Experience

Adventuring
If an adventurer successfully attempts a skill, they mark it with a pip. Usually at the end of the session/adventure/other interval or with enough in-game downtime (resting for at least a few days), the DM will indicate to roll for experience for every marked skill!

Roll a d% ABOVE the skill percentage to successfully improve your skill by 1d4%

In either case, remove/erase the pip from the skill.

Subsequent uses of the skill in the adventure do not count towards experience: one successful use is enough.

Successful use in two different specialties is two experience checks, not one. For example, successful rolls in Lore (Arcane) and Lore (History) are two different skills, and are eligible for two experience checks.

Using a skill when it is modified to Easy or Very Easy does not count.

Using a skill in a non-threatening, non-adventuring situation where nothing is at stake doesn’t count. For example, attempting to Hide when no one is looking doesn’t merit a skill experience check.

Training and Research
During long periods of downtime or between adventures, most adventurers invest themselves in honing their skills and knowledge.

Practising or researching a skill generally takes one day per 5% the character already possesses in the skill. Once this training period is complete, the character may attempt to improve that skill, using the same system as an experience roll (rollling above the skill percentage to improve 1d4%). Suffice to say a skill without a logical means of training cannot be trained or researched (you cannot practice shiphandling without a ship).

A successful research check increases the experience roll by 10% but doubles the required downtime. Skills which may be researched include: Alchemy, Appraise, Craft, First Aid, Lore, Language, Literacy, Medicine, Ritual, Sorcery Spells, and Spellcraft. Lore skills generally cannot be improved without research.

Instruction and Teaching

Skills may be taught by instructors or organizations, and this greatly improves the quality of retention in a student but comes at a price. Being taught a skill by a teacher requires one day per 5% the character already possesses in the skill. Payment for the instruction is equal to twice the training time of work, or that number of drachma equal to 10 times the days of training time. Once this training period is complete, the character may attempt to improve that skill with a bonus to the experience roll equal to the difference in skill level divided by 5 (teacher skill - student skill / 5). In addition, any skill improvements from instruction add 1d6+1 percentiles to the skill, rather than 1d4.

Using the teach skill, a character may similarly instruct another creature in a skill. The teacher must be present for the entirety of the student’s training or research. When the training period is complete, the teacher rolls their Teach skill. If failed, the student makes their experience roll as normal. If successful, the student receives a bonus to their experience roll equal to the difference in skill level divided by 5 (teacher skill - student skill / 5) and the skill improves by 1d6+1 percentiles, rather than 1d4.

Learning New Skills
Skills listed with (00) indicate a lack of even basic ability and require additional training and instruction to gain a beginning percentage.

Unless mentioned otherwise, being taught a new skill by a teacher requires a week of training or study. Payment for this study is two weeks of work or 50 drachma (depending on the prestige of the instructor). At the end of the training period the player must roll D100 equal to or less than the character’s INT X4. If the roll is successful, then the adventurer has learned the skill and has a beginning percentage in the skill equal to the skill’s category bonus plus 2d6. A failed roll indicates that the adventurer failed to learn the skill and must repeat the entire procedure.

A character may instruct another creature in a new skill as well. The teacher must be present for the entirety of the student’s training or study. When the training period is complete, the teacher rolls their Teach skill. If failed, the student makes their INTx4 roll as usual. If successful, the student receives a bonus to their INTx4 roll equal to the teacher’s skill divided by 5. If the student learns the skill, their starting percentage is equal to the skill’s category bonus plus 3d6.

Learning skills without an instructor requires 300 hours per skill, and then a player must succeed with a D100 roll equal to or less than the character’s INT X4. Upon learning the skill, initial skill in it is equal to the skill’s category bonus plus 2d6.