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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9010387" data-attributes="member: 6779310">given the themes that most commonly are associated with classes, to wit, fantasy with a magic/muscle dichotomy, access to said magic is almost always a function of class choice, and that informs all the rest of the fiction about said character, because one of the key tropes is where the character falls on the muscles vs magic spectrum. Palladium, class also selects 75 to 95 percent of your skill list. Given that non-interpersonal actions are all intended to be skill driven...Tunnels and Trolls (Pre-7th), the difference is purely the level 1 acquired abilities: Warriror: Can use any weapon, gets to double armor's protectionWizard: Can use magic, but can only use wimpy weapons (mostly daggers), can use staff to reduce casting costRogue Wizard: can use any weapon, can use magic, cannot use a staff, doesn't double armor.Justifiers: class determines party role, rank, and about 75% of starting skills.The Arcanum/The Atlantean System: about 90% of starting skills, and which of 5+ types of magic are available...Rolemaster/Spacemaster/MERP/HARP/Shadow of the Demon Lord, Alternity: sets the cost of the skills.The pseudo-class functions (clan/tradition) in all the oWoD games set your paranormal ability access for the life of the character. At least, until they start down the road to diablerizing the elders...D&D 3.X class determines spells and costs of skills, plus allowed weapons and armor.Even the level-less The Fantasy Trip has classes... two of them in core: Warrior and Wizard. Wizards pay double for talents; warriors pay triple for magic.  A third class appeared in (IIRC) Space Gamer many years ago - Superhero. What your character can unambiguously do is a huge factor in the fiction. In most class based fantasy, the classes set whether or not magic is available to the character, how it is worked, what it can do, how it can be suppressed... If the rules are agreed to, and the class defines that I can have the character cast X twice a day, then in the fiction, it requires some noteworthy condition in the fiction to prevent me from adding the effect into the fiction and the game state. Which leads is immaterial to the importance of the access; the use of class abilities is both a game state and a story state introduction.</blockquote>

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