Skills

Skills are a character's physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities within Silent Heaven. They serve to augment your roleplay by allowing you to do special things in the town, such as finding hidden pathways, cooking delicious meals, or having accuracy with a gun. Skills do not encompass every aspect of human knowledge and ability; rather, they focus on what will be of use to your character in Silent Heaven.

To see your character's current skills, type SKILLS:

    SKILLS

You'll see a complete list of your character's skills, including each skill's Name, Rank, XP Cost to level up, Primary Aspect, and Secondary Aspect. Here's an example:

        (Sec PRI)    NAME        RANK          XP for level up
         Con MOX     Labor       Good           40 XP

This skill's name is Labor and its rank is Good. A rank is a word describing the character's level of this skill. The first letter of each rank is a letter grade of that skill. The letter grades are:

       Level  Name           Level  Name          Level  Name
         0    Klutz            4    Good            8    Competitive
         1    Juvenile         5    Focused         9    Brilliant
         2    Initiate         6    Experienced    10    Astonishing
         3    Hopeful          7    Dedicated      11+   A+

The max level a character can reach via XP is level 10 (Astonishing). There are many in-game ways to temporarily raise or lower this level.

To level up a skill, type LEVELUP (skillname). For example, to level up Labor, type:

    LEVELUP LABOR

Provided you have the XP to spend, you'll get a message like this:

    You spent 40 XP to level up Labor and are now ranked Focused!

With Labor leveled up, you character can lift, carry, and throw better. When you type SKILLS again, you'll see the new rank:

        (Sec PRI)    NAME        RANK          XP for level up
         Con MOX     Labor       Focused        60 XP

A skill at level 0 is a weakness and cannot be leveled up.

To the left of the skill name, there are two curiously colored abbreviations. These are Aspects. Aspects reduce the cost of levelling up.

ASPECTS

Each skill has a Primary Aspect (shown in allcaps) and a Secondary Aspect (shown in lowercase). By leveling up skills that have a matching Primary or Secondary Aspect, you'll notice a reduction in the XP cost to level up those skills after every 10 total levels among all those skills. Suppose you have:

Labor: Level 5 (Primary Aspect is Moxie)
Climb: Level 1 (Primary Aspect is Moxie)
Performance: Level 4 (Secondary Aspect is Moxie)

You've reached a total of 10 levels in Moxie, so Labor and Climb get a 10% discount on their XP costs to level up. Performance doesn't get the discount, because it only has Moxie as a Secondary Aspect. Now, consider this skill:

Melee: Level 5 (Primary AND Secondary Aspects are both Moxie)

This is a special skill that has Moxie as BOTH Aspects. This means it will count double its level towards that Aspect. At level 5, it contributes 10 levels to Moxie. Including the 10 levels in Moxie from Labor, Climb, and Performance, you now have 20 levels total in Moxie and get a 20% discount on Labor, Climb, and Melee. In the example of Labor above costing 60 XP, a 20% discount would save you 12 XP, meaning the final cost will show as only 48 XP.

The seven Aspects of your character are:

   Condition - One's capacity for physical and emotional well-being.
       Moxie - One's strength of self-worth and ability to act.
   Precision - The ability to discern using all five senses.
   Athletics - One's control and coordination of the physical self.
     Empathy - The ability to share in the emotions of those around.
     Insight - The ability to consider the past and the known.
   Foresight - The ability to consider the future and the unknown.

If you wish to focus on a specific Aspect, you can see all skills of a specific aspect by typing SKILLS (Aspect). For example, to see all the Moxie skills, type:

    SKILLS MOXIE

You can also use the first 3 letters of any aspect instead of its full name:

    SKILLS MOX

For details on a specific skill, type HELP (skillname). For example, to learn what you can do with the Labor skill, type:

    HELP LABOR

CHARACTER GROWTH & MAX XP

As your character develops, consider spending XP on skills related to what your character has been doing recently. This way, you can feel a natural growth to your character as their storylines move forward. Skills are meant to support your RP, not supplant it. We urge you to focus your energy on roleplaying and collaborative storytelling instead of crunching numbers.

Your character can earn a lifetime maximum of 2,000 XP. Once your character hits 2,000 XP, it's time to start wrapping up your character's storylines in preparation for their final plot. You'll enjoy at least 3 months at Max XP while Storytellers work with you for a suitable ending for your character. A final plot determines the ultimate fate of your character. Your character could make it out of Silent Heaven alive, or succumb to the town and perish, or worse. For more information on XP and sunsetting, see HELP STATS.

"But what is the most efficient path to levelling up? How do I minmax?"

That's up to you, depending on your playstyle. If you want an easier early-game (your character's first 500 XP), ignore Aspect bonuses. Invest only in the skills you want to excel in. If you want an easier late-game (your character's last 500 XP), focus on Aspect bonuses. To do so, spend your XP on cheap skills so that you get large discounts on the skills you want to master. This will put you at a disadvantage early on in terms of skill dedication, but skills can only take you so far. Remember that roleplaying is the crux of Silent Heaven, and that the best-told stories aren't about "winning."

Category: HELP 3 (Character)

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