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Broad vs Narrow Classes
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8841552" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>One benefit to classes is that it's easy to present flavor and a role to a player, if used correctly. When I play in games without classes (and worse, without levels), players generally make one of two major mistakes.</p><p></p><p>They either make a character who is ultra specialized to do one thing well, at the expense of all other things, or they make a character with points spread randomly all over the place to the point that they are ineffectual.</p><p></p><p>A class should present the player with "this is what you do, and this is generally the kind of character you are portraying". And be it levels or some kind of benchmark mechanic, players should easily be able to gauge how good is "good enough".</p><p></p><p>Now I'm not saying there shouldn't be wiggle room; some people are competent enough to generate their own flavor, and reject mechanical boundaries. But not everyone is. Furthermore, some people seem to work better within boundaries than being told that they can truly do anything they like.</p><p></p><p>As a result, I'm much happier playing in class-and-level based systems. Are they perfect? No, but enough people have problems with not having these guidelines that I'd rather keep them.</p><p></p><p>As an aside, every so often, you see a game that presents, along with classes, a generic "non-class" that allows you to build the exact character you want; Rolemaster's Non-Profession or Earthdawn's Journeyman. While not for the new player, having this as an option seems to be the best possible compromise.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8841552, member: 6877472"] One benefit to classes is that it's easy to present flavor and a role to a player, if used correctly. When I play in games without classes (and worse, without levels), players generally make one of two major mistakes. They either make a character who is ultra specialized to do one thing well, at the expense of all other things, or they make a character with points spread randomly all over the place to the point that they are ineffectual. A class should present the player with "this is what you do, and this is generally the kind of character you are portraying". And be it levels or some kind of benchmark mechanic, players should easily be able to gauge how good is "good enough". Now I'm not saying there shouldn't be wiggle room; some people are competent enough to generate their own flavor, and reject mechanical boundaries. But not everyone is. Furthermore, some people seem to work better within boundaries than being told that they can truly do anything they like. As a result, I'm much happier playing in class-and-level based systems. Are they perfect? No, but enough people have problems with not having these guidelines that I'd rather keep them. As an aside, every so often, you see a game that presents, along with classes, a generic "non-class" that allows you to build the exact character you want; Rolemaster's Non-Profession or Earthdawn's Journeyman. While not for the new player, having this as an option seems to be the best possible compromise. [/QUOTE]
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