The Instruction Skill
A character will gain 3 skill points a year on average in 'normal life';
All characters have a basic Learning Rate as per the table below
Int+Will LR
1-6 3
7-11 4
12-16 5
17-23 6
24+ 7
To gain one skill point is task value of 20, with a task turn of one week (six days).
One week of uninterrupted study, or one month of casual study gains the LR in task points, modifed as below;
-1 if have the Distractible defect
+1 if have the Resolute defect
+1 if have the Younger defect
-1 if have three or more levels of the Older defect
+2 if teacher makes Instructor skill roll
+1 if student makes save vs stat used in skill eg. if studying Merchant save vs Int/Cha average.
-1 to -3 if wounded or ill
+1 if make roll in ONE related skill. e.g learning Engsvanyali and make roll in related languge such as Bednjallan or Classical Tsolyani, or learning a one handed mace skill and already have two handed mace and so on.
+1 to +3 from using a standard text and curriculum or in a temple school (see below).
A character can study without a teacher if he has appropriate literature and equipment, but this is at -4.
A character cannot lose task points, but can gain zero in a week of study.
Defects such as Responsibility, and attributes such as Aptitude still affect the skill points needed to learn a skill during play.
A teacher cannot teach a skill specialization he does not know. eg Arkhane learns Sword skill with Urjan who knows Sword 2, Longsword. Arkhane cannot spend skill points gained from training with Urjan on the specialization Shortsword.
A teacher cannot teach someone who has a greater skill level than they do, but can teach specializations to those of higher skill level. eg Dzai has Sword 3, Rapier. She cannot learn any more Sword skill from Urjan, but could learn the Longsword specialization from him.
The maximum level a teacher can teach is their instruction skill (minimum 1, for those with no instructor skill), plus any specializations. Urjan has Instructor 1; he can teach Arkhane up to Sword 1, and could teach him the Longsword specialization if Arkhane already has Sword 1.
Special attack skills are specific to a weapon. Urjan can teach The Piercing Thrust (Decisive attack, Sword) but cannot teach Decisive Attack using a mace.
There are certain standard texts used in the teaching of many skills; eg The Seventy-Seven Specimens of Dirresa the Copyist is the standard text used in teaching Calligraphy to level 1 and is found in all temple schools and is owned by many private tutors as well and can be had for a few kaitars. Used by one familiar with the teaching of Calligraphy it can give +2, +1 if used by a student alone, or +3 if used in a temple school as part of the scribal training curriculum.
More advanced texts that will give suitable bonuses to more advanced students are harder to come by and more expensive; very secret scrolls in special ciphers exist with all sorts of very subtle sword techniques; for a person with Geography 3 to learn anything new from a scroll it will have to be a pretty rare travellers' account, and so on.
This system replaces that of spell learning on p. 228 of the T:EPT book. Use the system above, with a task value of 12 for low magic, 6 for middle magic and 3 for high magic per spell point. Any study without a teacher is at -6, and on any critical failure of Magic Skill during such self directed research a very nasty and quite possibly fatal magical accident will occur; magic research is a risky business, which is why very few people in their right minds do it. Certain books and scrolls can be used to learn spells without a teacher. These reduce the penalty to a mere -2 to -4.
