Competencies and the Competency Profile
In vanilla AD&D 1e, what a character can do beyond combat is largely implied by their class and handled through GM discretion. A thief has thief skills with percentage chances. Everyone else has whatever the fiction and the GM allow. There is no systematic framework for the capabilities a character has built through their background, their training, or their experience in play.
Oath-Bound replaces that with the Competency Profile.
The Competency Profile
The Competency Profile is the complete record of a character’s capabilities beyond their Ability Scores. It covers everything a character can do that is not simply a function of how strong, quick, or perceptive they are: skills developed through background and upbringing, domain-specific abilities that come with their actor type, competencies acquired through training or experience in play, and capabilities granted by specific circumstances or relationships.
The Profile is a shared document. Both the player and the GM work from it and contribute to it. It is not a private GM record of what the character can do — the player knows what is in their profile and participates in its development. It is not a wishlist the player maintains unilaterally — additions and advances are agreed collaboratively at the Session Journal.
Competencies
A competency is the atomic unit of the Profile — a single defined capability. Competencies come in two types.
Fixed competencies do not advance. They represent capabilities that are either present or absent: a language spoken, a cultural background, a specific knowledge domain, a granted ability that does not improve through practice. A character either has a fixed competency or they do not.
Advanceable competencies can develop through play. They are tracked across three states: Basic, Competent, and Fluent. These are qualitative descriptions of what the character can reliably do, not numerical modifiers.
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Basic — the character can perform the competency under straightforward conditions. They know enough to function. Gaps in knowledge and technique are present and occasionally visible.
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Competent — the character performs reliably across a range of conditions. Their technique is sound. They are not remarkable, but they are dependable.
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Fluent — the character performs with ease and adaptability. They can handle unusual conditions, improvise, and bring judgment to situations the Basic or Competent practitioner would struggle with.
These states describe demonstrated capability, not potential. A character advances from Basic to Competent by demonstrating Competent-level performance in play, not by accumulating sessions or spending points.
Addition and Advancement
New competencies can be added to the Profile and existing advanceable competencies can be promoted through their BCF states. Both happen at the Session Journal — the end-of-session review at which XP is assessed and the Rutter is consulted.
Neither addition nor advancement is unilateral. The player proposes; the GM assesses against what has happened in play. The Rutter is the evidence. A competency advance that is not supported by demonstrated performance in the record does not proceed. One that is clearly supported by what the character has done in play is difficult to argue against.
This means the Competency Profile grows from the fiction outward. Characters become better at the things they do, in the ways they do them, at the pace the table can see.