OpenQuest: Tutors and Trainers

RuneQuest 2nd edition had rules for learning skills by finding a private tutor or an organization that taught the skill. By spending time and money, a player character could raise their skill. Later editions dropped those rules because the mechanics for raising skills by using them proved more effective.

For various reasons, I would like to house-rule a similar mechanic – increasing skills during downtime with a tutor – into OpenQuest.

Mechanics

Growth Points From Tutors

In OpenQuest a character usually raises skills by earning Growth Points. Growth Points come from completing Quests, advancing or achieving personal goals, and ad-hoc Referee rewards for specific Quests. Skills in particular cost an increasing amount of Growth Points for each +5%: one to raise the skill between 0% and 25%, two between 26% and 50%, and so on.

So let’s propose a simple rule for tutors and trainers:

The Referee may always rule that some skills may not be taught, only learned through play.

Limits on Growth Points From Tutors

For the sake of verisimilitude and game balance, we will set limits on learning from tutors or trainers:

1. Growth Points must be used for a specific skill, stated at the beginning of the tutorial period.
2. The tutor cannot raise a character’s skill past his or her own. A tutor with 50% in a skill will be easier to find, and cheaper to hire, than one with 75%.
3. The character may not benefit from a tutor while they are recuperating from wounds. (A lenient Referee may make exceptions for purely INT-based skills and a tutor who makes house calls.)
4. If the character does not have to earn a living during the tutorial period, they may study full-time with as many as three (3) tutors.

The last rule prevents tutors from replacing Quests as the primary means of gaining Growth Points. The minimum number of Growth Points one can earn from a one session Quest is two.¹

Instead of characters training one or more skills in their free time, characters may learn through on-the-job training in an appropriate profession. Characters presumably make enough silver at this job to pay basic expenses. They increase their skills as apprentices to more experienced practitioners. Naturally, skills trained must make sense for the specific job. Such training provides no more than two (2) Growth Points worth of appropriate skill advancement for every full 90-day period of employment.

In general, any activity outside studying and training reduces the effective Growth Points of skill improvement from training. Activities may include jobs to earn a living, carousing, research, investigation, and side projects. The table below summarizes the maximum Tutor Growth Points possible under various tutoring and training scenarios.

In the table above, “part-time” means four to six hours per day, and “full-time” means seven or more hours per day. Thus a full-time student with no activities other than their training, including time with a tutor or trainer and subsequent reading or practice, spends nearly every waking moment on increasing their skills.

Characters may use general Growth Points obtained through Quests alongside skill-specific Growth Points obtained through tutoring during down time.

Costs of Tutoring

The cost of tutoring, according to economics, is what the market will bear. This answer sheds little light, but it does suggest that the cost of a tutor depends on the skill being improved.

Average food and lodging for 90 days costs about 140 silvers. Students and tutors alike must pay for food and lodging if nothing else, so a full-time tutor would require at least 140 silvers for a 90 day course, and almost certainly more.

Below are some possible costs. Here the median 90-day course costs as much as an ox or bison (200 silvers). This assumes a rigorous regime of teaching and practice at adequate facilities. Some skills would require less one-on-one involvement from the tutor, e.g. Culture and Language. Others require more one-on-one involvement or reflect esoteric knowledge, e.g. magic skills, Deception, Engineering, Healing, Influence, and Trade.

Multiply cost by 1.5 if the tutor or trainer has a skill of 75% or more. Double the cost if the tutor or trainer has a skill of 100%. Many such tutors will prefer services (e.g. Quests) over money.

Skills I assume that that can’t be taught by a tutor include Perception, Persistence, Resilience, Shamanism, and Wealth, as well as Membership from the OpenQuest Companion. Depending on the religion, Religion (Other) may have no tutors, or at least none outside the religion who can raise it higher than 30%. Some Culture (Other) and Language (Other) tutors may be rare or nonexistent, depending on the cultures involved, and some Lore may be too esoteric to find willing tutors. Characters only increase these skills through play under the rules as written.

Referees should feel free to add fees for renting facilities or equipment, the cost of materials for skills such as Craft or Healing, the cost of excursions for skills like Natural Lore or Sailing, or the overhead of an educational institution if the tutor works for one. Some institutions, like a gymnasium, school, academy, college, or university may charge a flat fee for the use of their facilities in addition to the charges per class the student takes. Some or all of those fees might be waived if player characters undertake a Quest for the institution.

Tutors With Multiple Students

If a tutor has multiple students, the tutor must divide their time among those students. The tutor can provide information through lectures and reading assignments, assuming the students can read, but depending on the skill the tutor will also need to provide one-on-one, hands-on experience. Some tutors may delegate work to “teaching assistants”, but that may lower the maximum to which a student can raise their skill.

As a general rule tutors can effectively teach no more than three groups of up to a dozen students each. This assumes part of their teaching involves lectures, or the students cooperate on a task (e.g. Sailing). More than a dozen students will require multiple tutors or “assistant” tutors. Formal educational institutions divide the work of education among multiple teachers and assistants, but that may not be appropriate to a Bronze Age, Iron Age, or Early Medieval society.

Learning Spells From Tutors

The Referee must decide whether tutoring can teach a character spells. If so, the cost in Growth Points from a tutor is the same as Growth Points from experience.

A tutor cannot teach Divine Magic spells and any spells that a religion, sorcery school, or other society keeps secret. Characters must instead join those organizations and perform services for them in return for that knowledge.

Testing Our Assumptions

Below I’ve worked examples with the premise that characters acquire certain skills through tutors or formal schooling during childhood and early adulthood. The assumption that one can acquire one Growth Point worth of education from one part-time tutor over 90 days leads to mostly reasonable results.

Calculations below assume all attributes are 11.² In reality, attributes range between 8 and 13 (or more) using point-based allocation, and the average INT using random methods is 13, yielding defaults somewhere between 18 and 23 (or more). “Average Growth Points” thus assume defaults between 21 and 24, or 11 and 14 for skills based solely on INT. Actual Growth Points required will vary.

The following examples do not address the cost of this education. It may be subsidized by the state, financed by wealthy nobles or priests, or paid for by students. Figuring out the real cost of these institutions is left as an exercise for the reader.

The Imperial Academy

In one setting I’m working on, a theocratic empire has instituted academies to train young nobles and exceptional (or exceptionally wealthy) commoners. To graduate, a character must possess the following:

• Language (Own) at 80% (i.e. literate in their own language)
• Religion (Own) at 40% (because it’s a theocracy)
• three skills at 50%, depending on the student’s social class and electives.

How many Growth Points would this take, assuming all characteristics are 11 and all skills start at defaults?

Note that if one or more of the three skills are Lore (any), they would require an extra 2 Growth Points to advance to 50% or more.

So, assuming each student studies full time for 270 days a year starting at age 13, a good student should meet the standards in 7 years, or about age 20.

Mythendria University

The city-state of Mythendria established a “university” where mature adults of sober disposition and deep pockets can improve their skills by attending classes. This Royal University only accepts students 20 years or older.

The University offers individual classes three degree programs: Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate, described below:

First we must consider the requirement of being literate in Mythendrian. Assuming they had a tutor, our average INT 11 person would have to study intently depending upon whether they were an illiterate Mythendrian native, a foreigner already fluent in Mythendrian, or a foreign student just learning the language.

The Quarters column assumes no more than 3 Growth Points worth of learning per quarter (90 days).

Assuming they had three tutors (or one very dedicated one), and studied for a solid four quarters a year, a student in each category would have to study less than two, exactly two, or a little more than three solid years to become fully literate.

Once admitted to the University, the table below shows how long our average person (all characteristics 11) would take to complete each degree program, assuming they started at a default skill:

The Years column assumes 3 Growth Points worth of learning per quarter, or 9 points per year with summers off to rest and recuperate. Partial years are rounded up.

So a student can go from Bachelors to Doctorate under this system in nine years. That’s a little fast by real-world standards, but this calculation presumes the student has no part-time job and knows exactly what their doctoral thesis will be … which I suppose is also unrealistic.

Temple Schools

Temples to the gods of Mythendria already had Sixthday⁴ schools to indoctrinate young children into their religions. Learning of the Imperial Academies and the new University, they decided to institute schools for children 6 and up.

A temple school prepares the student to become an Initiate if they so desire, and teaches them valuable skills if they choose a secular life. Graduates must demonstrate the following skills:

• Language (Own) 80%
• Religion (Own) 40%
• one religious skill at 25%
• either the Craft skill of the Trade skill at 30%
• two other practical skills at 30%

Calculating from the “average student”, the total Growth Points required are as follows:

Due to the protests of parents who need their children to help out with the family business, school is part time, and must accommodate fall harvest and spring planting, so students acquire only three Growth Points per year. At that rate, children will graduate in a little less than thirteen years, at the age of 19.

A little less than half that time is spent on learning to read and write their own language. A little more than three years is spent on Religion and a religious skill.

Scribe Apprenticeships

Mythendria’s scribe caste must learn to write in at least two languages and understand mathematics, primarily arithmetic and geometry. Trainees must apprentice with an experienced scribe in return for lessons during slow periods and after hours.

Through tutoring and practice, apprentice scribes can manage to acquire two Growth Points worth of education per quarter (90 days). Apprenticeships last about ten years, from age 13 through 23.

Boarding Schools

Nobles of Mythendria pooled their resources to found boarding schools where their children can quickly learn all the skills young nobles need. These boarding schools instruct their students on rhetoric, the arts, all combat techniques, a foreign language, and at least two academic subjects.

Boarding schools with no distractions (theoretically) grant nine Growth Points per year with winter and summer breaks. Nobles complete their schooling in seven years, from ages 13 through 20.

Appendix: Calculating Growth Points for Skill Increases

The following table is reproduced from the OpenQuest SRD:

Throughout this article we use an “average” character with 11 in all characteristics. The default for most skills is either two characteristics added together or one characteristic added to 10. The following skills default to only one characteristic (INT): Culture (Other), Language (Other), Lore (any), Religion (Other), Sorcery Casting. One skill, Personal Magic Casting, defaults to POW × 3.

This table presents the cost to raise a skill at each increment of 5% and cumulatively from starting points of 11%, 21%, 31%, 51%, 61%, and 76%.