NaGaDeMon / RoleVember 2019 - Experience
How do characters level up?
Why do characters level up?
What does levelling up mean in the setting?
In most class based games, a character fulfills an assortment of tasks, then gains a number of ephemeral "points" which are accumulated. Once a character has accumulated enough points, their "level" improves and tey gain a range of benefits (which might include skill improvements, attribute improvements, new abilities, etc.)
In more open games, the same sort of thing generally applies... the character fulfils tasks, they earn ephemeral "points" then spend those points on specific upgrades. These upgrades might include new skills and abilities, improved skills and abilities, increased attributes, or whatever else the game system uses to differentiate one character from another.
Some games flavour this by giving more points when characters do things that are more significant to their role in the story, other games direct the expenditure of points toward the types of things associated with the character's role (perahaps making certain things cheaper and others more expensive, or in some cases preventing certain expenditures outright).
Currently, in the system I'm adapting for this game, experience follows a track. As experience is gained, boxes on the track are marked off, and when certain bold boxes are marked off, an advance is gained.
In "The Law" I allow players to purchase two upgrades when they reach these "advance boxes", such upgrades may be increased attributes, new basic skills, upgrades from basic to advanced skills, or edges that help in specific situations. As long as a character's attributes are high enough, their player may spend both advances to increase the hero die (since this is a more powerful ugrade to the character).
The thing about "The Law" is that characters are designed to generally be disposable. It's a rough setting, often shoot-first-ask-questions-later, and most characters have a decent chance of dying in every session. Few will survive more than a dozen games. In most cases a season of the game will last 6-8 episodes/sessions, and half the players will have seen at least one of their characters die during this time. From an out-of-game perspective we want to see some development in those characters before they die, and from an in-game perspective, it's both a high risk business that the characters are involved in, and there are things like cybernetics and direct neural information uploads, so advancements would be realitively easy for the characters to acquire.
When I looked to a similar experience system in "Walkabout" the general idea of the experience track still holds true. But in that game I specifically considered how easy it might be for a character to fundamentally improve who they are (increasing their attributes), compared to how quickly they might learn things (purchasing new skills/abilities, or upgrading their skills/abilities).
In both games, equipment can be acquired fairly easily, and it works as a way of dramatically increasing a character's potential in an activity where the equipment is useful. But equipment can be stolen, broken, or otherwise rendered obsolete. It's not a permanent part of the character. There's also another fundamental difference from a story perspective. Equipment is purchased with earnings from a completed job or a successful action, I tend to think of experience as the flip-side of this. If you fail at a task, you learn a way not to do it next time, if you succeed, you don't really earn much of anything because you've just used your existing skills...and they worked. So basically, if you succeed you get a reward, and if you fail you get experience. The aim is that the mechanisms of play are always trying to keep you actively doing something (regardless of whether the outcome is success or failure).
In this game, I'm thinking that spells will be functionally similar to equipment. Some equipment has a power supply, ammunition, or supply cache, if you use up some of that power/ammunition/cache then the equipment activates. If you use a bullet, the gun fires; if you power up the data-pad, you can look up information on the web. In a lot of cases, these are more abstract (if you roll a low sacrifice die on the action, you might apply a "low ammo" trait to the gun, or a "low power" trait to the datapad). Spells will have a similar abstract activation cost, they will need to have this cost met before they activate and therefore won't always be available. This means spells won't require experience to learn, they will simply be something that can be gained by successful reading of a relevant spell book. Spells won't be like D&D, where a wizard will need to re-read them once they've been cast, they're more like the rotes in Mage: the Ascension which become instantly (and permanently) added to a character's repertoire if the character has the relevant spheres and underlying abilities. It's these relevant spheres and underlying abilities that will have experience costs associated with them.
There may be options for spells to be cast with permanent effects, and these spells might permanently improve a character. Perhaps a character is enchanted with a "silver-tongue" effect that permanently increases their Social attribute. I haven't worked out if there may need to be some kind of experience cost associated with this, or perhaps to apply a permanent magical cost to the character.
That reminds me of something... but I'll write that in the next post.
Time for a definitive call.
In this game, spells, equipment, and relationships to other characters in the game (and factions) will have to be earned by performing specific actions udirng the course of play.
They will be able to purchase abilities, situational edges, and improve their innate magical potential with the experience they earn (but will need to justify these improvements through the actions they have taken).
Why do characters level up?
What does levelling up mean in the setting?
In most class based games, a character fulfills an assortment of tasks, then gains a number of ephemeral "points" which are accumulated. Once a character has accumulated enough points, their "level" improves and tey gain a range of benefits (which might include skill improvements, attribute improvements, new abilities, etc.)
In more open games, the same sort of thing generally applies... the character fulfils tasks, they earn ephemeral "points" then spend those points on specific upgrades. These upgrades might include new skills and abilities, improved skills and abilities, increased attributes, or whatever else the game system uses to differentiate one character from another.
Some games flavour this by giving more points when characters do things that are more significant to their role in the story, other games direct the expenditure of points toward the types of things associated with the character's role (perahaps making certain things cheaper and others more expensive, or in some cases preventing certain expenditures outright).
Currently, in the system I'm adapting for this game, experience follows a track. As experience is gained, boxes on the track are marked off, and when certain bold boxes are marked off, an advance is gained.
In "The Law" I allow players to purchase two upgrades when they reach these "advance boxes", such upgrades may be increased attributes, new basic skills, upgrades from basic to advanced skills, or edges that help in specific situations. As long as a character's attributes are high enough, their player may spend both advances to increase the hero die (since this is a more powerful ugrade to the character).
The thing about "The Law" is that characters are designed to generally be disposable. It's a rough setting, often shoot-first-ask-questions-later, and most characters have a decent chance of dying in every session. Few will survive more than a dozen games. In most cases a season of the game will last 6-8 episodes/sessions, and half the players will have seen at least one of their characters die during this time. From an out-of-game perspective we want to see some development in those characters before they die, and from an in-game perspective, it's both a high risk business that the characters are involved in, and there are things like cybernetics and direct neural information uploads, so advancements would be realitively easy for the characters to acquire.
When I looked to a similar experience system in "Walkabout" the general idea of the experience track still holds true. But in that game I specifically considered how easy it might be for a character to fundamentally improve who they are (increasing their attributes), compared to how quickly they might learn things (purchasing new skills/abilities, or upgrading their skills/abilities).
In both games, equipment can be acquired fairly easily, and it works as a way of dramatically increasing a character's potential in an activity where the equipment is useful. But equipment can be stolen, broken, or otherwise rendered obsolete. It's not a permanent part of the character. There's also another fundamental difference from a story perspective. Equipment is purchased with earnings from a completed job or a successful action, I tend to think of experience as the flip-side of this. If you fail at a task, you learn a way not to do it next time, if you succeed, you don't really earn much of anything because you've just used your existing skills...and they worked. So basically, if you succeed you get a reward, and if you fail you get experience. The aim is that the mechanisms of play are always trying to keep you actively doing something (regardless of whether the outcome is success or failure).
In this game, I'm thinking that spells will be functionally similar to equipment. Some equipment has a power supply, ammunition, or supply cache, if you use up some of that power/ammunition/cache then the equipment activates. If you use a bullet, the gun fires; if you power up the data-pad, you can look up information on the web. In a lot of cases, these are more abstract (if you roll a low sacrifice die on the action, you might apply a "low ammo" trait to the gun, or a "low power" trait to the datapad). Spells will have a similar abstract activation cost, they will need to have this cost met before they activate and therefore won't always be available. This means spells won't require experience to learn, they will simply be something that can be gained by successful reading of a relevant spell book. Spells won't be like D&D, where a wizard will need to re-read them once they've been cast, they're more like the rotes in Mage: the Ascension which become instantly (and permanently) added to a character's repertoire if the character has the relevant spheres and underlying abilities. It's these relevant spheres and underlying abilities that will have experience costs associated with them.
There may be options for spells to be cast with permanent effects, and these spells might permanently improve a character. Perhaps a character is enchanted with a "silver-tongue" effect that permanently increases their Social attribute. I haven't worked out if there may need to be some kind of experience cost associated with this, or perhaps to apply a permanent magical cost to the character.
That reminds me of something... but I'll write that in the next post.
Time for a definitive call.
In this game, spells, equipment, and relationships to other characters in the game (and factions) will have to be earned by performing specific actions udirng the course of play.
They will be able to purchase abilities, situational edges, and improve their innate magical potential with the experience they earn (but will need to justify these improvements through the actions they have taken).
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