Skill Guide

The Skill system, with each skill placed into an overarching category, places an emphasis on mastery over specific cognitive, arcane or physical fields. It removes the need to level “stat skills” like strength or dexterity and instead offers an organic progression through each overarching category. As an example, as one develops and masters more skills in the 'Strength' tree, they will find themselves becoming stronger and more enduring, as well as more easily familiar with new skills of that type.

The Categories

Though there are many categories, they are best interpreted from the lens of the skill the character is using; generally, all categories are foundational and build towards an overall familiarity to skills within their respective trees.

Strength: Strength is, simply, strength. It is physical strength; the overall force one can command with their body, modified by their weight, size and circumstance. Strength applies to nearly all physical actions in some way, and greater heights within this statistic offer improved volume of strength as well as control. On top of pure physical mastery, strength provides one with the most obvious fundamentals of endurance such as the durability of their body and muscles, as well as improved stamina.

Dexterity: Dexterity augments one's reflexes, precision, reaction time, the nimbleness of their movements and the general alacrity of the hands. It can apply to all skills in this way, but generally is specifically tied to rogue-like skills that test the reflexive coordination and grace of the individual in question.

Intelligence: Intelligence is, literally, the intelligence of the character. As it is acquired by mastering skills involving knowledge and understanding of the world and the people, plants, animals and other things within it, intellect is truly what the name implies.

Perception: Perception improves upon a character's ability to perceive the world around them, in a variety of different ways. It offers one improved awareness of their surroundings as well as the ability to piece together audible, visible and somatic cues more quickly and clearly. Some would say it is the ability to master the senses, though even this is a fairly banal method of description.

Arcana: Arcana is the overall mastery a character has over the arcane, and it is acquired through the mastery of Runic magics over time. This improves the character's basic rudimentary understanding of magic as a whole, almost acting as a sixth sense. This can improve one's overall magical stamina over time, as well as menially reducing the risks when introducing one to new magics or abilities.

Craft: Craft is one's overall ability to craft things skillfully, as well as pick up new crafts with greater ease and understanding. It augments one's ability to craft efficiently and speedily, as well as tying in multiple crafting skills together to create exceptional constructs.

Science: Science is the overarching skill regarding one's knowledge of the world around them and the elements that compose it, as well as how to interact with those elements. As one becomes more skilled in science, they can begin to interact with scientific enigma and earthly anomalies with an initially greater level of understanding, capable of quickly determining theories and testing them against the basic standards of fact they have acquired amidst their studies.

Charisma: Charisma is one's overall ability to persuade and socialize with others, whether for the sake of business, pleasure or anything in-between. Charisma seeks into nearly everything in which conversation plays a part.

Mercantilism: Mercantilism is not just one's ability to effectively trade, but it is the overall ability one has to pick up lucrative and practical life-skills. It is the skill of a business-owner as much as a famed cook, and overall affects one's ability to effectively acquire money and other resources.

Artistry: One's overall artistic talent, applying to all of their musical or aesthetic endeavors across fields.

Skill Progression

All skills have experience points, ranging from zero as a base-line towards the maximum of a hundred, achievable only by true masters of a skill. In order to acquire experience points one must submit a completed thread - whether a solo or a collaborative thread - and have it be reviewed and rewarded points as a result.

The numerical system is as follows:

Tiers

• Total Points Per Skill: 100
• 0-24, Novice
• 25-49, Apprentice
• 50-74, Journeyman
• 75-99, Expert
• 100, Master

Explaining Tiers

At each tier of mastery, from Novice to Master, the character can be considered to be fairly more skilled as they progress. With Novice beginning as the base-line, where most individuals can pick up a skill and express mastery of it to this level, Apprentices display a particular invested knowledge in this skill that can be demonstrated by their competent performance. This trend continues incrementally towards Master where the individual can demonstrate near-perfect knowledge and acute performance of this ability far beyond the level of their peers. What these tiers may look like precisely varies skill-by-skill, and can be determined by the skill write-up, or the logical progression of how the skill may exist within the world’s lore if a skill write-up is not complete.

It should be noted that no matter how high a character’s mastery in a skill, they will not be able to ignore the lore constraints of the skill in question; for example, a master doctor may not act as if they are equipped with modern medical technology or are capable of single-handedly curing incurable illnesses. While growth in a skill is encouraged, characters are not allowed to use ‘mastery’ as a ticket to breaking the lore of a skill or performing utterly illogical acts.

Rewards

• Having a Solo Reviewed: 5 XP
• Having a Collaborative Thread Reviewed: 8 XP
• Having a Moderated Collaborative Thread Reviewed: 10 XP
• If a solo is Mod-bombed (single reply): 8 XP

These may be distributed among any and all skills freely, though in order to spend XP on magical abilities, one must be specifically awarded magic XP in the grade.

There are also lore requirements in order to progress to any tier beyond Novice. Lores are rewarded via reviewed thread approval, and may be utilized to progress further in a skill’s tiers once given.

Long Collaboration Rewards

Any player who has achieved more than 4,000 words in a collaborative thread is entitled to 12 XP, rather than 8. For more than 6,000 words, they are entitled to 16 XP, rather than 12. Please specify this in your review request, and post your wordcount. Your wordcount should be calculated using the official wordcount that the site uses, at the bottom of your posts. A moderated thread where one achieves more than 6,000 words is eligible for up to 20 XP rather than 16, as per the mod's discretion. This rule was instituted on 9/21/2020, and was updated on 10/24/2020. Any thread reviewed prior to this is not eligible for updated rewards. You may not acquire more than 10 XP for magic in any given thread, no matter how long it is. You cannot achieve 10 XP in two magics either; a maximum of 10 XP may be given [total] to all magics from any given thread. Reviewers be aware.

Lore Requirements

• Novice: 0
• Apprentice: 10
• Journeyman: 20
• Expert: 30
• Master: 45

Lore Rewards

• Solo - 6 Skill Lores
• Collaboration - 8 Skill Lores

Special circumstances may apply, particularly in modded threads, that may result in the reviewer offering special additional lores. Additionally, in collaborative threads one may apply for ten lores if they reach five posts each within the thread, and one additional lore per post afterwards.

The Trees

Strength	Dexterity	Intelligence	Perception	Arcana	Craft	Science	Charisma	Mercantilism	Artistry
Blades	Acrobatics	Spycraft	Appraisal	Squall	Smithing	Physics	Negotiation	Business	Drawing
Axes	Stealth	Cryptography	Investigation	Oath	Carpentry	Medicine	Rhetoric	Finance	Painting
Polearms	Ranged Weaponry	Linguistics	Deception	Summoning	Ceramics	Apothecary	Persuasion	Fishing	Singing
Blunt Weaponry	Gunslinging	Teaching	Meditation	Resonance	Trapmaking	Poison	Seduction	Animal Husbandry	Instrumentals
Unarmed Combat	Thrown Weaponry	Logistics	Interrogation	Blood Magic	Construction	Chemistry	Storytelling	Animal Handling	Sculpting
Shields	Larceny	Tactics	Torture	Chronomancy	Glassblowing	Mathmatics	Leadership	Botany	Cosmetology
Bodybuilding	Climbing	Cartography	Hunting	Bane	Leatherworking	Engineering	Etiquette	Agriculture	Design
Flight	Dancing	Psychology	Navigation	Mentalism	Alchemy	Clockwork	Intimidation	Jewelsmithing	Writing
Running	Disguise	Sociology	Survival	Remnant	Artificing	Biology	Acting	Mining	Calligraphy
Swimming	Mount	Law	Seafaring	Malformity	Necromancy	Architecture	---	Tailoring	---
---	---	Politics	Gambling	Eminence	Astronomy	---	Cooking	---
---	---	Research	---	Sigilic Pyromancy	---	---	---	Brewing	---
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