Validation of the Gain of Experience concretely happens has follows:

  • The Player chooses the first Skill he would like to increase among those for which a Skull has been circled during the Game or the Scenario - or, after a Training, this Skill is already fixed.
  • He must then roll a d20 and obtain a result which is strictly superior to (Skill Level + 10) to be able to validate his Experience.
  • If the result of the Roll is strictly superior, the Player can increase the corresponding Skill Level by one point. He removes the circle around the Skull and must reduce the total of his Experience Points by a certain amount (see below).
  • If the result of the Roll is less than or equal to, he removes the circle around the corresponding Skull and cannot increase that Skill Level. He also loses one Point of Experience but can still possibly use the others with another Skill.
  • The Player follows the same procedure again with other Skills as long as he has circled Skulls, Experience Points if he or she so desires.

For Skills of which the Level already is equal to ten or more, the same procedure is applied, using the same rules as for extreme Skill Levels: a first Roll must result in a 20 and if this is the case, a second Roll of d20 has to be compared to the Skill Level (without adding 10). If that second result is strictly superior to the Skill Level, the Skill Level can be increased by one. Otherwise not.

General principles

The following principles apply to Gain Validation, be it Experience acquired by Action or by Learning:

Only the Skills with a circled Skull can be improved during a given phase of Experience acquisition. This principle assures that the Characters make progress where they have some practice and success, otherwise where they train.

The Skill Level, for a given Skill, can increase only by one point by Gain Validation session. That signifies simply that the rhythm of progression cannot be too quick: one can't become a master of sabre overnight!

As when creating a Character, the Skill improvements cost a given number of points. Those points are now the Experience Points. For the sake of reading ease, the same table is reproduced here::

Skill
Level 		Cost for
Level: 		Thus total cost to reach it
(from zero) :
1 2 2
2 1 3
3 1 4
4 2 6
5 2 8
6 2 10
7 2 12
8 3 15
9 4 19
10 5 24

That principle is justified by the fact that it is more difficult to improve when already strong. The required efforts are more important. Similarly, it is difficult to acquire an entirely new Skill, which explains the cost of 2 points to increase a Skill Level from zero to one. Note also that it is not possible to acquire a Skill from zero only by Action; Learning is necessary.

The sequence of Gain Validation may have to be stopped according to one of the following three conditions:

  • The Player has no more Skill with a circled Skull. In this case, the rest of the Experience Points is recorded in the relevant box of the Pirate's Sheet and they can be kept until the end of the next Game.
  • The Player has used all the Experience Points he had. In this case, even if there still is circled Skulls on the Pirate's Sheet, they must be removed and no more Skill can be improved during this session.
  • The Player still has Experience Points and circled Skills but he or she cannot or does not want to spend more Experience Points in that session. In that case, the remaining Experience Points are recorded in the relevant box of the Pirate's Sheet until the end of the next Game and he or she removes all remaining circles around the Skulls. No more Skill can be improved during this session.

At the end of the Gain Validation session, the Player computes anew the Fame of his or her Character (since it partly depends on the Skill Levels) and modifies also the corresponding intermediate Levels.

Specific Rules for Specialities

Two different points must be taken into account regarding Specialities:

  • The acquisition of a new Speciality;
  • The improvement of the Level of an already acquired Speciality.

The second point is managed in the same way as for Skills, with the difference that the d20 Roll for the Validation of Gain must be superior to (Level of Skill + Level of Speciality + 5) and not (Level of Skill + 10) as it was the general case for Skills.

A Speiciality can be increased only by one point at each Validation session. Furthermore, one uses then the specific costs for Specialities. The table is reproduced here, the costs are indicated in Experience Points:

Level of
Speciality 		Cost for
the Level: 		Thus total cost to reach it (from zero) :
1 2 2
2 3 5
3 4 9
4 5 14
+1 +1 Etc.

As for Character's Creation, each point acquired in a Speciality accounts for two Points of Fame.

Now, for the acquisition of a new Speciality, as when creating a Character, it must be discussed with the Game Master who will not forget that a Speciality always covers a relatively narrow field depending on one existing Skill. It will then be included in the Section corresponding to that Skill. We remind the Game Master that some examples of Specialities are given in the description of Skills in the section for Character's Creation.

Note also that, if the acquisition of a new Speciality at « zéro » Level does not cost any point, it should be granted only in relationship to actions in which the Character succeeded particularly well. The most frequent case is that of a Critical Success obtained during the Game with a Skill to which the Player may wish to add a Speciality. It's up to the Game Master to decide if the Player may add a new Speciality on his or her Pirate's Sheet.

When is it possible to increase one's Speciality Level?

  • Directly after the acquisition of a new Speciality;
  • When a Skull has been circled in front of a Speciality, which happens when one gets a Success in a Roll versus the Skill and associated Speciality combined such that one could circle the Skull of the Skill at that moment;
  • Through Learning, which supposes to find the necessary ressources or the master who will be able to teach the Speciality. The financial cost of the specialised trainings is generally bigger than that for usual Skills. The required time is not necessarily longer. It depends on the case and in that, as in many other fields, the Game Master will need a whit of sense to make the right decision.
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