Strip "Background" out of classes

[Fifth Element]

Yeah, I've encountered this attitude too and found it just as disruptive.

Sorry, I think that came across as more dismissive than it was intended. I'm really only talking about the element of elitism that often comes across in gaming discussions, where if you use this one particular game to pretend to be an elf, then you're somehow not as advanced or whatever as those of "us" who use this other game to pretend to be elves.

Derren used the term "graduated", meaning that D&D is somehow a lesser form of RPG than whatever it is he prefers to play. This is elitist and condescending.

There is no hierarchy of RPGs. There's far too much personal preference involved to be able to rank RPGs one over the other, except in narrow details (such as mathematical complexity, for example).

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I'm not in the "theme eats class" crowd. I'm in the crowd of "themes are the Cookie Monster, backgrounds are Oscar the Grouch, and classes are sometimes cookies that either do or do not get eaten or thrown out improperly, if you don't pay attention."

Or to put it another way, some classes aren't really cookies but something else, and need to be preserved as classes. And other classes are highly tasty cookies that deserve to be eaten by themes. And yet other classes are moldy fruit cake cookies left over from Christmas before last, forgotten in the back of the closest, and really should be quickly trashed as soon as we notice them.

The only thing "iconic" or "popular" brings to the table as far as good design is concerned is that the more iconic or popular the class, the more you want to make sure you pay extra attention, and treat it as it deserves. That sales/marketing/internat rage will sometimes indicate another course, is only to state the truth that sales/marketing/internet rage are not always sympatico with good design. I see that truth as something to be guarded against and grudgingly tolerated, not celebrated as a great virtue.

 

[Vegepygmy]

A PnP created from a video game

If you're referring to Warhammer FRP, it's the other way around. Not that it should make any difference to your argument.

 

[Fifth Element]

If you're referring to Warhammer FRP, it's the other way around. Not that it should make any difference to your argument.

He's referring to Dragon Age.

 

[Sadrik]

Class = What
What do you do? Do you fight with weapons and are tough?

Background = Where
What you do does not fit into a vacuum. Are you a desert dervish, are you a norther longship raider? Exotic weapons from a specific culture?

Theme = How
Do you fight with a two handed sword, a bow, two weapon fighting