The Bazaar #94: Core Rules System Chapter #3

(Class Selection)

GENERAL

The Core Rules System is my attempt to present a holistic system of rules that could be applied across all the Palladium Books RPGs. This is a baseline, breaking down the core principles of the games, at each stage, and taking any minor variances from each game into account by softening the edges and dovetailing pieces together.

Reaction from Post 2?

In Part 1, we looked at what a framework to control what moving from one “level” of Technology, Magic or Psionics would look like from one RPG to another. In some cases, the effect is more impactful than others; that’s okay. Remember, “calm blue oceans.”

In Part 2, we examined my attempt to baseline Character Generation, with a view to making a set of rules and guidelines that provides a GM and Players something that can be transposed from any one to the Palladium RPGs to another. Again, we saw a real desire for this come to fruition, to see a baselined set of core rules to move things forward into a more modern presentation. So, from my perspective, we move to onward to Chapter 3 - Selecting Character Class

CHAPTER 3 – SELECT CLASS FRAMEWORK

General. This is a relative short chapter, but with big implications down the road. The way I present looking at what you know as OCCs takes a very nuanced shift, but provides a solid basis moving forward. For the most part, these are relatively obvious issues, but were never actually put as words to print. Hopefully this allays any fears that things are dramatically changing.

Roles. This is the primary archetype of the new framework. For the most part, anyone reading that has any playing time with a Palladium Books RPG under their belt will intuitively understand this part of the framework. There are five (5) Roles to which a Player Character must choose from. For the most part, they are thereafter restricted from deviating from that Role. This isn’t hard and fast, as will be demonstrated later on. To start with though, the five Roles:

• Men-at-Arms. Regardless the RPG, combat warriors that leverage martial prowess with hand weapons, armor, firearms, or more advanced transformative technology (e.g. power armor, bionics) to level the playing field.

• Scholars & Adventurers. Academics that takes years to develop one or a variety of skill sets. They find themselves outside the library/lab or have some other reason to expose themselves to the dangers of exploration and combat.

• Practitioners of Magic. Leveraging mystical abilities over the doldrum of combat or academic rigors of Scholars and Adventurers.

• Psionics. Born with innate talents that develop the mind, giving them an unseen and often crucial edge over others.

• Dimensional Beings (Non-Human). Essentially all species other than human (e.g. Wolfen from PFRPG, Nightbane from the Nightbane RPG, Dragon Hatchling from the Rifts RPG).

Occupation. We start getting down closer to what the Character is more closely going to resemble in terms of game play and theme. This also more closely resembles what we usually termed as the OCC, which was always a kind of middle ground; never really defining the role, many of them unfortunate repetitions of previous OCCs with little variation worth mentioning. For the most part, these are the titles you would know and love as your OCC.

Class. This is where any OCCs that presented a discrete difference from the baseline Class were maintained when I did a scrub through the various PB RPGs. The specialized abilities/skill packages they brought to the Occupation were maintained, updated with some new mechanics (mostly Keywords) and more specifically to match the new Skill List and Skill Selection detailed in Chapter 4 – Select Skills.

Class Transfers. Something that has looooong since been a bone of contention with many among the Player-base. This was only reinforced by the shenanigans anecdotally brought out from various d20 games, where mutli-classing was prevalent and in some cases reinforced. Personally, I’ve never found the need or want for having a transfer protocol for multi-class. Playing a mage that suddenly hunted people for bounties never justified switching class to become a bounty hunter; it’s just a mage leveraging their mystical capabilities to chase down contracts. How the character develops during those adventures (as a mage) is up to the Player. This dynamic got a little more complicated when Palladium Books themselves presented various NPCs with multiple classes, and then even provided a method in one of the PFRPG books; a supposed acceptable alternative if you played PFRPG, less so for a dedicated Nightbane, HU2 or Rifts group. Then we got to the Rifts: Heroes to Humanity book, which provided the basis for this proposed mechanism. While it presents some avenues to exploit, a more fulsome approach will be done as I circle back to this aspect of the CRS. Initial Class Transfer sets will be RPG-specific (e.g. Rifts to Rifts, PFRPG to PFRPG). More to follow, but for now, a peek at it:

• Minimum Attributes: Still remains a requirement.

• Initial Career: Recalling back in Chapter 2, the Character must have obtained at least one Class Threshold prior to electing for a Class Transfer. Basically, this means not before third level.

• Future Training Capacity: Drawn from the Heroes of Humanity Advanced Training Program, the idea is that a Character learns the new Class Skills by sacrificing future Class Related Skills to “switch careers.” If the Character is too far along in their current path and don’t have 6 Class Skills remaining in future Class Thresholds, they’re too far committed to make the change.

Background Requirements. A set of optional rules for the GM and Players, the idea of allowing the Player to elect for thematic background choices, for which the GM can provide a series of in-game off-sets (e.g. equipment, Attribute Bonus, unrevealed bonuses).

Hints of Things to Come. The 2 pages for this section really just set things up for the meat and potatoes for each RPG –  the Classes. These are the heart and soul of the individual games and make them the unique gems that they are. Essentially, each of them get individual treatment to update the Classes into the framework, requiring a certain  update to their presentation and a Conversion Booklet each for what the Classes would look like under the CRS:

• Rifts: You want to play Glitter Boys, Juicers, Ley Line Walkers, Mind Melters, or any number of adventurers fighting to survive a post-apocalyptic landscape. Possibly the one that required the most overhaul, over 400 OCCs, whittled down for what amounted to little/no variation. Thereafter, this one gets a post all on its own. It was a beast.

  

• Heroes Unlimited: Heroes, some with superpowers, others with a variety of special abilities or technical prowess/gadgets that allows them to overcome the bad guys and save the day. No major change, other than to classification to Roles, skill packages lined-up with new Skills List, and Keywords mapped into special abilities.

• Nightbane: A series of possibilities in a macabre world under invasion. Are you a Nightbane with mutations trying to keep the Nightlords at bay, or someone with other powers that presents with a capability to help mankind? Much like HU2, Roles, Skills and Keywords.

• PFRPG: Fantasy adventures across a bespoke world with its own cultures, various species, and history spanning thousands of years. Multiple books to yet cover, this RPG would likely see much the same as HU2, simply Roles, Skills and Keywords updated.

• After the Bomb: Playing mutant animals in a post-apocalyptic setting where humans are the minority. Since basically all the characters are mutant animals, not much to examine in terms of Roles. For the most part, just an update to the Apprenticeship Programs to match Skills updates.

• Beyond the Supernatural: Super-sleuths hunting down threats with special psychic abilities or just raw wit and determination. Roles, Skills and Keywords.

• Rifts: Chaos Earth: The debut of the fall of Humankind. Roles, Skills and Keywords.

• Ninjas & Superspies: Admittedly not touched yet for a variety of reasons. The one setting where I would not revamp the HtH combat tables, as this is one of the core elements of the game. Otherwise, it’s really just Roles, Skills and Keywords.

• Mechanoids: Not much to change in this space odyssey, other than the Roles Skills and Keywords trifecta.

• Splicers: Admittedly, also not touched. A hard-science fiction setting where technology is actively fighting against anything biological.

• Dead Reign: Zombie apocalypse where even the “everyday man” can and does have the chance to be a hero fighting against the undead hordes. Like HU2, once the packages are updated, Roles and Keywords.

CONCLUSION

Chapter 3 of the CRS has all of two (2) pages to it. It defined the Roles – Occupation – Class framework to ensure that Players and GMs could manage some of the back-end rules we’ll see coming up, specifically in Skills Selection, and then how they play out in certain parts of Combat. I will in fact be proposing more clear-cut differences between the different Roles in Chapter 4 – Select Skills and Chapter 7 – Combat.

Lastly, we have a short but easily manageable system for transferring Class. For those that have the Heroes of Humanity book, you’ll be somewhat familiar to the baseline mechanics; instead of choosing an Advanced Training Program, essentiallly use it as a framework to transfer Class. For those that have played the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, you’ll also recognize some of the meta-mechanics involved. Not all Classes can transfer, nor should one expect it. Hint: Don’t expect a Vagabond to be able to Class Transfer into Mind Melter; or a Rogue Scholar to Class Transfer into a Dragon Hatchling. As depicted in the Wilderness Scout example above, there is a list of pre-selected Classes provided as outlets to choose from. Remember the cardinal rule: the GM can always choose to amend this list as they see fit at their table.

Next up in Chapter 4, we get into the updated Skills List and Skills Selection, which has some fairly substantive changes to some RPGs over others, presenting the one Skill List to rule them all.

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