ThorinTeague
Creative/Father/Professor
I've been monkeying around with some ideas. One thing I'm toying with is what an RPG without levels would look like. I'm trying to see if it's feasable to take the idea of a "level" and sort of divide it up into its constituent components that a player can "buy." Like if you thought of a traditional level as a "package" of advancements, it might (depending on system) come with any of:
Increased Hit points
Better Chance to Hit
More Chances to Attack
Ability Score Increase(s)
New Proficiencies/Skills, or increased expertise in them
New/More/Higher level Spells
New/Better Class Abilities
Etc. Etc... you get the idea.
This would work (or not) from a system of milestones. You hit x milestone, get an xp and you can spend your milestone on any of the aforementioned and probably more. A running XP total should provide an approximate idea of power level for terms of balancing encounters and/or writing adventures.
It may be that some degree of requirement barriers should be baked in to prevent a player from, say, buying into nothing but increased chance to hit at the expense of being a complete glass cannon. Or whatever the case may be. But to some degree, the idea would be that Players should be allowed to make this decision and be a glass cannon if they wish.
The primary detriment that I am seeing right now is that it require long lists of milestones. Probably some would be recurring and some would not. Some would be specific to classes and species. This would probably be several pages of tables. I think in my completely hypothetical system I want negative experiences to advance the character as well, e.g. "failing a quest," "surrendering," "fleeing," "getting robbed," etc. would be on the list along with what you'd expect: defeating enemies, finding treasures, completing quests, etc. etc. so forth.
I open the floor to any thoughts, input, constructive criticism, and/or suggestions you may have.
Increased Hit points
Better Chance to Hit
More Chances to Attack
Ability Score Increase(s)
New Proficiencies/Skills, or increased expertise in them
New/More/Higher level Spells
New/Better Class Abilities
Etc. Etc... you get the idea.
This would work (or not) from a system of milestones. You hit x milestone, get an xp and you can spend your milestone on any of the aforementioned and probably more. A running XP total should provide an approximate idea of power level for terms of balancing encounters and/or writing adventures.
It may be that some degree of requirement barriers should be baked in to prevent a player from, say, buying into nothing but increased chance to hit at the expense of being a complete glass cannon. Or whatever the case may be. But to some degree, the idea would be that Players should be allowed to make this decision and be a glass cannon if they wish.
The primary detriment that I am seeing right now is that it require long lists of milestones. Probably some would be recurring and some would not. Some would be specific to classes and species. This would probably be several pages of tables. I think in my completely hypothetical system I want negative experiences to advance the character as well, e.g. "failing a quest," "surrendering," "fleeing," "getting robbed," etc. would be on the list along with what you'd expect: defeating enemies, finding treasures, completing quests, etc. etc. so forth.
I open the floor to any thoughts, input, constructive criticism, and/or suggestions you may have.