Thinking about talent trees/level-less systems and encounter balance in #TTRPGs. Are there any combat-focused games out there that have both frequent advancement and a level-less (or level-less-ish) system that also give the GM tools to estimate a 'level' for the party when making encounters? - ThreadSky

lonecolossusgames.bsky.social • 104 days ago

Thinking about talent trees/level-less systems and encounter balance in #TTRPGs. Are there any combat-focused games out there that have both frequent advancement and a level-less (or level-less-ish) system that also give the GM tools to estimate a 'level' for the party when making encounters?

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juicygarland.bsky.social•103 days ago

Delta Green, kinda. No levels. Every time you fail, you check that skill, you get the chance to increase each checked skill after each session/scenario.

This, of course, is paired with the slow death march of SAN loss, but I think it counts

juicygarland.bsky.social•103 days ago

And no real measure for party level. It doesn't matter, all the baddies are horrible to fight directly against

lonecolossusgames.bsky.social•103 days ago

Yeah, this is the thing I'm running into a lot: it seems like most systems that don't use a traditional class/level structure don't really have a guide for encounter balance because encounters are not intended to be balanced that way

juicygarland.bsky.social•103 days ago

This comes from my play style, but I like those systems *because* balance isn't given lots of attention. I like imbalance, because it sometimes forces players to run. I like that (as GM or player)

lonecolossusgames.bsky.social•103 days ago

Absolutely. I'm just thinking about ways one *could* make a system that cares about encounter balance but also doesn't follow traditional class/leveling structures

lonecolossusgames.bsky.social•103 days ago

My favorite conbat-oriented systems give GMs the tools they need to tune encounter balance without requiring that encounters be finely balanced, if that makes sense

krasiph.bsky.social•103 days ago

My tarot deck builder is level-less. I suppose you could track XP gained / spent, but my plan is to include guidance based on the highest (most powerful) card in someone's deck along with the total number of cards. Might be some overall deck math (sum value of all cards) that gets it there.

krasiph.bsky.social•103 days ago

However I would not call this game "combat focused", but maybe that's pedantic. It's *conflict* focused, and all conflicts are resolved using the same core gameplay loops (i.e. it is "pillar-less").

dm-diceydice.bsky.social•103 days ago

Westend games star wars runs on the d6 system that is level-less. And figuring out encounters is super easy.

Gallant knight games is currently writing a d6 2e that will include setting modules if star wars isn't your thing.

lonecolossusgames.bsky.social•103 days ago

Interesting. Would you call it a combat focused game like the D&D family?

dm-diceydice.bsky.social•103 days ago

We ran very combat heavy games with it. But combat skills are not a given, like they are in d20 systems. You have to build your character in that direction. Combat is also fast and brutal. There is no bucket of HP. Just levels of how hurt you get when you get hit.

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