YorkNecromancer
04-14-2014, 07:27 AM
I've just restarted playing 'Fallout 3' for the fourth time, and by Zeus it is a great game. A great, great game. In a related vein, I've played through 'Borderlands' twice, 'Borderlands 2' three times, 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' four times...
I love levelling up in games.
Not just mechanical increases in strength/damage. That's fine and all, but it's whenever I unlock some new ability that lets me experience the game in an entirely different way, or makes me significantly more dangerous without being a simple '+10% damage' unlock. Something like when 'Deus Ex' gives you the antigrav base-jumping ability, or the capacity to move in perfect silence, for example; something whose direct combat usefulness is not 'IMMA WRECK ALL THE FACES!' immediately apparent.
40K has never had a good levelling up system.
This is not a suprise. It's designed for one-on-one battles, with campaigns having almost no hard rules beyond the vague 'craft a narrative' thing.
I think this is because a levelling up system would be hellishly hard to balance, if not actively impossible; at the end of the day, a levelled-up unit would be represented by little more than an increase in stats, and a concomitant increase in points on the tabletop. Not to mention everyone in 40K has one Wound. Kind of hard to level up that Guard blob squad when they were all brutally murdered by those three Death Company lunatics.
But just because something is difficult doesn't mean it should be discounted. 'Necromunda' and other discontinued Specialist Games managed it. Yes, they were tiny, but they show it can be done.
So, taking the assumption that it IS possible to craft an experience points/levelling up system, well: what would it look like? It has to avoid the obvious pitfalls of creating units that are utterly counter to fluff (so no T6, W3, 2+ Eldar Rangers, for example), while still leading to units that are notably more powerful than their non-levelled up equivelants.
It has to take into account that the games played may not be played in a narrative campaign (because those require serious time and commitment, and not everyone has time for that), but perhaps five or six games each between a group of friends.
Finally, it needs minimal, MINIMAL book-keeping. This isn't 'Necromunda'; everything has to be simple, easy-to-follow/explain to your opponent, and almost brutally streamlined.
What could the system be? How do you make a unit markedly different, yet neither broken, nor unfluffy? How do you allow a unit to unlock new tactics and strategies as they get better without a squad of Tactical Marines just turning into Sternguard Marines?
Ideas?
I love levelling up in games.
Not just mechanical increases in strength/damage. That's fine and all, but it's whenever I unlock some new ability that lets me experience the game in an entirely different way, or makes me significantly more dangerous without being a simple '+10% damage' unlock. Something like when 'Deus Ex' gives you the antigrav base-jumping ability, or the capacity to move in perfect silence, for example; something whose direct combat usefulness is not 'IMMA WRECK ALL THE FACES!' immediately apparent.
40K has never had a good levelling up system.
This is not a suprise. It's designed for one-on-one battles, with campaigns having almost no hard rules beyond the vague 'craft a narrative' thing.
I think this is because a levelling up system would be hellishly hard to balance, if not actively impossible; at the end of the day, a levelled-up unit would be represented by little more than an increase in stats, and a concomitant increase in points on the tabletop. Not to mention everyone in 40K has one Wound. Kind of hard to level up that Guard blob squad when they were all brutally murdered by those three Death Company lunatics.
But just because something is difficult doesn't mean it should be discounted. 'Necromunda' and other discontinued Specialist Games managed it. Yes, they were tiny, but they show it can be done.
So, taking the assumption that it IS possible to craft an experience points/levelling up system, well: what would it look like? It has to avoid the obvious pitfalls of creating units that are utterly counter to fluff (so no T6, W3, 2+ Eldar Rangers, for example), while still leading to units that are notably more powerful than their non-levelled up equivelants.
It has to take into account that the games played may not be played in a narrative campaign (because those require serious time and commitment, and not everyone has time for that), but perhaps five or six games each between a group of friends.
Finally, it needs minimal, MINIMAL book-keeping. This isn't 'Necromunda'; everything has to be simple, easy-to-follow/explain to your opponent, and almost brutally streamlined.
What could the system be? How do you make a unit markedly different, yet neither broken, nor unfluffy? How do you allow a unit to unlock new tactics and strategies as they get better without a squad of Tactical Marines just turning into Sternguard Marines?
Ideas?