Ability Progression

This is another mechanic that an old game of mine had that I eventually scrapped. It didn't work with what the game eventually became, but I really want to incorporate it into something eventually. It came from the same game as my Ability Refresh article, but this one could work for tabletop or video game. I'm actually going to reference that article a few times, so you should probably read it first.

So the idea is that abilities themselves level up and get better, and you can pick different upgrades as it progresses. Probably the best way to explain it would be to just jump into an example. Let's take the classic Magic Missile from the Dungeons and Dragons games. As your wizard levels up, the spell gets better. Magic Missile will increase in damage and the number of targets you can attack.

So instead, let's say that you pick how Magic Missile will improve as it levels up. You can pick from more damage or more targets. At max level, you can end up with a big shotgun blast of tiny projectiles, or a bazooka of a spell that just does one powerful shot, or anything in between.

The way I had it set up was that some upgrades could be chosen at any level, some could be chosen every even level, some every fifth, and some only at the max of ten. You only had one chance to get the lvl ten upgrade, but two chances to get the lvl five... but what if there are two level five choices, or you're able to get it twice? With the way it's set up, at levels 1/3/7/9 you can only pick from the choices that are available at any level. At level 10, you can chose any upgrade at all. (Alternatively, you could make max level 12, and have upgrades every 1/2/3/4/6/12 levels or something)

So let's go back to Magic Missile, and throw in my Ability Refresh system with it. I want this skill to be something that, with practice, you can use over and over. So let's put an extra refresh die for every level. I don't want people to have that many damage/target upgrades, so we'll put that on 2. I want something to conflict with the refresh choice, so let's add in an option to increase the accuracy (or reduce saving throw or whatever). So at this point we have:

Every Level: (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10)

• +1 Refresh Number
• +1 Accuracy

Evey Even Level: (2/4/6/8/10)

• +1 Targets
• Extra Damage

Well we don't have any 5 or 10 upgrade, but those aren't always needed. At this point, we have a skill that feels a lot like Magic Missile, but is customizable. Still, you could throw in some debuffs for the 5 and 10 upgrades. The 5 upgrades could easily just be the same as the 2s, so you have six chances to get them instead of five.

The problem I had with this system was that it was a bit too engaging. It's too much for one-shot games, unless you're playing a skirmish game or something. In the tabletop world, it pretty much only lends itself to RPGs, which would most likely limit the availability of the game (way too many options for new players). This might be more doable in a video game of sorts....