Training

Training is provided by various in character organisations, chiefly the Bastion, an unaligned institute of learning that offers instruction to people of all factions. Other groups exist, some secret and some public, including institutions within individual factions.

These organisations are always facilitated by a training referee, a staff member who logs participation and tracks progress – usually while also playing a tutor non player character in the game – although most organisations also make use of player volunteers to support and oversee activities.

Training Objectives

Training can provide any of the standard general or archetype skills, some unique skills are only available through a specific organisation, or improvements in a character’s existing archetype skills. What it cannot do is allow a character to invent their own abilities – characters must choose a skill or improvement from a predefined list offered by the organisation training them.

Registering for Training

To begin training, a character must find an organisation that teaches the ability they want to learn, and register with the training referee. The referee will then discuss available abilities with them, tell them the character point value of the ability and a likely timescale for completing training, and open a project.

Most trained abilities have prerequisites, including certain skills or a certain skill level, which the character must meet before learning them.

All training is tracked by study units. By default, characters are assumed to be spending the full 5 study units every day on one project, but if a character is pursuing multiple projects, whether training or research, they will have to decide how to split their 5 study units between them.

Training Sessions

Every organisation holds one or more training sessions per day at posted times. Sessions generally last around an hour. To spend study units, a character must be logged in by the attending staff member, and take part in the proffered activity. A trainee need only attend one session per day to spend their study units, although they may attend more if they wish.

Training sessions take many forms:

• Magical or technical characters may prefer to attend lectures, symposiums, debates or demonstrations, generally led by other players; aside from training, this can often convey valuable insights into the cosmology of the world (tutors can also sometimes be wrong, providing the opportunity to uncover new truths).

• More martial characters, in turn, may be more comfortable drilling, or playing in tactical games or boardgames; aside from training, these sessions can help the player hone their real-world skills in combat or tactics.

It’s not strictly necessary for the sessions a character attends to directly relate to the skill they’re trying to learn. It’s an extreme example, but a character can spend Study Units on the Body Development skill by playing chess – perhaps the mental discipline aids them in their physical training! Players are invited to work up their own rationale for why a particular session grants insight into the skill they’re learning.

Above all, training sessions should be fun, at least to those attending. The session represents in character effort, but LARP is still a hobby, and we’d much rather have you playing king of the hill for half an hour than doing fifty press-ups in armour.

Completing the Training

On meeting the study units target, the character will be awarded the new ability, which will appear either on their character card next event or via an individual card for that ability. If the ability doesn’t appear in the rulebook, the player may also be given a lore sheet or card with the mechanics of their ability printed on it for reference.

Skills learned through training are always permanent, requiring no upkeep, and have a point value counting against the character’s points cap.