This game runs on a goal-based ascension system. That means for your characters to do anything OOC, they must do things IC.

How it works:
1. Set Major Goal
You set a goal for your character's growth. This can be rank based (for a rank that is currently open) or personal. It can be OOC or IC, but it should be an overarching, long term goal.
E.g., the goal can be "graduate weyrlinghood," which the character would want to do and would probably think they were going to do. It could be "become a wingleader" if a wingleader position was open, in which case that would be an ambition for the character. It could be something like rise a level of mastery in their magic use, or gain the ability to use magic.
Some ranks, like weyrleadership (which is won in flights) or weyrwoman, are not attainable in this way.

2. Determine the difficulty of the task
This depends on a lot of things- how much time it takes, how much skill is involved, luck, etc.
The levels of difficulty is Easy, Moderate, Challenging, Hard, Long-shot, and near impossible.
To determine level of difficulty, take a glance at the examples below. If you still have trouble determining the difficulty, ask a staff member.
The level of difficulty for the major goal determines how many minor goals you have to complete to do it.

3. Set IC goals.
These are personal goals as pertain to your character. They can be almost anything, short-term or long-term. They should be specific to your character and help with development. Your character may be aware of them, they may be his goals, or they may not- you can use this to steer them in directions. They should inspire roleplay. They can be as small or as big or as difficult as you want. Do note that they all need to be possible, or else your character can'd go anywhere, and also that no matter how challenging they are, you still have to do the appropriate number of them.
Please do not deliberately set your goals to be too easy? Don't make them impossible, and ultimately everything's in your hands, but that's because I'm trusting y'all. I'd like these RP challenges to be minor challenges for you-the-player, too. Not a series of "meet one person!" sorts of things. Only you know what's challenging to yo, though, so that's a guideline and not a rule.

Example goals would be things like "Learn a secret", "Talk to 5 new people", "Discover who did mysterious-thing-here in Character's Past", "Solve a Mystery", "Role-play out 5 chores", "Attend 2 lessons." etc. Things that are roleplayable. Feel free to advertise and ask for threads to complete these goals.

4. Achieve your IC goals, and thus your Major goal
For each IC goal you complete, mark "COMPLETED" next to it. Once all the goals associated with the Major Goal are complete, you've achieved the major goal. :3 Congrats!
You complete the goals

Who keeps track of this?
You do. Make yourself a thread in the goal forum and update it with your characters' personal goals. Whenever you achieve them, you've gotten your reward. Poke a staff member or post in the "update this please" thread in Bug Reports to have any relevant lists updated and bios moved.
Keepers and big hats may check periodically to make sure everything's in order, but for the most part, we're trusting you guys to be able to take care of this on your own.

I want my goals changed
Please don't do this too arbitrarily. If, for some reason, you need your goals changed-- say you've had one for a month and you didn't think it was going to be as hard as it's turned out to be-- just ask a keeper to approve it. That basically just so you explain your reasoning and whatnot to someone else, and if the keeper says it's reasonable, you can go ahead and change it.

Can I have more then one major goal at once/no major goals?
Of course! Just know that they have to have separate IC goals. :3 and by that I mean both goals could have "Meet 3 people," but then you'd have to meet 3 people for goal 1 and 3 more for goal 2.

Why have goals at all/What do I do if I want to play, but don't want to have goals.
Well, this isn't really that different from what a lot of games already do. A lot of places require a post count, or a number of lessons attended, to become eligible for impression. Similarly, a lot of people require you to do something to graduate weyrlinghood, such as attend lessons. This goal mechanic is basically the same thing, but instead of me telling you what it is you need to do, you get to set those requirements. It also means that if our weyrlingmasters are MIA, you can still graduate and do everything, and you aren't limited by the rest of your class. It also encourages roleplay more then I think a string of mandatory lessons do.
That said, it is a little odd. SO. if you don't want to do the goal thing, that's fine. Essentially, you'll simply use a set of default goals, that are similar to what a lot of other sites do. For candidates to become search-eligible, you'll have to attend a lesson; for weyrlings to graduate, you'll have to attend 3 lessons and post one thread of solo/outside-of-lesson flying practice.

Characters in Availability and Goals
I'm sure people have noticed that there are a lot of ranks listed in the availability thread. These are all ranks I actively hope to have filled! But, because they are ranks, they are things that you need to RP towards.
I've set each one up with a goal difficulty (and the associated number of goals you must complete). If you want one of those ranks, what you do is set the goal of the character to whom you want the rank to go as "Earn such and such rank.", and then assign the number of appropriate IC goals. Complete the goals, and the rank is yours! I really suggest going on the easy-spectrum with those goals. :3
You can create a character for the rank in question, but they can't have it at start. For instance, they can be a prospective AWLM, but they can't be an AWLM until they complete their one goal. When they've earned the rank, you can go ahead and say that they were an AWLM the whole time.. but that first few threads cannot have them acting in their capacity as AWLM.

Goal Difficulty List
Easy - Requires 1 IC goal
Become eligible for impression, be accepted into a craft as apprentice (For characters aged 10+), get a job in the lower caverns, become an assistant weyrlingmaster, become a searchrider.
Moderate - requires 2 IC goals
become a Sr apprentice in a craft, become skilled in your profession (Lower caverns, thief, etc)
Challenging- requires 3 IC goals
Become a journeyman in a craft, Gain another level of magic mastery, gain a minor rank if it's open (Wingleader, Weyrlingmaster, candidatemaster), graduate weyrlinghood.
Hard- Requires 4 IC Goals
Become a master in a craft, non-magical character gains the ability to use latent magic (Starts at novice).
Long-shot- Requires 5 IC goals
Gain ability to use another type of magic (new type starts at novice)
near impossible.- requires 6 IC goal
become the master[craft]er (if it's open)

Feel free to send in questions or suggestions for other kinds of challenges/etc. By no means are you limited to that list at all-- expansion from it would be awesome! These are just what I anticipate are going to be the most common line items.

Does magic gained through these means affect slot-bought magic
No, magic gained through RP does not count towards what you have to pay for in terms of character slots. :3

When does a thread being used for a goal count as complete
It counts as complete when you have posted along with somebody else. That's not an encouragement to leave a bunch of two-post threads around, mind you, but I feel like it's a reasonable middle ground? That way you do have to roleplay with someone else to complete a goal, but you don't have to wait until you've finished the thread, which can take awhile. :3