This was a thought I had while driving down the street today thinking about Runebound...

Ok, one of the problems with the base game is that players tend to level up beyond what they really need to win. Beyond a certain point Margath is a little punk compared to your character with 15+ levels.

To remedy this I suggest a level cap. I've seen this mentioned on BGG and here before. Any recommendations on a good cap? I was thinking 9. I came to this number after considering Margath in the base set. This makes victory possible but not a total blowout that can occur sometimes.

Another thought was to allow NPC leveling up to a predetermined max. This would give players incentive to continue leveling up after they reach their cap or to level up their allies before they reach their cap. I thought a good allies cap would be three levels. That way an ally can be upgraded all around or made into a "specialist" with up to three enhancements on a stat.

And this idea came to me as I was considering the alternate leveling method in the Frozen Wastes, so I'd probably use that method for this. Ally levels would cost the same. So the first ally level is 1xp. Then 2. Up to a max of 3.

Tony P. said:

I never thought about capping, because levelling up is not the only way to win in Runebound. It's Level + Items, and eventually pushing your Luck. If everybody settles down doing (relative) easy challenges until he reaches ridiculous stats, I bet that someone else, a little bit more daring and wise in purchasing, might ****** a victory before they realize what they did.

I win about the half of Runebound games (most have been 4-5 player games), because I always push my luck a little bit and carefully plan my buying. Give me the Touch of Death and I'm done. I pump my Stamina and Spirit Value and all Dragonlords are dead before they can do anything. This is especially true with Margath, but less feasible with insidious beings like Eregax. But it's exhilarating when you win by drawing Margath and dealing him 8 damage, while there are other players who don't need to roll to pass combat checks against the High Lord.

Tony P. said:

Ally leveling is not a bad idea. Most of them become useless with the difficult Challenges and you can either use them as meat shields or use their special abilities. You can attack with a 5 or less value when challenges require 18+ results. You can't assume you're scoring 13 or more and the drawback is taking 3+ damage, more than what's required to kill or severely hurt Allies. Allies with Wounds are just as bad as a wounded Hero, because they slow your movement,with the exception of Jirta the Fierce, perhaps the only Ally that's got a chance to fight against Purple and Red Challenges.

I think your idea of Ally leveling is fine. Too bad there are very few Experience Tokens in the set. You're going to run out of them easily in a 4-5 player game, if you allow Ally upgrade. But still an interesting possibility, which needs to be capped to 3 (which will be most likely spent on the same characteristic, if you want your Ally to attack late in the game).

I never thought about capping, because levelling up is not the only way to win in Runebound. It's Level + Items, and eventually pushing your Luck. If everybody settles down doing (relative) easy challenges until he reaches ridiculous stats, I bet that someone else, a little bit more daring and wise in purchasing, might ****** a victory before they realize what they did.

I win about the half of Runebound games (most have been 4-5 player games), because I always push my luck a little bit and carefully plan my buying. Give me the Touch of Death and I'm done. I pump my Stamina and Spirit Value and all Dragonlords are dead before they can do anything. This is especially true with Margath, but less feasible with insidious beings like Eregax. But it's exhilarating when you win by drawing Margath and dealing him 8 damage, while there are other players who don't need to roll to pass combat checks against the High Lord.

I guess this is a matter of your groups gaming style. I play with a group of overcautious players that tend to over think things and will take the time to ensure victory before even going after blue(purple) challenges. Level capping mixed with the Doom track might help with this.

BUT i can see your point.

As for running out of experience tokens, I've seen some printable tokens online that have double the normal amount. (+4 instead of +2)

I really like the idea of level your Hero allies. I specially like how their leveling comes from the same pool of XP that you use for your Hero.
If you loose that leveled allies then you've actually lost stats that could have been applied to your Hero! Nerve racking!
Of course if you only level allies after your Hero hits a level cap there is no concern there.

Cool idea. I think I might try it out some time.