs something to go off of as far as opportunities to present for moving toward those goals. Your aspiring ritual sorcerer isn't buying Merit dots or raising their Occult, they're studying ritual magic and having encounters with the supernatural.