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 Raw 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 the mage learns to endure their consequences with greater fortitude, to increase the efficiency of their ether conversions, 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.

Magical XP Rewards

See: Magic

"Learning magic, and as such XP rewards applicable to magic, are both based on wading into new things with that magic. This means mastering abilities that a mage is new or inexperienced with, fully grasping a concept in relationship to an ability, or pushing one's self into Overstepping in order to grasp their limitations. Because of this, Strain and verging on Overstepping are virtually required to truly progress in a magic. A PC attempting to master a magic should Overstep at least few times as they over-exert and fail to perform new abilities, suffering from Strain as they do so. Virtually all mages who seek to master a magic will wade into at least Light Mageblight, though more often Moderate depending on the haste with which they master it. If you are not incorporating this into play, you may be abusing the system, and can be considered for disciplinary action including your Magic XP acquired being revoked."

Restrictions on learning magic -- and where magical XP can be placed -- only apply to Raw Magic. While a mage learning Raw Magic must specifically explore that magic in order to acquire XP for it in a thread, World Mages may apply XP to their World Magic from any thread, and may ascend through the tiers so long as they have sufficient, requisite lores.

Lore Requirements

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

Lore Rewards

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

Note: These limits only apply to skill lores. Someone may select as many non-skill lores as they wish.

Additional 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.

World Magic Requirements

Lore requirements are different for World Magics. Apprentice requires 15 lores, Journeyman 30, Expert 45, and Master 65. This is due to the fact that World Magics are very powerful, and can be leveled without 'magic XP' from a thread.

Specific vs. Nonspecific Lores

Specific Lores are pieces of specific knowledge that you have in a skill that you wish to be able to reference from your character's sheet. These are optional, but apply to the skill tier requirement. Nonspecific Lores are generic lores that also apply to the overall tier requirement, without needing to be precise or uniquely named. As an example of these lores, including intermixed in a CS:

• Medicine: Suturing
• Medicine: Applying an antiseptic
• Medicine: Generic Lore 12
• Medicine: Generic Lore 13
• Medicine: Using a bone saw surgically
• Medicine: Generic Lore 14

In order to gain a nonspecific lore, you must use the skill. The amount of skill usage must be adequate to the amount of nonspecific lores gained. This means if you spent fifty words running to a tavern, you cannot apply for three running lores; instead, probably only one (if that). Abuse of this system will result in your lores being revoked, as well as potentially other penalties. The reviewer has the right to state that you did not sufficiently use the skill to acquire the number of lores you are requesting.

Additionally, specific uses of the skill are strongly encouraged and may yield more lores. Detailing your suturing may and will yield more lores than just stating that you're measuring a medicinal dose without any specific detail. Further, nonspecific lores for a singular/individual skill are limited to 3 per Solo Thread, and 5 per Collaborative Thread. PCs may begin with Nonspecific Lores, though we would encourage new PCs to use Specific Lores to help them in demonstrating their understanding of their starter skills.

All magical lores, for both Raw and World Magic, must be specific. No exceptions.

Word Count

A thread is generally considered invalid to be reviewed for any player who has not written at least 1500 words. If there are three players in a thread and only two have written at least 1500 words, then only those two will be reviewed. Occasionally, it is alright to dip below by a few hundred words (no less than a thousand), but this is the exception rather than the rule, and a reviewer may elect to refuse a player a grade without their word count being increased. It is entirely on the onus of the reviewer, though moderators may intervene if a player consistently writes and submits threads below the threshold.

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	---	Archaeology	---	Brewing	---
---	---	---	---	Brand	---	---	---	---	---