At the basic level, character advancement in Legend of Five Rings is very similar to how character Advancement works in another Fantasy Flight RPG: Genesys. The players acquire experience points and spend them to increases abilities and acquire techniques. Experience points are awarded at a rate of 1 point per hour of play with additional rewards of 3 to 5 points for achieving important story milestones.
The interesting part of character advancement in Legend of Five Rings comes in with the School Curriculum. Curriculum are a list of advances that are explicitly tied to the teachings of the school. A curriculum table is split into five ranks, with the 6th rank containing just a school mastery ability. At each rank is listed certain skills, techniques, and categories of techniques. In some cases, a curriculum will give you access to a technique you otherwise wouldn't have available. However, you only have
that special access at that rank. So if you have special access to a technique at Rank 1 but advance to Rank 2 before taking it, you no longer have access to that technique.
