Skill points are essentially a unit of currency allotted to a character at startup and again with every experience level they gain to be used in the purchase of skills. Skill points can be used in the “purchase” of new skills or increasing the degree of skill in skills they already possess.

Each character is allotted ten skill points to start with and gains three more skill points as they level up. (This is also mentioned in the Experience Levels section.) Skill points can be used to add a new skill or they can be used to level up a particular skill. To avoid confusion, we call these skill levels “degrees”. Each die put towards a skill doesn't necessarily “level up” that skill to the next degree, but it does add more dice to that skill, so skill points put towards a skill are never wasted.

Skill degrees simulate how proficient a character is in a certain skill or group of skills. Skill degrees are determined based on the number of dice of a particular skill, be it attack skill, defense skill, or attribute. It is assumed that one die in a learned skill is equal to a first degree proficiency in that skill. Degrees of proficiency become progressively harder to attain, so a second degree of proficiency is one die + two dice of proficiency or three total dice. That isn't to say that a character can't have two dice toward a particular skill, but they are still only considered first degree proficient. This simple table shows the first several degrees of proficiency and how they are calculated, but essentially the degrees never actually end.

Sometimes a player doesn't need to care. Sometimes there isn't anything extra a character gets besides the additional dice so the skill degree is moot. Most skills, on the other hand, do get additional benefits at different degrees. We discuss that in the next section, Standard Effects of Degrees and Levels.