doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
So, in my almost classless game Crossroads, this is much easier to implement. You can gain points toward improving things you already do in play by doing important or stand-out stuff with that skill or whatever, you can spend downtime doing research, experimentation, and/or training, and you can experience things that speak to a need to build up the skill or whatevver.
Then, stuff like totally new traits such as gaining a new ally or a fancy new sword, you need to train with someone or find a book or whatever. One of the things that you can do when you gain a new ally is recruit them to work with you as a crafter, teacher, researcher, etc, gaining the ability to go see them to train with stuff they're expert in.
A big part of the design paradigm of that game is that great heroes don't save the world, people working together do.
