I love the practice in BW, but whenever I get a block of downtime it leads to this weird planning activity that feels like schedule Tetris. I’d like to replace this with something that’s a lot easier to plan and keep books for.
Choosing a Practice Regimen
When you begin to practice, choose a practice regimen - this consists of a test difficulty you’re aiming for (Routine, Difficult or Challenging), and the date of the regimen’s first practice session. You cannot change the difficulty of a regimen once it has started (though you can start another one for a different level of difficulty, see below).
In general, a regimen is complete once the character has practiced for the required number of days. At that point, erase the regimen and record a test for the ability of the appropriate level of difficulty.
It takes time to integrate a new skill, however enthusiastic and dedicated the student. The last practice session can’t be logged until the minimum regimen duration has passed. Any extra sessions are wasted.
Bartle the Pointy has begun a Routine practice regimen for Sword, with a whole-day practice session on June 1. Bartle is at a loose end, with nothing to do but practice his swordsmanship, and within a few weeks has logged 10 days of practice, even though a Routine regimen for Sword only requires 5. Nothing happens, however, until his practice session on July 1 (which brings him to 31 days of practice), at which point he earns his Routine test and the regimen completes. The extra 21 days of practice he spent are wasted.
Practice Increments
Practice for is logged in quarter-day increments for Routine regimen, half-day increments for Difficult regimen, and whole-day increments for Challenging regimen. Practice time that’s less than the minimum increment for the regimen wasted.
You cannot, for example, practice for a Challenging regimen in your spare time after work - there’s just not enough time to get into the right head space for that level of difficulty.
Practice Times
The number of practice days required for a Routine regimen, and the minimum regimen duration for various abilities:
Martial, Musical, Physical, Power, Social - 5 days, 1 month
Agility, Seafaring, Steel - 10 days, 2 months
Forte, Special/Misc, Speed - 15 days, 3 months
Academic, Artist, Forester, Military, Peasant, Perception, School of Thought - 30 days, 6 months
Artisan, Craftsman, Medicinal, Will - 80 days, 12 months
Faith, Sorcerous - 100 days, 12 months
Difficult regimen take twice as many days; Challenging regimen require four times as many days. (The minimum regimen duration is still the same.)
For example, a Difficult regimen for Logistics (Military) requires 60 days of practice logged over not less than 6 months.
Practice Time and Other Activities
The amount of practice time a character can log depends on what else he or she is doing with her time. Characters who are actively adventuring, enduring a forced march, travelling while foraging, uncomfortably imprisoned, etc. cannot log any practice time.
Light, comfortable travel or holding down a day job (e.g. Get a Job) leaves a quarter day for practice each work day, plus a full practice day on rest days (generally one per week). Characters with extreme demands on their time (e.g. household servants, slaves, heads of state, ship’s captains) may only be able to practice on rest days, at the GM’s discretion.
Characters who have free downtime can log a full practice day every day.
Practice Tools
Practice time can only be logged when the character has access to suitable tools and practice environment. Martial skills require at the very least access to a weapon; academic skills access to appropriate reading materials; artisan skills access to a workshop, etc. You cannot practice your swordsmanship while travelling by canoe, nor your sorcery in prison!
Multiple Regimen
A character can have many practice regimen active at any one time, even for the same ability, but only one for a given level of difficulty. (For example, a character can be working on a Routine regimen and a Challenging regimen for Cooking at the same time - perhaps practicing the basics after work, and spending rest days on complex gourmet foods - but cannot simultaneously be working on two Routine regimen.)
A character can have as many regimen active as he or she is willing to keep track of.
