OSR [Old-School Essentials] Less Is More: Enhancing Campaign Themes with Limited Classes

[Libertad]

Although most OSR games tend to keep their number of classes on the low side, there are many zines and supplements that add more specialized and novel ones. However, it can be hard justifying new ones that are already served by the existing core options, and by adding too many that can result in option paralysis to players or feel too discordant in party set-up. Old-School Essentials' official magazine, Carcass Crawler, had an interesting account on mixing and matching a limited set of available classes based on a campaign's themes and genre:

“One approach that works well is for the referee to select a limited set of classes (say between 7–10 in number) that are available in the campaign. For example, in one campaign, the acolyte class may replace the cleric.”

“In this way, the number of choices available to players when creating characters is kept within reasonable bounds, while the hand-picked set of allowed classes can heavily reinforce the flavour of the specific campaign.”

Overall, I think that 10 to 12 total classes is a good sweet spot. Perhaps 6-8 for lighter clones and spinoffs, and 3-4 for those old-school minimalist systems. For the Fighter/Thief/Magic-User/Cleric being the baseline, 10 to 12 has just enough variation for things to fit into the four archetypes, as that number is the amount in official corebooks of most D&D editions. Discounting racial classes, the OSE classes divvyed up are slightly above the baseline number of 13:

Martial: Barbarian, Fighter, Knight
Sneaky: Acrobat, Assassin, Thief
Godly Magic: Bard, Cleric, Druid
Arcane Magic: Illusionist, Magic-User
Hybrids: Paladin, Ranger

In looking through various classes, I was able to come up with some tightly-themed campaign styles just by what's available. For instance, here's a sample array I made for a Folktale Fairy Setting. Race and Class are the same in this one:

1. Beast Master (Carcass Crawler)
2. Changeling (Carcass Crawler)
3. Druid
4. Elf
5. Fairy (Reddit Homebrew)
6. Fighter
7. Gnome
8. Thief
9. Warden (Carcass Crawler exclusive issue, Ranger if don't have it)
10. Witch (Oh My Lost Darklords)

I kept the Fighter and Thief, but ditched the Cleric and Magic-User in favor of more specialized types of casters. The Druid fits with one relying upon the powers of nature, while the Elf and Gnome both have spells drawn from Magic-User/Illusionist, but have their own distinct playstyles to make them feel different. The Warden is a variant Ranger, and the Witch is a folkloric arcane caster that favors more subtle magic. The Beast Master is all about befriending animals to fight alongside them, while the Changeling plays into the "face-stealer fey" archetype.

Let's try one for an Underdark Sandbox, where the PCs are natives of the dungeon...raiding other dungeons and fighting other monsters! In this case, race and class are separate. Old-School Essentials has drow, duergar, and svirfneblin in the Advanced Fantasy ruleset. Goblins and Mycelian (think myconids) are available in Carcass Crawler and are appropriate races, as are Mutoids whose various random features can reflect a variety of creatures.

1. Assassin
2. Bandit (Oh My Lost Darklords)
3. Barbarian
4. Avenger (Oh My Lost Darklords) or Chaos Knight (Carcass Crawler exclusive issue)
5. Cultist (Oh My Lost Darklords)
6. Fighter
7. Kineticist (Carcass Crawler)
8. Magic-User
9. Necromancer (standalone free product by Necrotic Gnome)
10. Thief

For an Underdark campaign where characters are likely to be more anti-heroic, Oh My Lost Darklords is a great fit. Bandit and Avenger are good alternatives to the more Lawful Paladin and Ranger. Kineticist reflects weird psionic powers that are quite common below ground. Cultists are good for representing worshipers of a variety of foul deities, particularly Lolth, while the Necromancer is going to be less out of place than in more civilized above-ground realms.

I got one more. How about a Magic School Setting? In this one we'll make race and class separate, as nonhumans are a staple in such a setting.

1. Bard
2. Cleric
3. Druid
4. Illusionist
5. Keeper (Black Pudding)
6. Magic-User
7. Necromancer (as above)
8. Star Wizard (Black Pudding)
9. Summoner (Black Pudding)
10. Witch (Black Pudding or Oh My Lost Darklords)

The Black Pudding zine is a series of free magazines, so they're trivial to get without making a dent in one's pocketbook. By just using this free resource, we have a diverse cast of caster types. The Keeper is a distinct kind of nature mage different from the Druid, the Summoner specializes in calling forth various kinds of magical creatures, while a Star Wizard is a variant Magic-User that gains power from celestial bodies. The Witch from Oh My Lost Darklords is appropriate, but Black Pudding has its own class of the same name if one wants to minimize the amount of rulebooks in play.


I may have other ideas down the line, but I managed to get quite a bit of interesting ideas from one little suggestion!

 

[Libertad]

Over on RPGnet, someone brought up a blog post series called the OSR Class Shaker, which has a similar premise save that the classes determined are random and the DM has to come up with what kind of world that represents.

I saw Knock! magazine mentioned among the potential class results. It inspired me to come up with another themed set: a low-magic Lankhmar-style Gritty Urban Intrigue. Race and Class are separate in this one, too.

1. Acrobat
2. Assassin
3. Beggar (Knock! Issue 2)
4. Bounty Hunter (Oh My Lost Darklords)
5. Duellist (Oh My Lost Darklords)
6. Jester (Oh My Lost Darklords)
7. Mage (Carcass Crawler) or Rat Catcher (Knock! Issue 3)
8. Ne'er-do-well (Knock! Issue 1)
9. Swarm Lord (Knock! Issue 1)
10. Thief

I focused on classes with Thief or Thief-like abilities, and found Carcass Crawler's percentile-based supernatural skills for the Mage to be quite appropriate. I thought about including the Acolyte which also uses this system, but as most sword and sorcery settings don't have explicitly religious spellcasters, I wanted to focus on magic being truly different and very rare even among PC types. The Swarm Lord, depending on how it's flavored, can represent a variety of archetypes, from an urban druid that can call upon vermin to do their bidding, a mad scientist with an assembly of toylike clockwork minions, and the like. In comparison to my prior lists the Fighter is notably absent; I felt that the Duellist served as a good enough martial archetype, particularly for a setting where heavy armor is either rare or impractical with technological advancements.

As for the Rat Catcher, I like its gritty, Warhammer-inspired feel. I figured that for those that feel the Mage is too explicitly magical, it can serve as a more low-fantasy alternative.

 

[Mannahnin]

Nice concepts!

I've been a fan of JVW's Black Pudding for a while. Tons of great ideas in there. He also has some cool free adventures on his blog.

The OSR creator whom I think I first saw do the "setting customization via classes" thing was the late B.J. Johnson from Bigfella Games. His Creepy Crawl and Thousand Year Sandglass setting/adventure books both were written for Labyrinth Lord and assume the use of the core four Fighter, M-U, Thief and Cleric, but substitute three new racial classes for Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling, which fill similar roles but are setting-specific.

 

[Libertad]

In New School news, Frontiers of Eberron is coming out tomorrow. Given that it takes place on the borderlands of that setting’s monstrous nation of Droaam, that product’s been on my mind. I started thinking of how to go about making an OSR campaign where all of the classes are monstrous, but wanted to do an additional challenge of using resources that are free or Pay-What-You-Want. I was able to do so with 10 diverse classes for a Monster Nation, drawn from a variety of zines and blog posts. More than that, I wanted to find monstrous classes that played differently enough from each other to feel distinct.

1. Arenea (d4 Caltrops)
2. Drow (Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player’s Tome)
3. The Extras (Against the Wicked City) or Grimps (Brave the Labyrinth Issue 3)
4. Eye Tyrant (d4 Caltrops)
5. Gnoll (d4 Caltrops)
6. Goblin (Carcass Crawler Issue 1, Black Pudding Issue 4, or Brave the Labyrinth Issue 3)
7. Harpy (d4 Caltrops)
8. Kobold (Itch.io Class)
9. Medusa (Black Pudding Issue 3)
10. Norg (Black Pudding Issue 8)

If I were to sum them up by role, here’s how they’d look:

Martial: Extras, Gnoll, Goblin (Black Pudding, Sniper or Goon Path), Norg
Stealthy: Goblin (Black Pudding Sneak Path, Carcass Crawler), Kobold
Godly Magic: Drow
Arcane Magic: Arenea
Unique/Hybrid: Eye Tyrant (pseudo-caster), Grimps (martial/stealthy), Goblin (Brave the Labyrinth, martial/stealthy), Harpy, Medusa (arcane/godly magic)

Of the 10 listed here, only the Drow is a core option, existing in the Advanced Fantasy Player’s Tome. It is close enough to the Cleric/godly magic archetype, but with dark elf features. The Arenea is another caster class, with access to spells along with spider-like abilities like a poisonous bite and great climbing skills. The Medusa is our third class with access to outright spells, both Magic-User and Cleric along with the ability to summon serpents and trademark gaze attack and snake bites, although they’re limited in that the latter two abilities risk them becoming an uncontrollable NPC monster if used too much.

For magical yet not technically spellcasters, the Harpy is a one-note yet pretty strong class, with flight and an entrancing song. The Eye Tyrant is a copyright-friendly beholder, who learns new ways to use their central eye and eye stalks as they increase in level.

Gnolls and Norgs represent our general-purpose warrior classes. The gnoll is more of a pseudo-ranger with abilities specialized in wilderness survival, while the Norg is basically a big beefy warrior with frost giant blood.

The Extras are inspired by the Grimps, and they both represent the general “horde of weaklings” that overcome foes with sheer numbers. While the Grimps represent imps specifically, the Extras can represent a wider variety of races and generic minion archetypes.

The Kobold is a pseudo-Thief but can wear armor as heavy as chainmail, can detect non-magical traps like an elf detects secret doors, and has a limited number of Thief skills.

As for Goblins, I figured to outline 3 different takes on them, given their popularity across fantasy media. Carcass Crawler is basically Halfling-esque in being a small stealthy fighter, but can speak with wolves and sense changes in a dungeon like a dwarf can. Black Pudding’s Goblin is similar but is actually braver than the cowardly archetype with a bonus against fear effects, and is able to choose from one of three “paths” that grant bonuses on different actions. The Sneak adds to stealthy stuff, Sniper enhances aptitude with ranged weapons, and Goon for melee attacks. Brave the Labyrinth’s class is actually called the Goblinoid, and includes hobgoblins and bugbears as well as traditional goblins. This class is the most unique in that it starts out as a goblin but grows in size, power, and type as it gains levels. At 8th level becomes an ur-goblin that gains a random supernatural power. Additionally, during character creation, the goblinoid rolls a d12 to determine a random subclass that grants a single ability reflecting some knack or specialization.

I should note that Carcass Crawler is the only supplement that’s a paid one, which technically breaks my rule, but I wanted to include it for completeness’ sake and diversity of options.

 

[Libertad]

You're no hero.
You're a knight of death, a prophet of ruin, a skulker of dungeons.
You seek gold and glory in the sunlit lands of Law,
Caked in the blood and filth of valiant paladins and the soldiers of darkness who fell beside you
You are the Demon King's Grunts, and one day, when the last light is quashed, you will sit on his throne.​

In this campaign, the Player Characters are the bad guys, part of the wicked armies befouling the good-aligned kingdoms. Acting at the behest of their unholy superiors, they raid holy shrines and dank dungeons alike, gathering the bounty of civilization and past eras to ensure the passing of a new age of Chaos. But it is not just angels, elves, and golden dragons they must fear. Evil is fated to turn on itself, and hell hath no fury like a paranoid overlord casting their gaze at upstarts rivals-to-be climbing the ranks, or jealous underlings wanting the wealth and prestige gained by others.

Class List (Race is Class):

1. Drow​
2. Death Knight (Oh My Lost Darklords)​
3. Fighter​
4. Goblin (various sources)​
5. Living Harness (Knock! Issue 1, also free)​
6. Necromancer (free class)​
7. Plague Doctor* (Knock! Issue 2, also free)​
8. Prophet of Ruin (Knock! Issue 2)​
9. Red Wizard (Oh My Lost Darklords)​
10. War-Bear (Slumbering Ursine Dunes, also free)​

*Easy to read text format here.

Much Like Underdark Sandbox, the Demon King's Grunts is built in favor of a campaign with less traditional heroism, with classes themed around archetypes that would be stock villains in a fantasy world. The only "default" class present is the ever-versatile Fighter, that can represent everything from a bloody-handed reaver to a cruel general. The Death Knight, Living Harness, and War-Bear all reflect various nonhuman martial archetypes and can be easily reflavored to reflect various kinds of monstrous soldiers. The Drow substitutes for the Cleric, while the Prophet of Ruin is similar in being a religious supernatural class who hinders enemies via apocalyptic proclamations. The Necromancer and Red Wizard are more specialized types of arcane casters themed around forbidden and destructive magic.

The iconic Goblin serves as the sneak/skirmisher. Like my Monster Nation post above, the particular Goblin class chosen can do much to flavor the forces of darkness. For instance, the Carcass Crawler represents mobile skirmishers and wolf-riders, while Brave the Labyrinth does a nice job reflecting the idea that hobgoblins and bugbears are merely stronger/more evolved goblins.

The Plague Doctor is the more unique of the classes listed, being a specialist in biological warfare. They can also make for a healer via their False Fever contagion should the party need someone who can restore hit points.

 

[Gus L]

Too me this seems like an awful lot of classes still... I've run old school/old style games with many classes and it never really felt worth it because only when the game itself has significant crunch do the mechanics of a class matter much. In something like OSE there's just not a huge amount of room for mechanical distinction between fighter, knight, barbarian, duelist, gladiator, marine, soldier, mercenary, etc. etc.

It's not that one can't have all these kinds of PC's, but I've not found it helpful to build unique classes - so much of what makes them different in a simpler system is how the players play them and what starting equipment they might have. Heck, even non-human PCs rarely have abilities that require something distinct as a class. A distinct class means more rules, and moreover it means more focus on character mechanical abilities. Players often find it easier to look to their sheets for something that fits the exact problem in front of them rather then trying to scheme and unpuzzle the problem. Since I prefer exploration and problem solving I like to keep the mechanically supported player tools fairly limited.

For a specific setting, new classes seem even less useful? If in my setting there are only Drow - I can use the basic elf/Fighter-MU class for that. If there are death knights and war bears, but no dwarves and fighters... Why not just replace them with these classes. Heck why aren't both of these just fighters?

More, simplification is often helpful, especially for referees, because it makes for fewer unexpected edge case decisions and fewer things to memorize. It keeps play moving along. When I'm tempted to add new rules or subsystems I ask myself "What can I take away and is it worth it to add this?"

 

[Mannahnin]

I think it's a philosophical difference, maybe? Or just a different approach?

I remember a while back there being a whole bunch of new classes for LL or B/X being created by folks in the OSR blogosphere and usually offered free. Against the Wicked City, for example, where Libertad got that The Extra class, which I remember being a cool one. Black Pudding goes back to 2016, I believe. Just checked and The Extras is also from 2016. Interesting. I wonder if that was a fad then, in particular. Although JVW has generally included several new fun classes in each issue of Black Pudding. And more recently, Knock! usually includes some too.

There was a wave of creativity there with folks observing that the light framework of B/X allows for customization of new classes fairly easily, which can allow for greater mechanical variety in characters without getting into the complex build culture of 3.x and later editions. I remember liking the Customize Your Own Class article for BECM from Dragon 109, and folks have developed similar tools for B/X now.

You can definitely go the opposite route, just use three or four classes (or even one, like Knave) and differentiate other ways. Simplification is definitely a virtue, but sometimes folks do enjoy a little more crunch in their classes.

 

[Gus L]

I think it's a philosophical difference, maybe? Or just a different approach?

I remember a while back there being a whole bunch of new classes for LL or B/X being created by folks in the OSR blogosphere and usually offered free.

There was a wave of creativity there with folks observing that the light framework of B/X allows for customization of new classes fairly easily, which can allow for greater mechanical variety in characters without getting into the complex build culture of 3.x and later editions. I remember liking the Customize Your Own Class article for BECM from Dragon 109, and folks have developed similar tools for B/X now.

Of course - I was part of those people building classes - here's the most recent time I did so for an HMS Apollyon playtest. Some OD&Dified Vikings:

HMS Apollyon Viking Character Generation Rules

I am less enthused by this sort of thing now, though the idea of taking Basic as the totality of the game, 4th or "Hero" level being the natural maximum and 5th or higher levels requiring divine intervention, eating a dragon heart or some such has its appeal. That way the bonuses per level could be more meaningful and at 2nd level one could grab a specialty class with associated powers... much like the kits found in 2E.

 

[Mannahnin]

That way the bonuses per level could be more meaningful and at 2nd level one could grab a specialty class with associated powers... much like the kits found in 2E.

5 Torches Deep has four base classes and if you make 3rd level you pick a sub-class, and get your choice of a feature (from seven or eight options), with a second pick at 7th if you make it that high.

Warrior (Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger)
Thief (Assassin, Bard, Rogue)
Zealot (Cleric, Druid, Paladin)
Mage (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)

 

[Quickleaf]

Love your thread! For my own setting I am making quite a few quirky custom classes...