Unpractice -- time spent practicing or time at anything?

[Blackberry]

Page 58 of BW says, "If a character goes through one whole practice cycle without testing or practicing a skill, then that skill drops by one exponent point."

Does this mean:

a) When I practice Sorcery for a year, I have to make sure I test my Martial skills each month during my practice;

b) When I practice Sorcery for a year, I have to make sure I test my Martial skills at least once during that year;

c) When I'm just cruising through life, I have to make sure I test my Martial skills at least once each month;

d) Something else?

[Kublai]

I'd say A and C are applicable situations.

[Blackberry]

I'd say A and C are applicable situations.

So, you must either practice or legitimately test every single one of your Martial skills every month? If you have 3 Martial skills, that's 6 hours per day for a month. Not to mention that you have to be constantly practicing every one of your other skills at the same time or they start to atrophy too.

Von Goten, for example, has 5 Martial, 1 Medicinal, 4 Social, 1 Physical. In order for those not to atrophy, assuming he isn't stuck in the middle of a monster-laden cave where he can legitimately test all of his skills, he has to practice them for literally 24 hours every day.

[Kublai]

technically, yes?

In reality, I don't enforce the unpractice rule in my campaign. It seems a bit too harsh for my tastes. It can takes many sessions to bump up a skill's exponent only to have it lost possibly in a single session.

Also, it seems to me that if I was a skilled swordsman and did it for years, I don't think the decrease in my skill if I didn't do it for a month would be so sharp. I mean, would a grand master with a 7 exponent drop to a 3 in only a season?

However, if a character purposely ignores a skill, then I will enforce the loss. As in, this soldier has no intention to return to the farm.

[Blackberry]

I go along with what you say, but I'm also cursed with some of those slap-worthy players who read the letter of a rule and not the spirit of it. They'll want to know why. :)