Skill System

The skill system on Kingdoms of Kahara is designed to provide an assessment of a character's capabilities as well as provide an element of random chance for when dice rolls are needed. If you want ideas on how to build a character look at Character Archetypes.

The Core Mechanic

The core mechanic of a die roll is <skill>+1d10.

This means if someone rolls a skill with 4 ranks in it a die roll will result in an outcome from 5-14.

How do I build a character sheet?

All starting characters start with the Traits Basic Literacy and Inner Focus, along with 650 BP to spend on other skills and traits.

What is BP?

BP stands for Build Points. This represents a limitation on how powerful characters can be. All characters start with 650 BP to spend and the maximum +sheet value of skills and traits combined is 1000 BP. The idea is starting characters should be able to be rather proficient in their main skill starting out (so a player wanting to play a merchant should be able to play a merchant pretty good at skills related to trade, while a player who wants to play a mercenary officer should be able to start the game proficient in how armies work, for example), while more established characters may be slightly more able in those skills but will generally have more breadth. The idea is a new player shouldn't feel like their character starts off bad at the main thing they want the character to be able to do. In fact, if a player was willing to accept a character with narrow capabilities they can start out with a character who is truly legendary (rank 8) in their primary skill.

For those curious, the reason it is called BP and not experience or xp like many other games is we acknowledge BP is a largely out of character idea used to promote a reasonable level of parity between characters, which is why it can also be spent on traits like Self Made which raise Wealth rather than improve a character's capabilities directly.

How do I gain more BP?

BP is reasonably easy to attain.

1. All active characters receive 5 BP every week.
2. Anyone who posts a roleplaying log can ask to have 1 BP added to one of their PCs.
3. Anyone who runs a scene which is posted to the wiki can have 1 BP added to one of their PCs.

This means all active PCs will see some progression, though those who are more active will tend to accumulate more slightly faster. Currently there is no cap on how much BP one can earn in a week.

Can I transfer BP between characters?

In general, no. However when a player makes a new character they may opt to make a one time BP transfer of up to 150 BP to the new character. This is useful for longer time players who have characters who are past the 1000 BP cap.

What are the major commands for the skill system?

1. +sheet - This allows you to look at your character sheet.
2. +sinfo <skill or trait> - This looks at the help file for a given skill or trait, providing more information on what it does and its costs.
3. +list traits - This lists all the traits in the system separated by category.
4. +raise/skill <skill> to <level> - If you have the BP and meet all other requirements this will raise a skill to the desired level.
5. +raise/trait <trait> to <level> - If you have the BP and meet all other requirements this will raise a trait to the desired level.
6. +lower/skill <skill> to <level> - This will lower a skill to the desired level, refunding the difference in BP cost to the player.
7. +lower/trait <trait> to <level> - This will lower a trait to the desired level, refunding the difference in BP cost to the player.
8. +roll <skill> at <modifier> - This will roll a skill at the stated modifier, adding 1d10 to provide randomness.
9. +roll/gen <number> - This takes the provided number and adds 1d10 to it. This is useful in rare cases there for some reason is no appropriate skill or trait to roll.

What do I roll?

On Kingdoms of Kahara what you roll can vary depending on the task at hand, a character's available skills, and their traits.

Skills, on their own, are narrowly defined but their capabilities can be expanded through the use of traits.

For example, the skill Agrarian, on its own, only covers growing common crops. That may not seem particularly useful to what you want your character to be able to do. However traits empower the Agrarian skill to do far more: Forecaster will allow a PC to use Agrarian to predict weather patterns; Treat Animals allows a PC to use Agrarian for medical rolls relating to animals; Farm Strength even allows a PC to turn Agrarian into a basic combat skill.

So when there is a task which needs rolled, a PC can propose rolling a relevant skill which has an appropriate trait to go with it. If the GM agrees, the skill is rolled.

In practice this means PCs will have relatively few skill levels but plenty of traits which make those skill levels do quite a bit.

Skill Levels

0: Baseline average for Kahara. 0 doesn't mean a deficit in a skill so much as it means no practice or training with it.

1-2: Dabbler - Your character has studied the skill a little bit and knows the fundamentals, but most attempts to use skills at these levels fail if it's anything harder than very simple aspects of the skill.

3: Low grade professionals are often found here. They may have a little experience, and they can accomplish most common tasks within the skill reliably, but no one will speak of their great skill. At this level of skill most characters can make enough money with their skill to justify a Wealth 4 lifestyle.

4-5: When a character is referred to as skilled, this is the level often associated with that. Those with this level of skill can justify a Wealth 6 lifestyle making a living off of this skill if the money is used well. It is also at this skill level Patrons start seeking a character out for their skill

6: Characters at this level of skill are considered very good at it. They can reliably perform all basic tasks with ease. At this level a character that uses the money from work with this skill well can justify up to a Wealth 8 standard of living through careful use of resources and access to a Patron. Whether a character accepts is up to them. Getting better than this level is rare for most of Kahara.

7: Characters at this level are exceptional. They stand out. Usually word gets around an area who has a +7 a skill and those with influence seek them out. At this level of skill Patrons are often showing interest and will make active attempts to bring a character into their orbit.

8: Characters at this level are considered masters of their skill. Patrons actively seek them out, if only to keep them out of rivals' hands. Profiting off of this level of skill is easy. 8 is also the level at which a character becomes eligible to create a Thesis for a skill to become truly legendary. Characters at this level are extremely rare, as achieving this level of capability often demands a single-minded focus which detracts from all else.