Why some npc stay level 1 and others - same settlement - level up?

[Conradine]

Pseudo - realism discussion, we all know it's all just a game. :)


Beside taking risks - non necessarily combat but risk nonetheless - what is in your opinion the factors in play that differentiate a commoner, expert, fighter or adept that never level up, or level up just once or twice in a lifetime, and those who manage to gain an handful of levels or two?

Raw talent, ambition, determination, pure luck... what?

[lord_khaine]

I would say All of the above. All of them comes into play already at the stage of what class it is our hypotetical human ends up with.
Because i mean, just for a start then its staggering unlikely than anyone unlucky enough to be born of a common farmer will end up as more than that himself.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Taking the stance that the tabletop RPG is a narrative lens, one way to take it is that the people that are higher level have undergone their own ‘character development’.

[King of Nowhere]

The same reasons why in real life some people are rocket scientists or top managers or stuff, and some go on with menial jobs all their lives. Which is, multiple reasons that are so complex there are branches of science that study it.

[Biggus]

There was a thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?585683-Mudfarming-Commoners-Inevitability-gain-exp) a few weeks ago which asked a similar question. Best answer IMO was:



It's the challenges in life that really give you the XP though. I think the great example here is the 'eureka moment'. You know...when you have a problem/challenge that you can't figure out......and then, suddenly, you DO figure it out. You get that rush of ''of course" or ''oh, that is what I was doing wrong".....that rush is XP.

(Edited slightly for clarity)

This neatly explains why you can get people like scholars and artisans who never go adventuring but reach high levels. People who spend all their spare time idling only gain XP when life forces challenges upon them that they can't ignore, and may never level up in their whole lives. But people who are constantly striving to be better at something, whether it's fighting, blacksmithing, or even just wrestling with philosophical conundrums, gain XP when they have those 'eureka' moments.

Adventurers still tend to level up faster than other people, because fighting for your life concentrates the mind really well, but it's possible for others to gain XP at the same speed if they're sufficiently dedicated to their chosen field.

[Kayblis]

I agree with the above posts. Some stay level 1, because when you get a common job at 15 and never expand your horizons, you're pretty much set as a bartender/farmer/tailor for life. Money is a big part of why people never go out of their way to find risks, you're already working most of the day and really don't have the energy or time to shoot for the stars.

On the other hand, that level 5 expert is a guy that had a different start in life, probably learned from a well-known artisan and made enough money to buy/commission special tools and materials to enrich his crafting experience. This guy is not necessarily lucky, but he went out of his way and probably incurred debt to get the chance to work with rarer, more specialized stuff. Same goes for soldiers, merchants and whatnot.