RPG Class systems: Old Versus New

 Gemini Classes 

The world of Role Playing Games is so very simple when you first approach them; it's all about just jumping into a game where you pretend to be someone else. Heck, with a view on the genre that simple one might call any game an RPG. But then you realise that it more has to do with 'making' the person you're playing as, whether that be from the ground-up as a character or merely through selecting the way they evolve as the story progresses. Then you start to learn that RPG-fans really care about levelling trees, and having unlockable skills and abilities. Oh, they also like the game to have some heft to them, and not be your prototypical 5 hours and done fest. You'll also see that they really care about story choices, multiple endings and replayability. Then there's the various different types of RPGs, from modern, to classic, to Sandbox, to action adventure, to squad based. And then somewhere along the line it stops being fun and becomes intimidating again when you realise that there are decidedly too many types of RPGs out there in the world. That's why I like to sanitize everything down into small digestible nuggets for myself, and thus why today I want to talk about RPG classes.

Or rather, I want to talk about the contrast between typical RPG classes and these adaptive-type classes that once were ubiquitous, but are slightly waning in popularity as Classic RPGs slowly become the rage again. This conversation is one sparked by the recently unveiled The Wayward Realms, which I was quite hopeful for whilst simultaneously being decidedly critical against, and one of the points of contention that I merely touched on back there was the class system. It goes a little like this, The Wayward Realms hails from the creators of TES 1 and 2, and therefore they played into their own lineage by touting how 'Classic RPGs' were at the heart of this project. So they say out of the shadows, it would seem, because when push comes to shove it's clear that their game is leaning towards having no class systems, at least not in the traditional sense. Now classes are some of the most fundamental building blocks of Classic role playing games, thus I gawked a little when I saw this, and it got me thinking about the drawback and drawtos of classes in general.

But first, let me explain the difference between the class systems that I mentioned. Traditional RPGs have a 'fixed' class system whereupon when you start the game you get to choose the 'class' of the character you play as, typically variations upon the core three of: Mage, Warrior and Rogue. Choosing this class informs the way you play the game, what weapons you wield what armour you don, and how you approach each and every encounter. A Warrior might consider martial ways to lock down a room full of enemies, whilst a rogue might see which shadows they can exploit to sneak around. A mage might try to use wide-range spells to slowdown a room of enemies at once, whilst a warrior might try to find a way to funnel them so he doesn't have to deal with too many at once. It's a system typically hand-in-hand with hard rules, (I.E. certain gear and tools you simply can't use if you're not the correct class) but the benefit comes in the fact that it feeds beautifully into replayability as when these classes are handled well it can feel like you're playing a completely different game.

What I've chosen to coin as 'adaptive' class systems are something of a modern invention and a direct rejection of the 'ruleset' of old. These are systems where you aren't asked to pick a class, because your character will fall into the role best suited for them as the game goes on. It's more natural, encourages the character to experiment more and tells the player 'no' as little as possible. You could be a warrior who decides they need to pick up a wand and cast some spells for a specific mission, there are no barriers to hold you back. The big draw is that skills and abilities might be made with a certain class in mind, but they're available to be learnt by anyone, theoretically making it possible for a player to 'make their own class', as these games are fond of marketing.

Obviously, for casual players and early game in general this sort of class system is perfect as it's nowhere near as punishing to mistakes. However, the big problem is that by the endgame most every single character is playing roughly the same, because by the very nature of making all abilities available to every class, you're usually not making these abilities transformative enough to change the way the game plays. So a full powered hero rogue is pretty much on the same playing field as a wizard would be. (Usually wearing the heavy armour and wielding the most powerful sword, because nothing is telling you to wear those robes or pick up that shortsword) There are exceptions of course, games that handle the balance exceptionally well, as well as players who just buy into the roleplay enough to hardlimit themselves. But such games just don't usually lend themselves as naturally into that desire for replayability, which in some people's eyes is the most important draw to RPGs as a genre.

So then why was it ever decided that the old Class system needed to be replaced anyway? (Aside from just to change things up for varieties sake, I mean.) Well the key reason would seem to be because the perception that specific classes limit roleplaying, due to the way that they give you confines within which you must operate rather than allow you to be as wacky as you want to. Defenders will say that levelling systems live off of their min maxing anyway, thus there's no need for restrictions that only muddy the waters. And isn't there a sort of purity in a world where the ultimate hero always ends up with the same capabilities?  These sorts of systems have worked fine in the Elder Scrolls, Deus Ex , The Witcher and the countless other 'freeform' RPGs out there, so what's the problem?

A response which I understand, yet will push back on anyway. Because as with many aspects of art, I don't see 'limitations', I see 'guidelines' in the traditional class systems. Of course there are many ways to screw it up so that classes are boring and uninteresting to level up, at the end of the day it all comes down to the skills of the designers afterall; but for the vast majority of the RPGs I've played, I find the experience of mastering a class a lot more interesting than just maxing out all the skill trees for my Fallout character. That's because within a class is inbuilt a role, and mastering that role in gameplay means coming to terms with, and understanding, the tools at your disposal and working with them. Being a top rogue doesn't have to mean you can hide really well, it can mean you're a master of locking down a battlefield with traps, or isolating enemies and hitting them with punishing sneak attacks, or perhaps you're just a poison fiend. Operating within the guidelines forces you to use the limitations within your hands and sometimes get creative, rather than just to default for the strongest weapon you can find which kills things the fastest. Sure, that tactic is what the Warrior class will go for anyway, but the very fact that other classes have different goals epitomises the class variety that I don't feel from free-form adaptive classes. 

So there is a compromise to be made somewhere along the line, this much is obvious, because hard-line class systems really belong more with Classic RPGs and free-form systems belong with modern RPGs. (Until Avowed comes along and changes that power dynamic entirely.) I like to think there's space for specific class systems that allows for equipment, at the very least, to be worn by all classes, because in that there's a lot of 'Adaptive' potential without sacrificing the uniqueness of class abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Let the specific disadvantages of wearing a heavy piece of armour have an effect (beyond just cancelling out spells altogether) in order to allow players to come up with their solutions and draw their own lines in the sand. Maybe heavy armour increases spell cast time, but if someone wants to play as a heavy battle mage this suits them just fine. I just maintain that old school classes have yet to run their course and we'd be foolish to leave them behind completely; and The Wayward Realms needs to get on board with actual real classes. (At least that's my two cents on the issue)