This gives a bit of perspective on the issue of character competence. To quote:
"Rate of improvement is... a genre element."
"This is one area where HeroQuest bows more to the demands of the roleplaying form than to precedents set by the source material."
If there is anything in HQ that some could consider a cop-out this would be it, but in my opinion this is just an expression of a wider debate in roleplaying in general. Look at another of my favourite games, Spirit of the Century, that has no character advancement to speak of. Just a bit of character change every now and then. I prefer this.
The second quote does suggest that Robin may have considered not bothering with improvement, and in some respects by advocating that you can increase and decrease the rate it is really left up to the group to decide if improvement is an issue and if so how much it will play a part.
It is really the expectation of roleplayers that drives character advancement and the consequent need to benchmark abilities. As Robin mentions, rising to be a hero from lowly origins is a staple of fantasy, but in my opinion this is nothing like RPG improvement. I can't think of a story that focuses in on improvment as a major part of the story (but I am not a fan of fantasy so there may be many). The highly RPG influenced Dresden Files novels which include improvment as a nod to gaming, have it as an underlying thing without emphasis.
If anything improvement could be handled better by that wonderful movie cliché of montage so perfectly parodied in Team America. That could make for an interesting game where improvement is always an integrated part of the story.
Jamie
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