If science discovered D&D leveling...

Topic
Todays scientists discovered XP.
Today's scientists discovered how to level.
It works almost identically to D&D 3.5's system.
Leveling presently follows the Commoner class.
What does a person who's leveling gain?

Bonus Topic
How does the ability to level affect the world?

Reason
I've been considering making a short story out of the bonus question. Probably just a few scenes since I'm not really ready for anything bigger.
But before doing so, would prefer a second opinion on what D&D leveling would act like in a real life setting.

Personal Theory:
What's discovered is XP.
XP is an energy field that can be increased from various activities.
XP is inherently unstable until enough is gained, at which point it stabilizes, giving various abilities before supporting the next cycle of growth.

General abilities given by XP:
Pocket of energy giving instant regeneration until said pocket is depleted.(Hp)
Near endless stamina until energy pocket is depleted or enough time passes.
Perfect recall of information attached to completion of level up cycles.
Near perfect recall and use of skills attached to when first starting the XP cycle, with the ability to add to these skills every three completed XP cycle.(Feats)
Ability to enhance physical and mental abilities every four cycles.(Ability scores)

Personal guess at bonus question:
Depends on rate leveling is achieved and whether or not magic is discovered due to the discovery of XP.If leveling is slow, not much changes.
If it's fast... the X-Men comics might be somewhat similar to what we'd face. Better or worse due to either everyone having the ability to level or it being smuggled to anyone interested in what it can give them or their country/company/gang.

Magic might open up an age of wonder.
One of our past ages of wonder involved the Cuban missile crisis, a potential World War 3 nuclear event.

The social consequences would be pretty dire....

Might want to include that the ability to gain xp only starts in late adolescence or early adulthood. Otherwise kindergaden becomes "fight school".

Even if it does just start at adulthood, can you imagine the "tiger" parents trying to game the system by buying their kids increasingly difficult opponents (kittens, middleschoolers, bums, small dogs, then big dogs....)

Are you thinking about only "fight" xp or also "overcoming challenges" xp?

The guy at the slaughter house gets to level 15 just from the monthly work of killing chickens....xp farming...

The MMA fighters that go out and start brawls so they can "Train up".....

You know, larger high schools already pay smaller schools to play them for training purposes...imagine that on an industrial scale.

Imagine how much worse it would be if people stated "dropping" money and useful times when they die...

a-d said:

How does the ability to level affect the world?

Click to expand...

That'd be pretty scary, since violence is the primary/fastest way to level, leveling gives you ranks that make you better at specific skills, and level is now objectively measurable.

You might end up with dystopic meritocracy: you get jobs and status in society based on class/level/ranks as determined by this test. Young people might get thrown into dangerous situations so they'll level faster. Gang bangers become better new hires than college grads.

You could pitch the idea to Hollywood as "It's like GATACA meets Hunger Games!"

Yeah, it's strange that a Wizard doen't become better at his trade by studying and practicing magic. He gets better by hunting and killing Orcs.

As for the guy in the Slaughterhouse: He won't level from killing chickens. They're a fixed level, and you quickly reach a point where they aren't worth anything.

On the other hand, the competition for a job that lets you do simple work like killing chickens and lets you Level up enough to become a PHD? You'll gain levels just fighting off the other job applicants...

I was thinking both combat and overcoming challenges in the expectation of finding ways to gain XP at an equivalent or nearly equal rate gained by combat but...said methods would have to be damned cheap to match up with the ease you've all mentioned would exist in simply seeking out people and animals to fight.
Perhaps using the 'Face your Fears' game show format of being terrified in a safe environment would work.

I had a thought about the gameshow, "American Gladiator's" and "Ninja Warrior" being used to gain XP, followed by thinking that obstacle courses could becoming standard P.E. fare, which might mean that in a real-life D&D medieval setting everyone would be given military training not just because their village/town/city might come under attack, but because it's a method for leveling.

Better have a system of Negative XP for actions contrary to the good of society. Otherwise the crews of Ohio class ballistic missile subs could become some of the most XP laden folks on the planet. What IS the XP for killing 100 million or so people?

Who'd want to be a 20th level Commoner?

Greenfield said:

Yeah, it's strange that a Wizard doen't become better at his trade by studying and practicing magic. He gets better by hunting and killing Orcs.

Click to expand...

Agreed. In part, I like to award M-U XP for casting spells in out-of-the-lab situations. NPCs (and PCs) gain 1/2 XP by sitting in their tower all day reading other people's books and performing very cautious, controlled experiments to learn about magic. PCs are those the authors of said books question. PCs go to unknown, hard to reach, magical-rich environments and cast whatever strikes their fancy to see what happens. It is far from always good.

PS: I think leveling does occur in a way already. Science discovery or no. We start out at level 1. Wiggling. then 2. Crawling. 3. Walking. 4. Running. And from there a world of different difficulties. Just think of dance alone.

Sorry, but this already exists. The XP is called $$ and it is universal around the world. And it is just as unfair as the comments above. The more you get, the more you can gain and an advantageous degree to your opponents.

Unfortunately PCs are special. They seem to gain more XP than NPCs, and both can gain XP from quests, rather than just killing things. Of course, killing things tends to give more XP than quests, so being violent tends to give better skills. It does seem to depend on the DM... err, gods of the setting, or something like that.

Not only do NPCs seem to gain levels less often, it's quite possible that many or even most NPCs do not gain much XP from violence. In other words, most wizards throwing themselves into combat, hoping to get inspired into learning magic, are just fooling themselves. They're trying to copy PC behavior. (That behavior certainly works for PCs.)