November 13, 2005
Epic Roleplaying does not use a Class-based system, and there a several reasons for this. Games that rely on identifying characters with a specific "Class" limit the scope of the game. They make the game more predictable; they reduce the choices of the player; and they are driven by the marketing avarice of the game designer by fostering a need for players to constantly buy new sourcebooks to encounter originality.
Once you have determined what class someone belongs to, and how far advanced they are, you have gone a long way to determining all the skills and talents that they will possess. Further, these generic classes are separated from any specific institutions within the game world. Providing beginner players with a number of well-defined schools, orders, knighthoods, and professions gives them the direction that a newcomer gets from a system with Classes without artificially imposing rules on the game world.
Originality of the players in a fantasy game is paramount. A class-based system forces a player to build their character out of a pre-designed, pre-balanced (usually poorly), and pre-interpreted mould. They are able to window dress and make surface changes, but nothing more. Imagine if you were asked to design a concept for a new motorized vehicle. In a class based system you would be given the options of starting with a pre-designed Truck, Sedan, Sports Car, or Motorcycle. You would then choose colour, window tint, air-conditioning, etc. What you would quickly realize is that you weren't making a new motorized vehicle but buying a vehicle from a dealership. A class based system forces you to buy (or buy into) their product.
They also try to keep you buying into it. If they don't give you the ability to be creative, they know that you will keep coming back to them for the newest pre-digested template for your character. These sub-classes, prestige classes, and other inventions are nothing more than a marketing strategy designed to exploit a deficiency in the game system. They are designed to have more advantages than the classes presented in the standard rules to appeal to the desire of players to have the "best" character possible.
Any merits of a class based system, specifically ease-of-use for beginners, are entirely nullified by presenting some well considered schools in a skill-based system. Epic Fantasy presents many new ideas for roleplaying, but a skill based system is not one of them. Gamers have recognized the superiority of skill-based systems for many years, but market pressures have kept these systems from being the standard.
