Abilities

Non-magus characters receive 15 experience points every year. This is an average value, based on two sea-

sons of exposure (4 experience points), one season of practice (4 experience points), and one "vocational" season of teaching, training, adventuring, or reading books (7 experience points). For example, a soldier might spend one season being taught Single Weapon by the drill sergeant with the rest of the turb, practicing the Hunt Ability in the woods, and gaining exposure in Awareness and Athletics from his sentry duty.

Poor characters have to replace the vocational season with another season of exposure. Wealthy characters gain an extra vocational season instead of one of the seasons of exposure.

Applying yearly experience points to grogs need not be a chore. Those who are employed by the magi on a regular basis can be updated once a year, in the winter season. Each player should be responsible for updating an equal number of the regular grogs. The grog captain determines which Ability has been taught that year (probably Single Weapon), and all grogs gain 7 experience points in that Ability (you can use the Teaching

Quality of the drill sergeant if you prefer). For non-soldiers, determine other sources of experience points for this vocational season, and apply either 7 experience points or the Source Quality, if it is known. The player then applies 4, 2, and 2 experience points to up to three different Abilities, representing the season of practice, and two seasons of exposure. Remember to update the age of the grog, and the current year on the

character sheet, and determine aging if applicable.

If a grog has taken story experience points, these should be applied immediately when they are received, and a note made on the character sheet. During the winter update, the grog loses a season of regular experience points for each award of story experience points. It is recommended that seasons are exchanged in the following order: exposure, vocational,

practice, exposure. So a character taking two seasons of story experience points loses one exposure season and his vocational season.

Grogs who are used infrequently can be updated every three or five years, simply by applying an appropriate training package (see later). Remember to make a note of the last time the character was updated on her character sheet. Use the table given earlier under Aging to determine any effects of the passage of years.

Calculating Ability scores can be one of the most time consuming parts of character creation. This section introduces a quick and easy way of building a character through training packages. These training packages work exactly the same way as the childhood packages, applying a number of experience points in certain Abilities. The process can be used for grogs, companions, and for the pre-apprenticeship years for magi.

A package adds a certain number of years to the character's age; some add three years, and others add either three

or five years, depending on choice. Along with these years come experience points in various Abilities. Most characters will take the same package more than once, to give them a concentration in their core Abilities. Each

For characters with the Wealthy Virtue, use the Training Packages method as described, but reduce the character's post-childhood age by one quarter. So a character who takes 32 years' worth of training packages after childhood is only 29 years old, rather than 37.

For characters with the Poor Flaw, increase the post-childhood age by one half. That means a character with 13 years' worth of training is actually 25 years old rather than 18.

of the training packages assumes that the character spends his vocational seasons training the key Ability of that package, and his practice seasons contribute either to the key Ability or to a secondary Ability. Some training packages require that the character can take Academic, Arcane, or Martial Abilities (this is indicated after the package name), and therefore the character needs a Virtue that permits this. A starting character should not be built with more than 15 years in a single package; few individuals are this single-minded.

Remember that a starting character cannot have more than 75 experience points (a score of 5) in an Ability unless they are 30 or older (ArM5, page 31), or have an Affinity. If a particular build results in more than 75 experience points, then the excess should be redistributed among the character's other Abilities. If the character has an Affinity with an Ability, add up all the experience points he receives in that Ability from training packages, then add half as many experience points again.

To round the character off, you may need to add one or two more years of age, and distribute the resulting experience points to bring some Abilities up to the next score. If the character has any Supernatural Abilities, this method should be used to pay for those Abilities, but remember that the character starts with 5 free experience points in any Supernatural Ability.

Soldiers — particularly soldiers of fortune like grogs — are rarely born into a military family. Even grogs born to the covenant might have trained in other skills before taking up the sword. When building a grog with training packages, you are encouraged to give them a few years in labor, craft, or professional trades to represent what they did before they became a warrior. It is also a way of generating a simple but interesting back story: if a character spent the first eight years of his post-childhood life as a Farmer, and then five years as a Woodsman before taking five years as a Soldier, what circumstances lead him to abandon his farm at the age of 13 and take up residence in the woods? Did he become a bandit? Perhaps he was a forester?

These packages represent trades or professions to which a character might belong. They provide the key skills of that trade.

An advocate has studied law, either at a university or through private tutors or a cathedral school. If the character has the Jurist Virtue (Art & Academe, page 91), then he need not have a Virtue permitting Academic Abilities, since this Virtue permits taking the key Abilities as a layman. If he has attended university, then he should take at least five years of Student and have a Virtue which grants extra experience in Academic Abilities. Characters in England need Common Law rather than Civil and Canon Law.

FIVE YEARS: +40 Civil and Canon Law, +5 Leadership, +15 Artes Liberales, +15 Latin

THREE YEARS: +30 Civil and Canon Law, +5 Leadership, +5 Artes Liberales, +5 Latin

The five-year package is suitable for a professional animal handler, such as a master of hounds or an ostler, and the Profession can vary accordingly. The three-year package is for those who have regular contact with animals but not as their principle job.

Five Years: +30 Animal Handling, +30 Profession: Animal Trainer, +15 Ride

THREE YEARS: +30 Animal Handling, +15 Ride

FIVE YEARS: +15 (Area) Lore, +20 Chirurgy, +40 Profession: Apothecary

THREE YEARS: +5 (Area) Lore, +10 Chirurgy, +30 Profession: Apothecary

FIVE YEARS: +20 Awareness, +40 Bows, +15 Concentration

Suitable for priests, friars, and nuns who have had some training within the church. Academic churchmen should also take the Theologian package. Parish priests probably have the Public Official or the Leader package, replacing some or all of the experience in Leadership with Profession: Preaching (see Art & Academe, page 13).

FIVE YEARS: +10 Artes Liberales, +30 Organization Lore: Church, +5 Latin, +30 Civil & Canon Law

THREE YEARS: +5 Artes Liberales, +20 Organization Lore: Church, +20 Civil & Canon Law

FIVE YEARS: +15 Charm, +30 Guile, +30 Intrigue

THREE YEARS: +15 Charm, +15 Guile, +15 Intrigue

FIVE YEARS: +15 Charm, +30 Etiquette, +15 Folk Ken, +15 Intrigue THREE YEARS: +5 Charm, +30 Etiquette, +5 Folk Ken, +5 Intrigue

An apprenticeship in a craft typically takes eight years, at the end of which time the character should have a primary Craft Ability of 3 (see City & Guild, page 42). It is assumed that each craftsman learns more than a single Craft Ability during a typical apprenticeship, and picks up several related trades. Journeymen should take a Trader package to account for the other Abilities he will need, and Masters will need the Trainer package.