Character Development

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Your character will improve – or simply change – with time. The longer you play your character, the more opportunities you will have for such development.

Improvement Through Adventure

After each game session, the GM will award you "bonus" character points – the same kind of points you used to create your character. You may spend these points immediately to improve your character, or you can save them. You can save unspent points for as long as you like, but you should ignore them when you add up your character's point value.

The following rules apply when you spend bonus character points:

• To add a new trait with a positive point cost, pay points equal to the trait's usual point cost.
• To improve an existing trait that comes in levels, pay points equal to the difference in cost between the new level and the old level.
• To remove an existing trait with a negative point cost, pay points equal to the bonus originally earned when you took the trait.

In all cases, increase the point value of your character by the number of points spent. Some additional rules apply to specific classes of traits.

Traits Gained in Play

The GM may rule that you have suddenly acquired a new trait – most often an advantage or a disadvantage – as a consequence of events in the game: social interaction, combat, divine intervention, etc. This has nothing to do with bonus points!

When you acquire an advantage this way, write it on your character sheet and increase your point total by the value of the advantage. You do not have to pay for it with bonus points. For instance, if the GM rewards you with a 10-point Patron after you save the life of a powerful duke, your point value goes up by 10 points and the game goes on.

The GM may allow you to refuse such an advantage if your character could refuse it in the game world. You could refuse wealth, but if the gods granted you Magery, you wouldn't have much say in the matter! If you refuse an advantage, you do not get equivalent bonus points to spend on other things.

Similarly, when you acquire a disadvantage this way, just write it down and lower your point value accordingly. You do not get any extra points for it – that's just the breaks of the game! For instance, if you lose an arm in battle, add One Arm [-20] and reduce your point value by 20 points; you do not get 20 points of new abilities to compensate.

The GM may allow you to "buy off" a disadvantage acquired in play. Save up enough character points and then talk to the GM. If he is feeling merciful, he may arrange game-world events to eliminate the disadvantage.

Money

You may trade bonus character points for money – see Trading Points for Money. Each point is worth 10% of the campaign's average starting wealth. The GM should provide a suitable explanation for your windfall: tax refund, buried treasure, gambling winnings, etc. Be creative. A spy under cover as an athlete might earn the money through product endorsements!

Improving Attributes and Secondary Characteristics

For each level by which you wish to improve a basic attribute (ST, DX, IQ, or HT) or a secondary characteristic (HP, Will, Perception, FP, Basic Speed, or Basic Move), you must spend character points equal to the cost to raise that score by one level.

If you improve an attribute, secondary characteristics and skills based on that attribute improve as well. For instance, if you raise your HT by one, you gain 1 FP and 0.25 point of Basic Speed (which might in turn increase Basic Move), and all your HT-based skills go up by one!

Increases in ST do not affect height (except for a child), but if you wish, you may gain additional weight to go with higher ST.

Adding and Improving Social Traits

To improve social traits, you need an in-play justification in addition to the expenditure of sufficient points. Some examples:

Allies, Contacts, and Patrons: You must meet such NPCs during your adventures and earn their trust through your actions. You cannot hire true Allies, Contacts, or Patrons.

Clerical Investment, Legal Enforcement Powers, Rank, Security Clearance, Status, etc.: An individual in a position of relative authority must bestow such privileges. This might require a background check, qualification course, valor in combat, years of service, or a large bribe.

Reputation: You must earn this through deeds and works. You cannot buy a Reputation until you have done something to merit it!

Signature Gear: You must acquire a suitable item in the course of your adventures.

Tech Level: You can raise your personal TL (see Technology Level) by living in a society of a higher TL than your own – but only if you are free to attend that society's schools and benefit from its conveniences (being an alien abductee, prisoner, etc. doesn't count). The GM should consider limiting improvement to one TL per year of game time.

Wealth: To improve your Wealth, you must amass money equal to the starting wealth of the desired wealth level after paying any necessary bribes, taxes, etc.

Adding and Improving Mental and Physical Advantages

Most mental and physical advantages are inborn; you cannot buy them after character creation. However, there are some exceptions.

You can learn some advantages as if they were skills; see Learnable Advantages. If the GM feels that adventuring is as good as training to acquire such an advantage, you may buy it with bonus points.

Other advantages require extraordinary circumstances: divine revelation, ritual ordeal, etc. This is typical of Magery, Power Investiture, and True Faith. In addition to points, these traits require the GM's permission and suitable in-game events!

Of course, the GM can allow you to buy any advantage, if the results are in keeping with his vision of the game world. The GM may also challenge you to provide a good explanation (dramatic, logical, or both) for why he should let you buy a new advantage.

Buying Off Disadvantages

You can get rid of most beginning disadvantages by "buying them off" with character points equal to the bonus earned when you originally took the disadvantage. This generally requires a game-world justification in addition to the point expenditure.

Dependents: When you buy off Dependents, you or the GM should provide a game-world explanation of where they went – died, grew up,moved away, fell in love with someone else...

Enemies: If you wish to buy off Enemies, you must deal with them in the game world: kill them, jail them, bribe them, flee from them, make friends with them...whatever the GM deems necessary. You can never permanently dispose of Enemies unless you buy them off...they will return or new Enemies will appear in their place.

Mental Disadvantages and Odious Personal Habits: You may buy these off at their original bonus value. Assume that you simply got over your problem.

Physical Disadvantages: Your game world's tech level – and the supernatural powers available – determine the degree to which you can buy off these traits. Consider Hard of Hearing. At TL5 or less, you would have to settle for an ear trumpet. At TL6-8, you could buy a hearing aid that would solve your problem while worn, allowing you to apply a Mitigator limitation. At TL9+, surgery could fix the problem permanently. And in a fantasy world, the right wizard could cure you with a powerful Healing spell! The GM has the final say as to whether it is possible to remove a specific physical disadvantage...and if so, what the cost and time will be.

Social Stigma: You cannot get rid of this with points alone. You must either change your position in society or change your society. The GM will tell you when you have succeeded – at that time, you must pay enough points to buy off the original disadvantage.

Quick Learning Under Pressure

If you attempt a default skill roll in a stressful situation, you may try to acquire that skill during play, regardless of whether you succeeded or failed (you can learn from your mistakes!). The GM is the judge of whether a given situation qualifies as "stressful"; see Base Skill vs. Effective Skill for examples.

At the start of the next game session, make an IQ roll to see whether you learned from your experience. Eidetic Memory gives +5; Photographic Memory gives +10! On a success, you may spend one point earned during the previous session to learn the skill. If you have no points, you cannot learn the skill – and if you let more than one session go by, you lose the opportunity.

Obviously, if a skill has no default, you cannot learn it this way.

Adding and Improving Skills and Techniques

You can use bonus character points to increase your skills and techniques. Each point is the equivalent of 200 hours of learning. This is not to say that you found time to hit the books during your adventures – only that the genuine experience of an adventure can be equivalent to a much longer period of study.

You can only spend character points to improve skills or techniques that, in the GM's opinion, saw significant use in the adventure during which you earned the points. If the only thing you did on an adventure was trek through forests and slay monsters, you can only improve Hiking, Survival (Woodlands), and combat abilities.

When you improve a skill or a technique, the cost is the difference between the cost of the new level and the cost of your current level – see Improving Your Skills. You may only add a skill if you attempted a default roll (see Quick Learning Under Pressure) or if you spent most of the adventure around people who were constantly using the skill. For instance, a city boy on a forest trek with a group of skilled woodsmen could add Survival (Woodlands). You may add a technique if, during the adventure, you made significant use of the skill to which it defaults. In all cases, the GM has the final say.

Improvement Through Study

You may add or improve skills by spending time studying them, if an opportunity for study is available. In the discussion below, "skills" refers not only to ordinary skills, but also to spells, techniques, and even some advantages (see Learnable Advantages).

Improvement through study does not depend on earning bonus points. You could build a character, keep track of his age and income, and let him study for 40 game-years without ever bringing him into play. Of course, this would not be much fun...and things that happen during play can offer great opportunities for study. If you aid a master wizard, his gratitude might take the form of magic lessons!

Normally, it takes 200 hours of learning to gain one point in a skill. You may study any number of skills at once, but a given hour of time counts toward study of only one subject, unless the GM allows an exception.

Some forms of study are more effective than others. This means that an hour of study does not always equal an hour of learning – there is a "conversion factor" between the two. Some guidelines appear below.

Learning on the Job

If you have a job, time spent on the job counts as “study” of the skills used in the job. However, since most time on the job is spent doing what you already know, not learning new things, every four hours on the job count as one hour of learning. You may claim a maximum of eight hours on the job per day (four hours per day at a part-time job). Your actual work- ing hours may exceed this, but fatigue limits learning to this level. Thus, a year of full-time work will give you two to three points to spend on job- related skills.

Self-Teaching

You can teach yourself a skill, unless the skill description attaches specific conditions that would pre- clude this (such as “only taught by the military” or a prerequisite of Trained By A Master). Every two hours of reading, exercises, practice, etc. with- out an instructor count as one hour of learning. This must take place in time not used for adventuring, working, eating, sleeping, or taking care of per- sonal hygiene. The GM should limit self-teaching to 12 hours per day – or eight hours/day for those with part- time jobs, only four hours/day for those with full-time jobs.

Finding a Teacher

It is most efficient to learn new skills from a teacher. For some skills, finding a teacher is automatic; for others, it can be difficult. The GM should adjust availability to suit his concept of what is "reasonable." Most education costs money. The price is up to the GM. If the teacher wants to be paid, see Jobs to determine what his time is worth. Multiply all fees by 4 for intensive training! Barter may be possible, or the teacher may demand a service in exchange for his aid – there are endless adventure possibilities here.

Learning Magic

In a world where magic is common, you can learn a spell just as you would any other IQ-based skill. You may apprentice yourself to a wizard to learn his whole craft...or hire a magic instructor to teach you a few spells.

In a setting in which magic is secret or rare, finding an instructor is much harder. Most wizards shroud themselves in secrecy...or belong to reclusive, mysterious cults...or prove to be fakes! You can learn magic without a teacher; use the rules described under Self-Teaching. You must be able to read and have access to good textbooks. Magical grimoires are often deliberately complex and obscure – especially in rare- or secret-magic settings! The GM is free to slow the pace of self-teaching as much as he wishes to reflect this.

Learning Secret Martial-Arts Techniques

To acquire Trained By A Master or Weapon Master, you must first find an appropriate school or teacher – an adventure in itself, often involving a dangerous pilgrimage to an exotic locale. Once you locate a master, you disappear from play for 1d+1 game-years. After that, you might have to pass a series of hazardous tests, or make a final quest to yet another remote land.

When you emerge from your training, you have the desired advantage, plus 20 character points to spend on any special skills allowed in the campaign. The GM can treat these points like those gained from any other kind of study, or he can "balance" them with an equal number of points in additional disadvantages – perhaps an Enemy (e.g., a rival school), or a Duty or Sense of Duty to your school or teacher.

Education

Every hour of instruction by a professional teacher counts as one hour of learning. A "professional teacher" is someone with Teaching skill at 12 or higher. In order to teach you a given skill, he must either know that skill at your current skill level or better, or have as many or more points in the skill as you do. Ordinary instruction rarely exceeds eight hours per day. A college semester (21 weeks) of classroom study equals around one point per subject, and a full-time student could study up to five subjects per semester. A semester of night school would give one point in one subject.

Intensive Training

Full-time study with expert teachers and lavish training materials is the most effective type of "normal" learning. An expert teacher has Teaching skill at 12 (or higher), plus a higher level and more points in the skillbeing taught than you do. Quadruple all costs and tuition fees! Every hour of intensive training counts as two hours of learning. Intensive training is rarely available outside the military, where you have little control over the skills taught or the scheduling of courses. It can last for up to 16 hours per day. You must have HT 12+ to make it through such training without "washing out" (the Fit advantage does increase effective HT for this purpose).

Adventuring

Adventuring time can also count as study of suitable skills. The "conversion factor" is up to the GM, who should be generous. For example, a trek through the Amazon might count for every waking moment – say, 16 hours a day – as study of Survival (Jungle).

Learnable Advantages

You can learn certain advantages as if they were skills (200 hours = 1 point), provided you have a suitable instructor (professor, kung fu master, etc.). Use the standard rules for skill learning; in particular, anyone teaching an advantage must possess it himself.

Combat Reflexes: The GM may rule that fighting is the only way to "learn" Combat Reflexes before TL7, and require adventurers who want this advantage to pay for it with bonus points. At TL7+, realistic military simulations can teach it as if it were a skill.

Cultural Familiarity and Languages: Time spent in a foreign land counts as four hours per day toward both Cultural Familiarity and the local Language, no matter what else you are doing (even studying skills – an exception to the "one skill at a time" rule).

Eidetic Memory: By apprenticing as a bard or doing daily mental exercises, you can "learn" the first level of this advantage. This requires an hour a day, meaning it takes a little less than three years of constant practice to gain this trait.

Enhanced Defenses: Only those with Trained By A Master or Weapon Master may "learn" these advantages. The GM should handle them as if they were martial-arts skills.

Fit: You can acquire either level of Fit through exercise – on your own or with a trainer – just as you would athletic skills like Hiking and Running.

G-Experience: The standard way to "learn" G-Experience is to visit planets that have different gravity fields. Highly advanced societies that can manipulate gravity might be able to teach this advantage as if it were a skill.

Psionic Abilities and Talents: In some game worlds, "psi academies" teach psionic Talents and abilities. The rules under Gaining New Psi Abilities apply to learning psi advantages as well as to buying them with earned points: you must possess Talent or abilities in a power to acquire new abilities, and you must have abilities to acquire Talent.

Trained By A Master and Weapon Master: See Finding a Teacher.