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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6783798" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think MY question is not about how the characters in the world perceive class. Its about the actual rules of the universe itself. Is class literally a thing, an attribute that adheres to all (or most or some) individuals and literally regulates their ability to function, such that in a 1e-based world there are NO such things as humans who can cast magic user spells that don't have levels in the magic user class and thus every single one of them cannot pick up a sword without spontaneously combusting (or whatever the HECK it is that happens to you in 1e when you break one of its "though shalt not do X" type rules). Now, my answer to this is that 1e's rules NEVER ENVISAGED THIS, there are many examples of 'class-like characters' that can do things like cast spells but don't seem to be regulated by and belong to specific classes. MANY NPCs are given class levels, but I question whether that was again intended to imply that they were exactly regulated by some sort of "laws of physics" or whether it is just damned convenient to be able to use the shorthand notation of "he's a wizard". And if the DM wants to give his NPC wizard a magical sword and fight with it, etc then he's just embellishing and its not some sort of cataclysmic breakdown of universal order that he is obligated to explain somehow. Obviously in a game as rigidly classist as 1e and with very few defined options available to the players to blur those lines it can come to pass that a player may ask "Well, if the NPC 'magic users' can swing swords, why can't I?" My answer to that is "1e is a very limited system with some deep issues." You can of course work around it, or (nowadays) use a more advanced system like 3e, 4e, or 5e. In 1980 you were just stuck, or you got tired of D&D and got out Runequest or some other non-class-based system that COULD answer those questions. MANY MANY people felt that urge. Others of us simply had players that weren't so worried about it and just got on with the game.</blockquote>

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