Overview
A character learns new skills and improves existing skills and attributes by spending downtime points.
Skill Use
He/she can do this by using the skill - butcher for example will increase your hunting skill and making a tunic will increase your tailoring skill. Skills learnt in this way progress at a ratio of 1:1. This means that if the +skill says 2000 you will need to spend 2000 downtime points making clothing to increase your tailoring skill by one level.
Practice
You can also learn or improve skills by practicing them. This process assumes that you spent your downtime studying the skill. You may have watched another doing it or you may have spent several hours shooting arrows at a target. This is automated in a way that assumes your character spent hours repeating a task so you dont have to. Skills learnt in this way progress at a ratio of 1:1.
Training
If you can find a teacher you can improve or learn skills via training. A character with a higher skill lever than his/her student can use train to help the student to learn quicker. Training will cost downtime to the teacher but this downtime will feed back into his teaching skill in the way explained above. When a student learns skills from a teacher in this way the learning ratio is 2:1. This means that if +skill says 2000 downtime is needed you would need to spend 1000 points in training to increase your skill by one level.
Exercise
You can improve your attributes by using the exercise command. This command will convert 200 downtime into 0.1 attribute points. When you have enough attribute points you can increase your attribute level via the raise attribute command. The cost to increase an attribute depends on your age and the current level of the attribute.
Earning Downtime
Each player gets a daily downtime allowance modified by his/her current energy point level. It is likely that family employees and the quality of the chracters set home will influence this gain further. Downtime is further explained on the downtime page.
If is also intended that you will be able to turn votes (gained through roleplaying with other players) into downtime points.
