[TML] Leveling (was NEW SFRPG - Thousand Suns)

[Richard Aiken]

On Feb 7, 2008 4:04 PM, Brad Murray <bjmurray.halfjack at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm also unconvinced
> that skill progression (as opposed to emotional or philosophical
> progression) contributes to the quality of a story.

Depends on the story.

> Does Starbuck's
> skill set continuously increase qualitatively and/or quantitatively
> over time in BSG?

Depends on the series.  In the original, no - he's a gambler and a
fighter pilot, supremely skilled at both in the very beginning, with
no need to improve.  In the remake, yes - she learns how to pilot a
Cylon bioship (admittedly basing this off her existing skill) and also
learns a good bit about guerilla warfare (while stuck on occupied
Caprica).  I haven't watched the last couple of seasons yet, but I'm
also willing to bet that her guerilla skills greatly improve after the
Cylons occupy the new colony . . .

> Doctor Who's?

When you already know everything, what's left to learn?

> Captain Kirk's?

A character at the peak of his powers - an excellent fit for your
system.  But he had a competent support team; whatever he didn't know,
someone else in the group could cover.

> Episodic stories
> generally have fairly static skill sets just because you're looking at
> a long progression of stories and never want the characters to advance
> outside of the region that retains the desired character and theme of
> the series.  That kind of story, therefore, might be better told
> without progression.

True.  But I've never actually run that kind of campaign.  Mine have
been partly episodic - particularly back in the early days - but I
generally prefer an underlying plot/story arc.

> Your players will be well satisfied with a system that does that then.
>  My experience is that you don't have to settle on a single system and
> that you can leverage the differences in systems to have different
> kinds of games -- all of them fun.

I've used several systems over the years, but that's been because I
found something else I thought worked better than what I already used.
 What I would really want (and think I've found in Serenity) is a
simple system that can model the kind of game I like to run.  It
offers players a high degree of control (through expending Plot
Points) but remains very simple to use.  I don't want to have to look
up rules at the table.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein