Sep 22, 2015 4:52 am
One of the derived statistics you determined during character generation is your number of foci. Foci determine which skills a player may improve in rank.
How do you learn?
Players must decide at the beginning of a character's career: does my character learn by success, or by failure? It must be one of the other, and the choice will apply over the life of the character.
How foci work
Playing here on GP, players assign each focus to a skill at the beginning of a sequence (in the tabletop version, you'd do it at the start of each session). If you attempt to use the skill and succeed/fail (depending on how your character learns) during that sequence, you get 1 roll to improve that skill.
But you do not need to use that roll then. You can save it. If you do save it and keep your focus in that skill for the next sequence, the next time you use the skill and succeed/fail, you will get 2 more rolls to improve that skill. If you continue for a third sequence, you get 3 additional rolls to improve that skill. Basically, the rolls accumulate as long as you keep a focus in a skill that you keep using.
If you reassign a focus from one skill to another, you must roll to improve the first skill with whatever rolls your character has accumulated.
Attempting to improve a skill
When you have 1 or more rolls accumulated for improving a particular skill at the end of a sequence, you may attempt to improve that skill before the next sequence begins. Once you declare that you are attempting to improve that skill, each roll that you have accumulated allows you to roll 1d20 against the applicable characteristic for that skill. When you roll, you are trying to roll equal or under that characteristic, but the level that you have in that skill already adds a modifier to the roll. If you are Experienced, add 5 to the roll. If you are Seasoned, add 10 to the roll.
If you succeed on any of the rolls for that attempt, it increases by 1 rank, and all the rolls for that skill are expended. No matter how many rolls you have accumulated for that skill, a skill may only increase 1 rank per attempt.
This means that you have a decision after each sequence: save up more rolls (increased chance of improvement in that one skill, but may "waste" rolls) or roll right away (decreased chance of improvement, but may select another skill for the next sequence).
Improving characteristics
If, when you increase a skill, your level increases in that skill (if you go from Familiar to Experienced, for instance), your associated characteristic increases by 1 as well. Different skills map to different characteristics, for the purposes of increasing the characteristics when the skills increase in level. Some characteristics do not map to any skills, and so cannot be improved by such means.
The following skills can increase by improving the level of skills: STRENGTH, SOCIAL, COLOR, AIM, LEARN, EDUCATION, and AGILITY.
- Interaction skills improve SOCIAL
- Dysha and moon skills improve COLOR
- athletic and melee combat skills improve either AGILITY or STRENGTH
- ranged combat skills improve AIM
- common/practical knowledge skills improve EDUCATION
- languages, sciences, and other skills improve LEARN
How do you learn?
Players must decide at the beginning of a character's career: does my character learn by success, or by failure? It must be one of the other, and the choice will apply over the life of the character.
How foci work
Playing here on GP, players assign each focus to a skill at the beginning of a sequence (in the tabletop version, you'd do it at the start of each session). If you attempt to use the skill and succeed/fail (depending on how your character learns) during that sequence, you get 1 roll to improve that skill.
But you do not need to use that roll then. You can save it. If you do save it and keep your focus in that skill for the next sequence, the next time you use the skill and succeed/fail, you will get 2 more rolls to improve that skill. If you continue for a third sequence, you get 3 additional rolls to improve that skill. Basically, the rolls accumulate as long as you keep a focus in a skill that you keep using.
If you reassign a focus from one skill to another, you must roll to improve the first skill with whatever rolls your character has accumulated.
Attempting to improve a skill
When you have 1 or more rolls accumulated for improving a particular skill at the end of a sequence, you may attempt to improve that skill before the next sequence begins. Once you declare that you are attempting to improve that skill, each roll that you have accumulated allows you to roll 1d20 against the applicable characteristic for that skill. When you roll, you are trying to roll equal or under that characteristic, but the level that you have in that skill already adds a modifier to the roll. If you are Experienced, add 5 to the roll. If you are Seasoned, add 10 to the roll.
If you succeed on any of the rolls for that attempt, it increases by 1 rank, and all the rolls for that skill are expended. No matter how many rolls you have accumulated for that skill, a skill may only increase 1 rank per attempt.
This means that you have a decision after each sequence: save up more rolls (increased chance of improvement in that one skill, but may "waste" rolls) or roll right away (decreased chance of improvement, but may select another skill for the next sequence).
Improving characteristics
If, when you increase a skill, your level increases in that skill (if you go from Familiar to Experienced, for instance), your associated characteristic increases by 1 as well. Different skills map to different characteristics, for the purposes of increasing the characteristics when the skills increase in level. Some characteristics do not map to any skills, and so cannot be improved by such means.
The following skills can increase by improving the level of skills: STRENGTH, SOCIAL, COLOR, AIM, LEARN, EDUCATION, and AGILITY.
- Interaction skills improve SOCIAL
- Dysha and moon skills improve COLOR
- athletic and melee combat skills improve either AGILITY or STRENGTH
- ranged combat skills improve AIM
- common/practical knowledge skills improve EDUCATION
- languages, sciences, and other skills improve LEARN