Your Sacred Cows' Mad Disease

Challenging the Tired and Used assumptions in MMO's - and gaming in general.

Author: badgerbadger

  You know; character creation is one of the key elements of games; and yet; I find that it one of those least actually questioned in terms of "why is this done this way"?

  Remember in 300 when Leonidas asks the other city-state citizens what their professions are?  And concludes with "See? I brought more soldiers than you did.."

  This jibes with class versus level games; and of course; to some degree the fact I was thinking about it again has a touch to do with my questioning of what people see as their concepts of "cleric" or "priest" archetypes in fantasy games.  I am one of those that think that if merely graduating from a monastic college or monastery grants you the ability to do magic; we're really talking "spells" in the sense most people associate with wizards...  and few books; let alone games; have really pursued the consequences of such a thing.  BUT it does provide us an example of the idea of PROFESSION and training.

  This has been handled differently in many games - and not surprisingly of the so many games long forgotten; at some point someone has tried almost everything.  Like betamax versus VHS; the better way is NOT always the one that survived - nevermind that VHS is all but forgotten now too.

  BUT what I'd like to point out is that most games now use what i would call a "kit" - basically premade templates of character background.  Class is fine for this;  in fact most of the better arguments for still having class in systems seems to go back to this.  Kits were particulary helpful for new players or for those seeking to play a specific; usually genre-specific archetype; for example, the knights of the green scale; or ? an agent of the crimson masque... What have you; these are characters that could be made by choosing the specific weapons or skills available to everyone; or at least to a larger "class" type; with at best usually a few small advantages unique to their sub-class or "prestige" class.

  I don't think classes; PARTICULARLY for background; is necessarily a bad thing. 

  On the other hand; does anyone remember TRAVELLER?  creating a character was an adventure in itself!  talk about customization!  At least the edition I played; most of what you learned from your background was actually rolled for; it was a novel approach.

  A somewhat similar approach was that in Palladium's games; in addition to class; one chose hobbies; etc; that modified your class.  Your background as a boxer for example had obvious effects... You may be an accomplished swimmer or a great reader.

  My point here is; what if we suppose a system where making a character you choose background decisions that CREATE his attributes and starting skills as a RESULT of what he's done in his life UP TO when he becomes a" playable" character.  Classes - preselsected backgrounds for common archetypes - could still be available for new players to get started until they feel the need to further customize.  But for those who enjoy fleshing out a character - both in terms of true "character" and in abilities- the OPTION to make background selections that create the starting character i htink would be a welcome boon.

A note on training...

 Consider that apprentices spent until their adulthood learning their trade (trades many players think their characters should pick up between adventuring), and a Knight was a page at 6; and a squire until about 18. Quite a bit of training.

  However; as anyone who's had a real job knows; training is beneficial; but will only get you so far.  Real-world experience is often different than training; especially when there's real danger.

  You can hone skills you already know; and you can be taught skills you haven't taught yurself; but to really improve; you have to challenge yourself.  Most games already try to represent this  with experience points increasing exponentially for improvement.  Once I have practiced my own moves; I can fight white belts in the dojo all day; they simply won't teach me anything new.

  Ever heard of front-line veteran combat uints reporting back to their trainers to 'gain a level'?

Wizard's Crown; an old computer RPG I've mentioned before allowed you to train any skill you could find a trainer FOR - it only took time and money...  but the problem of course was that you could only train the skill so far.

   After that you had to actually improve those skills the hard way.