C&C played OD&D style

[Dristram]

It had been about 12 years since I looked at the D&D Basic Rulebook and I ran across a copy at my game store (which used to be the one I owned ). It was a walk down memory lane! I was charmed by the simplicity of the race/class selection and was wondering if anyone has gone so far to adopt that style in their C&C game and how it worked out if so.

[meepo]

I've thought about it alot, actually. I love B/X/RC D&D and although a lot of people dislike or hate the notion of 'race as class', those who tend to like it, LOVE it. Something about how it reinforces the "gaminess" of it all, making each class a game piece of sorts and draws upon the "cliches" and simplifies them into small packages for you.

I ordered a second Boxed set this weekend, as my 'Spartan 300' one is starting to show ear from use, and I want to preserve it. Once it arrives, I may disect it further and see about the creation of something like this.

[serleran]

I've got racial classes, or rather, races as classes, the D&D way. Works fine. No reason it shouldn't, assuming you design them with some kind of concept as to why someone would want to be one.

[Tadhg]

Dristram wrote:
It had been about 12 years since I looked at the D&D Basic Rulebook and I ran across a copy at my game store (which used to be the one I owned ). It was a walk down memory lane! I was charmed by the simplicity of the race/class selection and was wondering if anyone has gone so far to adopt that style in their C&C game and how it worked out if so.

I just been seriously thinking about running my blue box BD&D using straight BtB rules for B1, instead of our next session module under C&C. Been getting nostalgic lately about the blue box and how much fun it was to open it and read it the first time!
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[Dristram]

I brainstormed this a bit and thought I would use some classes from Beyond Belief Games as some of the racial classes.

What I have is the following:

Dwarf - Fighter (same weapon restrictions as OD&D)

Elf, high - Spellsword

Elf, wood - Marksman

Gnome - Knave (illusionist spells)

Halfling - Rogue

Half-orc - Barbarian

Half-elves and humans get multiple classes to choose from.

Half-elf - Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Freebooter, Lore Warden, Knave

Human - All core classes plus; Marksman, Friar, Freebooter, Merchant, Horse Warrior, Dervish, Houri

The other alternate classes listed from the Netbook I'd use as NPC classes.

[Combat_Kyle]

Dristram wrote:
I brainstormed this a bit and thought I would use some classes from Beyond Belief Games as some of the racial classes.

What I have is the following:

Dwarf - Fighter (same weapon restrictions as OD&D)

Elf, high - Spellsword

Elf, wood - Marksman

Gnome - Knave (illusionist spells)

Halfling - Rogue

Half-orc - Barbarian

Half-elves and humans get multiple classes to choose from.

Half-elf - Ranger, Rogue, Bard, Freebooter, Lore Warden, Knave

Human - All core classes plus; Marksman, Friar, Freebooter, Merchant, Horse Warrior, Dervish, Houri

The other alternate classes listed from the Netbook I'd use as NPC classes.

Sounds interesting, you may want to add some unique abilities in the racial classes, so a half-prc barbarian may be similar to a human barbarian but each will have a few different class abilities. The races as classes may have more uniqueness then.
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[Dristram]

I thought about that, but when I looked at the races abilities for OD&D, it seemed they mimiced one of the core classes and what made them unique was their racial abilities. So I kept it simple like it was.

[moriarty777]

There's a file on multiclassing on Dragonsfoot where basically someone bascially has racial classes modeled after some of the multiclass rules that have been kicked about.

I'm not sure I'd use it... but I do agree that, in terms of the pure nostalgia, it can be tempting!

Moriarty the Red
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[Tadhg]

moriarty777 wrote:
There's a file on multiclassing on Dragonsfoot where basically someone bascially has racial classes modeled after some of the multiclass rules that have been kicked about.

I'm not sure I'd use it... but I do agree that, in terms of the pure nostalgia, it can be tempting!

Moriarty the Red

Hmm, sounds like Sieg's article in Crusader 4 - multi-classes as classes. I've only thumbed through it but like the idea very much.
_________________
Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte

"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

[babbage]

I played Basic D&D for a (short) while and whilst I did enjoy their take on the race/class thing, I always thought it felt restricted somehow.

[Jason]

babbage wrote:
I played Basic D&D for a (short) while and whilst I did enjoy their take on the race/class thing, I always thought it felt restricted somehow.

Odd. I'm opposite of you. I feel it's not restrictive. Sure they might be cliches, but classes are all cliches to begin with.

[meepo]

Completely agree, and like I mentioned earler, those of who like the idea of race/classes, LOVE the idea! It's not that Elves & Dwarves don't have Clerics in their societies, its just that they rarely ever become adventurers.

[Omote]

I LOVE IT! But I also like the idea of elven clerics, etc. I havn't done anything like this yet, but the idea of having a "racial class" in addition to all other classes I think is a great idea. Only memebers of that race can select a racial class.

.........................................Omote

FPQ
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[babbage]

Has anyone seen the racial paragons in the Unearthed Arcana for 3e? Essentially, it's a class which enhances the existing racial traits of the character. It only lasts up to level 3, and can only be taken at 1st level - but I would guess it might prove the easiest to adopt.

[Dristram]

As a side note, there is a small sample of this in a d20 system. In the Erde codex High Elf was a race and a class.
The racial paragons definitely have some merit. Good call.

[Omote]

babbage wrote:
Has anyone seen the racial paragons in the Unearthed Arcana for 3e? Essentially, it's a class which enhances the existing racial traits of the character. It only lasts up to level 3, and can only be taken at 1st level - but I would guess it might prove the easiest to adopt.

To this day, I still use Racial Paragons in every v3.5 campaign I run. I think building a raceial class would be fairly easy (even easier if we knew exactly how to deconstruct a C&C class). Take the Elf from RC D&D. Simply a mix between a fighter and a wizard. Bigger EPP, slower development of spells, and maybe excluding the fighter special abilities.

.......................................Omote

FPQ
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[Scurvy_Platypus]

Somewhat related:

I don't really know 3E. I've got access to 3E books, but never felt like buying into it.

Anyways, I was very active playing Neverwinter Nights and was part of a server that was setup as a Persistent World. (Think always active kinda like an MMO and you're close). Anyways, I was the one that was tapped to figure out a way of implementing the "custom" (not normally playable) races. Not wanting to screw around with ECL (NWN uses 3rd Ed rules), I basically created/recreated the race-as-class thing for NWN. Characters got the bare minimum of adjustments due to being a different race; things like Darkvision, and stat modifiers. As they leveled the "racial prestige class", they got better BAB and HPs and then had modifiers to skills added every couple of levels. It was basically a 10 level class (NWN tops out at 40 levels).

The rational behind it (besides not wanting complicated programming and messing with ECL) is that the majority of a race are going to typically have similar skills. Those that wind up running things are going to be exemplary members of their race. So they'll have maxed out their training in whatever members of their race typically know, and then started adding in specialized knowledge. So while a 12th level Kobold which has 10 levels of Kobold and 2 of Fighter might not be impressive compared to a regular 12th level character, it's still a noteable figure for a Kobold.

The system wasn't retroactively applied to the standard races; it was intended for those races which for simplicity's sake you can call Monsters. They still had whatever preferred class, and could multiclass to that class with no problem.

I used the base of a Rogue for many of them, and a Fighter for others. Nobody had any problems with it, as long as they could multiclass eventually to a normal class and get some special abilities that way, and were able to keep reasonable pace with other players in terms of combat capability or general usefulness.

Doing something like a racial class or two can really help to emphasize certain racial themes, if it's important for the game.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Running a B/X game has appeal for me, too. It was thinking it would be trivial to apply the SIEGE engine mechanic to B/X classes, combat rules, etc. The same goes for BECMI -- instead of the "general skills" presented in the Gazeteers and the Rules Cyclopedia, you could go with SIEGE engine mechanics for anything "skill like" that needed a roll.