Class & Level Delenda Est
Apr. 8th, 2023 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreEven before the fiasco with WOTC’s Open Game License, I had decided to drop Dungeons & Dragons as a first-line TTRPG system of choice. Not because of the quality of the game or the actions of publishers, but a long-simmering dissatisfaction with class-and-level systems. I’m not a strict simulationist by any means, but the flaws of this kind of game mechanic became too much to ignore.
To begin, let’s remember that D&D was born out of miniatures gaming, where abstract power levels and damage were not only normal but really the only possible way to make the game work. When damage is being applied to a formation of wood elves or Prussian riflemen, you have to determine mass effects. But when “The Fantasy Supplement became Chainmail and then transitioned to the original D&D they kept those abstracts. And they worked, even as other game engines began appearing.
I have three main issues with the Class & Level game engine.
First of all, Classes are restrictive. To use my military experience, I knew Army infantrymen who had been Navy corpsmen and decided to trade up. People change careers all the time, acquire diverse skill sets, and are well-rounded. Being a Fighter, or a Hacker, or whatever straight jackets the ability to create anything more than a singly-focused character. Better to have a system that allows for wider skills and more choices.
Secondly, Levels create an inevitable arms race. Heroic Fantasy features many scenes of Conan or Elric cleaving through a horde of lesser foes. In a game, that is boring as hell. Unless the Game Master just gives up and describes the slaughter, which takes away agency from the players. Magic-using characters are walking artillery (and the proliferation of classes able to use magic in D&D’s various editions was a major turn-off for me) and able to pretty much destroy cities by mid-level. So the threats need to constantly ramp up, which means there’s very little changing in gameplay except for the length of combats and the clatter of dice to determine damage.
Finally, I hated the kludges bolted on to try to fix the base problem. Feats seemed to be a good idea until they multiplied like rabbits and slowed the game down to a crawl as everyone looked up all the modifiers and special effects. Class branching, like in D&D 5th edition, helped, but still had the limitations of both the classes and levels, plus too many of the branches gave magic to traditionally non-magic types. If you are going to define a class, keep the definition!
So my D&D5e shelf has been reduced to the few books I would need to play with if I were offered a space in an interesting campaign. In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting a series called Why You Should Be Playing. . . to highlight some very good TTRPGs that address these issues.
To begin, let’s remember that D&D was born out of miniatures gaming, where abstract power levels and damage were not only normal but really the only possible way to make the game work. When damage is being applied to a formation of wood elves or Prussian riflemen, you have to determine mass effects. But when “The Fantasy Supplement became Chainmail and then transitioned to the original D&D they kept those abstracts. And they worked, even as other game engines began appearing.
I have three main issues with the Class & Level game engine.
First of all, Classes are restrictive. To use my military experience, I knew Army infantrymen who had been Navy corpsmen and decided to trade up. People change careers all the time, acquire diverse skill sets, and are well-rounded. Being a Fighter, or a Hacker, or whatever straight jackets the ability to create anything more than a singly-focused character. Better to have a system that allows for wider skills and more choices.
Secondly, Levels create an inevitable arms race. Heroic Fantasy features many scenes of Conan or Elric cleaving through a horde of lesser foes. In a game, that is boring as hell. Unless the Game Master just gives up and describes the slaughter, which takes away agency from the players. Magic-using characters are walking artillery (and the proliferation of classes able to use magic in D&D’s various editions was a major turn-off for me) and able to pretty much destroy cities by mid-level. So the threats need to constantly ramp up, which means there’s very little changing in gameplay except for the length of combats and the clatter of dice to determine damage.
Finally, I hated the kludges bolted on to try to fix the base problem. Feats seemed to be a good idea until they multiplied like rabbits and slowed the game down to a crawl as everyone looked up all the modifiers and special effects. Class branching, like in D&D 5th edition, helped, but still had the limitations of both the classes and levels, plus too many of the branches gave magic to traditionally non-magic types. If you are going to define a class, keep the definition!
So my D&D5e shelf has been reduced to the few books I would need to play with if I were offered a space in an interesting campaign. In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting a series called Why You Should Be Playing. . . to highlight some very good TTRPGs that address these issues.