DwD Studios

Nice!, thanks!

Touching on levels, how much character growth can you get with BBF?

I know levels go up to 6, but I was thinking of making them go up by +5 increments instead, effectively creating 12 skill levels instead of 6

Is this required, or is there enough room for character growth?

I'm worried that players will max out their characters too early

It's entirely up to you-i'm happy with maxing out at Skill 6 with +10% per level, but to each his/her own. Don't forget though, that you may experience 'DP imbalance' since Skills contribute less to the base roll while Abilities still cost the same and are still as effective. If you DO decide to prolong play at the lower 'power ranks' of play, i'd just suggest doubling the DP cost of both Skills and Abilities across the board, while leaving Skills at +10% for that "Level Up!" feel.

I honestly don't worry about PCs 'Topping Out' too soon myself, and here's why:

A) There are a lot of Skills-i'm sure that the legendary Conan possessed one or more Levels of Warrior, Scout, Thief, Leader(King by his own hand, and a decent general to boot) He may have purchased a Level of Scholar near the end of his life(he was composing a poem mid-battle with multiple foes at one point, and was multi-lingual). The legendary Merlin definitely possessed at least one or more of either Spellcaster OR Cleric (depending on your reading and interpretation) plus Scholar, Enchanter, Possibly Leader(had the ear of the King and a commanding presence few could ignore) and being a Druid either some Scout or a good default and a Primary. If a PC wants to end up as awesomely competent as these legendaries...well, that's a lot of DP!

B) Abilities-unlike some more level-based systems, raw abilities need never stop increasing-and that's a huge amount of DP, with commensurate benefits.Unless it suits a particular GM's campaign, such scores can exceed 100 or more-but again, LOTS of DP needed.

C) Level 6 Skill caps are fine by me-but there's no reason you can't extrapolate Level 7 and 8 and proportion the DP costs to match-in fact, I hear that a future supplement or two will address this...

Now all of the above will (eventually) result in PCs with incredibly inflated Abilities and multiple Skills of Level 3 and better-and this is AWESOME, because now you can take off any kid gloves you may have previously worn and throw small armies at them or release the nastiest creatures you can imagine, knowing they stand a chance.

Remember Porthos? Died holding up boulders bigger than his own body (-60% penalty at least) for several minutes. Boromir died while Multi-actioning his way through a small horde of elite Uruk-hai, still making MOST of his resistance checks despite the penalties and taking dozens of Orcs to the grave with him. Beowulf ripped the arm off a beast that no lesser man could harm(Grendel) and died after killing the legendary Dragon Fafnir..single-handed! Conan became King by his own hand. Aragorn tracked two hobbits across half of Middle Earth, and sweet-talked an ARMY OF THE DEAD into saving the world! King Arthur united a kingdom and influenced Western culture far, far beyond his death...etc, etc.

Now I can understand that low-Rank adventures such as taking on the local Street Gangs of the Joined Tower can be just as rewarding as overthrowing the Undying Theocrat of the Abyss and his army of Skinless Men...if your 'sweet spot' is at the lower end of the spectrum, go for it! As for me, i'm going to see how high my players' PCs can climb, how long it takes, and then just keep scaling goals and obstacles to match. There MIGHT eventually be a point of diminishing returns, but I won't likely know where-or if-that spot exists for years to come...

Thanks for that indepth reply order99

I might actually go with increasing the skills to level 8. That seems a bit better to me

All the other points you make are really good as well, all taken on board

Sounds interesting, do we know any more information concerning this?

It was mentioned in passing some time ago-i'll have to do some Forum fishing later on and see if I can catch it. I'm almost positive it was mentioned as an upcoming article in a future Dodecahedron though.