Sandalwood RPG - Part 4 - Specialisms

Specialisms

Sandalwood uses the Core Skills of Physicality, Personality, and Knowledge as the basis for all actions attempted by the player - as detailed in Part 1 - https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/sandalwood-this-is-first-part-of-series.html "The Core Skills".

Specialisms represent the training and experience which improve upon a particular Core Skill. Specialisms define what a character can do, and how well.

Each Core skill grouping subsumes a number of Base specialisms which are learned by every character growing up, largely through practice and experience. Even with a zero rated Base specialism, a character may roll the associated Core skill to use that specialism. 

Base Specialisms
Base specialisms are rated from 0-5 and may be increased through Experience Point spends during play. Base specialisms are intrinsic to all characters and do not need to be learned.

Career specialisms
Career specialisms are acquired either during character creation, or learned from a teacher during play. They have a rating from 1-3.

Expert specialisms
Expert specialisms are not additional specialisms, but should be regarded as capstones to a Career specialism, they represent a character attaining the highest level of ability of that Career specialism. The Expert specialism, if acquired, has a rating of 1 and will grant a trait in addition to the skill increase.

Actions not covered by a Base or Career specialism may be attempted using the closest appropriate Core Skill.

Prerequisites and Limits

Characters are assumed to know all Base specialisms in every core skill category at a rating of 0. Base specialisms may be learned up to a rating of 5. 

Career specialisms may be learned if the character has the prerequisite Base specialism at a rating of at least 1. Career specialisms may be learned up to a rating of 3. 

How Specialisms work

To use a Base specialism, the rating is multiplied by 10 and added to the Core skill.

For example, Darius has a Brawn of 3 and a Core Physicality skill of 45%. This means his adjusted skill for a Brawn check is 75%. If he increases his Brawn rating to 5 through experience point spends, his Brawn check goes up to 95%.

When attempting a Career specialism skill check, the first point of the Base specialism is added to the Career specialism. Rating points of the Base specialism above 1 do not factor into the calculation.

For example, Darius has a Brawn of 3 and a Combat Style (Kurgan Raider) of 1. His Physicality skill is 45%. This means his adjusted skill is 65% (45+10+10), ie. 10% from Brawn, 10% from his Combat Style. Through experience he could increase his Combat Style to a rating of 2 and later to 3. To go further to earn the Expert specialism of "Veteran" requires acquiring higher status in the game.

Increasing Specialisms

Each session played generates 1 Experience Point (xp) for each PC played. GMs may award additional extraordinary xp gains at significant moments during the game, such as after the group achieves a major objective.

Specialisms are increased by paying the xp cost of the next rating up, multiplied by either 1 or 2.

Base specialism increases:

Base specialism Rating of 0 to 1    -    1 xp

Base specialism Rating of 1 to 2    -    2 xp

Base specialism Rating of 2 to 3    -    3 xp

Base specialism Rating of 3 to 4    -    4 xp

Base specialism Rating of 4 to 5    -    5 xp

Career specialism increases:
Learning a Career specialism to 1    -    2 xp plus 3 months in-game time learning a new career.

Career specialism Rating of 1 to 2    -    4 xp

Career specialism Rating of 2 to 3    -    6 xp

Acquiring an "Expert" specialism may only be earned during the game, and not through xp spends.

Copyright Bilharzia 2023.

Sandalwood - RPG Part 1 - Core Skills
https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/sandalwood-this-is-first-part-of-series.html

Sandalwood RPG - Part 2 - Statistic Arrays
https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/statistic-arrays.html

Sandalwood RPG - Part 3 - Derived Statistics
https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/sandalwood-rpg-part-3.html

Sandalwood RPG - Part 4 - Specialisms
https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/sandalwood-rpg-part-4-specialisms.html

Sandalwood RPG - Part 5 - Combat Interlude
https://d100-workshop.blogspot.com/2023/07/sandalwood-rpg-part-5-combat-interlude.html