Just as many other posts start: I am making a hack for Blades in the Dark.
The issue I am pondering is about the how the players in Blades have access to almost any upgrade/special ability/item from the very start. The options are spread horizontally, not vertically, so to speak. Besides Claims, there are no requirements like “to get ability A, you must first have ability B”. Which is great for what Blades is intended to do for the fiction and player choice.
The hack I am working is about kids learning magic in school (OBVIOUS HINT, NUDGE). Which means the characters start at age 10-11 and go up to adulthood. A vertical progression implementation sounds logical here, from a fictional standpoint. For now, I am keeping free access to special abilities, crew upgrades. But I am adding a simple magic skill system (basically a fourth action dot block) which limits what spells they are able to learn based on how many dots you have in any of the branches of magic, as I call them.
Spells themselves do not change the mechanics much, as they are just fictional tags to your main actions, increasing their potency or giving fictional options.
How do you think this might change the game dynamics or player engagement? Maybe there is a hack that already does a vertical progression system?