Levelling-Up

All Characters, Parties and Skills are considered to start at Level 1 (unless otherwise specified by the GM).

Due to the Win or Learn mechanic, Skill Thresholds will continue to lower over time. No Threshold can ever be reduced below 4, however once an Threshold is at 4, a player may choose to reset that Threshold to 14. If they do so, they gain a permanent Advantage (i.e. +1 additional dice) when rolling against that Threshold from now on.

That Skill is considered to have gained a Level, e.g. if it was a Level 1 Skill it’s now considered to be Level 2.

A Character is considered at Level X as soon as a single Skill has reached Level X. A Character starts with 40 RP (See Conflict Mode) at Level 1 and gains an additional 40 RP each time they level up.

The party is considered at Level X as soon as a single character has reached Level X (on one of their Skills).

Character and Party Levels can be used as hooks for other Modules or Modes, or for rewards granted by the GM. e.g. The Abilities Module uses Levelling to grant new Abilities at certain Character Levels.

Party Level provides a guide for the GM as to the scale of Difficulty Rating and Progress Points of challenges to throw at your Players.

It is recommended that:

• Level 1 Challenges are roughly DR 1-3 and/or PP 10-50
• Level 2 Challenges are roughly DR 1-4 and/or PP 10-70
• Level 3 Challenges are roughly DR 1-5 and/or PP 10-90
• Etc.

Note: Regardless of Level, everyday challenges may not need a roll, or just use DR 1 rolls.

Second note: This is a guide only, for most encounters. You will likely find reasons to place larger Challenges in front of your Players at times, e.g. boss fight, or set-piece Challenge.

A character may push a single Skill up to level 2, 3, etc, leaving their other Skills behind at lower levels. The risk they face is as they level-up, the party levels-up, and therefore ALL Challenges will level-up! So there will be Skill rolls they just can’t Succeed at.

These deficiencies can be compensated for with Advantages. So to a degree a team that works well together may be able to have Characters with very focused specialisations. However, over time, Players and Parties will likely find it more sustainable to have ‘key-shaped’ Character Skills and complete coverage of the Skills at highest level.

It’s ultimately up to the GM how quickly you want to ramp up the difficulty of challenges as Players level-up. You may choose to blend the Challenge Levels to smooth out the power curve, or have a noticeable bump in difficulty as the Party reaches a new level.

Ask your Players what they would enjoy, smooth or chunky?

When a Character levels-up and their Threshold resets, they will notice they went from usually succeeding at rolls to often failing them. Even with an additional dice to roll, the Threshold reset can be a killer.

This is by design. It simulates becoming familiar again with a new subset of skills you just learned by levelling-up. It takes a little while to get used to. You’ll also find when you level-up in real life (IRL) you face a whole new level of (higher quality) problems. So there’s an adjustment period where things can get worse before they get better again.