Introduction
Incessant is the toil of the world-builder as one seeks everwhich nook and cranny from which a sense of place may issue that will scratch the awareness of the average player. Things may start out obvious and visual: a map dotted with some place names, a trove of selected pieces of artwork, a little ambush along the aural pathways, to be followed perhaps by some inklings of material culture – preferably reflectable on the equipment list –, a few whiffs of exotic-scented social mores, hierarchies, titles and traditions, a dip in a setting calendar or even, if brave’s the feeling, coinage denominations or distance measurements. The list is fairly unending and the corresponding chances of success equally scattershot.
And then there are the races and classes to be found in a world, of course.
Most settings aspiring to make inroads into uniqueness seldom pass on the chance to perform more or less sweeping changes to the roster of playable lampshades of humanity and their respective occupations, the usual approach being heavily slanted towards addition rather than replacement or outright subtraction. We’ve seen the modern game all too happily bobsled itself down that slippery slope of “anything goes” maximalism, having latched something fierce to the airy notion that everyone can be an astronaut, spawning parties comprised of ever more outlandish blends of critters and classes as mainstream DnD’s pseudocosmopolitanism inches ever closer to that of a planar nexus whereas, looking past appearances, things obviously boil down to the primest material of suspects – money. After all, how’s a company to keep mushrooming splatbooks confronted with the slightest concept of temperance? No, the spice must flow.
‘tween Paladins and Normal Folk
Gulping the bile back down for a bit, I do recognize playable character class and race choices as integral to world-building. After all, what game construct will stick more readily to a player’s hands if not one’s own character?
The way AD&D went about things was such that, just as it expanded the potential class choices, so they were gated by stat minimums. I found this approach adequate if a bit underdeveloped and prone to sameness; at least the foresight to account for such an issue was present. And it got me thinking of a different, more agile and setting-driven way to tackle the same issue.
To that end, I’m pondering the addition of the following tables to the process of character generation, both for the usual purpose of determining the overall tone of the game by way of what classes and races exist in the setting as well as the particulars of how common or otherwise their occurrence is. As ever, I welcome my old friend, by which I don’t mean darkness but the bell curve. Bearing with the examples – pretty much par for the course as they are – , note that they reflect my own preferences for a tolkienistic stance on demihuman isolationism quite at odds with the game’s current spirit, as well as nursing a strong human bias. Of course, this will rub right coarse-wise against the grain of player expectation (or, these days, empowerment?), who oftentimes come to sit with already a fully formed idea of their character ready to leap out of their brow onto existence. Although as it stands the class roster presented below is far from final and the same going for the ratios apportioned, it’s good to clear the air in saying that quashing expectations is the exact idea as intended, such that all that is guaranteed is that which is deemed essential: the four core classes are represented, so is the basic shape of humanity (on which demihumanhood ends up falling back upon anyway), the player is expected to expect nothing, but rather to keep an open mind.
The table contents are themselves, however, a concession to the usual expectations of play, for in keeping with a grittier, more “low fantasy” type of setting it could be deemed appropriate to have a caster class like the Cleric switched for the Ranger or Assassin and the Wizard equally pushed into some measure of rarity, if not removed all entirely.
The Tables
Every time a new character is generated a roll on the tables will dictate the rarest entry available to be picked, along with everything coming at a lower result, shaping different amplitudes of choice for each player. This deliberately places an additional kicker on character generation, opening the possibility that a lackluster set of attributes rolled by a player may come coupled with an unusual race, class or combination thereof, rather than having already winsome stats doubling up their advantage as dictating access to the less common classes. Note that “less common” means just that, for it is not my desire to establish the rarer races or classes as more powerful, player-rolled stats providing more than enough stratification as it is. Rather, the design of classes and races should strive for balance and this tool should serve exclusively as a driver for world-building immersion and nothing past that.
Bear too in mind that these are static examples, the real deal is supposed to breathe with the pulse of events in the game world, both player-driven and otherwise, potentially accounting for:
- the geographic location of the party when a new character is rolled up (henchmen included), which might drastically alter the roster and positions of the different race entries
- events on a scale large enough to interfere with the presence and distribution of certain populations, such as plague decimating half-men burrows, border disputes with orcish clans developing into full-fledged war, sprouting an unusual number of half-breeds along the trail of destruction, famine reducing mankind’s hold on the fertile valleys or a vulcanic eruption driving the regional dwarven clans further into seclusion
- benefits from establishing an in-game privileged relationship with a certain group, like a cabal of assassins, an elven kith or a witches’ coven, increasing their availability (or granting it outright as a one-time benefit) when rolling up a new character
Lastly, an obvious caveat: while I haven’t yet settled for a version, it’s worth noting that while the 2d10 tables may accomodate many more distinct options they make the high notes a lot harder to reach.
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