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 an improved volume of strength as well as control.

Endurance: Endurance is, obviously, the capacity for the character to endure things. It is improved by mastering skills that allow one to survive harsh conditions, building up tolerances against a plethora of things, even the improvement of stamina for longer periods of physical activity.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Combat: Combat emphasizes the prowess and mastery of the character’s control over weaponry, and the refinement of their techniques in battle. Warriors and fighters refine their combat abilities to provide them a greater edge in battle, particularly when they specialize in an area of weaponry and display a mastery of it.

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.

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

Biology: Biology encompasses the study and care of living organisms, and enhances a character’s effectiveness in the field when it comes to interacting with them. Biology provides a character with the knowledge and insight on how to effectively aid or even raise wildlife, as well as the capacity to study and practice medical procedures to help others in need.

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.

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.

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: 8 XP
• Having a Collaborative Thread Reviewed: 10 XP
• Having a Moderated Collaborative Thread Reviewed: 15 XP
• If a solo is Mod-bombed (single reply): 12 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.

Lore Requirements

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

Lore Rewards

• Solo - 6 Skill Lores
• Collaboration - 8 Skill Lores
• Collaboration - 10 Skill Lores (if 5 posts reached in single thread)

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.

Assigning Skill Lores

Once a lore total has been assigned by a reviewer or a moderator, the player is free to assign their accumulated lores into whatever skill they desire. The only restriction is in regard to knowledge that may be considered privileged or secret. If there are questions concerning what constitutes such knowledge, seek clarification in either the Help Desk or with a member of the forum staff.

Lore Branches

There are several skills within the table that are umbrella skills, as they cover a broad range of aspects within them that further enhances them. These skills are mainly those under the Combat tree, but Riding is also another that applies to the pool as well. To make it easier to determine what kind of lore they should ask for, you can find a list of examples below to help.

Combat

• One-Handed: Blades
• One-Handed: Blunts
• One-Handed: Axes
• One-Handed: Shields
• Two-Handed: Blades
• Two-Handed: Blunts
• Two-Handed: Axes
• Two-Handed: Polearms (Staves, Spears, etc)
• Ranged: Archery (Bows & Crossbows)
• Ranged: Gunslinging (Guns & Rifles)
• Ranged: Melee (Chains, Whips, etc)
• Ranged: Thrown (Daggers, Shurikens, etc)
• Unarmed: Style (Brawling, etc)

Riding

• Riding: Terrestrial
• Riding: Marine
• Riding: Aviary

The Trees

Strength	Endurance	Intelligence	Dexterity	Perception	Charisma	Combat	Arcana	Artistry	Biology	Craft	Mercantilism
Bodybuilding	Flight	Architecture	Acrobatics	Appraisal	Caregiving	One-Handed	Affliction	Acting	Animal Handling	Basket Weaving	Agriculture
Climbing	Resistance	Astronomy	Juggling	Detection	Deception	Two-Handed	Alchemy	Calligraphy	Animal Husbandry	Carpentry	Baking
Mining	Riding	Chemistry	Lock Picking	Disguise	Etiquette	Ranged	Animus	Cartography	Botany	Candlemaking	Bookbinding
Seafaring	Running	Clockwork	Pick Pocketing	Divination	Interrogation	Unarmed	Artificing	Cosmetology	Ecology	Fletching	Brewing
	Survival	Cryptography	Stealth	Gambling	Intimidation		Elementalism	Dancing	Falconry	Forgery	Business
	Swimming	Engineering		Geology	Leadership		Kinetics	Drawing	Medicine	Gadgeteering	Butchering
		Finance		Investigation	Linguistics		Masquerade	Instrumentals	Surgery	Glassblowing	Cooking
		Logistics		Navigation	Negotiation		Meditation	Painting	Zoology	Jewelsmithing	Fishing
		Mathmatics		Psychology	Persuasion		Mesmer	Singing		Leatherworking	Hunting
		Physics		Tracking	Politics		Necromancy	Writing		Sculpting	Mixology
		Research			Rhetoric		Negation			Ship Building	Poison
		Spycraft			Seduction		Reaving			Shoemaking	Printmaking
		Tactics			Storytelling		Runeforging			Smithing	Tailoring
		Torture					Scrivening			Tanning	Teaching
							Semblance			Trap Making	Vinting
							Summoning			Woodworking
							Transposition