11 - Progression

Characters Grow

Over the course of your character's journey, it's very likely that their abilities, competence, and skillsets will expand and improve with time. This is reflected in your character sheet, expanding your repertoire of options in combat, exploration, and social interactions. In Nether, characters can both increase in level, and improve independently. Each is handled differently, but work simultaneously to improve your character mechanically. 

What does it mean to level up? 

In Nether, your character will typically begin at Level 1. What your character is able to do at that stage will be outlined in a future article. But over the course of the game, your Game Master may tell you your character has leveled up after certain combat, exploration,  or social encounters. In other games, this is often called ‘Mile Stone’. Essentially, your Game Master, or your group as a whole may decide on a certain checklist or scene that dictates when and where your characters get stronger. 

Every class will have their health increase by Hit Dice, and then be given the following array of choices:

Increase Health - Roll your Hit Dice again and add the result to your maximum Hit-Points this level.

Hone Experience - Choose one of your existing Experiences and increase its bonus by +1.

Manifest Feature - Design a class feature for yourself, or choose from a list of ideas provided on your class page. Alternatively, you can choose to improve one of your existing features if possible. 

Hone Stat - Increase a single Stat of your choice by +1. 

Hone Affinity - Design a new active or passive ability for your Affinity, or choose one from a list of ideas provided on your Affinity page. Alternatively, you can choose to improve one of your existing passives or actives if possible. 

Your character will be allowed to choose one of these listed options every time they level, and the maximum level in a typical Nether game is 10. 

What Are Hit Dice? 

As explained in a previous article, Hit Points tell you and your Game Master how much damage your character can withstand (See Damage and Healing). Hit Dice is what dictates how many Hit Points you begin with and gain when you level up. 

Every class has its own Hit Dice, and each time you level up, you'll be able to roll this dice to increase your health. This is different from the level up action Increase Health, which lets you roll your Hit Dice an additional time, and increase you maximum Hit-Points again.

What Are Classes, and How Do They Progress? 

In most RPGs, including Nether, a class reflects the role your character takes in your party, during the game. A future article will better outline the finer details, but the existing classes are: Brawler, Ironclad, Rover, Support, Weaponmaster, and Weaver. 

Each will have special abilities to use during your game, called Class Features. These reflect how your class improves and adapts over the course of the game. 

What Are Affinities and How Do They Progress? 

Character Creation will go deeper into the mechanics of an Affinity, and a future article will outline the story significance each has. In short, however; an Affinity is an element every creature is innately connected to. Some creatures can harness this connection to unleash powerful abilities that can be comparable to magic. 

As your character's Affinity progresses, they'll gain abilities, and that can be honed and improved as you play. 

What is Independent Progression? 

Independent Progression, or Non-Linear Progression is just a term used for improving naturally as you play. Rather than straightforward numbers, as seen in Leveling Up and Resting, Independent Progress are improvements you make naturally while role-playing. 

Studying something in a book might teach something new about an existing field, giving you a new experience or improving one you already have. Or, in another case, training with a fellow party member might give you insight into one of their class features, giving you access to it and improving theirs - or creating something entirely new in the process. 

If You Can Progress Independently, Why Bother Leveling Up?

There are a few reasons! Over the course of a game, independently improving your character can sometimes conflict with the current pace of a story, leveling up might serve as an alternative. On top of that, leveling gives you, the player, a more straightforward approach to pitching ideas for abilities and features and can offer more control over your character's strengths and weaknesses. 

That isn't to say that both are integral to every game and group. These rules on progress should be adapted to fit specific narratives and playstyles; as anything that hinders the fun of a game can easily be cut out to streamline the experience.