How Important is leveling in RPGs?

[Umbran]

I think that the important bit for a game is not levelling, specifically, but advancement (and/or change) in general. The exact system isn't so important as the fact that the events in game lead to mechanical change and growth of the character.

 

[d2OKC]

Some form of progression is essential, just because of human nature.
I still like the D6 WEG system of skill points that can be used to improve your character skills, or for an emergency bail-out in a bad roll.
I don't need fixed 5000XP=lvl3, level up every 3-5 sessions, but some form of progression.

I was going to say something almost exactly like this. I enjoy leveling, but just as much, I enjoy being able to pick and choose very specific things my character is getting better at, rather than "they get better at everything"! It feels, not more organic necessarily, but more natural to a degree.

But, as always with these conversations, that's just a personal preference.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I think the actual concept of leveling is important to some players. Not skill advancement. Leveling.

 

[frankthedm]

Vitally important to me.

Also I vastly prefer systems with granularity in advancement so a character can be improved nearly every secession in small increments, such as WFRP2E and the Warhammer 40K RPGs.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Leveling itself as a specific mechanic not so much.
But there needs to be avenues for growth - whether it is combat numbers, learning new skills that come up in the game, or such.

Personally I would never play a game that didn't have some sort of growth mechanic.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I'm gonna ditto some folks here: Advancement is important for long running games. Leveling, not so much. Or more games would have it and most don't.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Plenty of good games are great without advancement: LBB Traveller and Call of Cthulhu come to mind immediately. If you're looking at leveling more specifically, the list is much larger.

For some games, leveling is winning. If you're used to that, then it can be hard to get into a games that has a different reward, such as getting rich, or just survival.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

how would you feel if you progressed through the story, gaining currency, becoming more renown, and obtaining better gear?


What about a system that allows you to have X amount of abilities (like, say 3) but you can change them out when an "adventure" is "over" or whenever you have down time?
Or something comes up that could change you...

 

[Mishihari Lord]

how would you feel if you progressed through the story, gaining currency, becoming more renown, and obtaining better gear? ...

"Winning" by gaining currency is a feature of several versions of Traveller. It works for me.

"Winning" as gaining gear is a feature of most editions of D&D as well as games like WoW. It doesn't really appeal to me.

"Winning" by gaining renown rather than levels intrigues me. Does anyone know a game that does this?

 

[Li Shenron]

But seriously, how important is the leveling mechanic to you as a player?

Is it genre specific in importance?

Can a game get by without a leveling mechanic?

I like levelling and I think in a typical RPG is quite important to represent a character's development of skills and abilities in a gradual and structured manner.

But it is absolutely not required in every game. You can totally have a RPG where the characters remain the same. You can in fact also have a RPG without mechanics and totally relying on storytelling and acting in character.

As a middle ground, you can have a feature-based character growth as opposed to level-based.

All the options are fine. I don't think it depends on genre, all of them can be applied to more or less all genres if you want.