A (Very) Rough Analysis of All the Skill’s Progression

Just my assorted thoughts while reading through All the Skills. Putting this here in case it helps anyone else and to see if anyone has other observations to add.

This was crossposted from the COTEH discord in the BYOB club.

Book 1

Chapter 1:

• first chapter gives us an action scene with something that is presumably at the top of the hierarchy (dragon dude) and some more mid-level guys. this would be Set-up in the SATED framework, I think? Getting us excited about what Arthur will be able to do eventually.
• Then IMMEDIATELY at the end of chapter 1 gives him a spellcard, getting him ready to embark on this journey in the long run.

Chapter 2:

• Establishes some of the rules of cards by showing the dragon taking the cards and adding it to its heart deck.
• Building anticipation here by describing exactly what his card can do after he stuffs it into himself

Chapter 3:

• then immeidate execution showing what’s possible with his card on a small scale (meal prep)
• Followed by immediate demonstration with the lady who’s watching him being impressed by how much better he’s gotten at meal prep.

Chapter 4:

• The cycle restarts, and we get set-up by showing off what body strengthening cards can do when the baron’s men bully him and his dad

Chapter 6:

• more set-up, showing that the card he has is nearly at the top of the powerlevels
• Also pretty clearly sets up the long-term goal, which would be to get the cards associated with his complete set, and hinting what could be possible if he gets his full set

Chapter 7:

• Jumps back to execution with him getting new skills related to reading and writing which for some reason feels hype af despite it being… reading and writing lmao.

I’ll stop going chapter by chapter and focus on broad strokes

Rest of the story more or less follows this pattern. There’s Execution with him getting higher numbers on his skill levels every one to two chapters.

Every five to ten chapters, a new element of the system is explained and or advanced on or executed. The class stuff works int eh background and we get anticipation built as he develops new skills and we get excited to see what class it’ll result on. We also have the dragon stuff slowly unraveled with us getting a super awesome set-up at the start for what dragons can do, then figuring out the exact rules of how the partnership works and what you can do with a dragon over time.

There were a few big takeaways for me reading through this first book.

First, progression pacing is fast. Really fast. I’ve read litrpg before, but I hadn’t explicitly paid attention to the progression. It surprised me to see just how fast this particular example was. On the chapter to chapter level, as mentioned before, we were getting execution on skill stuff every two chapters or so.

Another thing I noticed for those smaller “chapter-to-chapter” progressions was that there wasn’t very much set-up or anticipation for individual levels. Which makes sense, lol. But it does show that in my own work, for the most basic forms of improvement, it’s okay to just focus on numbers going up.

But obviously in addition to that, we had the other “progression lines” working in the background. The Classes. The Deckbuilding. There was a lot more setup and anticipation for these–and an example of the twist when he receives his first “made” rare card after the interlude and gets a utility card.

So on bigger scales for bigger upgrades, that’s when you want to start using more elements of the SATED framework

Second was the system mechanics itself weren’t anything super new. Rather, it was a combination of elements that made it so much fun. “Guy who can learn any skill really fast” has been done before. “World of cards with magic powers” has been done before (although this could be the first idk lol). But even though I’ve read deckbuilders, this was fun because of the combination of elements. Yes, I’ve seen these two systems, but I’ve never seen them merged.

Also dragons.

So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when coming up with an idea for a system. You can use one or two preexisting ones as your framework, then add some sort of twist on it that you think will be fun, and you’d get a lot of mileage out of that.

Book 2

Book 2 time!

So on a chapter to chapter level nothing has changed here significantly, we keep the same pattern that book one established. Every 1-2 chapters he’s getting a new skill or leveling one up. It’s a working pattern, so why mess with it?

One of the things I think was interesting upon closer examination was how often the skills aren’t used after they’re gained. A good example is the “Balance” skill. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s ever actually used, nor does it make a direct impact on his world or how the people around him.

I think this sort of ties into the earlier idea of not using every step of the SATED framework for these more “chapter to chapter” progressions. In this case, just as we’re passing over set-up and anticipation, we’re also passing over development. We’re purely looking to enjoy the feeling of numbers going up for some of these chapters and skill gains. Insofar as it contributes to MC’s combat ability, it does so in a passive, indirect, and not mentioned way.

This is relevant to me because something I’d always struggled with was thinking that every single skill and ability the protagonist gained needed to be used directly–I think because of rules like Chekhov’s gun. But what I’m getting from this story is that this really isn’t necessary. The “numbers go up” feeling can be a reward in and of itself for the reader, even if it doesn’t tie into a challenge later down the line.

But (as crownfall has noted and called attention to), the story, like many good progression fantasies, works on multiple “axis” of progression!

On the bigger picture and as an interesting contrast, I think this book really leaned into the SAT (lol) elements with the progression plot of gaining a dragon. Right from the start, we have a continuation of the set-up and anticipation (mostly leaning into the latter) from the first book, getting us hyped for the entire story for when MC will pair with Brixaby.

The story uses a Rare pairing with Cressidy to give us a concrete example of what the pairing process looks like and make us want to see it for ourselves. I see similar techniques used in other litrpgs where, say, everyone else gets their classes before the MC, so that way we’re hyped AF for when the MC gets his own class because we’ve been blue-balled for so long.

Another observation is that I think on the mid-level, there wasn’t as much happening on the class axis of progression, but honestly I thought that was fine because the other axis were so strong? We also had a little bit less happening on the card obtaining axis but it was still happening at a rate of like, every 10-20 chapters? Relatively early he gets the Eidectic memory/mental bookshelf/personal storage combination, and then we mostly focus on Development with him using it to great effect throughout the book and exploring the implications of the ability & what it can do.

He also gets mana vault and then several others with Brixaby.

Takeaway for me is that you can be a little light on some axis of progression as long as the core chapter to chapter progression remains strong? Honestly not 100% sure here. I think this is where reading the other book that was recommended to me will help clarify. Will be doing that as soon as I’m done with this series.

Finally, we have what I think is a great example of the twist, which is that when Brixaby hatches, he’s not at all what anyone would expect. He’s a bit of a menace, and traumatizes a bunch of random people. MC doesn’t get a smooth, fated pairing similar to what happened to Cressidy. MC has to use his skills in an unintended way to calm Brixaby down and give him time to convince him to pair. This, to me, seems to qualify as a Twist in the way that SATED means it.

Great book, am really enjoying it so far even as I pay attention to studying it.