I saw this same kind of question in the discord so I though I share the answer
Ron Chon:great question! yes, and they already have an XP and level tracking system!
as some of you all know by now, I'm a big fan of party progression/management mechanics (2000s and early 2010s Bioware games come to mind as big influences). a big growth area for TNH are the various gameplay loops that make up daily activity around the mansion, and I'm of the opinion that one of the most potent ways the dev team can make these loops more interesting is through the perk system. we already have a bunch of ideas, many of them directly and indirectly inspired by the community, for some cool perks for the MC - and it feels like yet another opportunity to reward your relationship building with the game's characters to have them have perks and progression trees as well!
one of the central experiences we want players to have is not only getting to know the X-Men, but becoming a part of the team and (spoiler!) eventually growing into a team leader. molding your team and its members, whether you're in a relationship with them or not, is going to be a key aspect of that experience. core mechanisms for that "party influence" system are already in place in the background, and you can expect more explicit and direct mechanisms to appear in future game versions, like character-specific perks