You've probably heard of skill trees in video games or other board games. They are expansive arrays of skills that you can develop based on levels or unlocks, and they can be exciting to explore! However, you may not be familiar with skill trees in other TTRPGs.
Most other role-playing games rely on static leveling to maintain balance, but this also means that players don't have meaningful choices. They are given an illusion of choice with usually only one or two good options, while the rest are secondary.
Glyph Wardens aims to fix this broken system in three ways: zero classes, multiple skill trees, and a dynamic training system. Let's break it down!
Zero Classes
Classes are no longer used. While they did a wonderful job of defining heroic archetypes that were easy to understand, they are not great at creating flexible characters that aren't solely defined by their class.
We recognize that you are more than just a magic wielder or fighter, and we want to allow you to explore what interests you without having to adhere to a specific class.
If you want to play like Indiana Jones, swinging across a chasm on a whip, firing your pistol at pesky foes, and solving esoteric puzzles, we want to make it happen through skill trees and a dynamic training system!
Skill Trees
Skill trees break us out of the traditional "I swing my sword...again" mentality. We have created entire arrays to organize the possibilities, with each weapon type having its own tree. Below is the current dagger skill tree, only up to third tier. Yes, there are even more skills!
Additionally, we have skill trees for knowledge-based skills such as alchemy, contraptions, tactics, social cues, cooking, and history. The free companion app organizes your progress and training requirements. We will share more information about the app as it is further developed.
Skill trees aren't only for weapons! You've heard glyphs mentioned a couple of times. These can be considered narrow fields of magic, the ways to manipulate reality. You can think of the four main elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) as glyphs, but so are Chaos, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, and more.
The skills you can use in your battle builds are available in the app and on skill cards. These cards contain the same information as the app and can be easily upgraded. Here is an example of a playtest skill card.
Skill cards will have their own posts, but we're showing them here so you can get a sense of how they will look. The final cards will, of course, be much more polished. All the available skill cards will be part of the Dragon Summit campaign board game—over 500 skills and still counting!
Dynamic Leveling
All these changes bring us to the critical question: how do we level up these skills? The answer is training. You can spend your downtime training a skill, and once completed, your skill levels up.
These levels determine the effectiveness of your skills in battle as well as for other tasks such as cooking, creating potions and poisons, and recalling information about creatures.
Summary
In summary, classes and static leveling have been replaced by skill trees and dynamic leveling. You now train and level up your chosen skills every day.
However, be mindful of the time you spend training, as it cuts into time for resting, planning, and interacting with other NPCs. Finding the balance is key to creating the character you've always envisioned!