Prestige (Level 10)
Congratulations on hitting max level or at least planning ahead for when you do! But now what? You've hit the end of the line and you gain no more experience. So why keep the character? Well, for one, you can still play in games. But what is the point? Well, it's not to gain experience because at higher levels Open Legend is already hard to balance without either rocket tag, inflated health bars, or things that nullify build options (and that's not fun). Increasing the level cap would only inflate these issues. Instead, we'll be aiming for a narrative driven system called Prestige. Furthermore, characters at cap won't take up a slot of your character list (but still count for providing a number of characters you can play as). This means if you have three characters at level 10, you can have a total of eight characters. This is because max level characters are likely not going to see play very often.
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What is Prestige?
Prestige is, in essence, a set of goals that can and should only be accessed at Max Level. These goals should be discussed with a Narrator to make sure that it makes sense and isn't something against the rules. But what kind of goals can be the target of this? While "Getting a Pizza" is something I deem a good idea, it's not a Prestige Goal. But the following are examples that work:
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Join the Dragons (Either by ascending into one or becoming an honorary one)
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Find what is on the other side of the Storm or Ocean (If there is one...)
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Become a True Lich but avoid the whole Evil consequences of it
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Unite the Giant tribes for fair representation in the government
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Become a General in the Seyaran Military
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Obviously, some of these are easier than others. And individual Prestige goals may take longer or shorter to achieve than others. Most encounters involving the Prestige goals will need to be scheduled ahead by a group and a Narrator of the group's choice that is willing to handle the ER.
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Benefits of Prestige
While the goal of the Prestige system is to help avoid creating massively overpowered characters, these narrative milestones can provide some mechanical benefit. One of the main benefits of Prestige is gaining additional Perks. These perks are custom made usually by a combined effort between the player and Narrator. This may also mean that these perks may have benefits greater than normal perks or even greater benefits that are situational to a Narrator's story (though should also still have effects in other rooms). An example perk might be something like:
A Glimpse of Dragon Knowledge: Once per session, a character may gleam the truth at hand from knowledge kept secret by dragons. This can reveal a truth about the situation at hand that most others might not know, but it isn't always possible for the Dragons to know the specifics. In those cases, the knowledge granted may help to come up with an idea or solution to the situation. However, sharing this knowledge to others, or at least the reasoning of the knowledge, can cause the target to lose their status among the dragons.
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Ultimately, the knowledge granted is still up to the Narrator, but it grants a cool flavorful ability that provides a large mechanical benefit without completely changing the power balance of an encounter.