Advancing Characters

As characters go about their adventures they will grow and change. They and their players will learn more about themselves and the world in which they exist. Their perceptions and believes about life and the universe may grow and change. But innate characteristics and abilities of a character can change as well. A hero will learn new skills, improve those he already knows. He can grow stronger, quicker, even healthier with exercise and exertion. Or even grow slower and weaker but wiser and more insightful with age.

Some of these changes will be noted solely by the group, the player and the game master. The manner in which the character acts and the choices he makes will alter leading to different adventures. Other changes, physical and metaphysical ones must be additionally represented by the rules and the character sheet.

NUMBER OF SKILL CHECKS
After each adventure players have the opportunity to increase their character’s skill levels and gain new skills. The GM determines how hard the character worked, how much of an effort he put forth during the adventure. This determines the number of skill checks the character receives. The more a character pushes himself, the more opportunities he has to learn and improve. Consult the chart below:

Effort Skill checks
Very little work 0
Some work 1
Hard work 3
Very difficult 6
Long and tiring 8 or 1 attribute

For each skill check a character earns, the player chooses a skill he would like to improve. The skill must be either one that the character had an opportunity to use during the adventure or could reasonably be expected to improve, or one that the character doesn’t have on his character sheet but based on his background could be considered “missing.”

For instance, Devon and Enris the barbarian wizard are traveling together by sea. The sea trip took three months to accomplish, but no time was spent role-playing the trip. Even so, at the end of the adventure either character should be able to gain or improve their sailing skill having plenty of opportunity to improve it during the voyage. If, however, Enris spent a month wandering the northernmost wastelands encountering only deadly monsters and spawn of the gods, he should not have the opportunity to improve, say, diplomacy. But if he traveled in the company of Devon who spent time telling tales of the Queen’s Court then he may take an improvement check with Devon serving as his teacher (see below).

Likewise, Devon may have grown up in a military culture and entered the army at a young age. When his player made the character he didn’t have the cards or the points to take the skill strategy. But he is able to convince his GM that it is reasonable that Devon would have picked some up while in the service. So, the GM rules that it is a “missing skill” and allows the player to take a skill check.

The player makes a list of skills he wishes to check. He may list a skill multiple times to get a better chance of improving it, but any one skill can only be improved once per adventure. A player may also save up his skill checks to use them later or to try to improve an attribute. If a character has eight skill checks, he may instead choose to try to improve one attribute.

THE IMPROVEMENT CHECK
To improve a skill or attribute, the player draws one card from his character deck. If the card is higher than the current level of the skill or attribute, the skill or attribute increases by one. If the card is equal to or lower than the current level there is no effect.

TRAINING
Characters may have opportunity to take large amounts of time to actually train to improve skills. A character that dedicates a month to training (approximately 150 hours of work time) may make a check to improve that skill. In this way, a character who trains for a whole eight months can also earn a chance to improve an attribute. If his training is interrupted for any significant amount of time (as determined by the GM) he must start anew. A character is likely to have more opportunities to improve a skill through adventuring than training. This is intended to reward characters who act, as oppose to those who passively study.

TEACHERS
A character may attempt to instruct other characters in a skill he has. At the end of a month’s training with a teacher, the teacher may attempt to provide a bonus to the student’s training check. First, the teacher makes an instruction skill check modified by his awareness and his level in the skill he is teaching. If the check is successful the student may draw an additional card during his improvement check.
Training with a teacher is the easiest way to gain new skills.

LEARNING NEW SKILLS
Ordinarily, new skills can only be gained by training with a teacher. However, if a character successfully uses a skill at default level during the course of an adventure the GM may allow him to make a check to see if the character gains that skill (increasing the skill level 2). This should only be allowed if the use of the skill was made at a significant moment in the adventure or reasonably would provide the character with some insight into the nature of the skill. Advanced skills, which can not be used through default, can never be learned in this way.