How do you 'Level Up'?
Given how the game is played in Ávra, you may be curious about how a player levels up their character. Seeing as there are no 'stats' to grow numerically, character progression is performed quite differently.
Progression in this game is, as most things are, narratively focused. Your progression does not effect any 'magical numbers' tied to arbitrary stats, your progression will be based upon the actions you perform during the game, and how well you perform them. There are two ways in which character progression is performed: Active progression and passive progression.
Active Progression
Active progression refers to character progression that is performed
during gameplay. If you remember the "BASIC ACTION GAMEPLAY FLOW" chart on the
Rules and How to Play page, you will see that there is a 'reward' for rolling a natural high. A natural high, as a reminder, is rolling the highest number on a given die, for example a 20 on a d20. When you roll a natural high for ANY action you perform, you will begin active character progression with the DM before ending your turn. This will involve you choosing to recieve a new skill, or upgrading one you already possess.
If you choose to recieve a new skill, the DM will create a new starter skill based around the action you performed. For example, lets assume you rolled a natural high on an action involving attacking your opponent with a dagger. The new skill would revolve around attacking in general, utilizing daggers or possibly any stabbing type action. The same thing is true of non violent actions your character performs, as well. If you were to roll a natural high on a conversational check to intimidate an NPC, your new skill would revolve around intimidation or possibly a charisma based skill.
If you choose to upgrade a skill, you must choose one you possess that is of the same nature as the action that you rolled the natural high. If none of your skills are determined to be of the same nature, you may pick one of your choosing. For more information on how upgrading skills is performed, see Passive progression below.
Passive Progression
Passive progression is any character progression done before or after a game session, but not during. Again, if you refer to the "BASIC ACTION GAMEPLAY FLOW" chart on the
Rules and How to Play page, you will see that failing a roll involves an action called "Learning from your mistakes". What this means is that every failed roll results in 1 skill point being obtained. During the time BEFORE or AFTER a gameplay session, you may spend these skill points to upgrade a possesed skill. You may NOT use skill points to 'purchase' a new skill, as new skills can only be optained as Active Progression. The rules of upgrading a skill during Passive Progression are also the same rules if a player chooses to upgrade a skill during Active progression as well.
The process of upgrading a skill is simple, and handled completely by the DM. All skills have varying levels of effectivness, called ranks. There are 3 ranks to every skill:
Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. This means you can level up any skill twice before reaching the maximum rank of a skill. The DM will adjust a skill based on their own discretion taking into account a few things: Past gameplay 'luck', character lore and how many skill points you decide to spend to upgrade that skill. There is no set number of skill points to upgrade a skill, instead it is up to the players discretion to spend however many skill points they wish to upgrade the skill, with this being a part of the determination of how much more powerful a skill can become between ranks.an example of how a skill can upgrade between the three ranks is below:
- Beginner
Heavy Punch: You have naturally meaty fists which aid in the force of your strikesRoll a d20, must get 15 or higher to add +1 to an attack. Natural 20 is +2
- Intermediate
Heavy Punch: You have naturally meaty fists which aid in the force of your strikesRoll a d20, must get 10 or higher to add +1 to an attack. Natural 20 is +2
- Advance
Heavy Punch: You have naturally meaty fists which aid in the force of your strikesRoll a d20, must get 10 or higher to add +2 to an attack. Natural 20 is +4
As you can see, each time the skill is leveled up, either the dice or effect is advanced incrementally. Depending on the skill, both may be advanced during the same upgrade.
It is important that players keep track of all failed rolls during gameplay, as it is their responsibility to do so. It is suggested that you utilize the notes or journal feature within the World Anvil Character cards to keep track of your skill points obtained during gameplay. However you decide to keep track of your skill points, it is also your responsiblity to utilize the time before or after a gameplay session to progress your character, so don't forget to spend those points!
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