Editing Role-playing video game (section)

===Experience and levels===
[[File:Scourge character creation.png|thumb|right|An example of [[character creation]] in an RPG. In this particular game, players can assign points into [[Attribute (role-playing games)|attributes]], select a deity, and choose a portrait and profession for their character.]]
In order to be considered a role-playing game, characters have to become more functionally powerful by gaining new skills, weapons, and magic. This creates a positive-feedback cycle that is central to these games: the player grows in power, allowing them to overcome more difficult challenges, and gain even more power.<ref name="fundamentals"/> This is part of the appeal of the genre, where players experience growing from an ordinary person into a superhero with amazing powers. Whereas other games give the player these powers immediately, the player in a role-playing game will choose their powers and skills as they gain experience.<ref name="fundamentals"/>

Three different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the ''experience system'' (also known as the "level-based" system), the ''training system'' (also known as the "skill-based" system) and the ''skill-point system'' (also known as "level-free" system)
*The ''experience system'', by far the most common, was inherited from pen-and-paper role-playing games and emphasizes receiving "[[experience point]]s" (often abbreviated "XP" or "EXP") by winning battles, performing class-specific activities, and completing [[Quest (video gaming)|quests]]. Once a certain amount of experience is gained, the character advances a level. In some games, level-up occurs automatically when the required amount of experience is reached; in others, the player can choose when and where to advance a level. Likewise, abilities and attributes may increase automatically or manually.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}
*The ''training system'' is similar to the way the ''[[Basic Role-Playing]]'' system works. The first notable video game to use this was ''[[Dungeon Master (video game)|Dungeon Master]]'',{{citation needed|date=October 2010}} which emphasized developing the character's skills by using them—meaning that if a character wields a sword for some time, he or she will become proficient with it.{{citation needed|date=October 2010}}
*Finally, in the ''skill-point system'' (as used in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines]]'' for example) the character is rewarded with "[[skill point]]s" for completing quests, which then can be directly used to buy skills and attributes without having to wait until the next level up.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

In some video games from the Eighties and Nineties, the [[score (game)|score]] was called "Experience" in-game, but this did not make them role-playing games, if there was no character development. <!--E.G. Heroes of the Lance, Alcahest,...-->