[Gaia Reborn]

Leveling Up
In most MMORPGs, a player's strength is dependent upon their level and their stats. The higher their level, the higher their stats, and the stronger the character. Gaia Reborn, however, is one of the few to break this trend by removing the traditional leveling of main Classes altogether, keeping all players fairly close in raw power. This is not to say that you will not get stronger, but base stats will remain the same. Because of this, it would not be unusual to see a veteran player running through dungeons with their friends who just started playing.

Players will still earn experience points, often abbreviated to EXP, as they write. 50 words earns a player 1 EXP, and every 10 words will also earn a player 1 Gold. When a player has earned 10 EXP, they gain 3 AP and 1 SP. Players will gain strength through purchasing Affinities and Skills with their AP (Ability Points) and SP (Skill Points). SP is used to unlock class-specific skills, as well as generic Adventurer Skills. An adventurer may either purchase many average skills Rank 1 skills, or fewer, more powerful Rank 2 or Rank 3 skills; Rank 1 skills cost 3 SP to unlock, Rank 2 skills cost 5 SP to unlock, and Rank 3 skills cost 10 SP to unlock.

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Proficiencies
Depending upon a player's chosen main class, they will have different levels of base equipment proficiency. A player's equipment proficiency level must be equal to the Item Level of the equipment in order to wear it; the higher the item level of their equipment, the more powerful it is. The base proficiency of each class can be found below.

	Unarmed	One-handed Melee	Two-handed Melee	Ranged	Magic	Shields	Light Armor	Medium Armor	Heavy Armor
Monk	4	0	1	0	0	0	3	2	0
Paladin	0	2	0	0	0	5	0	0	3
Pirate	0	3	0	2	0	0	5	0	0
Vanguard	0	2	2	0	0	2	0	0	4
Assassin	1	4	0	3	0	0	1	1	0
Duelist	0	6	0	0	0	0	3	1	0
Gladiator	0	1	4	0	0	1	0	2	2
Ranger	0	0	0	7	0	0	2	1	0
Enchanter	0	0	0	0	6	0	4	0	0
Sorcerer	0	0	0	0	7	0	3	0	0
Spellblade	0	2	2	0	3	0	0	1	2
Summoner	0	0	0	1	6	0	3	0	0
Bard	0	2	1	0	4	0	2	1	0
Cleric	0	2	0	0	5	1	1	1	0
Druid	0	1	0	0	6	0	3	0	0
Shaman	0	2	0	1	5	0	2	0	0

As a character's strength grows, the cost of raising one's proficiency will also grow. To rank up a proficiency from 0 to 1, the user must pay 10 AP. After that, it costs only 1 AP to reach levels 2 - 25, 2 AP to reach levels 26 - 50, and 3 AP to reach 51 - 75.

A character’s Proficiency determines the strength of the gear they can equip and their overall skill at using said gear. A character with a One-handed proficiency of 40 can wield a complex rapier as if it were an extension of their body, while a character with a One-Handed proficiency of 5 may only be capable of efficiently wielding a simple rapier.

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Proficiency Penalties
If your character has 0 Proficiency in the weapon type they are using, or if their equipment is higher level than their proficiency for that type of equipment, your character will receive a 50% Accuracy and Damage penalty while this weapon type is equipped. Wearing armor or shields without the appropriate Proficiency incurs a 50% Defense and Magic Defense penalty on that piece of gear. Likewise, attempting to cast Adventurer Spells with a Magic proficiency of 0 reduces the damage dealt by 50% and doubles cast times.

Wielding a second weapon in one’s off hand, referred to as “Dual Wielding”, incurs a 50% Accuracy penalty for both weapons. This can be remedied with the Ambidexterity or Ambidexterity Prime skills. This does not apply to wielding shields or unarmed weapons.

Furthermore, there are some throwing weapons such as shuriken, throwing daggers, chakram and so on. These are listed under the Throwing Item Type, and have their own proficiency equal to half of the character’s Ranged proficiency + half of the character’s One-handed proficiency, rounded up. Having 40 Ranged and 10 One-handed would thus grant you a proficiency of 25 with throwing weapons.

[Gaia Reborn]

Talents
While a player’s primary class does not level up in the traditional sense leaving most players in a relatively close power scale, it is another story entirely outside of combat. Two Duelists will always be close enough in power to fight together effectively regardless of their experience in combat, but Talents do not share this factor; there is a large difference between a Carpenter who has just cut down his first tree and one who has spent months sitting in the chair they crafted themselves.

Talents will level up as a character hones their Talent. As a Blacksmith refines their skills in creating weapons and armor or a Bodyguard escorts their clients, they will gain Talent EXP much like you can get Main Class EXP. Every 10 Talent EXP grants it 1 level. Levelling your character’s talents will not confer any AP or SP; instead, talent skills are unlocked every 10 levels.

Practice makes perfect, and as a character's Talents level up, their abilities will improve as well not only through the skills earned, but also through heightened effectiveness. A level 40 Dancer would be far more graceful than a level 1 Dancer with little experience, as one would expect.

It is possible to change one’s Talent in Gaia Reborn. For the sum of 500 Gold, you can change your Crafting or Roleplay Talent to a new one, starting at level 1. Players will lose access to all skills they had unlocked for their previous Talent. If at any point you choose to re-purchase your old Talent, you will regain your previous Talent’s level as well as all of its unlocked talent skills.

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Thread Tags
There are ways of affecting the amount of EXP one may earn in a thread depending on its content and the players partaking in the story being told. When a thread is made, the one who writes the opening post will have a chance to add Tags to their thread's title. There are several types of threads and the tags applied will have an impact on the rewards earned when claiming a thread for EXP.

Normal Threads: What constitutes a normal thread is simply any ordinary thread in which two or more users interact with one another, regardless of the content of the thread, be it about a party diving into a dungeon or a craftsman tailoring a beautiful dress at night. There is no tag associated with normal threads, and if a thread has no tag it is treated as a normal thread. In a normal thread, rewards are unaffected, and thus EXP is earned at an x1 rate.

[Solo Threads]: If a thread is written in which there is only one user, regardless of how many characters partake in the story, then it is treated as a solo thread. Solo threads are treated much the same as Normal Threads.

[Closed Threads]: While threads are often open for others to join in on the adventuring and roleplaying, sometimes a Player prefers to do things with a set cast. Closed tags disallow Roleplayers from joining in the thread without being tagged and/or approval from the thread creator.

[Crafting Threads]: While many choose to explore this new world, fighting the monsters that until now had simply been models on a screen, there are also those who have chosen to remain in the city to become inventors, tailors, blacksmiths, and all form of creators. In a crafting thread, a character crafts an item appropriate to their crafting Talent and level from the list of available recipes. A crafting thread may only be claimed for EXP towards one's crafting Talent.

[Harvest Threads]: An important part of crafting is the first step of gathering the materials necessary, preparing for the item to be made. All RP areas will have a locked thread with details on that area's available resources. In the header of the post, the gatherer must specify on which of the six tables they will harvest - Mineral, Wood, Plants, Animal Produce, Foods or Monsters. For every 250 words written, the gatherer can roll 1 die on a selected table. Anyone is capable of gathering any type of material regardless of their Class or Talents, and EXP earned can be spent on one’s Class or Talents if the thread is relevant to the talent (a Blacksmith mining ores, an Apothecary gathering herbs, a Monk slaying Minotaurs, etc). However, gold gain is halved in Harvest threads; instead of gaining 1 gold every 10 words, players will gain 1 gold every 20 words. On claiming the thread, you will receive an item of choice from the appropriate level you rolled.

[Commerce Threads]: Sometimes you may find yourself tight on money and feel that you need more gold than you need EXP. That is what the commerce thread is for; involving matters of financial gain or preservation of wealth, a Commerce thread allows you to earn gold at a rate of 1 gold for every 4 words instead of 10, but at a cost of 25% EXP, meaning one will only earn 75% of the EXP they would gain in a normal thread. Commerce threads must make some kind of sense as to how the user is earning gold or otherwise improving their financial situation, such as protecting a merchant caravan, negotiating to lower prices of goods or services, or working a part-time job; you will not earn the bonus gold if your thread does not include any reasonable way gold was earned or preserved, such as an entire thread of just sitting around talking to friends.

[Research Threads]: Shortly after the Apocalypse, it was discovered that while players are capable of crafting by selecting an available recipe with the game's crafting system, players are also capable of inventing items never before seen in the game. In a research thread, a crafter experiments with materials in hopes of creating a new recipe that was not originally in Gaia Reborn. Once a research thread is completed, a moderator will review it and the proposed recipe, giving their verdict on whether or not it has been approved. If a recipe is approved, it will be added to the recipes list.

[Mentor Threads]: It is normal for one to pass on their knowledge, teaching others who hope to be like them. In a Mentor thread, one or more players - a mentor - is teaching one or more other players - the apprentice. The lesson can be on any subject matter, be it crafting, the use of one's RP talent, or even combat; so long as the mentor is actively teaching the apprentice, both will receive a bonus of x1.25 EXP when claiming the thread.

[Guild Threads]: Any threads in which only members of an officially approved guild are involved in will receive a bonus dependent upon the number of members in the thread. All members of the guild hosting this thread will receive a bonus of x1.2 EXP, but a guild must have at least three members actively involved in the thread. Should there be at least four members, the bonus is raised to x1.3 EXP.

[Alliance Threads]: Though essentially identical to a guild thread, an alliance thread allows members of two or more allied guilds to earn bonus EXP as opposed to just one. Just like a guild thread, all members of the allied guilds will receive a bonus of x1.2 EXP if there are three active members in the thread, which is raised to x1.3 EXP if there are at least four active members in the thread.

[Prequel Threads]: A special thread type which allows characters to explore their stories prior to the apocalypse. For Adventurers this would mean their IRL lives prior to entering the bodies of their characters in Gaia. For Gaians this would mean exploring their lives prior to the appearance of Adventurers in their world. These threads cannot be claimed and therefore do not grant any EXP or Gold.