04 Progression

Because the Academy environment is grueling, the ultimate currency for progression is Time in fiction. Growth comes from study, danger, relationships, and hard breakthroughs.

1. The Daily Time Slots

Each day is divided into 3 Time Slots:

• Morning (Standard Studying): Dedicated to Academy classes, structured magical theory, and core academics.
• Afternoon (Hybrid): Students are free to use Academy facilities, socialise/network, or begin their own activities.
• Night (Exploring): Dedicated to progressing the plot, off-campus activities, or resting.

Every slot you spend huddled in a library or sweating in a training room is a slot not spent tracking down cultists or traversing dangerous areas.

2. Study Points (SP) - "The Grind"

Study Points represent repeated training, classes, supervised drills, and practical shaping work.

How to Earn SP:

• Session Reward: 2 to 3 SP per session (representing a week or two of in-game studying/surviving).

• Base Study Yield: Spending a Time Slot studying alone or attending a standard class grants 1 SP towards a specific goal.

What SP Buys (The Costs):

• Increase an Attribute (Mental, Physical, Social, Magical): New Rating × 3 SP.
• Increase a Core School (1-5): New Rating × 4 SP. This advances that school's Tiered Technique Glyph access.
• Increase an active Specialization Doctrine (1-5): New Rating × 4 SP.
• Research Matrix Thesis (Downtime): 1 to 3 SP depending on scope, then trigger Research Matrix.
• Stabilization Work: spend 1 SP to convert a completed provisional glyph clock into stable field use if fiction supports proper training context.

3. Insight Points (IP) - "The Epiphany"

If SP is time, IP is breakthroughs. You cannot become an Archmage just by sitting in a library for 100 years; you have to push your limits, fight for your life, and uncover the secrets of the world. IP is a rare, narrative currency.

How to Earn IP:

• Solving a Mystery: Discovering a major clue.

• Surviving a Deadly Threat: Defeating or surviving an encounter with a boss-level monster, or an Archmage.

• Major Milestones: 1 IP awarded at the end of a highly successful session.

What IP Buys (The Costs):

• Unlock a Specialization Doctrine (1 IP): Requires Level 3 in parent Core School.
• Research Breakthrough (1 IP + SP): Required for forbidden, cross-school, or unstable glyph work.
• Rare/Forbidden Glyph Access (1 IP + SP): Unlocks eligibility for rare leads and high-risk learning tracks.
• Purchase a Trait / Merit (1 IP): Unlock new persistent trait or remove a major flaw.
• Break the Level 5 Cap (1 IP + SP): Required to reach level 5 in any attribute or magic school.

4. Technique Glyph Access Ladder (Tier 0-5)

Glyph progression is cumulative and school-specific (see 05 Magic System).

• Tier 0: 2 glyphs (Faden + school native starter)
• Tier 1: +1 native glyph (3 total)
• Tier 2: +Kreis (4 total)
• Tier 3: +2 school-signature glyphs (6 total)
• Tier 4: +1 specialization glyph (7 total)
• Tier 5: +1 capstone glyph (8 total)

5. Scene Readiness Guardrail

At scene start, each caster marks:
Ready Patterns = 2 + highest of (Calculation, Memory)

Known glyphs beyond ready patterns are still usable, but shaping them in tense scenes applies one extra mixed-result pressure.

6. In-Fiction Glyph Acquisition

Characters can learn glyphs through:

• mentors and formal instruction,
• recovered scrolls/archives/artifacts,
• experimentation and dangerous field trials,
• negotiated social leverage.

Glyph Leads and Mastery Clock

• Create a Glyph Leads track and a 4-segment Glyph Mastery clock per target glyph.
• Completing the clock allows stable usage once fiction and progression tier permit.

Decode the Pattern (Learning Move)

When you study, test, or bargain for a glyph pattern under real uncertainty, roll 2d6 + Mental:

• 10+: mark 2 segments, or mark 1 and gain clean provisional use.
• 7-9: mark 1 segment and choose a cost (debt, strain, unstable side effect, unwanted attention, time loss).
• 6-: mark 1 segment, and the GM makes a hard move tied to that glyph's risk profile.

Out-of-Tier Provisional Use

If you use a learned-but-unstabilized or out-of-tier glyph, apply exactly one extra pressure source:

• +1 Mana Track tick cost, or
• mandatory mixed-result complication, or
• temporary instability clock.

7. Acquisition Gating (All Active)

• Rarity bands: common leads every 1-2 sessions, rare every 3-5 sessions, forbidden by major arc milestone.
• Faction/mentor lock: some glyphs require specific instruction access or obligations.
• Research prerequisite: rare/forbidden glyphs require one breakthrough before standard mastery clock progress.

8. Specialization Translation (Glyph Doctrines)

Specializations no longer grant static "modifier bundles." Each doctrine grants:

• one doctrine move,
• one native glyph behavior upgrade,
• one domain permission expansion.

Unlock gate remains: Level 3 in parent school + 1 IP.

Character Creation ================================================== Magic System