Level Up!

 

There are many ways to “level up” in RPGs. Most of the time, it’s via class-system, where you get a package of level-ups. Like, at Level 3, you get a class feature, a new spell, and at level 4 you get a bonus to-hit and a feat or attribute increase; whatever.

GW later attempted to retrofit classes, but I think it’s difficult to do that with the wildly variant setting that is GW. I think a point-buy kind of system would work best, where you spend your earned points (in the 100’s or the 1000’s, or smaller, such as 30 pts. at 3^rd level, etc.) on improving whatever feature you want (some may cost more to improve than others possibly). And I think “reputation scores” should definitely be a part of that, especially given the emphasis that Cryptic Alliances play and the whole SimVillage style of play. Improvement in mutations (scores in some versions), status within one’s village, improved skill checks (particularly with technology charts), are others. There are so many possible “Aspects” (my universal term for those feature categories) that one could specialize in, and that come with a cost of *not* improving the other standard improvements. In the classes system, at higher levels, it seems to level everyone out, and “blandify” play. It would be fun if your Achilles heel *stays* an Achilles heel, and you are the cock-of-the-walk amongst the Seekers, despite your high tech score, (or some other contradictory pair of Aspects to your self), because you teach Seekers how tech made people lazy, or corrupt, or just plain evil – using a FarmBot separated one from the need of people to work the land, the internet made people lazy researchers, and The Bomb was well, The Bomb. Amongst the Archivists, this means you can teach them how to worship the tech. Amongst the Voice, you become a Seer, skilled interpreting the delusional AI. But amongst the Restorationists, you’re a heretic, because you have such a good relationship with all of those Luddites (when in reality you just never spent the points with that CA, and had few times to interact with them to gain special favor. Want to be a true Skill Super-monkey? Go for it. Sociologist-of-the-Stars because you have good Reputation scores with a bunch of Cryptic Alliances? Sure! The Tankiest Tank who ever Tank-Tanked? Booyah! The story-telling aspects of specialized Aspects only increases the potential story-telling. In contrast, everyone in a classes system becomes “insert <generic demigod archetype> here” at 15^th level.

The key is figuring out all the different game-mechanical Aspects that can improve over “level” progression, and how much they would cost in XP, and the balance amongst them. Care must be taken to make sure that spending all of your points in one Aspect doesn’t make the player unplayable or game breaking at higher levels. I particularly like options 1 and 3 on your shopping list. With 1, it would be any Attribute, skill score, or Mutation score, with a set cost per point. Option 3 is your best one, with tech level and rarity as multipliers. Number 2 I’m not fond of, as I think it forces a GM’s hand to railroad the story to fulfill the “roll.”

I forget exactly which issue it is right now, but there is a Dragon article on Tiers of Reputation (and levels of access) with the CAs, and 4^th edition allows PCs to join CAs for the first(?) time. Such Tiers can be a combination of standard improvements (at Tier 5, you know who the Mysterious Leaders are by name, but it takes Tier 6 to know them personally), and unique bonuses per CA, such as a Breeding certificate amongst the Zoopremists.

Treatmonk just finished an exhaustive study of the Racial choices for D&D, and he attempted to quantify the Racial Features to Tier Rank the species’ choices. It’s a lot of watching time, but well worth it, if only to see how to something like this.

Well that was more of a Wall of Text than I’d intended, but I’m at the bottom of the page. So I am spending my last ten words on “well, what do you think, too much?”

The Three Sisters Plantient

https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash

In the case of Mutated Plants, not all intelligence resides in a single genotype.  

The Iroquois used the planting of three different plants to create a sort of self-contained ecosystem of Corn, Beans, and Squash (and sometimes 4th and 5th plants).  This "companion planting" system could easily be adapted to create a communal Plantient, complete with skeletal structure, muscles and skin.  The text below is taken directly from the Farmer's Almanac (link above), and the bulleted points are my own.

Each of the Sisters contributes something to the planting. Together, the Sisters provide a balanced diet from a single planting. 

Corn:

As older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans necessary support.

• The corn is the Sisters' skeletal structure, as well as the spinal cord information superhighway part of the nervous system and handles most of the brain-load.  And yes, some kin grow popcorn varieties, and have a natural attack when they raise their body temperature to fire off the kernels.

Beans:

The pole beans, the giving sister, pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil for the benefit of all three. 

• In this role, the giving sister beans act as part of the digestive system.

As the beans grow through the tangle of squash vines and wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together.

• In this role, the beans act as connective tissues, musculature  and part of skin.
• The vines of the beans provide arms and hands since they are in the upper-half of the trio.
• 
  

Squash:

The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the threesome by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist and preventing weeds.

• In this role, the squash forms part of the skin (below the waist, so to speak) almost as a tree-skirt, or kilt.

The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons and other pests, which don’t like to step on them.

• This improves the AC, as well as providing damage to attackers.
• The vines of the squash acts as legs and feet, providing mobility in conjunction with the root systems of all three.

Sometimes there are fourth and fifth sisters added to the mix:  

Sometimes a fourth sister is included, such as a sunflower or amaranth, which attracts pollinators and lures birds away from the seeds. 

• If either sunflowers or amaranth are included, the CHA score is improved as in Flowering Sentients.

Sunflowers can be planted at the cross-section of the spaces between the corn hills and harvested for seeds.

• Sunflowers can "scrub" radiation and toxins from the soil, so Sunflowers provide radiation resistance.
• With the appropriate mutation, Sunflower seeds can be ejected like shotgun scattershot as a natural attack.

Amaranth could come up among the squash and could be harvested both for greens and for seeds.

• Highly Nutrional amaranth can provide healing to a party, like a med-pack or healing potion.

Further Gaming notes:

• They need at least 6 hours of full sun every day.

• They can fill a space approximately 4 foot wide (particularly at the base)