Since Certification is a cornerstone of New Washingtonian life, the Age of Corporations Certification System is designed to allow character building based on that very training. To make this process easier, we'll follow an example in italics.
John is building a character: a half-elf mercenary named Duvall. He's come up with a basic history and is ready to start choosing his character's certification and skills.
The Certification System works in three steps:
When you purchase a level in certification, it costs you a set amount of points according to the Certification's level. You then may choose a certain number of the listed skills, again, according to the level. Each of those skills increases by one.
John has decided that Duvall isn't particularly educated, but at least did well in Secondary School, so he purchases the first level of Traditional Education. It reads:
Secondary School: Pick Two of Three - 2 Points
When choosing certified skills, you may only increase a skill by one per level. In the above example, John couldn't have chosen Academics twice.
If you want to choose an advanced level of Certification, you must first purchase previous levels, paying for each one.
Duvall is a mercenary, and therefore knows how to use a pistol. John decides that he has moderate skill, so decides to buy two levels of Pistol Certification. They read:
Pistol Pre-cert: Pick Two of Three - 2 Points
When taking an additional level of certification, you may still only choose each skill once, but if you choose one you took in the first level, they stack!
John chooses Pistol and Field Tech for Duvall's Pre-Cert, and Pistol, Take Cover and Field Tech for his C-Rank. His pistol skills look like this now:
Pistol: 2
Take Cover: 1
Field Tech: 2
If you buy Certification of two different types that have the same skill, they stack just like when you buy two levels of the same Certification.
John decides that Duvall also has Rifle Certification; specifically, Pre-Certification only. It reads:
Rifle Pre-cert: Pick Two of Three - 2 Points
Pistol: 2
Take Cover: 1
Field Tech: 3
Rifle: 1
Certification is the cheapest way to increase a large number of skills; however, skills may be purchased without the requisite Certification. It is generally more expensive to do so. Skill costs are as follows, for a single skill:
Lv. 1 - 1 points
Lv. 2 - 2 points
Lv. 3 - 4 points
Lv. 4 - 8 points
Lv. 5 - 14 points
Each level must be purchased on its own, so buying a new skill at level 2 would mean purchasing it at level 1 first -- for a total cost of 3 (1+2).
If Certification has already boosted a skill to a particular level, however, the levels covered by Certification do not need to be bought -- only new levels. “A La Carte” skills must be purchased after Certification: you can't buy Level 1 of a skill and then boost it to Level 2 using certification.
Since John has boosted Duvall's Field Tech to 3 already, he decides that Duvall is a bit of a tech prodigy. He decides that Duvall's level in Applied Tech should be higher; however, he doesn't want to buy more Educational Certification. He decides instead to buy levels of Applied Tech directly -- he'll buy the skill up to level 3.
Since Applied Tech is already at 1, thanks to Duvall's Secondary School education, John only has to pay for levels 2 and 3. They cost 2 and 4 points respectively, coming to a total of 6 points.
John has spent a total of 16 points.
Duvall's list of skills now reads like this:
Academics: 1
Applied Tech: 3
Pistol: 2
Take Cover: 1
Field Tech: 3
Rifle: 1