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How did pre-3E D&D "play"?
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<blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 4448466" data-attributes="member: 20854"><p>I forgot to comment on this:</p><p></p><p><strong>Races as classes</strong></p><p>I think the race-as-class thing got taken a lot farther and more literally than it was originally intended. In the OD&D rules, Dwarves and Elves and Hobbits weren't technically classes; it's just that all Dwarven PCs were Fighting Men, and all Elven PCs were both Fighting Men and Magic Users, et cetera. Later editions made this implied race-as-class approach official. Still later adventures and supplements implied that ALL elves used the PC elf rules, et cetera.</p><p></p><p>I think the original approach was just a convenient shorthand. That is, it was a humanocentric campaign world (that was a very common assumption of fantasy, at the time). It didn't mean that every Elf on the planet was a classed Fighter/Magic-User, it just meant that all PC Elves were, because that was the archetype, and the kind of Elf adventurer that would be expected.</p><p></p><p>Actually, the same goes for human classes. For example, I think that the Cleric class got taken far too literally as "priests and holy men of all sorts are classed Clerics." I don't think that's a good approach. Instead, the Cleric represents the kind of priest of holy man that would go on these types of adventures. A templar-style warrior-priest.</p><p></p><p>I touch on some of this in my <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/#class_race" target="_blank">musing on class and race</a>. I think it's also associated with the "not everything in the world is built on the PC rules" concept. In my campaign, there's no reason that a 0-level holy man can't be the High Priest of a given church -- and he can probably cast <strong>raise dead</strong>, too, even though he's a 0-level "normal man" without a class.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Philotomy Jurament, post: 4448466, member: 20854"] I forgot to comment on this: [b]Races as classes[/b] I think the race-as-class thing got taken a lot farther and more literally than it was originally intended. In the OD&D rules, Dwarves and Elves and Hobbits weren't technically classes; it's just that all Dwarven PCs were Fighting Men, and all Elven PCs were both Fighting Men and Magic Users, et cetera. Later editions made this implied race-as-class approach official. Still later adventures and supplements implied that ALL elves used the PC elf rules, et cetera. I think the original approach was just a convenient shorthand. That is, it was a humanocentric campaign world (that was a very common assumption of fantasy, at the time). It didn't mean that every Elf on the planet was a classed Fighter/Magic-User, it just meant that all PC Elves were, because that was the archetype, and the kind of Elf adventurer that would be expected. Actually, the same goes for human classes. For example, I think that the Cleric class got taken far too literally as "priests and holy men of all sorts are classed Clerics." I don't think that's a good approach. Instead, the Cleric represents the kind of priest of holy man that would go on these types of adventures. A templar-style warrior-priest. I touch on some of this in my [url=http://www.philotomy.com/#class_race]musing on class and race[/url]. I think it's also associated with the "not everything in the world is built on the PC rules" concept. In my campaign, there's no reason that a 0-level holy man can't be the High Priest of a given church -- and he can probably cast [b]raise dead[/b], too, even though he's a 0-level "normal man" without a class. [/QUOTE]
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