Build Points

Experience Points are automatically converted to Build Points (BP), which you then use to buy skills for your character. The amount of Experience Points needed to buy a Build Point is based on your level. Your level is determined by how many Build Points your character has. It takes 10 Build Points to gain a level.

All characters start with 15 Build Points that are used for initial skill purchase. Therefore, 1st level is from 15 to 24 BP.

Levels

Your level determines how many Body Points you get and how many Experience Points you need to get a Build Point. The table above shows the character’s level based on the total Build Points. It also shows the number of XP needed for the next BP, and the Body Point value per class (fighter, rogue, scholar, and templar) for the level attained.

The chart on the next page allows you to determine your BP total based on your XP, and also shows how many XP you need to make a BP based on your current XP total and your level.

Skills

The NERO game system is based on the purchase of skills. The learned skill allows you to perform a particular task or group of tasks. Many can only be used a limited number of times per day. Some skills allow you to improve your abilities when the skill is bought multiple times. Be sure to carefully read the skill descriptions.

In any case where a skill can be used only a certain number of times per day (such as Critical Slays or spells), you must replenish tags for the skill each day. On a full weekend event, the “day” runs 24 hours from when the game starts (approximately) and so the time you may pick up new per-day skill tags is usually at 6 p.m. This is known as the start of the game-day. On an adventure day module, the game-day starts before the module in which you participate. An adventure day module that runs for more than one real day is considered the same game-day.

The Skill System

NERO is a fantasy game. By that, we mean that it is a compilation of rules and customs by which we allow people to simulate doing things that they cannot really do. The most obvious of these things is magic. Very few of us can actually conjure up magical forces to affect the world around us!

You should not be fooled into thinking that your personal skill equates to the character skill it represents. For instance, we have weapon skills. You must have One Handed Edged weapon skill before you are allowed to use a sword. Many people have asked if they can at least pick up a sword and block blows with it—after all, anyone could make the attempt, could they not? The answer is no, in our game they cannot.

The level of skill represented by the skill bought can be considerably different from that of your average player. It represents a skill that has required hours of practice a day for months to gain. When such an individual is faced with a person totally unskilled in weapon use, they would strike the person down with ease. The player’s skill may be somewhat less than that of the character, however, so the restrictions are used to simulate the skills.

Similarly, the proficiency system represents a level of skill that the player might never obtain. We use it as a way to artificially give a player’s character, no matter what his or her real world skill, an advantage over another whose character is not as skilled. It allows a player of indifferent skill to defeat or hold their own against a player of much greater skill.

This is, after all, a fantasy. A person should be able to acquire skills that allow their character to do things that they themselves could not do in real life.

Teaching and Learning Skills

Your character will start with 15 Build Points which you can use to buy whatever skills you want. After that, most chapters require you to locate another character in-game to teach you the new skill. The way this is done varies from chapter to chapter, so be sure to check with your local game when your character is ready to learn new skills.

It is very unusual to not be able to find someone in-game able to teach you any skill you want. There are always at least a few NPCs who have the skills needed (sometimes they are one-time-only NPCs traveling through town for that specific purpose). If completely lost as to where to go to learn a skill, your character should always start with the appropriate guilds.

In addition, there are two exceptions to all of these rules: The skill Craftsman does not have to have a teacher since it is primarily a roleplaying skill and there are so many possible crafts to learn; and racial skills (such as Resist Sleep) do not have to be taught. However, in-game, your character should still try to learn these skills from someone else for roleplaying purposes.

Note that even though a skill is “taught” in-game, the character will not be allowed to use the skill until the character has been updated in the NERO database so that you will have a character card showing that skill. In essence, this means that you should choose your skills and find a teacher even before you earn the BP.

These rules do not apply to spells and alchemical recipes. To learn a spell or alchemical recipe, you must have the proper spell book or recipe book. You can actually have spells and recipes in your book that you do not yet have the capacity to use.

Example: Ichabod heads to the Mages’ Guild and pays them to copy the spell Dragon’s Breath into his spell book. Even though it is in his book, Ichabod will not be able to cast that spell until he learns an 8th level Spell Slot—and a Spell Slot is a skill that must be taught to him using the system described next.

Spell Slots

There are special rules for spell acquisition that are unlike most other skills in the game. When you purchase a 1st level spell from the skill list, what you are actually buying is the ability to memorize and cast one 1st level spell. This is known as a Spell Slot.

You may memorize any 1st level spell that you have in your spellbook and store it in this slot. Only one 1st level spell may be stored there per day. Once that spell has been cast, the slot must remain empty until the start of the next game-day at which time it can store another spell.

This is not the same as having a 1st level spell in your spell book. It is possible for you to have three 1st level spells in your spell book, but have only one 1st level spell slot. You must choose which of the three spells you wish to store in that slot for the day. If you have several spell slots of a given level, you can fill them with any combination of spells (of the appropriate level) that you know.

You must buy spell slots in a proportional pyramid fashion. If you wish to buy a spell slot of a particular level, then you must have two more spell slots on the level below.

In other words, you must have a minimum of one spell slot difference between any adjoining levels and a maximum of two spell slots difference. If you wish to buy your first 2nd level spell slot, you must have at least two 1st level spell slots already, but you may not have three.

Imagine the pyramid as needing the proper support to prevent it from collapsing from being top heavy.

Once you have purchased four spell slots of any particular level, then you need not buy any additional spell slots of that level to complete the pyramid. Imagine now the pyramid being an obelisk with a broad support and a pointed top (like the Washington Monument).

You may buy more than four spell slots per level but there must always be at least as many spell slots below that level in order to support the new amount. Further, the pyramid must be constantly building, which means that the level above must have only one less than the amount you are buying.

In other words, to buy a fifth 2nd level spell slot, you must have a fifth 1st level spell slot and a fourth 3rd level spell slot.

Example of Pyramid Rules: Enchan-to the mage has a 3rd level spell slot, two 2nd level spell slots, and three 1st level spell slots. His pyramid is fine (see figure one).

He wants to learn a 4th level slot eventually. He must build the foundation of the pyramid so it can support a 4th level spell.

First, he buys another 1st level slot and then another 2nd level slot. He must next purchase another 3rd level slot (see figure two).

Now his pyramid is ready for the new spell level. The foundation of support for the 4th level spell has been made by making sure there are two 3rd level spell slots below. (The foundation for the two 3rd level slots was made when he had three 2nd level slots, and so on down the line.)

He can buy his first 4th level spell slot (figure three).

If Enchanto wants to buy a 5th level slot, he can do so without having to buy any more 1st level slots because four is the maximum required. He must support the 5th level slot by buying a 2nd, 3rd, and a 4th in that order to make the pyramid (figure four).

Enchanto now has a perfect pyramid again. If he wants, he can stop buying 2nd level spells now, as four is the maximum required. His pyramid will then progress with the purchase of a 3rd level spell slot, and then a 4th, 5th, and then his first 6th level spell slot.

If Enchanto has all the slots listed in the pattern above (figure four) and then decides that he wants a fifth 2nd level spell slot, he must first earn another 1st level slot to support the 2nd level spell slot. After he buys the 1st level spell slot, he can get the 2nd level spell slot he wanted. The next spell slot he will have to buy will be the 3rd level slot (see figure five).

The pyramid must continue to be built and it must be built from the ground up! Note that the pattern is very set as to which spell slots have to be next purchased unless you wish to buy more than four spell slots of any one level.

There is potentially no limit to the number of spells per level as long as this progression is maintained. If Enchanto wanted to keep “bottoming out” his pyramid, he could end up with a pyramid that has nine 1st level spells, eight 2nd level spells, seven 3rd level spells, and so on up to one 9th level spell.

Skill Costs

Below and on the following pages are the charts listing the Build Point costs of skills. Each skill has four cost columns associated with it: F (fighter), R (rogue), S (scholar) and T (templar). Note that all classes may buy any skill; they just might have to pay more BP.

When buying skills, you should be aware of the prerequisites as well. For instance, to buy Weapon Proficiency, you must first have a weapon skill to be proficient in and four Critical Attack skills. To learn how to cast celestial spells, you must first know how to Read and Write and Read Magic.

A good way to design your character is to imagine him or her at a higher level and work backwards. Figure out which skills you would like to have and how many Build Points you will have to spend for the skills. Try it with different classes to see which costs the least.

As a first level character, you should not try to specialize too much; get the basics so you can jump right into the game without being too limited in your skill range. For scholars, pure spells is recommended, although some prefer a small weapon for parrying. Going pure spells allows you to get a 4-2-1 pyramid. Templars should get a weapon skill first and then work on spells. Fighters should concentrate on the weapon skills. Rogues, being jacks-of-all-trades, are more free formed and unique to each individual so choose as you will.

Production Skills

To create game items such as potions, scrolls, elixirs, weapons, traps, and armor, you must first buy the appropriate skill with your Build Points. Each time you buy the skill, you get four “Production Points” to spend each game-day.

Production points do not carry over from day to day or event to event and cannot be transferred. Nor can you combine your Production Points with another player.

To make an item, go to logistics with your character card showing your skill level. You must also pay a copper piece per production point. This game money represents the raw materials and other costs associated with making the item.

All production items have an expiration date. These items last 12 months after being created. The expiration date of a particular production point item is known by anyone who holds the item and roleplays an examination of it for at least three seconds.

The charts on the next page show what can be made with Production Points in specific skills. To actually make an item on these lists, you will have to determine the item you wish to make and then make sure that you have the Production Points necessary.

Workshops: It is possible to become more productive in making Production Point items if you have access to a workshop that specializes in making them. Everyone who uses the workshop doubles their base Production Points, thus making it possible to produce more of an item or more complex items than normally possible.

There are specialized workshops for (a) making alchemical elixirs and solutions, (b) making and repairing armor, (c) creating potions, (d) creating scrolls, (e) making and repairing weapons, and (f) making and arming traps. You can purchase these specialized workshops, usually for 25 Gold each, using the workshop for your own production and those of others who arrange it with you in-game.

Production labs / workshops are an OOG logistical convention. Labs / workshops cannot be moved, stolen, destroyed, or accessed from remote locations by players. A chapter’s plot committee is, of course, able to move, steal, destroy or allow/deny access to a player’s production lab / workshop if they feel the need to.

A workshop is capable of supporting 400 Production Points each game-day, which means it can double up to 200 base Production Points each game-day.

A maximum of 10 characters can use a workshop every day (there is only so much elbow room in a workshop) and the characters might not make full use of the workshop’s resources because of the limit of how much they can personally produce.

Realize that any items created through the use of a workshop must still be paid for in Production Costs in full.

For example: Igor the Mage, who has Create Scroll five times, normally can create 20 Production Points of scrolls. At the cost of four Production Points per the spell level inscribed on the scroll, he can make five 1st level scrolls or one 5th level scroll or any combination in-between.

Igor finds out that Harold the Wondrous has a Scroll-making workshop and will sell people time in his lab. Igor then works out a deal with Harold to use his workshop. Igor must come up with a total of 40 coppers to pay for Production Costs, which he then gives to logistics, because he is making a total of 40 Production Points worth of scrolls.

If Igor later learns another Create Scroll skill and goes to Harold to work out a deal to use the workshop again, the Igor player has used up two workshop spaces.

Igor can always opt to only double 20 base Production Points if Harold plans to charge him a great deal more for taking up room that another customer could put to better use. He can then use his leftover 4 Production Points in the usual manner.

Goblin stamps can be used to purchase production items. The scale is available at your local chapter. In all cases, the maximum number of items that can be purchased with goblin stamps is equal to 100 production points each calendar month. These items will expire in one year after being purchased, just like all other production items. These items must be marked “Local Chapter Only”, and, therefore, are usable only in the chapter where the goblin stamps are earned. Once awarded, Goblin Stamps cannot be transferred to another player in any way. This means that any group our single person donating props can have the goblin stamps distributed in any way they choose, as long as it is at the time of donation. If used to ‘buy back’ deaths for a character, goblin stamps can never be used to buy back the first two deaths. (In fact, no in-game effect can ever remove the first two deaths from a character). Some chapters have a policy where staff members cannot play in the chapter where they are part of staff. If these staff members are redeeming goblin stamps for production items, the items will be marked “Unrestricted”. However, they are still subject to the same maximum redemption limits.

The following charts give the costs (in copper and Production Points) for creating items. Note that for traps, mechanical traps cost 1 Production Point per point of damage—with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 80. Gas traps cost one point per the Production Point of the gas. The production point cost for a “quiver” of Arrows / Bolts (quantity 20) is 4. Arrows are reusable. Like all weapons, a player may only carry as many arrow tags to match the physical representations he is carrying. Arrows not picked up will disintegrate after 5 minutes have passed.