Journey To Become A Hero

Power Level and Old School RPGs
In the Original Edition of the World’s Most Popular Role-Playing Game the title Hero is given to a fighting man of the fourth level of experience. In that game one does not start as a “Hero”, but rather works toward attaining that status. I believe this is significant in its reflection of “the hero’s journey” concept, a common theme in myth and legend and in many modern fictional tales.
The very title of “Hero” implies accomplishment. One is not usually born a hero. By doing exceptional deeds one may become a hero. There are a number of “heroic” choices to be made along the path to becoming a hero. In the Original Edition game the player character starts at level one and through adventuring the character may accumulate experience points which eventually allows them entry into the next level where an increase in power is awarded. It’s rather like a real world promotion - do a good job and move up to the next level with increased responsibilities and authority. The lower levels (1-3) are important to old school play as that is the time when one discovers the “personality” of their character through various choices made by the player in response to the situations the character is in during play. To borrow a more modern term, the early levels of play effectively become the character’s “backstory.”.
The World’s First Role-Playing Game has a fantasy theme, but games that came later quickly covered other genres including space, post apocalyptic, old west and comic book superhero play. Generic rule systems that followed allow the use of a core set of rules that can be adapted to various different genres so that the players don’t have to switch rule systems each time they play in a different setting or genre. The generic game rules are frequently presented as a set of options allowing for customization of the game so as to be suitable to the type of play desired.
One option using a generic system is the ability to set the power level of starting characters. Popular systems that carry the generic label including GURPS and the HERO System often use a point-buy character generation mechanic in which the abilities and powers of characters are limited by the number of points that may be spent during creation. By setting the starting points high or low the person designing the scenario or campaign has considerable control over how powerful the characters are thus allowing for games involving characters that feel like ordinary people, mighty heroes or even fantastic superheroes from the start of play.
Gamers over the years have come to the hobby with a variety of backgrounds. The Original Edition is considered to have been marketed at tabletop wargamers, especially those who also had an interest in fantasy literature. The popularity of the new hobby it established quickly spread and brought in new players with a wide variety of interests beyond wargaming. The tropes popularized through role-playing in turn have influenced future fiction, cinema and the digital gaming hobby so that today many new hobbyists are coming to tabletop role-playing with a background in video games internet streaming and movies which are themselves inspired by the early versions of D&D.
Upon achieving level eight in the Original Edition of The World’s Most Popular Role-Playing Game fighting men are awarded the title of “Superhero”. Characters of eighth level and above can squash ordinary monsters in bunches and even challenge the biggest baddies in an effort to thwart their evil plans. In other words, the characters do indeed feel like “Superheroes”. The infrequent occasion when a character of mine has reached such lofty power level during old school play has indeed felt like a significant game accomplishment.