This is the list of rules for generating a character and spending experience.
Without having bought any skills at all, a character is:
Players who are new to Cambridge Treasure Trap start characters with 90XP; after having attended for one term (and at least five interactives), members of Cambridge Treasure Trap may upstat any existing characters to 150XP and start new characters on 150XP. Upstatting may only happen between terms even if one has attended five consecutive interactives in a term; this is to prevent characters suddenly and unrealistically acquiring large amounts of experience, abilities and such overnight.
Experience is gained via attending interactives and linears/adventures.
Interactive experience is awarded for attending an interactive based on the amount of XP your character has already gained. If your character has less than 150XP, then you gain 10XP for that character. If your character has less than 240XP (end of Level 4), then you gain 6XP for that character. If you have at least 240XP and less than 360XP (end of Level 6), then you gain 5XP for that character. If you have at least 360XP, then you gain 4XP. The total is based on the amount of XP the character has gained, not the amount spent.
Characters who survive linears are awarded 10XP each, while the amount of XP awarded for the Pre-Banquet Bash and any other special events is at the discretion of the refs. Experience is awarded for monstering linears at the rate of 3XP per linear monstered. You may only spend this XP on a character who was played for at least half an hour during any one of the previous two interactives or linears.
If you play more than one character over the course of an event (only really possible in interactives), then any XP gained can only be assigned to characters that were played for more than 30 minutes during the event. You also only gain one XP award, no matter how many characters you play over the course of an event (for example, you can never gain more than 10XP from an interactive).
If you play multiple characters with XP levels such that they are in different groups, then you gain XP for the character that currently has the lowest amount of XP and you may not assign more XP to the highest-level character than they would gain if they were the only character played. For example, if someone plays Bob the fire mage on 160xp and Ben the Johnite on 250xp, he will gain 6XP for the interactive, but can spend a maximum of 5XP on Ben.
Skills grant a character abilities such as spellcasting, innate attributes like more hits or DAC, or increase their skill at something they can already do. Each skill has an XP cost, and must be bought with the experience that character has earnt. Skills that can be bought more than once have a level associated with them, equal to the number of times that skill has been bought. Some skills have prerequisites, e.g. Targeteer III requires either Wilderness III or Warrior III.
Treasure Trap is a level-based system, each level consisting of 60 experience points. The first level (1-60xp spent) is level 1. Thus a 90XP character is level 2. The maximum XP a character can ever gain is 480XP, one short of beginning 9th level. You can only exceed this score if the character is one which you intend on taking on a 3YGB (Third Year Goodbye) Adventure, but this is a special case, and the Refs will explain what you need to do, should it become an issue.
The only obvious visible effect of the level-based system is that of Double Buying. If you buy a skill with the same name more than once within the same level, and with skill level higher than character level, then the nth time you buy that skill the cost will be n times the original XP cost of the skill. So to buy Health I, II and III in level 1 costs 6 + 12 + 18 =36XP, but to buy Health I, II and III in level 2 costs 6 + 6 + 12 = 24xp.
[some examples will go in here when someone has time to write them. Apologies. If you are confused, please consult a ref or similar for help.]
If you buy a skill and the purchase puts you into the next level, then that skill counts as the higher level; e.g. with 115XP spent, a purchase of Health for 6XP is written in level 3 not 2. If multiple buying of a skill places it into the higher level then it does not count as a purchase in that level for further buying of that skill. For example, whilst on 110XP double buying Health for 12XP puts it into level 3, but the next purchase of Health in level 3 will cost 6XP.
You may create and play as many characters as you wish within the Treasure Trap system, subject to these rules: Characters are created at whatever XP level you are entitled to create characters at. You may play any of your characters during an interactive, even swapping between several roles over the course of the night.
You only gain one set of XP. This XP may be distributed however you wish amongst your characters, but each character must have been played for at least half an hour in an interactive to be eligible for the XP. No character can be given more XP for an interactive than they are entitled to recieve; playing both a 150XP and a 300XP character you will get a total of 6XP, at most 5 of which may be given to the 300XP character. You get income for each character you play for more than half an hour, and you will be trusted to keep the money that each character earns separate.
Except in very special circumstances, you cannot play two characters on an adventure. The lives of your various characters should be kept separate; there should be no IC contact between them, as it can be very easily abused.
To clarify the last item, here are a list of things which are seen by the refs as definitely not allowed. This list is not exhaustive, if you have any queries please ask a ref to clarify.
We understand that any of the above may happen by accident, and we will do our best to warn you if it looks likely that there will be problems. The ref team are more than happy to help if you cannot think of a reason for one of your character to stop their activities.