How to Level Up, Part 2

In our last adventure, I described my love for RPGs, and also the dangers I associate with them. It was this juxtaposition of ideas that led me to this new life project--modeling my life along the lines of an RPG.

Now, I'm not talking about initiating conversations with random strangers or obsessively collecting swords and armor. That would be cool, sure, but it's not the point. The purpose is to develop my skills and abilities, and reward myself for doing so. The more skills and abilities I gain, the greater the reward. And I'm going to keep track of it in terms of my "level."

So... what level am I now? I'm currently thirty years old, so I don't think it's necessarily fair to say I'm at level 1. And not all RPGs demand that a character begin at level 1, either. That holds for both table top campaigns and video games. On the other hand, skipping up to level 10 or something will feel like cheating.

There's another option in-between, and I think it's pretty reasonable. In many games, the first few levels move pretty quickly. It gets the player hooked, because they feel like they're making good progress. So that's what I'm going to do too. I'll start at Level 1, but my goals to get to Level 5 will be pretty easy to achieve. Accordingly, the rewards for reaching those levels will be smaller. From Level 5 on, though, I'm going to begin to challenge myself, and grant bigger rewards as a result. Getting to Level 10 will be a cause for celebration. But why stop there when I can also go to 11. And beyond.

The next question is what form these goals will take. So I'm going to take a step back and examine how this works in most RPGs.

In most video games, leveling up comes with experience points (XP). XP is gained by completing tasks or missions and, of course, by killing monsters. This second method is more difficult to accomplish in the real world, though, and would not really have the effect I'm intending. My method will relate more to the first version, with some major modifications which I'll discuss later.

What happens in a video game when you level up? Several things. First, the characters statistics increase. Different games have different stats, but they're usually variations on the classic six: strength (S), dexterity (D), constitution (C), intelligence (I), wisdom (W), and charisma (Ch). The increase in these stats may be determined by the game or left up to the player.

Another kind of leveling up involves skills. These are secondary stats, in a way--separate classifications of achievement that improve success in a specialized, limited range. Some games grant skill points up on leveling up. Other games model reality closer, and demand that a certain skill be tried repeatedly in the game in order to increase skill level.

This is what I call the "trickle down" version of leveling up. When sufficient experience is gained, statistics and skills automatically increase. As you can imagine, this is not a good model of real life. Instead, my system will be just the opposite. The skills that I develop will have a characteristic attribute or attributes. Tasks completed in that skill will carry an experience value. The more difficult the task, the higher the experience.

For example, let's take a look at crochet, a skill that I have a fair bit of experience in. The key statistic for crochet would naturally be Dexterity. Let's say that for every hour I crochet, I gain 50 XP. That 50XP will count toward three things:

1. My crochet skill
2. My dexterity statistic
3. My overall level

Any task I complete will contribute to my overall level. Any dexterity-keyed task will affect my dexterity statistic, and my crochet skill will develop only when I crochet.

There's one element I have left out up until now, and that is missions. This would be a larger project or milestone to serve as a target. Using the same example as before, finishing a scarf in crochet might earn me an additional 500 XP. Doing a larger project, like a sweater, could earn 3,000 XP.

On my next post, I'm going to chart out my leveling system and rewards. Within that framework, I'm going to assign myself preliminary statistics and skill levels for all my current skills. In the post following that one, I'm going to start laying out some tasks and missions in each of those skills. At that point, the "setup" portion of the blog will be finished. Everything thereafter will be reporting on my progress, as well as creating new tasks and missions.

How to Level Up, Part 1

One Christmas morning, almost twenty years ago, I received the original NES Dragon Warrior as a present. It was an all new style of game for me. At that point, my Nintendo was still fairly new--I had gotten it for my birthday only a few months before--and I was still enjoying the novelty of side scrolling adventures that had an end, as opposed to endless repetitive rounds that led to inevitable defeat.

It did not take long before I immersed myself in the world of Dragon Warrior. I studied the maps. I calculated how much gold I would need to buy the next item. I made raid after raid on one certain dungeon because the treasure inside would regenerate. But most importantly, I learned the joy of leveling up.

RPGs of this style have been criticized for making leveling up such a large part of the gameplay. After all, say the critics, isn't the point of role playing... well, playing a role? You're the daring warrior who solves the ancient puzzles and saves the princess, right? Not an exterminator whose job is to suffer through countless random encounters.

I will admit, random encounters are very annoying if you're playing the game for the story. But the story of Dragon Warrior was paper-thin. Collect the ancient armor, save the princess, find a way to the bad guy's lair, then kill the bad guy. Nothing more to it than that. Later RPGs have had a much more involved story, both in the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series, and in the better known Final Fantasy series. But early on, the story was just the excuse to get out there and kill some monsters. And level up.

What is the fascination that some people have, myself included, with leveling up? I've thought a lot about this question, and I think there are two major elements to it. First, there is a certain satisfaction that comes from achieving any difficult task. At its core, leveling up is practice, and the player gets the satisfaction of being set a difficult task, working to make it possible, and then achieving it.

But there's more to it than that. The second element is something I like to call the "guarantee." You can see exactly how main experience points you need to achieve the next level, at which point the skills you need are simply granted to you. You have a built in assurance that the work that you are putting in will have the intended effect. How comforting is that? There's no such thing as wasted effort!

Except, in one very real sense, it's all wasted effort. I'm a fan of RPGs, but I also know that they are dangerous, even addictive. About six years ago, over a three month period, I played an unhealthy amount of Everquest. In one respect, that game is an RPG-lovers dream--you can invest an almost infinite amount of time into, and there are still new skills to achieve, still new areas to explore. And therein lies the danger.

Understand that I'm not speaking out against RPGs, as long as they, like anything else, are consumed in moderation. But after spending a considerable amount of time and having nothing tangible to show for it, I decided that I needed to take a different approach to my life.

And in my next post, I'll tell you all about it.