Olympia PBEM

Chapter 12: Skills

Skills represent knowledge that Olympian characters may know. Shipbuilding, thievery, kidnaping, training soldiers, castle building, mixing potions, and forging magical artifacts are just a few of the possible actions which skills allow a character to perform.

Skills are divided into category skills and sub-skills within those categories. The skill categories are:

num  name                       time to learn
---  ----                       -------------
120  Shipcraft                  one week
121  Combat                     one week
122  Stealth                    two weeks
123  Beastmastery               two weeks
124  Persuasion                 two weeks
125  Construction               one week
126  Alchemy                    two weeks
128  Forestry                   one week
129  Mining                     one week

There are also six schools of magic. For more details on learning and casting magical spells, see Magical Arts

The category skill must be learned before any of the sub-skills within the category may be known.

With each skill learned, the player will receive a lore sheet describing background information about the skill and how it may be used. Most skills are invoked with the `use skill' order. The skill lore sheets will give specific information about arguments to use and and requirements or limitations for using the skill.

The lore sheets for the skill categories list some of the skills available for study within the category.

For instance, a noble wishing to undertake the study of Shipcraft would first learn the category skill with the study command:

    study 120

The Shipcraft lore sheet lists some of the sub-skills available for building and sailing ships. One of these is Sailing [9502], the skill required to control a ship on the ocean. The aspiring captain could then order:

    study 9502

Once Sailing [9502] is known, the lore sheet describing its usage will appear in the player's turn report.

To begin study of a skill requires the following:

• A source of instruction
• Payment of a fee for necessary materials
• Payment of Noble Points to learn advanced skills