2.21.5 Teaching

Teaching involves one character (the teacher) explaining and demonstrating how to use a skill (or facet of skill) to one or more people who are learning the skill.

Successful teaching provides the justification for a character being taught to:

• spend cps to increase his/her skill score. A character may only increase his/her skill score after or during an adventure if he/she either has used the skill score extensively during the adventure or if he/she receives successful teaching in that skill score. It takes 10 hours worth of teaching (usually spread over at least a week) to attempt to teach someone sufficiently to justify them increasing their skill score by one point.
• reallocate specialism scores within a skill more quickly. Successful teaching in a specialism halves the normal time required to reallocate specialism scores, provided the specialism scores are being reallocated to the specialism being taught. If the teaching is intensive, it takes 4 hours (half a day) worth of teaching to attempt to teach someone sufficiently to justify them reallocating their specialism.

To teach successfully, the teacher's score in the skill being taught must be greater than or equal to that of the person he/she is teaching. If the teaching is to reallocate specialism scores, specialism scores in the specialism being taught are included in the skill scores.

The teacher makes a dice roll using his/her Influence (including Teaching specialism) + IQ to show how well he/she has explained the concepts and techniques involved. If more than one person is being taught at once, there is a penalty on this dice roll of -1/2 per person being taught.

The person being taught also makes a dice roll using his/her Reasoning (including Learning specialism) + WP.

The two dice roll results are added together. If the result is greater than 8 + the person being taught's current skill score in the skill being taught, the teaching is successful and the person being taught has gained benefit from the teaching.

For example, Ben Ruben and Cogan are travelling to the Southern Deserts. Ben Ruben wants to teach Cogan some of the basics of the languages and how to survive in the deserts, during the journey. During the day, as they travel, Ben Ruben shows Cogan what is different about the desert environment, and then every evening they spend an hour with Ben Ruben teaching Cogan about the language and culture of the region. The daily activity if successful will halve the time it takes for Cogan to reallocate some of his existing specialisms in Survival skill to desert survival. The evening teaching if successful will justify Cogan spending cps on increasing his Regional Knowledge (Southern Deserts) skill score. Cogan's WP is +2 1/2, his Regional Knowledge (Southern Deserts) is zero, his Reasoning is zero and his Survival is 6 (with no specialism in deserts); Ben Ruben's IQ is +2 1/2, his Regional Knowledge (Southern Deserts) is 5, his Influence is 7 (with no specialism in teaching), and his Survival is 3 (with +3 specialism in deserts). Taking each in turn:

• For the daytime activity, this counts as non-intensive practising. It would normally take Cogan a week to reallocate a point of Survival specialism to desert. Because Ben Ruben's Survival (including desert specialism) is at least equal to Cogan's (both are 6), Ben Ruben can teach Cogan, and so halve the time taken. Ben Ruben makes a dice roll using his/her Influence + IQ, with a basic dice roll result of 9 1/2. Cogan makes a dice roll using his/her Reasoning + WP, with a basic dice roll result of 2 1/2. Between them, they need to achieve a total result of 14 (8 plus the current skill score of 6) to successfully achieve this. Their total guaranteed result is 12, so they cannot achieve this automatically. Ben Ruben therefore rolls 3D +1/2 (getting a 4, 3 and 5, giving a result of 12 1/2) and Cogan rolls 2D -3 1/2 (getting a 4 and 2, giving a result of 2 1/2), making a total result of 15; the teaching succeeds this time.
• For the evening activity, after 10 evenings, a successful teaching result will justify Cogan spending cps on increasing his Regional Knowledge (Southern Deserts) skill score by a point. Ben Ruben's Regional Knowledge (Southern Deserts) is much greater than Cogan's, so the teaching attempt is allowed. Ben Ruben makes a dice roll using his/her Influence + IQ, with a basic dice roll result of 9 1/2. Cogan makes a dice roll using his/her Reasoning + WP, with a basic dice roll result of 2 1/2. Between them, they need to achieve a total result of 8 (8 plus Cogan's current non-existent skill score). Because of Ben Ruben's excellent teaching ability and Cogan's determination, they can automatically achieve the required result.so the teaching is automatically successful.