Level (experience)

From DmWiki

In RPGs that use classes, the level of a player character is a number that measures roughly how long the player has been playing the game, and how much experience his character has accumulated. When player characters are first created, they have a level of 1, i.e. Fighter 1. Over the course of the game, the player may repeatedly "level-up", or increase the level of his character. Leveling up often increases the player's abilities, e.g. by increasing the size of their inventory, making them less susceptible to attack, or allowing them to gain access to a previously restricted area of the world.

Levels are often related to experience points (XP). Frequently, the player is only able to level up after having passed a certain threshold of XP. The amount of XP required to level up is determined by the class of the character played and usually is different for each class available in the game.

This system of classes and levels was popularized by the pen and paper version of Dungeons and Dragons. All of the initial RPGs used a similar system. Periodically a commercial RPG will use a classless system which in turn does not use levels.

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