A hero begins play able to list only the skills they actually know. When you record a skill on your sheet its starting value equals the governing stat—typically somewhere between two and twenty percent—and nothing more.
To shape expertise, spend whatever pool of XP the Game Master provides, following three core rules:
- Initiating a skill: writing down a discipline you don’t yet possess costs 10 XP. Pay that price and the skill appears at its governing‑stat baseline.
- Improving a skill: each percentage point from the baseline up to 60 percent costs one XP; each point from 61 percent to 100 percent costs two XP. No skill can rise above 100 percent.
- Boosting a stat: you may instead invest ten XP to raise a primary stat by one point, which automatically nudges every skill that relies on that stat. Unless your GM rules otherwise, you may not raise a stat above 20.
Example: Aria wants Herbalism, a skill her sheet doesn’t yet show. She pays 10 XP to list it at its baseline (Mind 13 → 13 percent). Another 47 XP carries Herbalism to 60 percent (each point for one XP). If Aria later pushes the skill from 60 to 70 percent she’ll spend an additional 20 XP—two points per percentage at the higher band.
Low baselines keep early adventures tense; the explicit 10‑XP “buy‑in” ensures specialities feel earned, not assumed, and the rising cost of mastery rewards focus over dabbling.
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File Created: 04/28/2025 Last Modified: 04/28/2025