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Message: <blockquote data-quote="empireofchaos" data-source="post: 6762863" data-attributes="member: 6800918">Yes, and it's not always easy, and it is time-consuming. But still, it's the kind of work that a lot of us want to do, which is why people are designing classes left and right in order to express a particular flavor in the game that they think the existing classes don't cover. And that flavor is, at least to an extent, recognizable to other characters within the game.My feeling is class (and level, which is a product of class) is the core feature that maintains D&D popularity. Yes, it was the RPG pioneer, but there are plenty of examples of pioneers that were displaced by competitors after a short period of dominance. And what attracts people about it is that the game is a set of paradigmatic and flavorful types. In the same way, White Wolf games became popular because they were based around types - Vampire clans, Mage Traditions, etc. I can't imagine having a serious discussion about whether Vampire clans are concrete or metagame, because it's obvious. And in D&D, I think classes are similar. It's already been pointed out that if what you really want is individual tailoring to have the mechanics express your unique character just so, you're better off going with a skill-based system. But more people play D&D, because they find class attractive, and not just because it saves them the toil of design. I made an argument about race not being concrete simply to show that most people's reasons for thinking it is has nothing to do with the game. I can easily imagine playing D&D and finding it enjoyable if the standard Tolkienesque setup (humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits) was absent. I could easily see myself enjoying a Game of Thrones-type setting, where all the PCs would be human. But I cannot imagine playing D&D without classes, and still have it be D&D, so I don't want to put too much energy in-game into pretending they don't exist.</blockquote>

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