Salt & Steel: Leveling and Progression

Document Type: Design — Character Systems
Status: Draft v1.0
Last Updated: 2026-04-24
See Also: Classes and Ascendancies | Skill Atlas | Attributes and Stats | Voyages & Seasons

Overview

Salt & Steel's progression system is the architecture that makes a captain feel like they are becoming a legend rather than just incrementally gaining numbers. It has four interlocking layers: Character Points (the GURPS currency that fuels Atlas investment), the Level Progression Curve (100 levels across the campaign and endgame), the Skill Mastery System (active skill development through practice), and the Captain's Legacy (account-wide persistence that outlasts any individual Voyage). Each layer serves a different timeframe of play experience — session to session, week to week, and across the full life of a player's time with Salt & Steel.

The guiding principle: every moment of meaningful play should produce progress that the player can point to and see. Progress should never feel invisible or taken for granted.

Character Points

Character Points are the GURPS currency underlying all of Salt & Steel's character development. They are the atomic unit of the Skill Atlas — every node has a point cost, and points are the constraint that makes every choice meaningful.

What Character Points Do

Character Points are spent on the Skill Atlas. The Atlas represents the full breadth of GURPS's character model:

Attribute nodes: +1 ST (10 pts), +1 DX (20 pts), +1 IQ (20 pts), +1 HT (10 pts)
Secondary stat nodes: +1 HP (2 pts), +1 FP (3 pts), +1 Will (5 pts), +1 Per (5 pts)
Skill nodes: +1 to a skill level (cost varies by skill difficulty: Easy 1pt, Average 2pt, Hard 4pt, Very Hard 8pt at first increment above base)
Advantage nodes (Keystones and Landmarks): vary from 3–15 pts based on GURPS advantage cost
Burden Nodes: grant bonus points equal to Burden's GURPS disadvantage value

The Atlas is the character sheet expressed as a navigable map. Character Points are the resource that populates it.

How Character Points Are Earned

Character Points come from multiple sources, ensuring that different engagement styles all contribute to progression:

Level-Up Points (primary source): Each level grants a base number of Character Points. The amount varies by progression tier:

Level Range	Points per Level	Notes
1–30	4 pts/level	Rapid early build definition; ~120 pts over this tier
31–60	3 pts/level	Moderate pacing; ~90 pts over this tier
61–80	2 pts/level	Slowing; ~40 pts over this tier
81–100	1 pt/level	Endgame; each point is precious; 20 pts total

Total from leveling: approximately 270 Character Points over 100 levels. Combined with starting budget (150 pts from class creation), a level 100 character has allocated approximately 420 Character Points.

Milestone Points (secondary source): One-time Character Point grants from significant achievements. These do not scale to level but provide meaningful "feels good" moments at key narrative and content moments:

Source	Points Granted
Completing each Campaign Act (15 Acts total)	2 pts each (30 pts total)
First kill of each Legendary Sea Creature	3 pts (approximately 8 creatures: 24 pts total)
Completing a Faction's main questline	4 pts (4 factions: 16 pts total)
Discovering a Legendary Chart Location	1 pt each (approximately 20: 20 pts total)
Completing the Trial of the Chart (each of 3+1 trials)	2 pts each (8 pts total)
First Voyage completion	5 pts (account milestone)

Total from Milestones: approximately 125 points, if all content is completed.

Grand Total: A player who has completed all content and reached level 100 has access to approximately 545 Character Points. This is intentionally less than the total Atlas node cost — the Atlas is designed to be too large to fully map in a single Voyage. Choices must be made; builds must specialize.

The Incompleteness Is the Point
A character with 545 points and an Atlas with approximately 1,500 nodes at an average cost of 2 points each represents a total possible cost of ~3,000 points. The character can reach about 18% of all possible nodes. This guarantees that every two characters are different, that no optimal universal build exists, and that each new Voyage presents genuine "what do I do differently this time" decisions.

Level Progression Curve

100 Levels, 15 Acts

Salt & Steel's campaign runs 15 Acts across the full game, with the level curve designed to match narrative pacing — fast and exciting in the early acts, measured and meaningful in the mid-game, deliberate and aspirational in the endgame.

Early Progression — Acts 1–5 (Levels 1–30)

Pacing Goal: One level approximately every 10–15 minutes of active play
Character Points Earned: 120 from levels + early Act Milestones
What the Player Experiences:

The early game is the period of becoming. The player is defining who their captain is — allocating the first 30–40% of their planned Atlas path, discovering what playstyle feels right, making the formative choices that will shape the rest of the Voyage. Leveling should feel like continuous forward motion.

Act 1 opens in a small port of call — the captain freshly escaped from something that has ruined their previous life (the narrative hook changes each Voyage's first-act frame). The first five acts introduce:

The GURPS attribute system (tutorial framing the stat display)
The Atlas for the first time (discovered through a quest reward — "The Old Navigator gives you their charts")
The first weapon-type decision (the opening acts have explicit early nodes near the class starting position that establish the core combat style)
The first Burden Node opportunity (introduced with a narrative framing that explains its permanent nature clearly before the player commits)
The first Trial of the Chart and Ascendancy selection (available at Act 3, approximately level 20–22)

Design Constraint: The level 1–30 experience must be the game's most generously paced because it is where first impressions form. Never let the player sit without a reward feedback moment for more than 15 minutes.

Mid-Game Progression — Acts 6–10 (Levels 30–60)

Pacing Goal: One level approximately every 20–25 minutes of active play
Character Points Earned: 90 from levels + mid-game Act Milestones
What the Player Experiences:

The mid-game is the period of depth. The player's build has a clear identity but is not yet fully realized. They are beginning to see the shape of the character they are becoming — the Keystone nodes are close but not yet reached, the secondary skill regions are starting to open up, and the first truly difficult content is present.

Acts 6–10 introduce:

Naval combat at full depth (Act 6 is the "first ship command" narrative beat)
The Living Sea's creature encounter system
Faction relationship building and the Merchant's Tongue region opening up
The second Trial of the Chart (available at Act 7, level ~40–42)
First Legendary Sea Creature encounters (endgame-preview monsters that appear in the world but are tuned for level 50+ engagement — the player can see them before they can fight them)
Burst points of power (Keystone nodes that the player has been working toward begin to come online at this tier, producing the "build click" moment)

The Build Click Moment
This is the most important designed experience in the entire mid-game: the moment when the character's core Keystone is allocated and everything suddenly works together as intended. A Berserker allocating "Berserk" and feeling the rage system fully online. A Tidecaller allocating "Drowned World" and feeling the zone control power click into place. A Deadeye allocating "Dead Eye" and suddenly firing from movement at full accuracy.

These moments should be designed, not emergent. Level designers and progression designers should identify where each class's "click moment" occurs (based on the natural build path) and tune difficulty to reward the player who has just hit that moment with a satisfying application of the newly-complete build.

Late Campaign — Acts 11–15 (Levels 60–80)

Pacing Goal: One level approximately every 35–45 minutes of active play
Character Points Earned: 40 from levels + late Act Milestones
What the Player Experiences:

The late campaign is the period of mastery. The character is largely complete — their Atlas path is defined, most of their Keystones are allocated, their gear has reached meaningful tier levels. The game is now demanding that the player apply their mastery: harder content, more complex encounter design, multi-phase bosses that require the full toolkit.

Acts 11–15 introduce:

The third Trial of the Chart (available at Act 12, level ~65)
Fleet combat (commanding multiple ships simultaneously)
The deepest supernatural content (cursed zones, ghost fleets, sea-god domains)
The Nautical Chart endgame map begins to open (the boundary between campaign and endgame content blurs in Acts 14–15)
The Voyage climax — the narrative conclusion of the current Voyage's storyline

Leveling Slowdown Intent
The deliberate slow-down of leveling in this tier is intentional and should not be compensated by making levels easier to reach. Each level at 60–80 should feel earned. The player has been in the world for dozens of hours; they understand it. The pace matching that depth is appropriate.

Endgame — The Nautical Chart (Levels 80–100)

Pacing Goal: One level approximately every 90 minutes to 2 hours of active play
Character Points Earned: 20 from levels + Endgame content Milestones
What the Player Experiences:

The endgame is the period of legend. Levels 80–100 are aspirational — the player is not expected to reach level 100 in a single Voyage. The level curve exists at this tier to give veterans something to work toward across weeks of sustained play.

The Nautical Chart (endgame system — see [Endgame Systems]) replaces Act progression as the primary content driver. Each Nautical Chart node is a zone with specific modifiers (like PoE's Map system), and completing these zones generates experience and potential milestone points.

What Makes Level 100 Meaningful
Level 100 is not just "full progression." It comes with a permanent Account Record inscription: "Reached the edge of the chart." This is rare enough in any Voyage that achieving it is community-visible — leaderboards, Account Record display, cosmetic flag for the captain's ship. The last 20 levels should feel like a genuine achievement to players who reach them.

Skill Mastery System

Active Skills Have Their Own Growth

Beyond Atlas investment, every active skill in Salt & Steel has a mastery track — a separate progression layer driven by use rather than point allocation. This implements GURPS's practice-based learning model: skills improve through use, not just through deliberate training.

The Mastery System provides a sense of organic character growth — the captain who has used their Broadsword in 500 fights knows it differently than the captain who theoretically invested the same points but fought with it less.

Mastery Tiers

Each active skill progresses through five mastery tiers:

Tier 1: Novice
Starting state. The skill is functional but rough. Basic attacks work; no technique unlocks.
Unlocked: Base attack patterns for the skill

Tier 2: Journeyman (requires 50 successful uses of the skill in combat)
The character has fought with this enough to develop intuition. Reduced FP cost for standard skill use (−0.5 FP, minimum 0 for free-to-use skills). First Technique unlocks.
Unlocks: Basic combo chain (second attack in a sequence costs 0 FP), first visual animation variant

Tier 3: Expert (requires 200 successful uses + one Trial of Mastery — a brief skill-specific challenge)
The character is recognizably proficient. Combat animations reflect experience — smoother, more economical movement. FP cost further reduced. Second Technique unlocks. The skill's probability curve improves: treat the skill level as 1 higher for the purpose of critical success range expansion (effectively a +1 to critical range without changing the base hit probability).
Unlocks: Expert technique (varies by skill — see examples below), improved animations, +1 effective crit range

Tier 4: Master (requires 1,000 successful uses + second Trial of Mastery, more challenging)
The character is genuinely exceptional. NPC reactions shift — port guards give a wider berth, fellow pirates speak with deference about this captain's weapon reputation. All previous benefits increase. Third Technique unlocks. Critical success range treated as +2 from base.
Unlocks: Master technique (powerful, situational), reputation NPC dialogue, +2 effective crit range

Tier 5: Legendary (requires 5,000 successful uses + the Eternal Trial of Mastery — endgame difficulty)
The character has achieved what GURPS calls the effective ceiling of human skill. Attacks are automatic for common enemies — the GURPS principle that skill 20 produces 50% crits is visually represented: the character's combat animations are economical, almost lazy, and yet lethal. All FP costs for this skill eliminated (mastery is so complete that the energy expenditure is negligible).
Unlocks: Legendary technique (build-defining), unique animation set, account-wide cosmetic recognition

Technique Examples by Skill

Broadsword Techniques (unlocking through mastery tiers):

Journeyman — Momentum Strike: After a Swing attack, the follow-through positions you for the next Swing at no movement cost. Chain-Swing attacks without footwork.
Expert — Throat Cut: Your first attack in any encounter targets the neck location automatically (+1.5 wound modifier vs. cutting) at no additional penalty. Once per fight.
Master — Disarming Strike: On a critical success, force the enemy to make a DX roll or drop their weapon. Can be triggered deliberately at −4 to attack skill.
Legendary — The Finishing Form: While at Expert+ level in a combat, your final attack before an enemy dies deals triple wound damage (the coup de grace). Makes kill animations substantially more dramatic.

Guns(Pistol) Techniques:

Journeyman — Quick Draw: Fast-Draw(Pistol) is automatic (no roll required, just the animation time).
Expert — Execution Shot: Against a target below 25% HP, your pistol shot is treated as targeting Vitals automatically (no penalty, full ×3 location multiplier). The signature finishing move.
Master — Two-Pistol Timing: When firing a second pistol within 2 seconds of the first, the second shot benefits from any remaining aim time accrued for the first shot (normally aiming resets per weapon).
Legendary — Dead Man's Volley: Once per fight, fire all loaded pistols simultaneously (up to 4 with appropriate Ascendancy investment) at a single target. Each shot rolled separately. No reload required for this action.

Water College Techniques (for spellcasters):

Journeyman — Efficient Channeling: All Water College spells cost 1 FP less (minimum 1).
Expert — Tidal Sense: You feel the Tide State one full cycle earlier than the standard notification. You are effectively always one cycle ahead of the UI indicator.
Master — Surge Control: Your Water College spells at High Tide no longer risk backfire from overpowering them. High Tide spell casting is always clean.
Legendary — Living Current: While casting Water College spells, incoming attacks that deal Water-type or environmental damage automatically restore 2 FP per hit. You are the current; its energy is yours.

The Mastery System and Playstyle Reinforcement

The Mastery System is a feature-level implementation of a core Salt & Steel philosophy: play style shapes character, not just point allocation. Two characters with identical Atlas builds who fight differently — one primarily Broadsword, one primarily Guns — will have different mastery tiers in their respective skills and will have unlocked different Techniques. The character who has used the rapier 5,000 times knows things about it that no amount of Atlas investment can teach.

This creates a meaningful distinction between:

The theorycrafted character who has a perfect Atlas build but hasn't applied it much yet
The veteran character who has played the build intensively and unlocked Legendary mastery in their core skill

Both are viable; neither is automatically superior. The theorycrafted build has broader capability; the mastery-focused character has deeper expertise in their primary tool.

Ascendancy Progression

The Trial of the Chart

Ascendancy represents a captain's moment of crystallization — the point where their general pirate nature coalesces into something specific and exceptional. It is not given; it is tested.

The First Trial (Acts 2–3, approximately Level 18–22):

The Trial of the Chart is a dungeon-crawl challenge with three areas testing the character in different ways. The player must complete all three areas in a single run without returning to town (like PoE's Labyrinth). Dying in the Trial resets progress to the entrance.

The Trial is encountered narratively through a recurring character — an aged Navigator who appears across the early acts, dropping hints about a "test the old maps describe." At Act 3, the trial entrance opens in the world, reachable through normal exploration.

Trial Structure (Voyage 1, First Trial):

The Puzzle Chamber: Navigation-themed — requires using existing skills and perception to solve environmental puzzles. Cannot be brute-forced; rewards investment in Per and IQ-based skills.
The Deathmatch Corridor: Combat-focused — a series of encounters with no rest points, testing FP management and active defense under sustained pressure.
The Keeper's Chamber: Boss — the Trial's Keeper, a supernatural entity tailored to the current class (each class faces a different Keeper archetype). The Buccaneer's Keeper is a ghost warrior; the Navigator's Keeper is a sea spirit that must be reasoned with as well as fought.

On completion: the player selects their Ascendancy (a UI moment with a clear narrative frame — "you have proven what kind of captain you are; choose the path that calls to you"). First 2 Ascendancy Points allocated.

Subsequent Trials:

The Second and Third Trials are harder, longer, and class/Ascendancy specific. They test the character in aspects of their Ascendancy identity:

A Berserker's Second Trial involves surviving a wave encounter with FP penalties (simulating Rage's life-drain)
A Tidecaller's Second Trial is an underwater dungeon where water magic FP costs are doubled but environmental Water College spells are triggered more frequently
An Ironside's Second Trial involves protecting a structure from waves without being allowed to advance — the test of holding ground

The Eternal Trial (post-endgame, level 80+) is the most brutal challenge in the game. It does not have prescribed solutions — it generates a dungeon using the player's enemy kill history to assemble the most dangerous possible combination of enemy types. The Eternal Trial is also repeatable for rewards: each successful run of the Eternal Trial generates a small number of Ascendancy respec points (allowing one node in the Ascendancy Sub-Atlas to be changed).

Ascendancy Points

Characters earn 8 total Ascendancy Points: 2 from each of the four Trials (including the Eternal Trial). Ascendancy Points are spent on the Ascendancy Sub-Atlas — a focused 12-node progression surface where all 8 points can be allocated.

The Sub-Atlas Structure: The Ascendancy Sub-Atlas is laid out as a small nautical chart within a chart — a detail map, like an inset showing a specific harbor in greater detail. Each Ascendancy has a unique Sub-Atlas layout that reflects its identity:

The Berserker's Sub-Atlas is drawn in red-edged ink, the nodes connected by rage-progression chains
The Oracle's Sub-Atlas shows the nodes in temporal order — earlier nodes appear faded as if already in the past; the final node glows with probability
The Master Mariner's Sub-Atlas is the most weathered of any — the map has clearly survived more than one voyage

What Cannot Be Respecced
The Ascendancy choice itself — which of the three available Ascendancies was selected — cannot be changed except through a specific Account-level action: the Trial of Regret (see Skill Atlas document). Choosing wrong early is a cost; choosing well is a reward. This mirrors GURPS's treatment of character identity: who you are is a commitment, not a preference setting.

Captain's Legacy

Persistence Across Voyages

The Captain's Legacy is the account-wide progression system that answers Salt & Steel's most important design question: what persists when a Voyage ends?

The Voyage system resets the economic playing field — item progression, Atlas allocation, material accumulation — to provide the competitive freshness of a seasonal reset. But the Captain's Fantasy requires that the player's identity and history survive this reset. The Captain's Legacy is the mechanism that makes both true simultaneously.

What the Captain's Legacy Contains:

Persistent Element	What It Means
Captain's Name and Portrait	The character's identity marker across all Voyages
Reputation History	A record of faction Reaction Scores achieved in past Voyages (displayed, not carried forward as mechanical benefits)
Voyage Achievements	Completed content milestones, legendary kills, exploration records
Crew Memorial	Names and stories of crew members who died in past Voyages, preserved in the Captain's Log
Ship Name Register	All ships named and sailed; their histories recorded
Skill Atlas Templates	Saved build templates that can be quickly re-applied at new Voyage start
Cosmetic Collection	All purchased and earned cosmetic items, ship skins, titles
Legacy Titles	Special account-wide titles earned through specific achievements
Legendary Captains Roster	Hardcore characters who died — enshrined, not deleted

Legacy Benefits That Carry Forward

Not every Legacy element is purely cosmetic. Some elements provide non-power mechanical benefits that make subsequent Voyages more accessible:

Navigation Shortcuts: On a second+ Voyage, the player's Legacy unlocks: the first 3 Acts can be completed with a "Known Route" option — a faster path through early content with reduced narrative stops (for players who want to reach mid-game quickly). This does not skip rewards — it compresses travel and minor encounter time, not content.

Crew Recognition: Characters with Legacy standing attract better starting crew quality — crew NPCs recruited in Act 1 of subsequent Voyages have a +1 to their primary skill compared to first-Voyage equivalent. This is a minor quality-of-life benefit (not a power advantage) that rewards returning players with a slightly smoother early experience.

Earned Advantages: The Legacy system's most mechanically interesting feature: specific in-game achievements permanently unlock one GURPS Advantage as a "Legacy Advantage" for all future Voyage characters. This advantage does not cost Character Points on the Atlas — it is a permanent unlock from the account record.

Legacy Advantage Requirements (examples):

Legacy Advantage	Requirement	What It Provides
Danger Sense	Kill a Legendary Sea Creature at or below its level recommendation	Danger Sense Keystone is pre-allocated (free) on all future characters
High Pain Threshold	Complete any Voyage without dying more than 3 times	High Pain Threshold pre-allocated on all future characters
Rapid Healing	Survive every Trial of the Chart in a single run across a Voyage	Rapid Healing Advantage pre-allocated
Combat Reflexes	Complete a full Voyage as Hardcore (no death)	Combat Reflexes pre-allocated (the most valuable — significant headstart)
Seamanship	Navigate to all major sea regions in a single Voyage without using maps	Sailor's Wildcard (partial — half-cost reduction on Sailor! Keystone)

Note: Legacy Advantages are Advantages only — they do not include Keystones or Landmark Nodes. They represent character traits that have been so thoroughly earned that they are now part of who the captain is, regardless of their current build.

The Legendary Captains Roster

In Hardcore Voyage mode, character death is permanent — the captain is retired from active play. But they are never deleted. The account's Legendary Captains Roster preserves each fallen Hardcore captain as a permanent entry in the Captain's Legacy.

Roster Entry Contents:

Captain's name, class, and Ascendancy
Level reached and Skill Atlas screenshot at death
Date and location of death
How they died (the specific event — boss, creature, player, environmental)
A final Captain's Log entry (auto-generated narrative from the character's journey)
Any notable achievements (first kills, records, firsts)

The Legendary Captains Roster is displayed in the captain's quarters of the current active character — the history of all who came before, preserved on the wall like portraits in a pirate captain's cabin. This transforms Hardcore death from loss into legacy. The character is gone, but they are remembered. The salt in the name means this: loss is preserved, not erased.

Prestige Titles and Ship Christening Rights

Prestige Titles are Legacy-level cosmetic rewards earned through specific account achievements. They appear in ports, on the Voyage leaderboard, and in the opening of the captain's story. They are purely cosmetic — they do not provide mechanical benefits — but they are visible to other players and recognized by NPCs.

Examples:

Title	Requirement
"The Unsinkable"	Complete 3 Voyages without a Hardcore death, Hardcore mode required
"Cartographer of the Deep"	Reveal 100% of the Nautical Chart in a single Voyage
"Terror of the [Sea Region]"	Achieve Legendary Reputation (Ferocity maxed) in a specific sea region
"The Navigator's Student"	Complete all Acts on a Navigator-class character
"Storm-Born"	Survive a Hurricane encounter without fleeing or anchoring
"The Legend of [Player Name]"	Reach level 100 in any Voyage
"Ancient Mariner"	Play 10 complete Voyages on the same account

Ship Christening Rights are the account unlock that opens specific ship naming options. At baseline, ships can be given any name. Legacy-unlocked Christening Rights open:

Prefixes from retired characters ("The [Captain Name]'s Legacy")
Historical naming conventions from specific factions
Legendary ship name patterns recognized by NPC factions ("The [X] of Davy Jones" — ships with this naming pattern receive a reaction modifier from sea-spirit entities)

Voyage-to-Voyage Continuity Rituals

Each Voyage transition should feel like a return, not a start. These designed moments are the mechanical expression of the Legacy system:

The Return to Port: When a new Voyage begins and the player loads in, the first NPC they encounter in the starting port has a scripted recognition moment: "We've heard of a captain by this name. Is that you?" — a direct callback to the creative identity document's emotional beat. This line only plays if the player has Legacy standing. First-time captains get a different opening.

The Legacy Logbook: In the captain's quarters, a physical Logbook object records all Legacy achievements. Selecting it reads aloud (text display with voiceover) a brief "summary of past voyages" drawn from the account record. This is narrative continuity — the player's history told back to them.

The Crew Reunion: If the player recruits a crew member whose NPC archetype appeared in a previous Voyage (by procedural generation seed), the recruitment dialogue has an additional line acknowledging the previous captain. "Word travels. The crew of [Previous Ship Name] said good things about the captain they served."

The Progression Loop: A Session View

At the session level, what does progression feel like? This is the test: a player who sits down for two hours should see clear evidence of their captain's growth.

A Typical Two-Hour Session at Different Tiers:

Level 1–30 (early game):

Level 2–3 times within the session
Allocate 8–12 Character Points on the Atlas
Discover and complete the first Ascendancy trial
Unlock Journeyman mastery in the primary combat skill
Complete one Act milestone, receiving a named Character Point bonus
Loot a new weapon tier, visually upgrading the character

Level 30–60 (mid-game):

Level 1–2 times within the session
Allocate 3–6 Character Points
Reach a major Keystone node (the "build click" moment)
Advance a skill from Expert to Master (or make significant progress toward it)
Unlock a faction's Embassy node cluster through Reaction Score investment
Progress toward a Legendary Sea Creature encounter (even if the fight doesn't happen, reconnaissance counts)

Level 60–80 (late campaign):

Level 1 time within the session (or close)
Allocate 2 Character Points with clear deliberation about each one
Complete a Trial of the Chart (a major session milestone event)
Unlock a second Legendary technique (through mastery)
Complete a campaign Act with narrative and mechanical reward

Level 80–100 (endgame):

Level once per 2–3 sessions at this tier (but each level is visible and celebrated)
Complete multiple Nautical Chart zones (the endgame content loop)
Make progress toward Legacy Achievements (may take multiple sessions each)
Earn account-wide Prestige Title or Christening Right
Progress toward the Eternal Trial attempt

The session experience differs at every tier, but the loop is consistent: do things, earn points, make choices, see results. The results compound over Voyages into the Legacy. The Legacy compounds over years into a captain's story.

See Also:
Classes and Ascendancies — how class choice shapes the progression starting point
Skill Atlas — where Character Points are spent and what they buy
Attributes and Stats — what Character Point investments produce in stat terms
Voyages & Seasons — how Voyage resets and Legacy persistence interact at the system level
GURPS Adaptation Research — point cost references for all GURPS mechanical decisions