Lore has always been a rather large xp sink and never had a realistic application that seemed practical in a vast world of wacky things during the span of a mortal lifetime. Because of this I’ve changed lore to fit a bit better into my game. Lore is now a basis of study founded in the occult, thus: Occult is now the de facto knowledge base for “knowing your shit”.

 

Consider the occult ability to be your education in all things wacky, wonderful and weird. IE: The supernatural or what is perceived to be supernatural. Occult of 1 would be the equivalent of a primary education with broad applications. While there are facts and directions that give you an idea of what is out there it is certainly not complete and far too broad to be overly useful. Occult of 2 would be like your high school education. This would give you more direction and a somewhat tighter knowledge base on the supernatural, allowing you to make your own conclusions and to explore theory. Occult of 3 would be like the beginnings of your college education wherein you would need to pick a field of study, IE: A Major. With this level of occult you will receive a free specialization in your chosen field of study; as an example you could choose a field such as The Wyrm. It comes with all the benefits of a specialization such as gaining an additional success if a 10 is rolled on any lore checks to discern information on all things wyrmy, but again it is a field of study and might not get you all the best info and some of it might be beyond what you’re capable of processing. To this end you will want to focus your study a bit more. Consider this to be like a Master’s degree program or Occult 4. Here you will choose to tighten your field of study. For example you’ve chosen at Occult of 3 to specialize in The Wyrm, and at Occult of 4 you’ve chosen to specialize even further in Banes. You will enjoy an additional success when you roll a 9 or a 10 when it comes to lore checks to discern knowledge on banes and will have a better understanding not only of the wyrm but will have much better insight into how banes operate and what their purpose might be. At this point you may wish to specialize even further and to this end you might consider it like entering into a doctorate program or, Occult 5. At the occult level of 5 you will have chosen a very focused aspect of your previous subject of study, in this case, banes. So you may choose a specific category of banes and when studying those particular banes you will enjoy an additional success to your rolls on an 8, 9, or 10 to ascertain knowledge about them. You will also know how they operate, can identify them; know their habits and also when they aren’t following their habits. It should be noted
though that if you choose to follow the occult path you can only ever choose one field of study to pursue and everyone, once you hit level 3 in occult, must choose a field of study. So, to sum up I will make a chart below for a visual representation of how lore works now.

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Occult x 1 = Elementary general studies

Occult x2 = High school level general studies.

Occult x3 = College level studies with a chosen field of focus. 

Occult x4 = Master’s level of study with even further specialization. 9 again on your specialization

Occult x5 = Doctorate level of study with the most specialization within your field. 8 again on your specialization. 

It should be noted that starting occult will be limited by your pc’s starting rank to exemplify all the changes that have happened in the world.

 

Special merit

 

Scholar of the Unknown: Mental Merit 2pts.

Normally a person without this merit can only choose one field of study in the occult. But you’ve spent far more time burning the midnight oil. Maybe you were a professional student or maybe a conspiracy theorist with fanatical leanings but for whatever reasons you pursued knowledge with a passion. As a consequence you may choose 2 fields of study and their corresponding specializations.