The same way it does in other gaming systems. You have experience points and you get them by going on quests and doing other adventurous things associated with your character. Your level is your total experience divided by 2000. A level ten Gateway to Reality character is about as powerful as you will ever need to be. The average level is about level four.

Experience is gained specifically in the following two ways. One, a referee fills out a quest report card that will give you experience points/grades based on your performance on the quest, and two, the length of time you've been on the board. For each month on the board you get 200 experience points. You also get experience "brownie" points for training, studying, and other in-the-city actions.

More information about this is available in the discussion about attributes.