Selecting Your Starting Skills
All characters start with 100 points to spend on skills and get an additional 20 points if you submit a character history at least two weeks before your first event. You may choose your first skills from any of those listed in the General skill tree, the nine Basic skill trees, and the ten Crafting skill trees. As your character progresses, you will have opportunities to purchase Advanced or Specialized skills.
General skills and Crafting skills are open for everyone to buy at the same cost. All other skills are part of skill trees which range from Basic to more advanced abilities. Each tree represents a facet of game play with different ways to interact with the world of Mirhanan. Basic skills are the foundation for all character builds and are open for anyone to buy, though the cost of skills in each tree will vary per character.
Purchasing Skills
When starting to purchase your skills, you will need to choose a favored skill tree from the region type you grew up in. The skills on that tree are then purchased at half price.
Next, you must choose one skill tree from each of the other two regions as your disfavored skill trees. The skills on these two trees are purchased at double the price.
Each region has three skill trees associated with it. One is their preferred method for defending themselves, one for how they maintain their life, and the last is how they spread their influence. Descriptions of each region are in the Character Creation section.
For the Tamed Lands the skill trees are Guns, Medical and Social
For the Wylds it is Melee, Divine, and Magic
Finally, the Wastelands have Stealth, Survival, and Clandestine
Example: Hakram was born in the Wylds and wants to be a warrior, so he chooses Melee as his Favored Skill Tree. Not seeing much honor in Stealth, and lacking any Social graces, he chooses Stealth and Social as his Disfavored Skill Trees.
In this example, when purchasing skills from Melee, the skills are always at half price. When purchasing skills from Stealth or Social they will always be at double the price.
There are no restrictions on purchasing skills beyond the price changes from your Favored and Disfavored skill tree choices. Skills bought from all other trees are purchased at their base cost.
Multi-Purchase Skill Costs
There are some skills that you are able to purchase multiple times. With these skills the costs can increase in different ways and are noted in the skill description.
Multiple, Increase Per Purchase – The cost for this skill increases by 50% for each purchase after the initial purchase. Ex: 20/30/40
Multiple, Increase Every 5 Purchases – The cost for this skill increases by the base cost every 5 purchases. Ex: 20 for the first 5, 40 for the 6th-10th, 60 for the 11th-15th.
Multiple, Non-Increasing Purchase – The cost for this skill does not increase.
For your Favored skill tree, the first purchase of each skill will be half the listed cost. Multi-Purchase skills will increase in price from that amount as described above. An Increase Per Purchase skill will still increase by 50% per purchase, not 25%.
For your Disfavored skill trees, the first purchase of each skill will be twice the listed cost. Multi-Purchase skills will increase in price from that amount as described above. An Increase Per Purchase skill will still increase by 50% per purchase, not 100%.
Choosing Spells and Prayers
If purchased during character creation, Schools of Magic and Divine Domains allow for a choice of starting spells and prayers. During character creation you may choose a total of three Beginner incantations from the Schools(s) and/or Domains(s) you know. Purchasing a School and a Domain, or two of a kind, does not grant extra beginning incantations – you may still only choose three in all.
If you purchase Mana (Magic skill tree) you must choose what your School of Magic is. If you purchase Additional School, choose a second School of Magic. You may choose spells from the beginner list of the School(s) you know. You will find the list of beginner spells in The Schools of Magic section of this book.
The same rules apply to purchasing Conviction (Divine skill tree). Choose your Divine Domain. If you purchase Additional Domain, choose a second Domain. You may choose prayers from the beginner list of the Domain(s) you know. You will find the list of beginner prayers in The Divine Domains section of this book.
(After character creation, you may not select any new spells or prayers when purchasing a School/Domain though you may learn incantations from them as normal.)
Skill Usage
Action Pools – Some skills require the use of action points. Which Action Pool these points are drawn from and their cost will be listed in the description under Usage. Action Pools are restored at the start of the event on Friday night, and at 9am (game on) on Saturday and Sunday morning.
As Components Allow – This skill can be used as many times as you have the proper component to use it. The component is consumed when you use the skill. For these skills you will be given the proper component once at check in on the event after you purchase it. You may gather more components during or between events.
Between Events – Skills marked as Between Events usually require something done during check out – such as turning in a component, filling out a form, or making note of it in your Post Event Letter. At the next event you attend you will receive the results of your Between Event Skill at check in with your character sheet.
Called Combat Skills – The called effect replaces the damage of the attack. Example, the melee skill Maim – the call for the skill is “Maim”, the effect is that the targeted limb is broken if hit, and replaces the normal point of damage a weapon strike would inflict.
Per Purchase – You can use the skill once per event per number of times purchased.
Prerequisite – Denotes that there is another skill that you need to have purchased before purchasing this one.
Prop – Occasionally you will find that a skill requires the use of a prop. The requirements of the prop will be given within the skill description.
Special – Instructions on how and when the skill can be used will be included in the skill description.