New Skills & Spells (Advanced Rules)

When a character advances a level, they receive several skill slots.  Spending one slot will enable the character to learn a new skill at the base percentage.  Spending a second slot will allow that character to also increase that skill by one increment (+ 3/4/5).  

Tutors, while often expensive & hard to locate, can improve a students' ability to learn dramatically.  Skills taught by a tutor (or individual w/ the skill & Teaching) may have a bonus once the skill is learned.  Any tutor may roll a Teaching skill attempt after spending the allotted time needed to learn the skill with the student.  A successful Teaching roll will grant a bonus of 1/10th the Teaching skill to the student's base skill.  A critical success will grant the 1/10th bonus to both the base skill and the value to determine the new letter code of the skill.  A critical failure will increase the learning time of the student by an additional 1/2.

Some skills however take more time to learn than others.  In the Core Rules it is presumed that the character is spending some of his non-adventuring time learning those new skills all during the previous level.  These advanced rules do not presume that.  Some skills require longer to learn than others.  GMs may allow tutors or special game related events to reduce or eliminate study times for certain skills.  Logic and consistency are required for such special occurrences.

Simple Skills

The simplest and most common skills are those that most people learn as children.  They are the skills most commonly used with the appropriate attribute Defaults.  Simple skills require only one week of study to learn (6 days).  Simple skills may be learned while traveling without penalty.  Only when actually adventuring or otherwise fully occupied can a character not continue to learn the skill.  Simple skills will never lose their study time due to time between study periods as will Moderate or Difficult skills.

Moderate Skills

Requires two full weeks (12 days) of constant ten to twelve hours study.  Any serious distractions during a day of study will reduce that day of study to a half-day.  Combat, serious negotiations, or traveling counts as a serious distraction.  It requires four full weeks of half study days to learn while traveling on a boat, wagon, or with other business.  The GM may determine that the distraction was enough to fully negate the day's study.  Adventuring, travel by foot or horseback, or other events may cause said distraction.  The days of study may be separated by up to a week (6 days) before the accrued study time is reduced by one day.  Every three days thereafter will reduce the study time by one day.

All skills except those listed as Simple or Difficult fall under the Moderate Level.  

Additional Spells in Known Arkana

Each additional spell requires one full week of study to learn (6 days).  They follow all of the rules for distractions and half days that apply to Moderate skills.  At the end of the study period, the spell caster must roll a Learn Spell attempt with all of the appropriate modifiers.

Learning a Single Spell w/o Arkana

After creation, a single spell requires three weeks of study and a successful Knowledge default roll to learn.  A critical success of this Knowledge default check will result in a mere two weeks of study.  A critical failure means that the spell is forever beyond the understanding of the character unless he learns the full Arkana later.  The base skill and the letter code for the new spell skill are determined normally.  More info on Single Spell Rules

Difficult Skills

The most difficult and time consuming of all skills to learn.  Learning the first Arkana or School of Magic is always more difficult to learn along with any skill that requires more than one skill slot to learn.  For every skill slot to purchase, the skill requires 2 months (60 days) of constant study.  The exact effects of activities and loss of study are identical to those of Moderate Skills.

© 2000 J. K. Wykowski & T. Coonrod