Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I don't understand what you are claiming here, or what purported contrast you are drawing.
What's the DC for your D&D character to flap her arms and fly to the moon? What's the DC for a 1st level character to jump into a volcano and survive? What's the DC for your 1st level fighter PC to try and kill ten orcs in one round?
There are all sorts of limits - some imposed by the mechanics, some by a shared understanding of the fiction - on what actions can be meaningfully attempted in a RPG.
The DCs are entirely irrelevant to his point. There is no limit on the attempt of those actions. My PC can flap his arms in an attempt to fly to the moon and there is no system limitation that stops me from trying. The same with the volcano and killing 10 orcs in one round, though I'm not sure why you'd have asked for a DC for that one. Have you not played D&D before?
And who are you to declare what is meaningful and what isn't? If my PC is crazy, then there is meaning in the attempt to fly to the moon by flapping my arms. If my PC is not crazy, but I'm trying to freak out a tribe of primitives who are superstitious and don't mess with crazy people, the attempt has meaning. If my jump into the volcano is part of a heroic sacrifice, it has meaning, even if my PC is desperately hoping for a miracle and hopes beyond reason to survive. If my PC wants to be the best swordsman in the world and his goal is to kill 10 orcs in one round, his attempts have meaning, even if he doesn't succeed when 1st level.
But unlike classic AD&D, earning levels in 4e isn't a reward (despite the misleading chapter heading in the 4e DMG) - provided you actually play the game (ie engage with the fiction via your PC) then your PC will go up levels. The gaining of levels, and the progression through the tiers of play, is a background to the fiction that the game actually focuses on.
Yes it is a reward. Those levels are a reward for playing the game. A guaranteed reward for doing something is still a reward. When I tell my son that if he eats all of his dinner he can have desert as a reward, it's guaranteed that if he actually eats his dinner(engages with the food via his mouth and stomach) then he will get desert.