Earning Build

There are few ways to gain build in Knight Realms. The most common way is by attending events and playing the game. Everyone attending and PC’ing an entire event receives a build "blanket" based on the number of full events that character has attended.

• 1st to 3rd Events - 4 Build
• 4th to 6th Events - 3 Build
• 7th to 9th Events - 2 Build
• 10th Event and Up - 1 Build

The next three most common ways to gain build are through:

Role-Playing Points (RP)

At each event you have the capacity to earn another build point by demonstrating exceptional role-playing. If so noted, a wandering marshal has the ability to award players with role-playing cards. If you receive 10 role-playing points then your character earns an extra point of build. Since you never know when a marshal may be watching, high quality, expressive role-playing is encouraged at all times. It may seem intimidating for first time players, but when you see everyone else role-playing well as their character you realize not only is it not difficult to do, its fun!! Remember, those extra build can add up quickly and may one day mean the difference between life and DEATH!!

The RP Point system works as follows:

• Each card is worth 1 RP Point.
• 10 RP Points will earn you a point of RP build, when you turn them in.
• You can earn a maximum of 1 build this way at each event.
• You must turn the cards into either any officer, or the RP deputy, to receive your build.
• At the end of each event you must turn your cards in, even if you have not reached 10. The number will be marked on your card, so if your card says “4 RP Points” and you turn in 6 physical cards, than you receive the +1 RP build.

Service Points (SP)

Donating props and providing services to the game acquire Service points. A character who NPCs for an entire event receives 200 SP’s. Service points have several uses, one of which is gaining build. You may purchase one build for every one hundred service points. The max amount of build that you can get from converting Service Points each event, is always equal to your immediate build blanket number.  This conversion is done automatically each month, unless the player leaves a note on their card asking to not have service converted that month.  You can read more about Service Points in the Logistics section of the Knight Realms Rulebook.

Bought Build

Players may purchase one additional build at sign-in, at a blanket cost for all PCs paid for that weekend.  For example: During sign-in at logisitics John Smith pays to play two different PCs.  John decides to buy the additional build, and this one purchase applies to each of his two characters. Jane Smith however only pays to play only one of her two characters.  Jane decides to buy the additional build but may only buy it for the character she has paid to play for that event.

Professions

In the beginning of the game your character starts off with his primary Profession (sometimes referred to as a "list") for free. You may open up to 3 additional Professions (for a total of four) at a cost of 10 build per additional Profession.  A character may have an unlimited number of Higher Lists. The first Higher List costs 1 build to open, and each additional list (after the first) costs 10 build to open.

To acquire skills for your character, the character must have that skill on ther Profession list.  To learn a skill on a list your character does not have, the character must first learn (sometimes referred to as "Opening") the profession.  So Bob, who started out as a Warrior at character creation, cannot learn the skill "Feint" until Bob opens the Swashbuckler list. The only exception to this are skills located on the Commoner List. These skills are available to all characters and may be purchased at any time assuming the character has the available build, is taught the skill In-Game, and has meet any applicable pre-requisites.  So Bob the Warrior can purchase the skill Willpower off the Commoner List even though it is not available on Bob's Warrior List.

Some professions have special points, such as Production, Spell Song, Faith, Magic, Healing, Psionic, Druid, or Crafting points. If your profession has any of these special points, you get one point for free when you start or open that profession (even if you already have similar points from a previous profession). For example, let's say you start a PC named Merlin the Mage. Even if you don't put any build into Magic Points, you get one free Magic Point to start with.

When a character has more than one profession, the character will always buy body points at the highest ration, but will be limited by the lowest purchase rate of all classes.  For example, a Warrior has Body: 1/3 (3), and a Scholar has Body: 1/1 (2).  A Warrior/Scholar would be able to purchase Body at 3 Body for 1 Build, but could only spend 2 Build per level on Body.

Skills

Skills can be bought from Professions your character posseses using Build. Some skill costs differ from one list to another - for example, Disarm costs four build on warriors list and three build on the swashbucklers list. Differing skill costs emphasizes the subtle differences in characters of similar professions.

Learning Skills

If you wish to learn a skill, you must first have sufficient unspent build available and possess all prerequisites (including the Profession the skill is on), if applicable. You must then find a teacher or master, someone who already knows the desired skill and also possesses the Teach skill. If the teacher agrees to teach you a particular skill, they will role-play with you for a period of time. The rate of role-playing needed is five minutes for every two build the skill costs. After being taught by your teacher you do not suddenly know how to successfully perform that skill - you may not use the skill until the beginning of the next weekend. This time represents the practice you have performed under the tutelage of your teacher, until you have successfully performed the skill.

If you learn a skill from an item (such as a tome or manuscript), you must see a Rules Marshal, show them the item card for the item, and have them sign off for the learning of the skill.

A character may learn as many multiples of a lower list skill at once as the player has build for, provided there are no restrictions on the skill itself.

A Character may only learn 2 Higher list skills total (from all available lists) each event.  Only one of them may be a new skill.  Skills on Higher Lists may have a maximum number of pusrchases, listed with the skill on the list.

Teaching Skills

If you wish to teach a skill you must not only possess the desired skill to be taught but also possess the Teach skill off the commoners list. As the teacher you may choose to teach for free, or charge a fee for your services. You must role-play teaching the skill for five minutes for every two build the skill costs.  You may only teach one character at a time, unless you possess the skill Master Teach, which allows for multiple students during one lesson.  After you are done teaching your student, you must write the skill name and cost on the back of their character card with your signature, character number, and the date.

Promotional Skills

Promotional Skills are special skills that are unique to each profession. These skills represent the “high water mark” of achievement in a particular profession. For technical purposes, these skills are considered to be a part of the profession list; however, not everyone who possesses a profession list will qualify to purchase the promotional skill for that profession.

To qualify for the promotional skill of a profession, a character must have achieved one of two landmarks – having reached tenth level with only that profession list, or having spent 120 build on that profession list (including the purchase of Body and career points). Once a character becomes eligible to purchase a promotion skill, she can purchase it at any time, regardless of whether she opens additional profession lists.

Promotional skills, unlike other skills, do not require a teacher and do not require being taught In-Game.  Simply write the Promotional skill name in the appropriate area of the character card along with the required build to learn.

Character Level

You begin the game with one free profession and 10 free build. You are considered to be 1st level. Subsequent gaming will earn more build with which you may purchase new skills. Every 10 build you earn will advance your character to the next level. A new player who has finished playing his 2nd event may have 8 to 14 earned build. The benefit of advancing in levels is that some skills have a character level prerequisite when buying a higher rank of a skill.

To determine character level divide the total build earned (you will see this listed on your character card) by 10 and round down.  So a character with 137 total earned build is 13th level.

Skill Rank And Character Level Prerequisites

Many skills have more than one rank or level of the ability, such as magic spells, alchemy, ballads, prayers, smithing, to name a few. At the very minimum, any skill that has more than one level of achievement requires the character level to be at least equal to the level of the skill being purchased. All ranked skills must be purchased in ascending order, with the lower skills being prerequisites for any higher ranked skills. For example, if you wished to purchase 4th rank poison, you would have to be 4th level or higher and possess poisons rank 1-3. Some skills after level one, such as spells, healing, prayers, alchemy, psionics and ballads, require that your character level be greater than the level of the skill being learned. You may purchase a new rank of these skills every other level your character gains.

Purchasing Body Points

Each race begins the game with a set amount of body points that are listed in the Race section of the Rulebook. You may spend build to increase your body points at a ratio determined by the profession you are currently playing. The ratio of body points gained per build spent is listed on each different character list. For example: A first level human warrior will start off with four body points because he is human. Because he is a warrior, his body point ratio is 1 build to 3 body. He may spend up to three build during that level to increase his body points by 9, thus ending him with 13 body points. Body points are rounded down. When a character has more than one profession, the character will always buy body points at the highest ratio, but will be limited by the lowest purchase rate of all classes.  For example, a Warrior has Body: 1 / 3 (3), and a Scholar has Body: 1 / 1 (2).  A Warrior / Scholar would be able to purchase Body at 3 Body for 1 Build, but could only spend 2 Build per level on Body.

Character Retraining

To reflect the manner in which knowledge and skills change over the course of a person’s life, and to allow players to revise their characters to adapt to changes brought about through role-play and development, Knight Realms permits a character to be edited by a process called retraining.

You may only retrain a character once, and the retraining must occur between events or before or after game-play concludes at an event, at the discretion of the Director and based on his availability to assist you. When you retrain your character, you are allowed to remove one third of the character’s spent build, to a maximum amount of sixty-six build.

You can remove skills or points from any profession or higher list. You can also remove profession lists or higher lists, with the exception of profession lists that require that a character begin play with them (e.g., Wild Mage). To remove a list, you must remove all skills dependent on that list; if a skill is not dependent on the list that you want to remove but is only available at a higher cost from the other source(s), then you cannot choose to retain the skill (even at the higher cost). Points that were purchased from the list must be removed entirely, too.

You must maintain pre-requisites for all dependent skills or higher lists that you do not remove. In other words, the lists, skills, and points that you choose to keep must satisfy all conditions of the rules that apply to your character possessing them. All changes that you choose to make as a function of retraining must be approved by the Director, who can deny any change for any reason at his discretion, regardless of the rules that govern the process stipulated here.

Once you have removed the desired spent build, it will be entered in the unspent build column of the character card and the retraining process will be complete.

Example: Fleximus Maximus has both the Acrobat and Warrior Monk profession lists, and no higher lists.  His player wishes to remove the Warrior Monk profession list, because Fleximus has developed into more of a rogue character and his player believes that the Warrior Monk profession and its philosophical outlook don’t fit any longer.

Fleximus’ character card has (among other things) Dodge and Willpower on it, which were purchased from the Warrior Monk profession list; Fleximus does not have Athletic Feat, the pre-requisite skill for Dodge on the Acrobat profession list. The following conditions apply to Fleximus’ retraining:

1. His player must remove Dodge if he wishes to remove the entire Warrior Monk profession list, since Fleximus does not have the pre-requisite for it on the Acrobat profession list.

2. His player must also remove Willpower in order to remove the Warrior Monk profession list, since it costs more build to purchase the skill from the Common profession list than the Warrior Monk profession list, and that would be the only remaining avenue for him to possess the skill.

3. Assuming that Fleximus has Weapon Proficiency +1 from the Acrobat profession list, he can keep the skill Trip - with a refund of one build - because the skill is available at a cheaper cost on a profession list that he is retaining, and because he has the pre-requisites for the skill on that profession list.

4. Finally, his player must remove any Body Points that were purchased from the Warrior Monk profession list, since the Acrobat profession list has a lesser ratio for them than Warrior Monk.