The Ongoing Campaign

As the game progresses, so characters get the opportunity to improve themselves. The rate and method of improvement depends greatly on the style of campaign.

There are two ways to improve skills. The first is through experience during the game. Skills which have been used will improve, and players may have the option to improve other skills as well through points gained for role playing bonuses.

The second way is through training and study. This requires a suitable period of 'down time' between adventures, and may be less emphasised in more heroic campaigns.

Distribution of Attributes

The Introduction gives a rough guide to the distribution of high attributes. One thing to keep in mind is that high attributes will tend to appear more common in modern or high technology settings where the populations are much larger. In a fantasy or medieval setting, where the total population of the campaign area might be a few million, there might be one person with an intelligence of seven. The chances are that they are a peasant who will get no opportunity to do anything useful with that intelligence.

Experience

Experience is gained during an adventure. The amount depends on how quickly the GM wants characters to advance.

Experience can be assigned to specific skills, or can be open, allowing the player to place them as desired. It is suggested that three to five skills are given a point of experience - those skills which have been used extensively are likely candidates. However, skills in which a character has a score of zero should also be granted experience if they have been used.

For high skills, those above five, experience should only be awarded if the skill has been used in a way that stretched the character's knowledge. A character with a weapon skill of 10, who fought a few peasants, probably didn't learn anything new.

Finally, from zero to two experience should be awarded for roleplaying, and goal achievement. This experience can be placed by the player, on any skills or attributes they may have had an opportunity to improve (either through use, or practise in the odd spare moment).

Study

Generally, once an adventure has been completed, the characters will not rush directly into the next one. Time will be spent healing, resting and generally being 'normal'. This time, which may range from a few days to several months (or even years) can also be usefully spent in training and study.

There are three ways of improving skills during this down time. The first way is through self development. This is cheap and easy, but there are limits how much someone can learn by themselves. The second method is to find someone willing to teach the skill. This can be expensive, since the teacher's time will have to be bought. The third way is to read from books. Only knowledges can be learnt this way, but it can be much cheaper than personal tuition.

Self Development

If a character wishes to spend time by himself trying to improve a skill, then they may do so, as long as there is a realistic chance of being able to improve this way. It is not possible to just sit down and learn Ancient History for example, without some source to study from. Likewise, learning to swim in the middle of a desert could be tricky.

Most physical skills can be learnt through self development. Craft skills may be learnt if the right tools and raw materials are at hand to practise with.

Current skill	Target
0 - 1	10
2 - 3	15
4 - 5	20
6 - 8	25
9 - 11	30
12 - 14	35
15 - 17	40
18+	50

Each week spent in individual study gives a roll to gain experience. The Experience from Study table shows the target difficulties required to gain one experience point on the skill being learnt. The higher the skill, the harder it is to improve (as well as being more costly).

The roll that is made is intelligence x 2 + 1d20, plus any modifiers for various advantages or disadvantages the character may have.

Fast Learning

It may be possible, under some circumstances, to pick up the basics of a skill very quickly. If a character has a skill of zero, and it's a relatively simple skill, and the GM allows, a character can gain one experience point after a single day, or even evening, of study.

Weapon skills can be learnt this way, as could riding. Blacksmithing could not.

Studying under a Teacher

While individual study and training is possible, it is generally quicker to find someone who knows more, and persuade them to teach their skills. However, this can be expensive, plus just because someone knows a skill, doesn't mean they know how to teach it well.

Teachers (and, as it happens, all sources of knowledge) have a quality. The quality is what multiplies the student's intelligence when making an experience gain roll. When studying alone, the quality is effectively two. Obviously, any teacher who provides a quality less than three is worse than self-study, if the skill can be self taught.

Cha x Teach	Quality
0	0
5	1
10	2
15	3
20	4
30	5
40	6
50	7
65	8
80	9

To be any good, a potential teacher needs to have the teach skill. Combined with empathy, this gives the teacher's quality, according to the Teacher Quality table. No roll is involved for this.

A teacher can only teach a student if the teacher's skill is higher than that of the student. Any 'left over' experience is ignored.

Learning Knowledges

Knowledges can be taught at a faster rate than other skills, especially at the lower levels of skill. For every 10 points above the target difficulty for gaining experience, a further point of experience is gained.

Teaching Multiple Students

It is possible for a teacher to teach multiple students at a time. Each doubling of the number of students reduces the quality of the study by one however. So, 2-3 students would reduce the quality by one, 4 - 7 students by three and so on.

Learning from Books

Studying from a book is similar to study under a teacher. The book has a quality, which rates how quickly knowledge is improved, and also a level, which limits which skill level can be obtained. Books, though cheaper than hiring a teacher full time, are limited to only being able to teach knowledges.

Each book is written about a single subject (skill), for a certain level of student. A book about obscure magical theory may be invaluable to an archmage, but quite incomprehensible to a young apprentice.

As before, the quality gives the intelligence multiplier for the experience gain roll, and one roll is allowed for each week of study with the book. However, the book quality is modified by the difference between the level of the book, and the skill level of the student. Every point of difference gives a -2 penalty to the quality of the book.

Writing Books

In order for a book to exist for it to be learnt from, a book needs to be written. Anyone with knowledge of a subject can write a book on that subject, but a skill in Author is needed for the book to be comprehensible. As with the Teach skill, this gives the quality of the work.

The level of the book is chosen by the author, up to a maximum level of the authors skill score - 3. It takes one week to write a book of level 1 or less. It takes 3 weeks for a level 2 book, 6 weeks for a level 3 book and so on. Books of high level are extremely rare.

Note that this time to write a book assumes lack of modern writing aids such as word processors and the like. Such things can greatly help how quickly a book can be written.

Unfinished Works

If an author stops writing a book before it is finished, then the book has a level equal to that possible to have achieved in the time spent so far. The quality of the book is dimished however. Each two levels short (or part) the book is from the original planned level, the quality is reduced by 1.

Rushed Works

It is possible to rush a work, though it will be of lower quality. If the quality is reduced by one, the book is finished in three quarters the usual time. Reducing the quality by two, will finish the book in half the time. Fractions of a week my be converted into days, or rounded to the nearest number of weeks (minimum one), depending on the style of the campaign.

Developing Attributes

Attributes can be raised with experience at three times normal cost. To raise an attribute from four to five would cost 15 experience points.

Attributes can also be raised with study and training. A whole month of training is required in order to improve an attribute. Training may involve physical exercise, practising skills based on the attribute, or reading. Whether the character has suitable access to training materials is up to the GM. Training intelligence for example might require access to books to improve general knowledge, as well as meditation and mental exercises to improve recall and problem solving.

For all attributes other than Will, the character must make a will check at the end of the month against a difficulty of 5 * current level. If it is successful, the attribute gains one experience towards it (remember it is still at three times cost).

For improving Will, use the lowest of empathy and intelligence, against the same difficulty.

Size cannot be raised by either training or experience. Luck may be raised with experience points, but not through study or training.

Time and Travel

Time within the game can pass quicker or slower than real time. Where combat is concerned, time is measured in rounds (each approximately six seconds long). Where long distance travel is concerned, time is measured in either days, or watches, depending on how detailed the GM wants to be. A watch is equivalent to about 4 hours.