In most “dungeon crawl” type
games, in which the players move around and discover a map filled
with enemies while seeking objectives, the balancing of progression –
of the simplified “levelling up” mechanic derived from
role-playing games – is in an awkward position. A fully-fledged
roleplaying game has a much longer progression track and a much wider
design space for gaining abilities; there is a much larger portfolio
of things to improve (base statistics, the character's library of
abilities, the efficiency of existing abilities, non-combat skills
and feats etc) while a board
game generally reduces the entire design to a series of, or indeed
single, combat encounter. This smaller design space means that each
level has a smaller number of possibilities – and thus the rate of
progression is a lot faster. Similarly, a board game is designed to
be played to completion in a single session – the levelling
mechanics in a role-playing game are for a campaign lasting several
sessions. Thus a player may well gain several levels in one game.
