In Aim Ten, you do not gain experience, but rather experiences.
When you discover an experience, you normally gain or adjust your attribute strength.
Many experiences are also memories. Some may also grant you a form.
Experiences come in five flavours: Archons, Lore, Treasures, and Secrets.
Archons
Archons are creatures who are experiences simply by virtue of meeting with them or getting to know them. They may be inspiring teachers, dramatic personalities, or simply someone that matters a lot to you.
If your character is reasonably experienced, you may also be an archon.
Lore
Lore includes significant events, knowledge and information, and things you have learned. It may come from your personal experience, or it may come from books, tales, and stories.
Treasures
Treasure includes equipment and other objects which are particularly valuable or useful, including money and coin.
Secrets
Secrets are experiences which are personal to you. Normally, these can’t be shared or traded.
Forms
Forms are catalogues of experiences which you gain in bulk. The memories in a single form often work well together and can often be used at the same time by a sufficiently powerful creature.
We can also use “form” to refer to the collection or collections of memories for a given character. For example, if they have a favoured set of social memories, this may be termed that character’s form for social encounters.
Sharing and trading experiences
Experiences may often be traded for other experiences. Some experiences may also be shared – that is, they don’t leave your possession when they’re traded. Everyone wins!
The value of an experience to an NPC may vary widely depending on what they want and how they perceive you. They may drop hints on what they would like, or what they have to offer.
Trading experiences successfully will usually involve dialogue and negotiation. It may involve telling a story, describing a situation, or training someone in a technique.
Tiers
The tier of an experience represents its rarity, complexity, and quality. Higher tier experiences usually require more attribute points to use, and are harder to find.
It also affects whether it can be detected as information, using Insight or Resolve.