Skill Progression - LunarNeil/Call-of-Cthulhu-Campaign GitHub Wiki

Investigators are a lot like real people, and the only way they can master a skill is by years of practice and a lot of failure.

Skills are the only attribute with a number attached to them, and the only attribute that has a progression mechanic for measuring Investigator improvement. Skill progression is a bit more complicated than the other kinds of character advancement, but the rules for progressing a skill are straightforwards:

• New Skills start at a modifier of 3 and cap their natural growth at a modifier of 8.

• Skills progress in a series of steps, like the rungs of a ladder. Progression takes a number of steps equal to the current skill modifier. So it takes three steps to improve a Skill from 3 to 4.

• Each time you complete progression to the next higher modifier, start counting from zero steps again. Once you improve your Skill to 4, it takes 4 more steps to improve it to 5.

• Improving a new Skill from 3 to the growth cap of 8 will take exactly 25 steps.

This mechanic is simplified on your sample character sheets, where each Skill is accompanied by a progress bar that includes 25 boxes and a marked X at every point along progression where you improve your Skill modifier.

Moderators can choose to award players either a half-step or a whole step worth of Skill development for good Skill usage. Guidelines in the Moderator materials detail how to give out these valuable rewards fairly. Half-step rewards are more common than whole steps, but neither are unusual rewards.

25 Steps may sound like a small amount, but compared to the average lifespan of an Investigator, progressing all the way to mastery can be an insurmountable task.