Thread by @rdonoghue

I don’t think there’s been an RPG (with the exception of Ars, the eternal exception) that I can recall that handles advancement as responsibly as Shadow of the Demon Lord. That’s worth learning from.

By responsible I mean that it weaves tightly enough into the design and expectations rather than being a mushy forward thrust that may or may not essentially change the game.

Many games handle advancement *well*, but very few treat it as essential *play*. It’s usually an informative subsystem.

(That this also makes SOTDL one of the games designed for real life play is also awesome)

Ok, got some questions, so let me grab a keyboard an unpack a little bit of why @rjschwalb is a mad genius.

Here is the platonic ideal that makes SotDL so amazing for me:
1. There are 10 sessions
2. There are 10 levels
3. Level up every session, then finish.

Laid out like that it seems simple. Prescriptive even. And, I note, people can play SotDL any way they want, but those 3 things are amazing game changers, and I'll tell you why.

By itself, 10 levels is cool, but not huge. 13th Age and other games do something similar, and that idea of compressing the D&D experience is a great one, but also one that's seen some exploration.

The real magic comes in the idea that you will advance every session, and by extension, that the game will only allow enough sessions to support that. The benefits of this are both subtle and obvious, so let's walk through them.

First, it is a boon to scheduling. A lot of gamers struggle with scheduling time to play, and one of the real boons of this is being able to say "it will take this much time" and block out 10 days. A lot of games have been getting more schedule-friendly, and I love this trend.

Second, it puts the clamps on the GM and says "no, you cannot afford to putter around." You can no longer buy a dungeon and figure it'll take however long it takes. You need to make *every session* pay out. This is harder on the GM, but in a good way.

Though the GM may need to work harder on the sessions, she can have an easier time with the arc because she knows with some precision where the characters will be at each level/session and can *plan* for that without railroading.

I want to underscore how big a deal that is. This model gives the GM a non-trivial level of insight into the future, allowing her to *plan* for things that she might previously had to *force*.

Similarly, the GM has all the information necessary to avoid *generic* challenges. Players will get *this* gimmick at *this* time, which is effectively a written invitation to give them an appropriate *opportunity* to use that gimmick.

And this, in turn, can be fed back into the design of character abilities. Once time is no longer an unknown, one-shot limitations and similar constraints become useful and interesting rather than punitive. "Game breaking" powers aren't, when you can see the whole game.

Now, people aren't obliged to run SotDL this way. Part of its genius is that it doesn't *break* if advancement if more narrative and less lockstep. But it loses that magic for me, and I think it's a little weak sauce.

But most critically, this is a door that SotDL has *opened*, not something it has had the final word on. There is a LOT more to explore with these ideas (and others) and that is EXCITING AS HECK to me.

Also critically: this is a *mode* of play, not some sort of essential idea. This kind of tempo is great for some things, not for others. It can be chosen mindfully to suit a particular game's needs, or not chosen just as easily. These are the things we *want* in our toolbags.

If you, as a GM, are thinking of reasons this wouldn't work for your game, that's *awesome*. it probably won't! But maybe there's something to be learned from it! Maybe you want to hybridize it with PBTA spotlight! Maybe you want to tweak it for Troupe play! It's a tool!

"Ok, there are 4 players, so this is going to be a 13 session game - 9 main arc, 4 spotlight episodes. Only the character who's the "star" advances in the spotlight ep, and the rest of you play backup. These will be clustered towards the middle. We cool?"

"Dave really wants to play an old sensei type, so he's going to start at level 7. Yes, I know that's way beefier than any of the rest of you, but he's going to get no advancement, and part of the point of things is that you will surpass him. That work?"

HINT: The secret sauce here is using clearly communicated expectations to remove future uncertainty.

Almost as if that's a useful thing to do in general.

Want to solve the Han Solo/Luke Skywalker problem? More capable characters start at higher level, but cap advancement (Start at 2, cap at 9, 3/8. 4/7 and so on). Only the Zero to Hero can get to level 10 and kick Jabba's ass.

TOOLS!

Tools are awesome.

These are not solutions. they're *approaches*.

It's something I *delight* in, in gameplay and game design.