Occupational Skills

Occupational skills are used to represent the increase in experience, understanding and skills your character will benefit from over time. They are intended to provide an opportunity for your character to specialise in areas that interest you. Most occupational skills are taught by the guilds, either exclusively to their own members or, more widely, to anyone applying for training. Some occupational skills are purchased from Games Control and these are listed in the Lorien Role-Playing System Player’s Handbook. The skills taught by the guilds are detailed below.
All occupational skills, whether purchased from the guilds or Games Control, take time to learn. You will not be able to use skills purchased at the Heartland Games, Faction Moots or the Gathering until you pre-book or register at Event Control (if you have paid on the gate) for the main events the next year. This delay represents the amount of time your character takes to learn any skill or ability to a useful level. Skills you are able to use will be shown on your character card; until a skill is shown on your character card, you cannot use it. Occupational skills can only be purchased at the Heartland Games, Faction Moots and the Gathering (no occupational skills can be purchased at sanctioned events). No occupational skill may be purchased more than once, unless specifically stated in the skill description.
All occupational skills are purchased using occupational skill points (OSPs). OSPs are issued to our customers as thanks for continued loyalty and represent your character’s potential for learning and the amount of time you character may be prepared to spend in training during a year. If you choose to play a new character, or your character dies, any OSPs you have earned and have not spent may be carried forward to your next character. Your OSPs will be sent to you with your ticket when you pre-book for any of the Lorien Trust main events. If you pay on the gate for an event, you will be able to collect your OSPs from Event Control when you register. The number of OSPs you receive depends on which events you attend each year. The table below shows the number of OSPs you will receive for each event.

OSPs are issued as round tokens, The colour of the token also indicates the value.
The early OSPs were issued as laminated cards. If you have any of these you can still spend them on purchasing your OSP skills, or bring them to Games Control and exchange them for plastic tokens.
Purchasing OSP Skills
To purchase an occupational skill, go to the relevant guild or to Games Control. Ask to purchase the skill you are interested, present your character card, any required rank card and pay the required OSPs. Authorised guild or Games Control staff will then take your name and the details of the skill(s) you have bought. These details will be processed during the year and your new skill will added to your character details for the following year’s main Lorien Trust events. Skills that can be bought through the guilds are listed below, along with their descriptions. The Guild, Faction and Generic OSP token costs listed reflect how complex the skill is learn in different ways.

Limitations
A normal character is limited to only being able to learn 4 OSP skills in any one year, up to a maximum of twelve OSP skills in total for that character. This maximunm skills number does not include the General Knowledge skills and income skills which have there own limits.

Guild
These OSP costs are paid by any member of the guild (of at least the guild rank specified) when learning an OSP skill from the guild. The learning process represents the guild placing the character under the tuition of the guild’s own scholars, allowing them to learn the skill with the full resources of the guild.

Faction
This is the OSP cost paid by players from outside the guild who have gained access through their faction rank. The learning process represents some of the better scholars of the appropriate guild attending the faction’s capital or better known cities, and teaching members of the faction the abilities with somewhat limited resources.

Generic
This is the OSP cost paid by players who are not able to gain access to the faction or guild resources for various reasons. The learning process represents them searching out a retired master or some other such type who is willing and able to teach that skill, with minimal resources.

Training in certain skills requires intensive effort, expensive ingredients or specific in character aptitude. These restricted skills are only taught to a select few each year. Such skills are marked with an @.
Some occupational skills require a character to have one or more of the basic skills listed in the Lorien Role-Playing System Players’ Handbook before the occupational skill can be purchased. Characters buying these occupational skills must keep the relevant basic skill(s); If they choose to drop the basic skill(s) for any reason, they will lose the use of the occupational skill until the basic skill reappears on their character card.
Rank 6 and above Guild Skills.
These skills are the most powerful teachings of each guild. To learn them requires continuous training and study under the most experianced masters. Anyone who achieves this rank and wishes to purchase such a skill may do so, but is required to have access to the Guilds centres of training, during the winter months. There they must practice, train and study with other Guild members, in order to maintain their edge. Without access to these training facilities, the character will be unable to maintain their ability for long, and will lose the skill the following year.
Resources for creating items
Characters wishing to make special items of any sort will find that there are only so many components or materials available. Because within Erdreja, there is a limit to the supply of any resource or material in a season. Having a skill to make an item does not guarantee that you will be able to make that item. The guilds will know how many of each item can be made during a season and players should speak with the relevent guilds about the availability of material and resources.

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