LibriumArcana.Games

I've come across this idea for an alternative take on the standard heroic RPG like Saga Edition or D&D. In such games, you start off as a level 1 albeit heroic class (Saga Edition literally calls it that, but it's also applicable for D&D or any other equivalent RPG you wish to name). Ok, so far so good. But a lot of the joy in playing a hero is starting off from humble beginnings.

Take Star Wars (the film) as an example. Luke is a farm boy. Lord of the Rings? Frodo is just an ordinary Hobbit living a peaceful life in idyllic surroundings. Often though, the call to adventure sounds, and before Joseph Campbell can write an influential book about it the hero is off a-questin'.

But the humble beginnings don't necessarily translate into the gameplay, does it? Especially for Saga Edition, which is the game I've been consistently playing for quite a few months now (thanks Hotfoot). Even a level 1 character is still pretty powerful. But take Luke from the beginning of Star Wars. Is he a Level 1 Scout as the CRB says he is, or is he a farmboy?

Can you start off as a non-heroic class and then bridge the gap into a heroic class when your 'call to adventure' sounds? Think of it like this, Luke is just a farmboy, he gets beaten up by Tusken Raiders, almost arrested by Stormtroopers and nearly shot by a shady bar patron - in all three instances, there was a high level heroic NPC to bail him out - and this continues up until they're all on the Death Star and Obi-wan runs off to sabotage the tractor beam, and Luke gets the bright idea to stage an impromptu prison break for Leia. (At which point, he might 'level up' to Scout)

I don't know how you'd do this in-game, but there might be a few ways. One way is to have a 0 level in the class you favour, where your abilities are rolled or bought normally but everything else is still up in the air. You're not good at anything but you're not supposed to be, because you haven't 'branched' out yet.

Another way is have a level in a non-heroic class, which then gets 'traded in' when your heroic path begins. So you start off as farmboy, and you have your abilities assigned and maybe skills (or maybe not, maybe this should depend on your int score - IE you only get skills if you would get bonus skills from having a high intelligence score), and probably no feats. Then as the story progresses, you can make a choice to go down a particular path - out of game, this means selecting a particular heroic class like a soldier, in game this might mean joining the Rebel Alliance and becoming that soldier.

In both the GM would probably need to run a particular scenario which allows the non-heroic character to become a hero without becoming a dice-magnet. Non-heroic characters don't last long in these kind of epic stories.

What to people think? Is it worth the effort of trying to recreate that heroic journey for RPGs? The Star Wars example might be challenging to pull off, after all Luke would be considered a 0th level Scout or a non-heroic Farmer in this alternative method, but what about Han and Chewie, who are a bit more experienced than Luke? Take the Lord of the Rings example instead. Frodo sets off on his adventure with Sam, and then Merry and Pippin. All four of these guys wouldn't be considered having a level in a heroic class, but by the end of the story, they're all basically high level adventurers. (Merry and Pippin survived on battlefields where more experienced soldiers fell. Merry himself helped kill the Witch King. And Frodo and Sam went to hell and back, almost literally given how hellish Mordor is) None of these characters really accomplished anything by themselves, other than running from the Black Riders until they met with Aragorn.

Note that I'm looking at the LotR from a particular angle. If you choose another then this idea doesn't necessarily work. After all, what if the PCs are Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Legolas, and the Hobbits are NPCs that are important to the story and need to be protected. Starting the 'game' at Rivendell as level 1 or higher classes like Fighter or Ranger would be appropriate.

If you read through my ramblings I applaud you.

It's been done. All editions of Warhammer Fantasy are probably the best known examples.

Sorry I'm not familiar with it. Can you elaborate on how Warhammer Fantasy does it?

I've done it with people starting with the NPC classes from D&D 3.5. One even decided to never become 'Heroic' in a base class, as having 10 class skills he had hand-picked was too awesome to give up.

Stofsk wrote:Sorry I'm not familiar with it. Can you elaborate on how Warhammer Fantasy does it?

WFRP characters don't have classes, they have stat lines and careers. Characters start out in the career they grew up into and they range from such things as rat catcher, entertainer, and beggar to more combat orientated careers like watchman, mercenary, and bounty hunter. You've also got more academic careers such as apprentice wizard, student, and barber-surgeon. Each career allows the development of certain skills and abilities. Characters can transition to other careers representing increasing abilities in their field (squire to knight, apprentice to journeyman wizard, etcetera) or acquiring different skills (say moving from fisherman to soldier as the character gets training and picks up and develops more martial skills).

There is something Traveller-esque in that 'careers, not classes' approach.

Stofsk wrote:There is something Traveller-esque in that 'careers, not classes' approach.

However, character creation is the opposite of Traveller: really damn quick.

It's much easier to do this sort of thing with a classless system than a class system, if for no other reason than that most class systems are geared towards the party being effective in and out of combat. In Silhouette, for example, I would just build a character. I could set him up any way I want, geared towards combat or not, depending on the style of the campaign.

Keep in mind though that most players want their characters to feel like they're doing something useful in each gaming session. If you make it so that their characters aren't that useful for the challenges you are providing them, discontent grows rapidly.

Case in point, one GM I had made it a point that since he was moving the cyberpunk campaign south of the border, the group would need translators, so he strongly recommended we take decent levels in Spanish. He hammered the point home, and so we did. Upon our entry into the game, he decided to have a laugh at our expense and send us to Brazil, where the primary language is Portuguese.

He later revealed that the group we were sent to meet spoke Spanish, but it was still pretty annoying. But then so was his decision to keep us in the dark as to where we were joining the party and where we were from.

Yeah, he had his moments.