Dont Overload Yourself With New Skills

Every week I write an article about a new skill you can level up. I am a big believer that improving yourself over time is a noble goal. Especially when the skills you gain actually improve everyone’s gaming experience at the table.

But at this point, there are dozens of articles on this site throwing different pieces of advice at you. Some of the articles can be taken to an extreme and work against each other. They require practice and nuance to know when to apply them. They have multiple steps to take, and micro-skills to build. How fast can you actually build these skills?

Lets imagine that you are lucky enough to play a TTRPG session every single week, and skilled enough at learning to level up a skill every single time you play. Every session. Every article here that has 3 levels to work through would take you three weeks. That means we already have enough articles to keep you busy for years.

Don’t stress out about being in-process.

No one is max level everywhere

Take some time and Try to figure out where you land in all these different skills. I myself am only level 1 with note taking. I scribble on my character sheet, but I’ve stopped taking any kind of detailed notes on a dedicated note sheet. Looking at my teamwork level, I like to play the game my way, so I’ll accidentally make plans that exclude my teammates - only level 2 there.

I can’t work on both of these every session, nor am I ashamed that I can improve. Its good to take stock and know where your options are to improve. We all have places to improve, and so do you. That’s fine.

Choose one at a time

Right now, I am trying to be a better team player when I come up with plans in-game. I want my characters not to get in the way of others, and to incorporate everyone when I can. I’m level 2 there, and I want to get to level 3.

I am not trying to level up my note-taking, because I’ll get distracted and forget to level up my teamwork. Note taking is staying level 1 for now, and that is OK. It would be impossible to improve everything at once, so we can’t expect ourselves to do so either.

Choose one skill, and work on it for a few weeks.

Level 1 is the easiest and highest value

Going from level 0 to level 1 is the biggest jump in any of these skills. The difference between taking no notes and taking just a few notes is huge. The difference between having no character backstory, and having just a little bit for flavor is huge. Getting to level 2 or 3 is harder than getting to level 1 and it wont help as much.

So review the skills and figure out how to get to level 1 if you can. Don’t worry about maxxing out at level 3 unless you are very passionate.

Remember, this takes time

Getting your reps in takes time. One session a week? Want to level up your social encounters? Depending on your GM, only 50% of sessions even have one to practice. You get one attempt every 2 weeks. Be patient and get ready to keep working on it. You might be working on one skill for a whole month, or even a whole adventure arc.

That’s fine. skills build over time. But you get to keep them, game to game. It is a great investment.