Advancing as a character is quite simple: Gain and spend Ability Points on the Abilities you have available to you. You may advance at any time you have Ability Points available to spend and are in a relatively safe place.
Acquire Ability Points
There are two different methods for acquiring new Ability Points that are used by The System. First, is simply earning them as a reward for going on adventures, completing quests, or slaying mighty foes. The second is gaining Experience Points which may be used to purchase new Ability Points. It is recommended that SysAdmins use a mix of experience rewards and directly granting new Ability Points rather than using only one of these two methods.
Purchasing Ability Points
Using Experience to purchase new Ability Points has an increasing cost based on your current Level. Each Ability Point costs a number of Experience Points equal to 100 × your Level. These means that buying Ability Points is much cheaper for a lower level individual than a higher level one.
Maximum Unspent Ability Points
When purchasing Ability Points with Experience, you cannot increase your current number of unspent Ability Points to more than half your current level, rounded up. Thus, a 5th level individual can have up to three Ability Points available to spend, after which they cannot purchase additional points until their current points are spent.
Ability Points awarded directly by the SysAdmin are still gained, even if an individual is at their maximum limit. However, these earned points still count towards this limit when trying to purchase additional points using Experience.
Spend Ability Points
You can spend Ability Points on any Ability you already know or have available to learn. Increasing an Ability’s Rank requires a number of Ability Points equal to its new Rank. So, while you only need 1 Ability Point to learn a new Ability at Rank 1, you will need two additional Ability Points (for a total of 3) to raise that Ability to Rank 2.
You need not save points to raise an Ability’s Rank all at once and may invest points into an Ability immediately, but its Rank will increase only when enough total points have been invested into that Ability.
Advancing an Ability to a new Rank increases your Character Level (see below).
Maximum Ability Rank
Each Ability has a related Aptitude. When advancing an Ability’s Rank, you can never increase its Rank higher than its related Aptitude. This means than an individual can spend exactly enough points to advance their Ability to the maximum and not a single point beyond.
Thus, a Warrior with a Prowess of 8 and the Strike Ability is unable to advance his Strike beyond Rank 8 until he finds a way to increase with Prowess. This Warrior can raise his Strike Ability to exactly Rank 8 (or 36 Ability Points) and may not continue to spend points on Strike afterward. He must spend his Ability Points on other Abilities or save them until he can increase his Prowess Aptitude.
Choose Actions and Augments
After spending Ability Points, you gain Augment Points in the chosen Ability. Each Ability Point invested into an Ability grants an Augment Point that can be spent immediately. You gain this Augment Point even if the Ability Point does not increase the Ability’s Rank.
These Augment Points may be spent on any Action or Augment you know or have available to learn. Unlike Abilities, there is no increase to the cost of advancing an Action or Augment. Thus, it costs exactly 6 Augment Points to advance an Action or Augment to Rank 6. This means that an individual with learn and advance increasingly more Actions and Augments for an Ability as that Ability’s Rank increases.
Any time that one of your Abilities advances to a new Rank, your available Actions and Augments for that Ability are immediately Shuffled (see below).
Maximum Action/Augment Rank
Each Action or Augment can only be advanced up to a Rank equal to its Ability’s current Rank. To further increase the Augment’s Rank, the Ability’s Rank must first be increased.
Action/Augment Shuffle
Each time one of your Abilities gains a new Rank, any Actions or Augments you have not invested any points into are “Shuffled” by The System. You lose access to these Action and Augments but immediately gain access to three new Actions and/or Augments related to the Ability.
You retain access to any Actions or Augments you have already invested points into and may continue to advance them as normal. Actions and Augments with points invested are never Shuffled or lost due to advancing an Ability’s Rank.
Individuals are known to invest a point into an interesting but not particularly useful Action or Augment just to keep it around during the next Shuffle, in the hopes that it becomes useful in the future.
Character Level
A individual’s overall Level is equal to the sum of their Ability Ranks. This means that a person with two Abilities at Rank 1 and one Ability at Rank 2 is 4th Level, just as an individual with one Ability at Rank 4 with no other Abilities would also be 4th Level.
This means than a person with 1 Rank in 15 different Abilities and a person with 15 Ranks in one Ability are the same level but will be vastly different in how they approach things. The Rank 15 Ability will be far stronger than any Rank 1 Ability, but the person with the many Rank 1 Abilities will be much more flexible in how they can approach a situation and will have reached Level 15 much easier. The Rank 15 Ability required 120 Ability Points to reach while the fifteen Rank 1 Abilities required only 15 Ability Points; however, both individuals are 15th Level.
Level Benefits
There are several benefits to increasing one’s level. Most obvious is the increase to Vitality and other Details which factor in an individual’s level.
Attribute Bonus
For every 10 Levels a person gains, they may increase any one Attribute by 1. This improves anything based on that Attribute, such as System Checks and Vitality.
Aptitude Bonus
For every 20 Levels a person gains, they may increase any one Aptitude by 1.