I.E.4. Skill Advancement

Characters may improve their skill levels and even acquire new skills through training and experience. The process is described below.

The first avenue for improvement and acquisition of new skills is training and instruction. A character trains in each skill separately, and a different Learning Point Total (LPT) and Skill Level (SL) are kept for each. A character may only train in skills in which suitable equipment and trainers are available. In general, characters will only be able to learn from each other while on the move and adventuring, and even then this study is limited to those skills for which they have proper equipment.

Learning is tracked on a monthly basis. At the end of each game month, each player may determine the amount of time his or her character has devoted to training, and find out how many Training Rolls he or she may attempt. The rules below are for when one entire month is spent training; if only a fraction of a month is available, then the number of learning points earned should be prorated.

If the character has a suitable instructor willing to train him, and the equipment is available, then the following restrictions must also be meet. The skill level of the trainer must exceed that of the trainee by the category number of the skill. The maximum number of students an instructor may have is given below is dependent of the category of skill and the instructor's teaching skill. An instructor's effective Teaching Skill Level is his Teaching Skill plus a quarter of his or her skill in the subject.

After a month of training, a character receives a number of Training Rolls equal to his or her Reason. This can be modified by the instructor's teaching characteristic, as shown below on Table I.E.4-1. (REA = student's Reason characteristic.)

Instructors are limited in the size of class they may teach, as is shown one Table I.E.4-2.

After the number of Training Rolls for a skill have been determined, the character rolls against his or her Mental Total with percentile dice. Every roll equal to or less than the character's Mental Total results in an additional Learning Point in said skill. When the learning points reach the next skill level total, then the character has achieved the next Skill Level.

A character may elect to train in more than one Skill during a given month. The player should simply decide how much time he will spend on each activity and prorate the number of Training Rolls he or she will receive for each. Also, characters who act as instructors receive only half their normal number of Training Rolls for any training they do on their own.

A character can improve his or her skills through practice, even if he or she is not working with a teacher. This is especially important if there is no one in the party with a skill. Each month that a character elects to do this type of training, he or she receives a number of Learning Rolls equal to his Reason divided by 4, in whatever skill he or she wishes. As with all training, appropriate equipment must be available.

The Game Master may choose to allow players to receive these roll even when they are not 'training', but are involved in certain tasks on a regular basis. Training of this sort is called On the Job Training. That is, if the character is spending the month traveling on foot through a forest, then the Game Master might determine that he should receive On the Job Training in Survival, Hiking, or something else applicable.

A character may also advance in skill level through actual experience in risky or unusual situations. Advancement through experience can be more rapid than through training, but it is certainly far more dangerous. In fact, danger is an important requirement for gaining Risk Points; to receive Risk Points, a character must extend his or her abilities beyond the normal limit in a crisis situation. A crisis situation is an event involving danger, where someone or something is depending on the character for help. Examples of crisis are combat, natural disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes, and any threat to the life of the character or a comrade. Risk is given in Learning Points, which may be applied immediately.

A character gains one Learning Point in a specific skill each time he or she successfully performs a feat which uses that Skill, and when the Base Odds minus the Effective Skill Level is greater than 10. For example, if a character had a needs a roll of 12 to stay on her mount, she would receive 1 Learning Point, if she was successful. If her the roll needed was 10 or lower, however, she would not receive a point, regardless of the number actually rolled. Remember, this feat must be performed in a crisis situation, where her actions put her at risk and are necessary for her own welfare, or that of others.

In a similar manner, critical successes using the skill during a crisis situation result in the automatic gain of a Learning Point. This represents the additional confidence and insight the character has gained. To gain a point from a critical success, the challenge need not have been overwhelming. This bonus may be combined with risk rewards.

Finally, a character may gain extra learning points in a skill by spending experience points on skills. The cost for each learning point is 5 experience points. The character may spend these points directly in any skill he or she already possesses, and assume that this is a reflection of practice, experience, and further insight during time not specifically detailed in the game. A character may not spend experience points in this manner if in doing so he or she would result in an experience point total lower than that allowed for his or her level. If the character wishes to purchase a new skill this way, then an additional 100 experience points must be spent in addition to the amount that will be spent for the learning points.