That’s a character in the PF2e game I’ve played every week for the past year. I know he’s a gnome because he and the other gnome in the party are total buddies and talk about gnome life all the time. And he’s very sneaky and stealthy, but he also does some magic stuff and is very loud and opinionated. So maybe he’s a rogue, but honestly I couldn’t tell you.
Well good. I feel like you shouldn’t (easily) be able to tell. My question was about me, though. What character class am I? I’m good at soft people skills, cooking, archery, carpentry, languages, project management… am I allowed to wear metal armor? Can I cast spells?
My point isn’t that D&D is bad, it’s not, but it’s also not for me. Different people like different things and that’s great. If you like knowing that someone is playing a cleric or a barbarian (and therefore you also know all the associated limitations and specials of that character), I’m not trying to piss on your picnic. But for me it’s too much like ‘I play a knight and can only more in L-shapes’. Like I said, game pieces, not characters.
I’m not trying to sell you on class-based RPGs if that’s not your thing. I’m just saying that I think your particular problem as stated is more about the style of the specific table than of the specific system (though in fairness I agree that the system isn’t helping you much). Do you like classless games better, or are you more in the “just write a book” camp?
I enjoy classless. I started on Red Box D&D back in 1982 (I think) and it was an absolute revelation for me and a foundational moment for my entire life’s ‘hobby’ compared to the computer adventure games I’d played up until that point (The Hobbi, Colossal Cave, Zork, etc). But a few short years after that I was introduced to Runequest and D&D just seemed like a child’s game in comparison. Again, I want to make it clear I’m not dismissing anyone else’s game. If D&D is your one true love then that’s awesome and I’m glad you love it and hope you have many, many more years of gaming enjoyment.
But I, personally, found the class system and the level system just too artificial and not reflective of living, breathing characters. It felt (to me) like a cartoon version of role-playing compared to Runequest where PCs were deeply, and fundamentally, embedded in the game world, and the limitations on them were in-game, world-based limitations, rather than game system limitations which were not a natural outcome of the world, but of the arbitrary decisions of the game designers. I’m thinking ‘woshippers of Humakt (the RQ god of Death) can’t kill people who surrender’ vs. ‘magic users can’t wear armor’ kind of limitations.
I want to stress, once again, I’m not trying to shit on any one else’s game fun. The more people playing TTRPGs the better as far as I’m concerned.
![Dual Wielding [Dungeons & Dragons]](https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/cac0f467-f0d7-4bd4-a82d-65eace9616a2.webp){kind=link}
Zaraaraasnaan sounds more like a real person than a game piece. What character class am I?
That’s a character in the PF2e game I’ve played every week for the past year. I know he’s a gnome because he and the other gnome in the party are total buddies and talk about gnome life all the time. And he’s very sneaky and stealthy, but he also does some magic stuff and is very loud and opinionated. So maybe he’s a rogue, but honestly I couldn’t tell you.
Well good. I feel like you shouldn’t (easily) be able to tell. My question was about me, though. What character class am I? I’m good at soft people skills, cooking, archery, carpentry, languages, project management… am I allowed to wear metal armor? Can I cast spells?
My point isn’t that D&D is bad, it’s not, but it’s also not for me. Different people like different things and that’s great. If you like knowing that someone is playing a cleric or a barbarian (and therefore you also know all the associated limitations and specials of that character), I’m not trying to piss on your picnic. But for me it’s too much like ‘I play a knight and can only more in L-shapes’. Like I said, game pieces, not characters.
I’m not trying to sell you on class-based RPGs if that’s not your thing. I’m just saying that I think your particular problem as stated is more about the style of the specific table than of the specific system (though in fairness I agree that the system isn’t helping you much). Do you like classless games better, or are you more in the “just write a book” camp?
I enjoy classless. I started on Red Box D&D back in 1982 (I think) and it was an absolute revelation for me and a foundational moment for my entire life’s ‘hobby’ compared to the computer adventure games I’d played up until that point (The Hobbi, Colossal Cave, Zork, etc). But a few short years after that I was introduced to Runequest and D&D just seemed like a child’s game in comparison. Again, I want to make it clear I’m not dismissing anyone else’s game. If D&D is your one true love then that’s awesome and I’m glad you love it and hope you have many, many more years of gaming enjoyment.
But I, personally, found the class system and the level system just too artificial and not reflective of living, breathing characters. It felt (to me) like a cartoon version of role-playing compared to Runequest where PCs were deeply, and fundamentally, embedded in the game world, and the limitations on them were in-game, world-based limitations, rather than game system limitations which were not a natural outcome of the world, but of the arbitrary decisions of the game designers. I’m thinking ‘woshippers of Humakt (the RQ god of Death) can’t kill people who surrender’ vs. ‘magic users can’t wear armor’ kind of limitations.
I want to stress, once again, I’m not trying to shit on any one else’s game fun. The more people playing TTRPGs the better as far as I’m concerned.