Skip to content

Teaching and Apprenticeship

Design Goals

Teaching should help new or weaker players catch up in a world without character levels. It should also give advanced players a meaningful social and economic role.

Core Rule

Teachers should accelerate learning, not replace practice.

No teacher should be able to directly transfer mastery into a student. The student must still perform the relevant actions, crafts, drills, or expeditions.

Browser-Fit Rule

Because this is a browser game, teaching should be asynchronous and system-supported. It should not depend on both players being online and chatting live for long periods.

Teaching Modes

Free Mentorship

Friends, guildmates, or helpful veterans can sponsor lessons with no fee.

Teachers can list training offers for a fee. This creates a legitimate social market for expertise.

Apprenticeship Contracts

Longer mentorship agreements can track goals over several days, jobs, or production cycles.

Guild Academies

Guilds can sponsor communal training, loan tools, and subsidize teacher fees for recruits.

What Teaching Can Do

Teaching should be able to:

  • improve early and mid-band skill gains
  • unlock guided practice tasks
  • reduce waste on beginner crafting attempts
  • improve safety on early combat or gathering drills
  • let students learn better combat habits, recipes, or route methods sooner
  • increase retention by giving new players direction

What Teaching Should Not Do

Teaching should not:

  • grant raw mastery without action
  • bypass material or tool requirements
  • replace expedition or crafting practice entirely
  • power-level alts infinitely through one repeated loop

Teacher Requirements

Teachers should need:

  • a strong proficiency band in the target skill
  • a minimum Teaching skill band
  • acceptable local or guild reputation
  • no recent abuse or fraud flags

Some advanced instruction may also require a training building, guild hall, workshop, or field school.

Student Requirements

Students should need:

  • lower proficiency than the teacher in the target skill
  • access to the required tools or training site
  • available time window for the lesson or apprenticeship
  • agreement to the fee and duration if the lesson is paid

Lesson Types

Drill Session

Short training aimed at one skill, usually in a town or guild facility.

Examples:

  • shield wall practice
  • archery form correction
  • apprentice forge basics
  • herb sorting and medicine prep

Guided Field Work

The teacher links a real activity to a lesson plan.

Examples:

  • escort a novice on a wolf-control hunt
  • supervise a first ore extraction job
  • guide a student through a short caravan route
  • coach an apprentice through ration preservation

Apprenticeship Track

A longer relationship with progress goals, milestone rewards, and teacher review windows.

Examples:

  • apprentice smith
  • trainee surveyor
  • junior caravan clerk
  • novice warden healer

Fee Models

Teaching can be:

  • free
  • fixed-fee
  • per-session
  • milestone-based
  • guild-sponsored
  • tool-loan plus revenue share

This lets benevolent players teach for free while still supporting a professional teacher economy.

Skill Gain Model Under Teaching

Teaching should apply modifiers such as:

  • better early proficiency gains
  • faster understanding of role habits and combat decision patterns
  • fewer beginner mistakes on craft or drill jobs
  • increased quality floor on supervised output
  • safer failure outcomes in training contexts

The largest benefit should be in the lower and middle proficiency bands. Once a student approaches the teacher, the gains should taper.

Reputation and Lineage

Teaching should create social signals.

Potential records:

  • teacher rating
  • completed apprenticeships
  • notable students trained
  • guild academy prestige

This helps legitimate teachers stand out from exploiters.

Anti-Abuse Rules

  • no direct mastery transfer
  • diminishing returns for repeated teacher-student spam
  • lesson benefits capped by skill gap and student progress band
  • fee and lesson logs recorded for moderation
  • lesson effects only apply to relevant actions
  • same-account or linked-account abuse should be monitored

Technical Model

Core Records

Store:

  • teaching_offer
  • teaching_session
  • apprenticeship_contract
  • lesson_plan
  • teacher_reputation
  • student_progress_checkpoint
  • skill_gain_modifier

Command Flow

Support commands such as:

  • create teaching offer
  • accept lesson
  • start training session
  • attach lesson plan to activity
  • complete apprenticeship milestone
  • settle fee and reputation updates

Resolution Pattern

Teaching sessions should resolve like other jobs:

  • validate participants and requirements
  • reserve fee or sponsorship if needed
  • attach lesson modifiers to the targeted skill actions
  • settle the session on completion
  • write skill gain and reputation results

NPC Instruction Caps by Skill

NPC instructors can teach up to a specific band before the student must find a player teacher to progress further. Skills that are purely practical (no abstract theory) tend to have lower NPC caps. Skills with significant knowledge or arcane components tend to have higher ones.

Skill NPC Cap Notes
Blades Skilled Veteran+ requires live sparring with a player teacher
Axes and Hammers Skilled Same as Blades
Polearms Skilled Same as Blades
Shielding Veteran Drills are well-codified; Expert+ requires real combat experience
Heavy Armor Familiar Fit and adjustment only; burden management must be learned in the field
Light Armor Familiar Same as Heavy Armor
Evasion Practiced Drill basics transferable; higher bands require real encounter refinement
Endurance Familiar Cannot be meaningfully taught; must be built through doing
Combat Judgment Practiced Conceptual framing only; Skilled+ requires live leadership experience
Archery Skilled Form and distance; Veteran+ requires field conditions
Tracking Practiced Basic sign reading; Skilled+ requires real-world trail experience
Arcane Theory Expert Well-documented knowledge discipline; Master requires personal breakthrough
Elementalism Veteran Theory and basic channeling; Expert+ requires field encounter shaping
Restoration Veteran Techniques teachable; Expert+ requires real emergency experience
Warding Veteran Same as Restoration
Ritualism Skilled Site protocols teachable; Veteran+ requires accumulated site knowledge
Field Medicine Skilled Procedure-heavy and teachable; Veteran+ requires real injury volume
Routefinding Practiced Basic navigation; Skilled+ requires route experience in real terrain
Surveying Practiced Method teachable; Skilled+ requires field calibration
Cartography Skilled Conventions and notation; Veteran+ requires accumulated tile coverage
Campcraft Practiced Camp setup basics; Skilled+ requires field adaptation
Waterfinding Familiar Zone-specific knowledge; cannot be usefully drilled indoors
Weather Sense Practiced Pattern reading teachable; Skilled+ requires season exposure
Animal Handling Practiced Approach and care basics; Skilled+ requires real animals
Pack Handling Familiar Weight-balance basics; higher bands require real cargo loads
Caravan Handling Practiced Protocol and route basics; Skilled+ requires live convoy experience
Scavenging Familiar Cannot meaningfully be taught; must be built through doing
Logging Practiced Technique teachable; Skilled+ requires specific timber knowledge
Mining Practiced Safety and technique; Skilled+ requires vein-specific experience
Quarrying Practiced Same as Mining
Herbalism Skilled Identification and harvest teachable; Veteran+ requires regional variety
Fishing Practiced Technique teachable; Skilled+ requires zone-specific conditions
Hunting and Trapping Practiced Method teachable; Skilled+ requires prey-specific experience
Farming Practiced Basics teachable; Skilled+ requires seasonal cycle experience
Salvage Recovery Familiar Cannot meaningfully be taught; site-specific
Smithing Veteran Technique well-documented; Expert+ requires personal refinement
Carpentry Veteran Same as Smithing
Leatherworking Veteran Same as Smithing
Clothworking Veteran Same as Smithing
Cooking Skilled Recipes and method teachable; Veteran+ requires material variety
Preservation Skilled Techniques teachable; Veteran+ requires material-specific knowledge
Alchemy Expert Deep knowledge discipline; Master requires personal formulation
Tinkering Skilled Method teachable; Veteran+ requires problem-specific refinement
Masonry Veteran Well-codified trade knowledge
Artifice Practiced Prerequisite concepts only; Skilled+ is inherently personal
Trade Practiced Commerce basics teachable; Skilled+ requires real market exposure
Appraisal Skilled Grading standards teachable; Veteran+ requires material volume
Negotiation Familiar Concepts only; must be built through real transactions
Stewardship Skilled Administration teachable; Veteran+ requires real management responsibility
Leadership Familiar Concepts only; cannot be taught in a classroom
Teaching Skilled Meta-skill; session management teachable; Veteran+ requires real students
Scribing Veteran Format and conventions teachable; Expert+ requires content mastery
Mount Riding Practiced Stable-supervised drills; Skilled+ requires real expedition use
Beastbonding Familiar Approach safety only; must be built with real animals
Taming Cannot be NPC-taught No NPC at launch has active taming expertise
Mount Husbandry Practiced Stable care basics; Skilled+ requires real condition management
Mount Training Practiced Basic exercise plans; Skilled+ requires animal-specific knowledge
Wilderness Handling Familiar Concepts only; must be built on real expedition terrain

Teaching Use Cases by System

Combat

Veterans can coach weapon handling, shield use, healing discipline, or combat drills.

Gathering

Experts can lead supervised extraction, route finding, survey work, and safe salvage.

Crafting

Masters can teach recipes, workshop flow, material roles, finishing steps, and repair logic.

Trade and Governance

Experienced merchants or stewards can teach appraisal, negotiation, bookkeeping, and town reserve management.

  • skill catalog
  • character progression and roles
  • guilds and clans
  • social, trade, and governance