@KingSpoom: The way Levels can decrease bookkeeping is by:

1) Pre-determining when a class recieves a feature (as opposed to a player being able to purchase a power whenever they have enough points)

2) Keying major values off of Level, such as attack = Strength + Level (as opposed to attack = 3 ranks in Melee + Strength + Weapon proficiency + etc.)

Of course, the more mechanics you add to any system, the more complex it gets. I also still stand my statement that Levels can help determine chances of survival, if the system was designed well. D&D presents a unique case where there are so many variables that it becomes very difficult to determine the exact chances of survival. But still, if you have a group of 4 1st level characters, I think it is a safe bet that they can’t handle a CR6 encounter. So it still works as a rough guide in D&D.

I enjoy it when I get some challenging comments, thanks for commenting!

I agree with you on inflexibility being the main disadvantage of the level system. It has a lot of baggage that easily comes attached with it. However, I would think that the question of “Why can’t my level 1 dude take out a level 30 dragon.” would be more of the system in questions issue than levels in general. Again, the baggage of a level system is easy to mount up.

For example, you get 1 stat point, 1 skill point and 10 weapon skill points by default. But if you use the stat point on Intelligence, you get 2 skill points, or if you use it on Agility, you get 15 weapon skill points. Points spent on the other 2 stats flow over into other derived stats (damage dealt, weapon weight limits and overall party size) which also provide passive bonuses.

The thing I like about that point-buy system is that, although you level to get the points, nothing else is level-dependent. I’ve always thought that the “must be level 5 to use” rules you see in some rpgs (more commonly crpgs) were very artificial – too much so.

Ultimately, any good rpg mechanic should provide interesting choices for advancing your character somehow. I player Marvel Superheroes as well, and it was a neat game, but it lacked long-term appeal for me because my character felt static. I feel that some sort of reward/advancement mechanism is valuable in a system, but you have to be careful – the difference between fun and onerous is a thin one, which I felt 3e of D&D crossed. The storyteller system was better, since you could get points from things like good role-playing and was fairly simple to use.

I look forward to more of your Echelon posts.

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We (oh yeah, I’ve brought some other people on board, but more on that later) are currently hammering out the details on that, but we are actually looking at a mechanic that produces a normal distribution, but again that is a discussion for another article.

In terms of the “base modifier” that is adjusted by level, how are you going to address the “can’t fail” issue? Most systems with improving base modifies get to the point were the bonus makes standard-difficulty tasks unmissable. DnD has generally addressed that by scaling difficulty up as characters level (resulting in fun things like “slipperier ice” or “even more unpickable lock”.

The storyteller games go with dice pools, botch mechanism and scaling levels of “success”, combined with the contested check mechanic. That has some issues with it too, of course. I’ve found that this problem is common to a lot of systems, so I’m curious as to how you’re addressing it.

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