In order to become proficient in a particular skill, a character needs to
acquire levels for that skill. There is no upper level limit for any
skill listed. All characters start out at level 0 in all skills. Before
a character can acquire any skills, he needs to get some experience
points to spend. Experience points are issued by the game Master (GM)
after every adventure. For a description on doing adventures see the
section on adventures above.
Once a character has some experience points to spend, he first must decide
what skill he wants. Consult the skill list table to see what skills are
available. All characters must start their skills from level 1.
To get level 1 in a skill use the number from the Start column. For
instance, Projectile Pistol costs 3 experience points for level 1. For
additional levels, take the level desired, multiply it by the number in
the Per Level column, and round down. For instance, level 2 in
projectile pistol would cost 1.3 * 2 or 2.6, or 2 experience points. A
character cannot skip levels, he must proceed level by level. If a
character wants to get level 3 in the Melee skill, he must first
acquire level 1, then level 2, followed by level 3. To get level 1, he
looks at the skill list table under Melee, and then to the column labeled
Start. For Melee, this number is 3, so it costs 3 experience points to get
level 1 in melee.
For instance to get level 3 in Melee from level 0, would require 3 +
(1.7*2) + (1.7*3) or 11 experience points. The three comes from the To
Start column of the Skill table, and the 1.7 comes from the per level
column. Note that you always round down before adding the numbers
together, so the 1.7*2 would be 3, not 3.4. Once a character has levels
in a skill, he just goes up one by one. For example, a character has
level 4 in martial arts, and wants to go up to level 5. Looking in the Per
Level column of the skill table, shows a 2. You then take the level they
want (5), and multiply that by the number in the Per Level column (2),
and get the number of experience points required which is 10.
The DM must also make sure the character can ligitamently acquire the skills
he desires. For instance, a character may have the experience points, but
he cannot suddenly acquire a mechanical skill in the middle of the
desert. Any weaponry skills just require some practice, however, the
character must have the weapon type before he can acquire skills for it. All
building skills must be taught by another person with at least level a 10.
This will typically cost something.
For example, a character wants to acquire some levels in electronics. He has
17 experience points that he acquired from various adventures.
According to the experience point chart, level 1 costs 4 experience points
to start, leaving the character with 13 points to spend. Level 2 costs 5
points, and level 3 costs 7 points, for a total cost of 12 additional
points. That plus the additional 4 for starting gives a grand total of
16 experience points, leaving 1 left over. Starting from level 0, and
going to level 3 is a significant jump, and the DM would need to inform
the character that he needs to have someone teach him the skills before he
has them to use. For such low levels, the character can take classes or
such, and acquire the skills. For the above example the DM should charge
about 500 to 1500 credits. After that, the character can advance on his
own.