Freelanders Progression System

Weapon Scores and ways to improve it
So, you’ve made a character and you’ve been given a weapon score… Whats a weapon score and how do I get some?
What is Weapon Score?
In the roleplay, there is a good deal of combat to be had. Everything from drunken brawls to full scale battles can occur, and all the characters all possess varying degrees of skill. While a small group of players who all know each other could figure out where their characters stand in relation to each other, with the sheer amount of players and characters in the roleplay we have we need a system to differentiate between one another. So, we have a basic system for this.
== Tier	WS	Description ==
1 - Unskilled	
1	You’re comfortable with using a knife to cut some cheese or a side of beef.
2	A character at this level is most likely an extra at a bar brawl rolling about and wrestling in the background.
3	You go to the odd tourney held by a few villages here and there and while you aren’t exactly county champion, you can get a respectable placing.
4	You have a bit of experience fighting now, maybe you’re a standover man in Foregate or you’ve started hiring yourself out as mercanery.
5	With a bit more work could be accepted into an army or a decent mercanery company.
2 - Soldiers	
6	You’ve received sort of formal training or at least picked it up on the road along the way.
7	Someone who knows what they’re doing has shown you what to do and you’ve picked up some sword forms perhaps, or you’ve learned it all the hard way.
8	You’re a veteran at this point, maybe you’ve had the luxury of instruction in a professional military force or you’ve picked it all up over a period of time.
9	Seen a good deal of combat, someone has definitely shown you a few of the finer points of fighting by this stage and its all held you in good stead.
10	You’re on par with some of the finer soldiers that military companies such as the Queen’s Guard of Andor or the Tower Guard of Tar Valon have to offer.
3 - Elite	
11	By this stage you’ve started to learn that there is more to fighting than hacking and slashing and you move differently as a result. Or you’re simply one of the best hack and slashers out there.
12	Even the kings of hack and slash have developed a good deal of subtlety by now, you’re now beginning to approach the realm of the heron marked blademasters though you have further to go before you could be deemed worthy.
**To achieve any higher WS you will need Staff Permission**
13	Your skills are excellent and furthermore they have progressed to a point where you could be recognised as a Blademaster, though that may involve a little luck on the side.
14	Most people around this level are capable of being recognised as a Blademaster, they move with grace and confidence with both training and experience as their guides.
15	Even the most stringent and demanding would grant you the Heron mark, and if they weren’t willing to you could claim it in your own right rather convincingly.
4 - Unsurpassed	
16	Not only are you recognised as being quite deadly, you must be training every single day to be maintaining skills of this level whether it be with a teacher or on your own.
17	You can take on small groups of soldiers singlehandedly and expect to get through without a mark (as long as you pick your moment).
18	Your skills are awe inspiring for people to watch, even fellow blademasters and fighters are going to be very envious if not scared of your skills. People of this level are often recognised as grandmasters. In a battle, people would most likely be falling with every stroke of your sword.
19	You have very, very few peers. Those peers, like yourself, are possessed of almost inhuman skills honed from years of practice and experience.
20	You are one of the rare few who is truly a living weapon, on a battlefield your opponents should save you the trouble and run themselves through because if they come face to face with you their life is forfeit.
The twenty point system is our way of achieving this. Someone who has a weapon score of 2 or 3 may have gotten in the odd fist fight, someone of 6 would be a soldier who gets a bit of training here and there in, 13 is a new Blademaster and 20 is godlike. The points are a reflection of weapon skill as opposed to how dangerous a person really is though.
This is important in particular due to the situation. For example, if a trolloc with a weapon score of 5 swings their axe at a Shienaran with a weapon score of seven, if that man tries to catch the blow on their blade rather than duck or dance away from it, chances are they are going to have an axe lodged in their side due to the trolloc’s sheer strength. Likewise, you can be of weapon score 12 and someone could be of 6 but if they’ve got a crossbow aimed at you and can generally hit the target, chances are you’re dead.
So, while the points are important, its also important to take story and situation into account. Just because your character has one or two more points over another person doesn’t necessarily mean you must win. Story is more important, the scores are meant to act more as guides rather than gospels.
How do I improve my Weapon Score?
The system of advancing weapon score in the Freelanders is quite simple. All you have to do is play roleplays where you fight, are taught how to use a weapon or some new trick for your fighting or such. That sounds easy, but lets get down to a few more details.
Each thread where you use your fighting or are learning to improve it you must make five posts within the thread actually fighting or training. The standard is three paragraphs per post, but if you write two posts with ten paragraphs for example, thats just as good. Likewise, if you’re writing posts with one or two paragraphs, just write more posts. The main thing that need to be shown are that the player took a decent stab at the fighting/training, and as long as that is satisfied then it will be approved and your weapon score shall be approved.
As you may have observed in the earlier table, the twenty point system is divided into four tiers and we use this. To advance from weapon scores between 1-5, you need only do one thread per advance. Say you are in a drunken brawl that goes on quite a bit, that could advance you from 3-4. If you’re stalking some bandits with your bow and arrow, that could be 4-5. From 6-10 you require two threads per advance and from 11-12 you require three threads.
To move on from 12, you need to talk to the Division Leader or one of the other Freelander staff about advancing further. From 13-15 you still need to do three threads and from 16-20 you have to do four, but all the thread ideas need to be worked out and approved by staff beforehand. Essentially to make sure you aren’t just say… Making four drunken brawl roleplays and then using that to justify becoming a Weapon Score 20 character of godlike ability.
== So what sort of Roleplays are considered good for improving weapon score? ==
A good deal of it is common sense, for example a bar brawl or two might see to improving someone at about weapon score two or three, but a blademaster isn’t exactly going to learn anything new from it. But, here are some suggested ideas for roleplays based around the different tier.
Tier One: Bar brawls, a fist fight with a good friend, a teacher starting to instruct you from scratch, just learning how to handle a weapon, in the case of some weapons like bows or spears using them in hunting, tourneys.
Tier Two: Learning different sword forms, military training of some sort or taking up a profession which requires alot of fighting (thiefcatching, hunter of the horn, mercanery etc), tourneys, picking up some instruction from a teacher or someone just showing you a few tricks, battles.
Tier Three: Instruction from a blademaster, battles, using your weapon score against people of your own ability or a group of people below your ability (this does not mean killing fifty people singlehandedly), carrying out dangerous roleplays where your weapon score is vital to success.
Tier Four: Performing very dangerous roleplays, battles, instruction from grand masters.
It should also be noted that teaching other people or helping them with roleplays where they can advance their weapon score also counts towards your own advancement.
== Gray’s Rule ==
A very specific Freelander rule and one that is named after a very old member from around 2001-2. He used to play a giant of a character and wielded a massive sword which he used to simply cleave his way through combat. He fought quite frequently and was quite the berserker and would get himself into all sorts of situations where he would fight against all sorts of odds. Sometimes he would win.
Sometimes.
Other times, including the moment where his character was killed, he would be clobbered or left short of dead for his trouble. He threw his characters into all sorts of situations expecting to win, yet if he was ever alerted to the fact that he couldn’t then he would be willing to take the realistic consequences of having taken that course of action. So, in his honour (because its a rare person who is willing to take it on the chin), we name this rule after him.
If a Freelander character is doing something wildly improbable… For example, attacking twenty armed soldiers unless there are very good reasons for why they should win (the twenty soldiers are wounded and ill, or a wall is collapsed on them first, etc), Freelander admins reserve the right to enforce the realistic consequences of your actions. In this case, your character would be stabbed repeatedly, or perhaps if you’re very lucky the character will just be beaten within an inch of their life and have to spend months with a wisdom healing where they may or may not regain full use of their limbs. As a player you’re trusted to do the right thing, but if you do not then the right thing can and most likely will be enforced.
So if you do something unrealistic, either do it incredibly well or be prepared for your character to face the consequences.
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