I. Learning and Improving Arts
Every character is both Mentor and student. Every character
starts with two of the basic Teaching Arts: Minor Plateau
and Task. A player who wishes to devote more of his time to
teaching may may take part in the Ordainment ritual to acquire
the Art of Train and the higher level Plateau Arts, and in
so doing become a respected Teacher of the dream. But not
all will pass the Ordainment ritual, for being a Teacher is
not the destiny of all dreamers.
a. Training (Learning) a New Art
Every Art has a minimum attribute requirement, and certain
Arts may have other special requirements, such as a focus
requirement. When a character meets that minimum, she is eligible
to learn the Art to level 1. A character may acquire a new
Art in one of two ways: she may go to a Teacher and be tasked
to learn the Art, or she may use Personality Points. There
are special situations where certain Arts will be granted
automatically for occurrences like when a character attains
a Guild rank, a Focus, or Train.
As a student, each character has the right to choose his
Teachers as well as the right to refuse tasks which he does
not wish to do. Teachers have the right to refuse to teach
a student whom they deem unworthy and also to deny granting
the Art if the task was not adequately completed. A Teacher
will set the character on a task and upon completion, will
grant the new Art. The task will generally be something that
allows the character to contribute to the roleplaying of the
game. See the Teaching Guide for examples and ideas.
b. Plateauing (Raising) an Art
As a character gains orbits, he acquires points which he
may put into his attributes (elements). When his elements
increase, he becomes eligible to plateau Arts based on those
elements. With each rise in the base element, a character
is eligible to plateau the Art by one level. The Art interface
will show your character's arts levels as a pair of figures:
current skill/maximum skill. So if you see 10/25, it means
your current skill in the Art is 10, but you have enough element
points to raise it to 25.
Each Art has a plateau timer based on real time. When a character
first learns or plateaus an Art the plateau timer starts and
he may not plateau the art again until the timer runs out.
The plateau timer allows time for the character to master
the Art at its present level before he can raise it again.
At Minor Plateau levels (1-19), the plateau timer is equal
to the Plateau rise. So if a character has just plateaued
his Gatesmasher from 10 to 12, he must wait 2 real time days
before he can have it raised to 13. At Middle Plateau levels
(20-49), the timer is twice the current Plateau rise in real
time days. At Greater Plateau levels (50-79), the timer is
3 times the current Plateau rise in real time days and at
Master Plateau levels (80-99), it is 4 times the current Plateau
rise. That is: if a character has just plateaued her Cloak
from level 80 to 85, she must wait 5 x 4 = 20 days before
she may plateau it again. Note, the interface will tell you
how long your plateau timer has to run for a given art.
When a character has enough attribute points and his plateau
timer has elapsed, he may raise (plateau) his Art by one of
two methods: he may seek a Mentor with the appropriate Plateau
Art and do a task for the particular Art or he may spend Personality
Points.
If the character chooses to go to a Mentor, the Mentor will
assign a task based on the level of the Art and the interests
of the student. The task will generally be something which
contributes to the role-playing of the Dream. See the Teaching
Guide for examples and ideas.
A character may only seek Plateau tasks from the same Mentor
four times for each Plateau Art. So if he has gained four
Minor Plateaus from one Mentor, he must find another Mentor
when he wishes a fifth Minor Plateau. The Art of Task will
let the Mentor know when these limitations have been met.
At any given time, a character may have only 4 Minor Plateau
Tasks, 3 Middle Plateau Tasks, 2 Greater Plateau Tasks and
1 Master Plateau Task.
II. Teaching
a. Ordainment
All characters are Mentors in that they all start with Minor
Plateau and Task. Those characters who wish to become more
involved in teaching may begin the Ordainment ritual. The
Ordainment ritual will include being interviewed by specific
teaching GM characters to determine her creativity and dedication,
and then being asked to swear a Teachers' Oath that lays out
the basic rules and expectations. But not all will pass the
Ordainment ritual, for being a Teacher is not the destiny
of all dreamers.
At the conclusion of the Oath, the new Teacher is granted
the Art of Train and the higher Plateau Arts: Middle Plateau,
which allows one to plateau Arts from 20-49; Greater Plateau,
allowing one to plateau Arts between 50 and 79 and Master
Plateau which allows one to plateau Arts from 81-99.
b. Mentoring
A Plateau Art enables the Mentor to raise (plateau) an Art
the student already possesses. The Mentor may never plateau
an Art past the level at which he himself has it. The Plateau
Art may itself be plateaued to enable a mentor to grant students
more than one level in an Art at a time. This number increases
with every 20 levels that the Mentor gains in the Plateau
art: 1-19 allows a Mentor to grant one level; 20-39 allows
for the granting of up to two levels; 40-59 allows for three;
60-79 allows for four; and ultimately, 80-99 allows for a
total of five levels to be granted to a student at one time.
The Mentor will be able to decide how many Plateau points
are given at the time of granting, as long as the amount does
not surpass the student's maximum possible level for that
art.
Thus, if a Mentor has Minor Plateau at level 80, she may
write tasks for her students to plateau their arts for 1 to
5 levels at a time. This is always restricted by the Mentor's
own art level and the maximum level attainable by the student.
If Jasta has the Art of Cloak at 35 and her Middle Plateau
Art at 80, she may grant a task for Davin to plateau his Cloak
from 30 to 35, assuming that Davin is eligible to raise his
Cloak that high.
A Mentor may not task the same student for more than 16 plateaus;
four times for each of the 4 Plateau Arts.
A Teacher may plateau the Arts of fellow Teachers that are
equal to their Art level or lower, whereas, if the Teacher
was plateauing a non-Teacher student, the student's Art level
could not be equal to or higher than the Teacher. The only
limitation is whether the Teacher-student's maximum skill
for that art can handle the number of Plateau levels the Teacher
offers
