Level 1 Gameplay or Progress through Mastery

[aramis erak]

I have played a lot of the World of Darkness games and there is no level progression in them. Though you do earn points that you can spend to increase stats, powers, and skills, there is no automatic progression/upgrade tied to leveling up. If you don't spend points, generally nothing on your character sheet changes. I am sure there are lots of other systems out there that do not use leveling.

Literally thousands...
but many thousands which do.

And many people who call spending XP on new skill levels, new attribute levels, and new special ability levels levelling up.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Zero progression, no. Climbing the rungs is a big part of what motivates me.

But I do like a fairly flat progression. Although I play a lot of D&D, I don’t like that within a few sessions your character is vastly more powerful. A quality I do appreciate in a game is when it works fine for brand new characters to adventure with veteran characters.

 

[GMMichael]

A quality I do appreciate in a game is when it works fine for brand new characters to adventure with veteran characters.

This is an interesting point. If progress is solely based on player skill, then will the fun of experienced players diminish the fun of the n00bs? Can the two coexist? I 'm not sure that I would enjoy playing Actraiser 2 with the speedrunner.