Weird Classes
I've been writing a new game system, dark fantasy, and really want the character classes in it to pop. I like character classes; I think they give a relatively quick way for a player to understand the theming and tone of a game, whilst hopefully seeding ideas for characters and stories. I particularly like it when a class is comprised of multiple big features; a race and occupation, for instance, such as the Ancestry/Path choices in His Majesty the Worm. I do enjoy mixing and matching things.
I found, however, that my first ideas for this new game system were - to put it simply - generic. Knight, Hunter, Mage, Herbalist. Not exactly daring; I think the only one really interesting in the theming of the game is the Herbalist.
So, I've been rewriting them. Adding some flavour. Increasing the weirdness, so to speak. I've found that sometimes that can be as easy as changing a name (I changed 'Mage' to 'Channeler', for instance. I think that sounds cool), but I've also been dialling up the intricacy in them; making them more specific.
The first class I wrote was the Knight. That's this game's equivalent of a fighter or perhaps a paladin; when I first wrote them, they felt fairly generic.
I wasn't satisfied with this, so I went back to rework their flavour text and ability. I did, ultimately, like the specificity of their skills and equipment, and kept them the same.
Now they're more of a paladin, almost. A mixture between an honourable knight and a bloodthirsty lunatic, focused more towards violence geared towards the worship of one of the myriad gods that exist in the game world. I hope this seems more interesting!
Here are some other examples of weird classes I've written for this project!
The Habit is basically my version of a healing-oriented Cleric, boasting the most verbose mechanic of any class I've written. Healing is meant to be difficult, after all, and not something to be relied upon.
The Stricken is perhaps the strangest, and one of my favourites. They take from the Coenobite Archetype I wrote for Best Left Buried, with a helmet bolted to their body and all spiky and isolated. Hopefully, they provide interesting ideas for characters.
I think that's really what I want to cultivate: interesting ideas. A point could be made that a specific class pigeon-holes idea generation, but I largely disagree with this, especially when the game calls for a unique theme or tone: the specificity of the class builds to the world as a whole, and could assist in getting every player on the same page as the referee and directly assist the storytelling of a game.
