Characters
Character creation (link) - the process from rolling the dice to backstory. Follow the link for details.
Leveling up your character - Your characters can advance to the next level once they complete milestones. The XP system is not used. How far along the path to the next level is determined by how well your character/party completes the mission/objective. Less successful means less milestones passed and more missions/objectives before reaching next level; more successful means the opposite. For example, eliminate the orc threat to the village. Less successful would be killing the orc raiding parties, better is eliminating the entire orc village, better yet is eliminating the orcs and resettling the overpopulation from the next human village on the site, and best would be resettling the village and persuading the aged warrior-priest you encountered earlier to retire to the villages and train the villagers to defend themselves. Missions do not need to be 'assigned'; they may be tasks encountered by the party or ones that the party feels would be the 'right thing to do' (e.g. eliminating a bandit band, NOT eliminating them and then dumping the bodies in the stream that supplies the drinking water to the friendly village). Your party is also rewarded for clever thinking in general and convincing role playing.
Training your character - Your character levels up (increased abilities, more hit points, etc.) as soon as you achieve the necessary milestones. However, before your character can level up again, he or she needs to train. Training introduces an appropriate new skill or technique or develops existing skills to greater levels. You will usually encounter more than one possible trainer and his skill set. For instance, a ranger completed her milestones to reach 2nd level. Before she can become 3rd level, she must complete her training and a mission that uses that training. She has learned of 2 local trappers - one especially skilled in setting all sorts of wilderness traps and the other one at tracking. She chooses the skill/trainer. Her next training is to be in a different area of ranger skills and so on. She chooses tracking and in a subsequent mission she gets an opportunity to utilize her tracking skill (better at tracking or recognizes tracks of a creature she just learned about...). When she has passed sufficient milestones, she can then go up a level to 3rd level. Note: If the characters are forced to delay their training (time sensitive missions interfere), the kindly DM will put a mission in their path. Don't think of it as railroading, it's an opportunity that happens to utilize all the party's new found skills..... you're welcome. If you put your training off despite opportunities, the DM might not be so kindly. You may find opportunites to combine training and other objectives...
Paying for training - You are costing a NPC time and effort - you will pay in one form or another. A NPC may owe you a favour or ask for a favour in return for training. You might have to pay in cash or in service or complete a task for a NPC (or all the above). In the earlier example, the ranger may have picked the 'tracking trapper' because he was putting a trap line in a new area and needed the physical assistance (carrying supplies) and someone to guard his back. Thus, the ranger will both pay for her training and receive her training in the 2 weeks of setting up the new trap line (the trapper will be examining tracks to know where to set up traps).
Leveling up your character - Your characters can advance to the next level once they complete milestones. The XP system is not used. How far along the path to the next level is determined by how well your character/party completes the mission/objective. Less successful means less milestones passed and more missions/objectives before reaching next level; more successful means the opposite. For example, eliminate the orc threat to the village. Less successful would be killing the orc raiding parties, better is eliminating the entire orc village, better yet is eliminating the orcs and resettling the overpopulation from the next human village on the site, and best would be resettling the village and persuading the aged warrior-priest you encountered earlier to retire to the villages and train the villagers to defend themselves. Missions do not need to be 'assigned'; they may be tasks encountered by the party or ones that the party feels would be the 'right thing to do' (e.g. eliminating a bandit band, NOT eliminating them and then dumping the bodies in the stream that supplies the drinking water to the friendly village). Your party is also rewarded for clever thinking in general and convincing role playing.
Training your character - Your character levels up (increased abilities, more hit points, etc.) as soon as you achieve the necessary milestones. However, before your character can level up again, he or she needs to train. Training introduces an appropriate new skill or technique or develops existing skills to greater levels. You will usually encounter more than one possible trainer and his skill set. For instance, a ranger completed her milestones to reach 2nd level. Before she can become 3rd level, she must complete her training and a mission that uses that training. She has learned of 2 local trappers - one especially skilled in setting all sorts of wilderness traps and the other one at tracking. She chooses the skill/trainer. Her next training is to be in a different area of ranger skills and so on. She chooses tracking and in a subsequent mission she gets an opportunity to utilize her tracking skill (better at tracking or recognizes tracks of a creature she just learned about...). When she has passed sufficient milestones, she can then go up a level to 3rd level. Note: If the characters are forced to delay their training (time sensitive missions interfere), the kindly DM will put a mission in their path. Don't think of it as railroading, it's an opportunity that happens to utilize all the party's new found skills..... you're welcome. If you put your training off despite opportunities, the DM might not be so kindly. You may find opportunites to combine training and other objectives...
Paying for training - You are costing a NPC time and effort - you will pay in one form or another. A NPC may owe you a favour or ask for a favour in return for training. You might have to pay in cash or in service or complete a task for a NPC (or all the above). In the earlier example, the ranger may have picked the 'tracking trapper' because he was putting a trap line in a new area and needed the physical assistance (carrying supplies) and someone to guard his back. Thus, the ranger will both pay for her training and receive her training in the 2 weeks of setting up the new trap line (the trapper will be examining tracks to know where to set up traps).