Marks, Skills, and Advancement thereof

The Difference between SKILLS and MARKS

Skills are practicable Actions that can improve incrementally. The improvements are not automatic; the Player must choose to do so. This option is usually afforded after selecting that Action in a Session and is improved when they have earned Progression Points when that Session ends. This improvement is called Intentional Progression, or more commonly, Progression. Intentional Progression also allows for occasional moments of Rapid Advances of Massive Progress, or RAMPS.
Marks are natural abilities granted by Race, and though they do advance, they do not benefit from RAMP. but generally do allow incremental advances

Starting Skills and Marks At Character Origination

The Passages depend on the development of each Player's Persona over time. In Dark Shards ( and therefore, in NYCOSRPG, Players may have EVERY MARK of their chosen Race they choose to have, and each Mark will have the associated foundational Base Value. Note that if they choose to bypass or disregard a Mark of the Race, it is lost (Marks are NOT Skills and cannot transfer status)
Then for Place and Caste, the Player may choose up to two Skills from each. At this point, therefore, they have at their disposal up to four skill slots to use, whether they take them from those lists or not. Finally, when they get to the WAYS, they may choose a number of skills, up to their Base CORE value, plus any Skill slots left not taken from Place and Caste.
These are their Origination Skills and have the appropriate Foundational Base Value.

Each Session: In-Game Skills accrual

Skills develop along the course of a Persona's life. Generally speaking, any Persona can attempt to do just about anything, with varying levels of success, just like in real life. For example, I can't sing an operetta or climb Vesuvius, but I could try to sing a melody or climb a steep hill. With that in mind, virtually anything can be attempted by a player in-game, to perhaps some tiny level of relative success. So mechanically, anything can be tried by the Player, even if it seems outrageous or impossible at first. There is, of course, an element of chance associated with the possibility of something one does once becoming a practical Skill. Here is how that occurs.
Most of the time, the Director will grant many Skills Progression Points at the end of a Session for the Players to improve the Skills they already have or create new ones. The Players must use these Progression points immediately; they do not 'carry over' from one Session to the next if awarded. There are certain times when a Director may hold off on granting Progression Points, but usually, it will be because a Feature Scene is still in progress. More on that later.
IMPROVING SKILLS: For Skills one already has and used in the Session, they may spend a Progression point to increase the success percentage by one. Skills may ONLY progress by one per Session unless the Director deems otherwise.
ADDING SKILLS: Players may add new Skills with the approval of the Director, when
The Player uses an unspent Skill Progression Point from a Session, and one of the following applies:

• The Player can reason how the Persona came up with the Skill Idea in-game, or as a derivation of Skills the Persona already has,
• The Persona "purchases" a Treatise on the Skill from a reasonably available resource (Usually towns and cities have lots) that the GM makes available
• The Persona gets such a Treatise from the loot of an adventure or other in-game methods.
• The Persona finished a Training Period for a Trained Skill and accomplished the Training tasks.

Players earn one Progression Point per in-game day, another for each Feature Scene they complete, and one for use of Skills Checks in a scene. The Director affords the Skill Progression points at the end of a Session. Sometimes, a Session will end in the middle of a Feature Scene. In that case, award them immediately when that Feature Scene ends.
Skills can be Created, Learned by Treatises, or Taught in Training.

• PROGRESSION - Roleplaying Method

Improving skills that were a part of the roleplay, the Persona spends one Earned Progression Point to advance by 1%. The Director determines how many different skills may improve in this fashion, depending on the roleplay aspect (In other words, players may not earn Progression unless they work the use of the Skill into the RP). So, one cannot say, "I will do x so that I can get better - that is called practice. And practice doesn't improve a skill, per se, unless it is in the actual activity in-game. Of course, the Director can allow such if it makes sense.

• TREATISE, TRACTS, or TRAINING - Purchase/Redemption Method

Specific Skills progress during the game through new Skills-Treatises the Persona purchased or found in a treasure trove. or Tracts, provided by organizations seeking to increase membership. Treatises and Tracts have a silver value. Generally, that value is 20x local community daily pay rate (so 20 Dwages on Nycos), and Training is by appointment (RP time) and a Gold price. Generally, it matches the silver rate (on Nycos, 20 Kwan). Treatises result in a skill that starts at CORE value and Training, once completed, at BASE value.
Treatises discovered in treasure troves will be 'random' - but can be traded with a treatise-bondsman on a one for one basis, assuming the requested Treatise is available, of course.

• PLAYER - CREATION Method

Players may create ORIGINAL skills at the cost of one Skill Progression each. GM approval required, of course. Player-created Skills always use CORE value, not Base to begin, but get a BONUS RAMP when it meets or surpasses BASE for that Skill. (see the RAMP section below for how that works).

Ramps and Bonus Points

The RAMP process is in the sidebar, right side. Ramps always occur at the end of a Feature Scene or a session, NOT in an active Feature Scene. Ramps occur at 10-point increments (10,20,30, etc.)Ramps always occur at the end of a Feature Scene or a session, NOT in an active Feature Scene. They also occur when a Treatise-derived or Created Skill reaches the Base value for its associated Foundation.
If two or more skills become ramp-worthy (they hit the Incremental value in the same Session), Ramp them, one at a time.

In no case does a player ever 'lose' a Persona Ramp opportunity because of 'missing the timing.'

If a player forgets to Ramp, he should do so at the next reasonable opportunity. The Director and all players in the Cadre should witness the die roll.
If a Director sees fit, he can allow players to trade Bonus Points (BPs) for Progression Points, but he is NOT required to do so.

The RAMP Process

Many times in Passages, a die roll will use the RAMP process to determine a result.
Passages checks are percentile in nature; the values attained will thus fall between 1 and 95 (leaving a statistically significant 5% for extreme and unexpected situations). the Step of the ramp is how much change is made in the value per success.  In most cases, the RAMP will have an Initial Value of 5.
Having established the Set Value from the default or proscribed Initial value, the acronymic RAMP process can be accomplished as follows:

• Roll against the Set Value. Roll percentage dice the target being equal or higher than the Value.
• Assess the rolled number. If it is equal to or higher than the Set Value, continue to the next step. If it is not higher than the Set Value, then the Value is "SOLID" and the process for that RAMP ends. Record the SOLID Value in the appropriate Skill location, and the STEP (the number of die rolls you made successfully before the Value became solid).
  
• Modify the Set Value, increasing it by the Step of the Ramp. The Step of RAMPs varies in range from 1 to 10, with most being 5. Once the Value has been Modified, then continue.
• Proceed until all Set Values are SOLID.