ROLE PLAYING GAMES, CHALLENGE RATINGS, LEVELING UP AND YOU

Alright, to begin with, I have written a post in the past titled “It’s Not a Goddamn Role Playing Game”.  In addition, u/purplespengler over on reddit has created his own fantastic blog full of rants on training that also details how lifting is NOT a role playing game, and in both of our writings, we really against the type of thinking that transfers over from role playing games to lifting that is ultimately destructive: that of min-maxing.  However, allow me to discuss a time honored tradition savvy role playing gamers have engaged in for decades that is in fact an INCREDIBLY viable approach: that of seeking out VERY powerful enemies to fight in order to rapidly advance in levels.  Punching so incredibly far above your weight that the reward you receive for victory is borderline absurd.  I’m sure there is a nerdy term for this that I’m ashamed to not know, but let’s just say this: if you’re going to approach lifting like an RPG, at least do it the RIGHT way.

Remember: David leveled straight from shepherd to King after this fight 

This avenue of gameplay exists in video and table top RPGs, but it’s pretty much the same no matter how you approach it.  You (and, most likely, a party of your friends) decide to go off course in your game, wonder into an area you have absolutely NO business being in, finding an enemy that is well above your acceptable challenge rating (for you non-nerds, basically a dude way more powerful than you should be fighting at this point in the game) and somehow, through just sheer blind stupid luck, willpower, tenacity, determination and using up EVERY single disposable item you have, you manage to overcome this enemy.  The comedy being that, later in the adventure, this dude will just become a standard bad guy that you mow down on your way to bigger and better things, but on this particular day, at this particular time, they may as well have been God…and you won.  The game mechanics weren’t built to support this, and suddenly you’re up 2, 3, 4, 5 levels, with way more gold than you should be carrying at this point in the game.  You then get back on course to your next adventure, absurdly outclassing everything you encounter because of this one stupid gambit you risked that paid off ABSURDLY well.

Folks: THAT is lifting.  That is exactly what training is.  THIS is where RPG players screw up: because they think lifting is level grinding, minimal risk for moderate reward, when really it’s about MAXIMAL risk for maximal reward.  At least, assuming you want to be anything worth being the hero of a story about.  If you’re content to be some NPC shopkeeper, by all means, keep grinding against rats and kobolds, but if you wanna be the hero of the game, you gotta start taking on liches at level 2.  When you sit down and look at your training program for the next block, at least SOME part of it SHOULD scare you, if not EVERY single workout on it.  When you look at your nutritional plan, you should immediately assume you did the calculations wrong.  You need to be turning wrong corners and running up on dudes well above your challenge level and realize that you’re backed into a corner.

*Caution* it can often go poorly

And, in turn, you need to SURVIVE your training.  These fights above your challenge level are about a war of attrition.  The enemy hits hard and you’re plinking away single digit damage, but EVENTUALLY, if you can keep surviving the onslaught, you’ll have to win.  It’ll be a LONG battle compared to the short ones that are more within your scope, but the payoff will be worth it.  And this means tapping into every resource you have to survive.  Those battles that are within your challenge rating won’t even need a healing potion, while these ones are to require you to use that megaelixir you were saving for “just in case.”  Guess what dude: “in case” just happened. 

What the hell does that metaphor mean?  That means that, when you take on these challenges beyond your ability, you’re going to tap into every part of you that you can to survive and overcome.  You’re GOING to want to quit, you’re going to feel bad, you’re going to be sore, you’re going to hurt, you’re going to walk funny, you might even pick up some small injuries, you’re going to be exhausted in your day to day activities, you’re going to eat like it’s your job, you’re going to be sick of cooking all the time, you’re going to be drinking water around the clock to stay hydrated, you’re going to have to dial in everything and use every advantage in your toolbox, because those EXTREME recovery measures result in extreme recovery, which results in extreme results from extreme training.  Yeah, when you’re just punching the clock, you can stay up late, eat fast food, and dork around, but when your training is about to take your life, you gotta fight with everything.

And you're gonna have to punch UP

And hey, guess what: right after that stupid impossible fight where you leveled up a whole bunch, it’s PROBABLY not a good idea to go have another one immediately after that.  Hey look: MORE times where some RPG logic pays off.  If you just used all your expendable items to survive ONE fight, you need to go replenish them.  So go ahead after that and take some leisurely training to recover from the insanity you put yourself through, but at least EARN that time off first.  Go do battle with dragons and ogre-mages and liches and all sorts of high level insanity and then come back and smash some goblins for a bit so that you can do it all over again.  Appreciate the fact that, while your peers are over there still grinding away and being safe, you’re making huge jumps in much shorter timeframes because you’re willing to use up some of those expendable items rather than hording them for a “just in case” that never actually happens.  Actually go out and seek challenges worthy of you using every tool in your toolbox, then actually USE those tools.