Who doesn’t like leveling up?

Maybe your character starts out weak but gets stronger after defeating a few monsters. Maybe you learn a new spell, improve a skill, or unlock an ability you couldn’t use before.

And you don’t need a full role-playing game to enjoy that feature. Plenty of board games let you improve your character, sometimes during a single game and sometimes over an entire campaign.

Here are 12 games where your character doesn’t necessarily finish with the same abilities they started with.

1. Wondrous Creatures

Players: 1–4 | Playing time: 40–80 minutes

Wondrous Creatures takes place on an island filled with unusual creatures. Players explore the island, collect creature cards, gather resources, and complete achievements.

The game has an interesting board with hexagonal spaces, but it’s the captains and their abilities that make it a good fit for this list.

Each player chooses a captain with a unique special ability. That ability starts locked, and you must complete your first achievement before you can use it. Once unlocked, the captain’s ability becomes available for the rest of the game.

You’ll also collect creature cards with abilities of their own.

You’re not leveling up through a campaign, but you do get something new to play with as the game progresses. Once the game ends, though, your captain’s ability goes back to being locked.

How you improve: Unlock your captain’s special ability by completing an achievement.

Do upgrades carry over? No. They reset after each game.

2. Talisman: The Magical Quest Game, Fifth Edition

Players: 2–6 | Playing time: 90+ minutes

Talisman has been around for decades, and the Fifth Edition continues the fantasy adventure.

You choose a character and travel around a magical world, encountering monsters, collecting treasures, and dealing with whatever the Adventure cards throw at you.

Your character has two important attributes: Strength and Craft.

Strength affects physical combat, while Craft is used for psychic combat and magical encounters. Both can increase during the game.

Defeating enemies earns trophies that can be exchanged for increases to these attributes. Certain encounters can also make your character stronger or improve your magical abilities.

That monster you weren’t strong enough to fight earlier? You might have a better chance against it later. Assuming, of course, you survive long enough to enjoy all that extra Strength.

Unlike a legacy or campaign game, those improvements don’t carry over. Each new game begins with your character’s starting attributes.

How you improve: Increase Strength and Craft through trophies and encounters.

Do upgrades carry over? No.

3. Eldritch Horror

Players: 1–8 | Playing time: 120–240 minutes

If you enjoy Lovecraftian horror, Eldritch Horror sends investigators around the world trying to prevent an Ancient One from awakening.

Each investigator has five skills: Lore, Influence, Observation, Strength, and Will.

These skills determine how well your investigator handles different encounters. As the game progresses, you can earn Improvement tokens that increase individual skills.

For example, an investigator who begins with poor Strength might become better at handling physical encounters. Another investigator might improve their Lore or Observation.

Of course, this is a Lovecraftian horror game, so your investigator could also end up injured, cursed, or dealing with some other unpleasant surprise.

Any skill improvements you manage to earn last until the game ends.

How you improve: Gain Improvement tokens that increase your investigator’s skills.

Do upgrades carry over? No.

4. Betrayal at House on the Hill, Third Edition

Players: 3–6 | Playing time: 60–90 minutes

In Betrayal at House on the Hill, players explore a creepy mansion, discovering new rooms as they move through the house.

Each explorer has four traits: Might, Speed, Knowledge, and Sanity.

These aren’t fixed throughout the game. Certain rooms and events can increase your traits, while others can reduce them.

You might become stronger, faster, or more knowledgeable. You might also lose some Sanity, which seems entirely reasonable considering where you’re spending the evening.

Eventually, the game triggers a haunt, and the story takes a turn depending on which scenario comes into play.

This isn’t traditional character leveling, but your explorer’s abilities can change quite a bit between entering the house and reaching the end of the game.

If haunted houses are your thing, I’ve also got a whole list of haunted house board games worth checking out.

How you improve: Increase character traits through rooms, events, and other game effects.

Do upgrades carry over? No.

5. Pathfinder Quest

Players: 1–4 | Campaign adventure game

Pathfinder Quest takes the world of Pathfinder and turns it into a cooperative adventure board game.

Players create characters by choosing their ancestry, background, and class. Then they work together through a series of adventures, facing monsters, making decisions, and discovering what happens next.

One of the biggest features is character development.

At the end of each adventure, characters level up. As the campaign progresses, they gain new feats and spells, giving them additional abilities for the challenges ahead.

Your character keeps developing throughout the campaign, and you don’t need someone to serve as Game Master.

If you enjoy the character-building side of Pathfinder but want to play it as a cooperative board game, this could be a good choice.

How you improve: Level up between adventures and gain new feats and spells.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, throughout the campaign.

6. Mice and Mystics

Players: 1–4 | Playing time: 60–90 minutes per chapter

Mice and Mystics is a story-driven adventure where the heroes have been transformed into mice.

Yes, mice.

These little adventurers must make their way through a castle filled with dangers that are considerably more threatening when you’re only a few inches tall.

The game is divided into story chapters, and your mice can learn new abilities along the way.

By collecting cheese during an adventure, a mouse can eventually exchange it for a new ability card. These abilities give the characters additional options as they face enemies and other challenges.

When playing through the campaign, mice can keep abilities they’ve earned in previous chapters.

Your mice might be tiny, but they don’t have to stay inexperienced. And there’s something funny about collecting cheese to learn new abilities.

How you improve: Earn new ability cards using cheese collected during adventures.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, when playing the campaign.

7. Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape

Players: 1–6 | Playing time: Approximately 60 minutes or more

Want to earn experience points, level up, and learn new skills while fighting your way through dungeons? That’s exactly what Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape lets you do.

You’ll explore dangerous dungeons, battle monsters, and collect treasure. Along the way, your hero earns experience points that can be used to level up.

That experience allows characters to increase their levels, improve their maximum Health or Mana, and gain new skills.

Some skills can even be upgraded to more powerful versions.

Each hero class has its own abilities, so different characters develop in different ways.

The base game allows heroes to level up during individual quests, but those levels reset when you start a new game. A separate campaign expansion provides a longer progression experience.

How you improve: Earn XP, level up, unlock skills, and improve existing skills.

Do upgrades carry over? Not in the standard base-game quests.

8. Gloomhaven, Second Edition

Players: 1–4 | Playing time: 60–120 minutes per scenario

Gloomhaven is a massive cooperative fantasy adventure built around a continuing campaign.

Players take on the roles of mercenaries, exploring dungeons, completing scenarios, and making decisions that affect future adventures.

Characters gain experience points and level up during the campaign.

As they level up, they gain access to new ability cards and other improvements. Characters can also earn perks that change how they perform in combat.

Your mercenary doesn’t start over after every adventure. You keep the experience and abilities you’ve earned as you work through the campaign.

And with so many scenarios, characters, and other things to discover, there’s plenty to keep you busy. Just make sure you’ve got some room for that box!

Want to know more about the game? Check out our Gloomhaven board game review.

How you improve: Earn XP, level up, gain new ability cards, and unlock perks.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, throughout the campaign.

9. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Players: 1–4 | Playing time: 30–120 minutes per scenario

If Gloomhaven sounds interesting but the size of the game seems overwhelming, Jaws of the Lion is a smaller introduction to the same style of gameplay.

Players choose from four mercenaries and work through a campaign of connected scenarios.

Like the larger Gloomhaven, characters earn experience and level up. They unlock new ability cards and receive perks as they progress.

The game introduces its rules gradually through its opening scenarios, which makes it more approachable for players unfamiliar with the system.

Don’t let the smaller box fool you. There’s still an entire campaign to play, and your mercenaries can keep leveling up along the way.

You don’t need the original Gloomhaven, either.

There’s also a digital version of Gloomhaven if you’d rather play on your computer.

How you improve: Earn XP, level up, unlock ability cards, and gain perks.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, throughout the campaign.

10. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

Players: 2–4 | Playing time: Approximately 60 minutes per game

If you’ve played the original Pandemic, you’re probably familiar with working together to stop diseases from spreading around the world.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 takes that idea and turns it into a campaign where the decisions you make can permanently change the game.

One of those changes involves your characters.

At the end of each game, players choose upgrades. Some upgrades allow characters to gain new abilities that they’ll retain in future games.

Characters can also receive permanent scars, so not every lasting change is a good one.

New events, rules, and surprises appear throughout the campaign. And some of those earlier decisions might come back to haunt you.

If you haven’t played the original Pandemic, it’s also featured in our list of board games for new players.

How you improve: Give characters permanent upgrades between games.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, throughout the campaign.

11. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Players: 1–4 | Playing time: 60–120 minutes

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a cooperative horror game where players take on the roles of investigators dealing with supernatural mysteries.

Although it’s played primarily with cards, it has a lot in common with campaign-based adventure games.

Each investigator has a deck representing their skills, equipment, knowledge, and abilities.

During a campaign, investigators earn experience points that can be spent on new and improved cards.

That means you can gradually develop your investigator, gaining access to abilities and stronger versions of cards that weren’t available at the beginning.

Your investigator can also suffer trauma and other lasting consequences.

And if you prefer cards over a table full of miniatures, you can still enjoy developing a character without having to set up a massive board.

How you improve: Earn experience points and upgrade your investigator’s cards and abilities.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, throughout the campaign.

12. Warhammer Quest: Darkwater

Players: 1–4 | Fantasy campaign adventure

Warhammer Quest: Darkwater is a cooperative fantasy adventure set in the Warhammer universe.

Players choose heroes and work together through dangerous encounters, battling enemies and dealing with the threats facing the realm.

Each hero begins with unique abilities and equipment, but those aren’t necessarily the only abilities they’ll have throughout the adventure.

As players complete encounters, they can earn reward cards that provide new equipment, useful effects, and additional actions.

There’s no traditional XP system here. Instead, your heroes gain new powers and equipment through the rewards they earn during the campaign.

The campaign also includes decisions that can affect what happens next, along with some increasingly nasty enemies.

Your heroes are going to need those new abilities.

How you improve: Earn reward cards that provide new powers, equipment, and actions.

Do upgrades carry over? Yes, during the campaign, but not as permanent character levels between separate campaigns.

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A Couple of Extras for Game Night

Games with lots of cards, tokens, and little pieces can make a mess of the table. I’ve got a few more ideas in my board game accessories post, but here are two worth checking out.

Token Silo Convertible — Board Game Token Organizer

Tired of chasing little cardboard tokens across the table?

The Token Silo Convertible has nine removable trays in three sizes to keep your game pieces organized. It’s especially handy when you’re playing something with a ridiculous number of little bits and pieces.

Gloomhaven Metal Coin Upgrade Set

Want to make all that hard-earned Gloomhaven money feel a little more impressive?

This upgrade set includes 60 metal coins and a drawstring bag. You don’t need them to play, but they’re a nice alternative to cardboard coins.

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Which Type of Character Progression Do You Prefer?

Some games let you level up during a single session. Others let you keep your upgrades across an entire campaign.

Personally, I can see the appeal of both. Sometimes you want to spend an evening improving your character, and sometimes you want to see just how powerful that character can become after several adventures.

What about you? Do you prefer games where you start fresh every time, or do you like keeping your character and watching them level up?

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