Guide
Progression
Each hero has one character level and one health value, shared by travel, quests, and combat. Skills and talents are separate tracks. A profile’s master level is something else again: it only sizes the shared travel reserves.
Character level Implemented
Each hero has one character level, one character XP total, and one current health value. Character XP from eligible travel, discoveries, quests, expedition rewards, and combat enters the same pool. Energy-funded travel earns the route’s normal travel XP.
Older rules that required separate walking, exploration, and combat quotas have been replaced. A Pacifist can level through peaceful activities without filling a combat quota.
An authored level table sets XP targets and base statistics. Overflow can carry through several level-ups in one grant. Each level-up restores full health and awards any talent pick due at that level. The default talent cadence is one pick every three character levels, starting at level 3. Class selection grants an additional one-time graduation pick.
Progression is limited by the current story’s level cap. The base Academy trainee cap is 5. Chapter and arc overrides can raise it. Excess character XP at the active cap is discarded rather than saved for the next chapter. Activities can still be useful for items or skills when the character XP bar is capped.
Character level, skill level, talent rank, class grants, and master level are different numbers. Master level is the sum of hero character levels, retained at its highest value, and it determines shared step and Energy capacity.
Statistics
| Statistic | Role |
|---|---|
| Health / HP | How much damage the hero can take. Current HP persists between the adventure and battles. |
| Armour | A defense attacks may need to meet. |
| Attack | Bonus used to land applicable weapon attacks. |
| Weapon damage | Damage supplied by the equipped weapon and modifiers. |
| Body | Defense used by effects that test bodily resistance. |
| Mind | Defense used by mental and related saving throws. |
| Speed | Defense used by effects that test reactions or agility. |
| Initiative | Bonus to the roll that determines turn order. |
| Movement | Movement allowance in a battle activation. |
| Resistances, immunities, vulnerabilities | Modify incoming damage of particular types. |
Base level statistics, class modifiers, and equipped item effects contribute to the character sheet. Cosmetic appearance does not.
Health and recovery
Damage sustained in tactical combat returns with the hero to the adventure. Healing items and abilities restore health up to the effective maximum. Level-up fully heals the character.
A tactical defeat currently revives the hero at 20% of maximum HP, rounded up to at least 1. This is recovery after defeat, not permadeath. Encounter-specific consequences can still apply. Walking does not heal you.
Skills Implemented
Skills have their own XP and levels, separate from character XP. The current five skill definitions have a maximum level of 50. That maximum does not mean every proposed reward through level 50 is authored or functional.
| Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Exploration | Reading the land and noticing hidden paths. It contributes to implemented hidden-path checks. |
| Herbalism | Finding useful plants and advancing plant-gathering activity. |
| Mining | Working stone and ore from the landscape. |
| Woodcutting | Gathering and shaping wood from the trail. |
| Crafting | Unlocking recipes and expanding the workbench’s ingredient capacity. |
Some skill milestone descriptions refer to future locations or shortcuts. Treat a tooltip as an intended unlock only when the corresponding content and rule are actually in the game.
Talents Implemented
Talent picks let a hero specialise. A pick can learn a talent or increase an existing talent’s rank up to its authored maximum. Talents are distinct from class powers, passives, and feats.
| Talent | Current effect per rank |
|---|---|
| Walker | +10% character XP from travel, including Energy-funded travel |
| Investigator | +10% character XP from quest, discovery, and expedition reward sources |
| Brawler | +10% character XP from combat |
| Teacher’s Pet | +10% skill XP |
| Pack Rat | +2 bag slots |
| Procrastinator | +1 Fight Bank slot |
| Scavenger | +8% chance of an additional loot roll |
| Coward | +1 to the flee roll, +10 percentage points of fight XP on a successful escape, and +15 percentage points of flee-item chance. The current talent has five ranks. |
Coward affects ordinary flee checks. The Pacifist policy still omits combat XP and battle loot. Source-specific XP bonuses still feed the single character XP total. Fractional character XP bonuses accumulate, so small repeated grants can add up.