Experiences - Optimization and Creation

To preface; I recently killed my partner’s character (she got really into the Risk it All Death Move- RIP) and she is now making a new character. This was our groups first campaign, and everyone in the party has what I would consider some overlap between their own experiences. (Ex.: No One Left Behind, I’ve Got Your Back, Stronger in Tandem, and I’ll Be There all on the same character).

As we built out her new character together, she almost fell into the same pattern: Experiences that would likely be used in similar situations. Working together we decided to think ahead on what situations and traits the experiences would commonly be used for. We settled on an experience that easily applied in combat to attacks/spells, an experience that easily applied to Knowledge based action rolls regarding her niche interest, and an experience (a fun quote) that would apply in situations where she would be interacting with npcs and using Presence. As we are Level 5, she had one more experience to make at +2, and she kept coming up with experiences that could likely fall under the others we had already made. My recommendation was to either create an experience that would broaden the types of actions she could make and still be successful if they came up (forest stalker, Herb-ie fully loaded, homesteader) or, to create an experience that might be easily applicable to things like reaction rolls (light on your feet, mind like a steel trap, etc.). We did ultimately find something she was interested in and that wasn’t easily falling under the umbrellas of her other experiences, but it got me thinking: What is the best way to create and choose your experiences in DH?

At Level 1, my recommendation has been picking something that you want to be good at and picking something that could be applicable for you in combat. Experiences are incredibly broad and players are the ultimate decider of whether or not the experience applies: So how do you decide what to take for your characters? Are there specific aspects you try and hit? Once you’ve hit your character concept through a few of them, how do you decide on what other experiences to take while making sure there isn’t a ton of overlap between your choices?