@thoughtpunks@CatDad Kinda like olden day D&D used gold as a lvl-up resource? I am not too much of a fan of this, because it will make players base all their ingame-decisions around this resource. It's not that different from using XP, which are supposed to be an abstract thing, and the party frantically looking for an Orc to kill because they're this close to levelling up.
In my own system I'm using story-milestone-based level-ups with set talents to choose from for each character archetype. In context of the complete package it works really well. So far. There has been no long-term campaign test of this to date.
There is something incredibly satisfying, almost primal, about a "level-up" and getting stuff. I did my best to not make it about something specific in the world, but general progress as a character, as a hero and in the context of the adventure story.
I have seen systems trying to tie it to reknown, specific deeds, currency, world events or even magic objects the characters need to find. It all results in the stories being all about aquiring this resource. If you want this, then this is ideal. If not, well, it probably won't be a good fit.