Broad Class Templates

Broad Class Templates

For a loose and easy game, the GM can assign each character class levels for the broad skill example groups. This makes an ideal game for teaching roleplaying to beginning players, or when playing with large numbers of players.

For example, the GM decides the players can be one of seven different character classes: Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Magician, Cleric, Diplomat/Scholar, Jack of All Trades. Each of these characters can be defined as follows:

Beginning Fighter

Physical Attributes: Great

Mental Attributes: Mediocre

Psyche Attributes: Poor

Animal Skills: Mediocre

Athletic Skills: Great

Combat skills: Great

Outdoor skills: Fair

Social skills (Fellowship): Fair

All other skills: Poor

Beginning Ranger

Physical Attributes: Good

Mental Attributes: Fair

Psyche Attributes: Poor

Animal Skills: Good

Athletic skills: Fair

Combat skills: Good

Covert skills: Fair

Craft skills: Fair

Outdoor skills: Great

All other skills: Poor

Beginning Rogue

Physical Attributes: Fair

Mental Attributes: Good

Psyche Attributes: Poor

Athletic Skills: Fair

Combat skills: Mediocre

Covert Skills: Great

Manipulative skills: Great

Merchant skills: Fair

Social skills (Fellowship): Mediocre

Urban Skills: Good

All other skills: Poor

Beginning Magician

Physical Attributes: Poor

Mental Attributes: Good

Psyche Attributes: Fair

Craft skills: Mediocre

Knowledge Skills: Fair

Spiritual skills: Fair

Supernormal Power skills: Great

All other skills: Poor

Gift: Supernormal Power

Beginning Cleric

Physical Attributes: Poor

Mental Attributes: Fair

Psyche Attributes: Great

Animal Skills: Fair

Craft skills: Mediocre

Knowledge Skills: Fair Medical skills: Good

Social skills (Formal): Good

Spiritual Skills: Great

Supernormal Power skills: Fair

All other skills: Poor

Gift: Divine Favor

Beginning Diplomat/Scholar

Physical Attributes: Poor

Mental Attributes: Great

Psyche Attributes: Mediocre Artistic skills: Mediocre

Knowledge Skills: Great

Language Skills: Good

Manipulative skills: Good

Medical skills: Fair

Social skills (Fellowship): Mediocre Social skills (Formal): Great

Spiritual Skills: Mediocre

Technical skills: Mediocre

All other skills: Poor

Beginning Jack of All Trades

Physical Attributes: Fair

Mental Attributes: Fair

Psyche Attributes: Mediocre

Animal Skills: Mediocre Artistic skills: Mediocre

Athletic Skills: Mediocre

Combat skills: Fair

Covert Skills: Mediocre

Craft skills: Mediocre

Knowledge Skills: Mediocre Manipulative skills: Mediocre Merchant skills: Mediocre

Outdoor skills: Fair

Social skills (Fellowship): Good

Social skills (Formal): Mediocre

Spiritual skills: Mediocre

Technical skills: Mediocre

Urban Skills: Fair

More Info

These character classes are merely examples for a simple fantasy game. The GM can change or ignore any that she wishes and create new character classes. She can also create classes for other genres, such as for a science fiction setting.

Each character class has unlisted Knowledge skills appropriate to its class. For example, a fighter has Good Knowledge of tactics, determining weapon quality, judging how well-trained an army is by observing it for a while, etc. Likewise, a rogue has Good Knowledge of types of locks, how many guards a wealthy merchant might have, the value of a given material for disguising oneself, etc.

Some skills as being under one heading fall under another in certain cases. For example, a rogue would be Great at climbing, even though Climbing is listed as an Athletic skill. In this case, it’s a Covert skill.

The ability to move quietly is listed as a Covert skill, but a fighter would be Fair at it, and a ranger Great.

Character development in this system is handled normally.

The GM must decide at some point whether to continue to use broad skill groups or to break skills down into finer divisions. Each skill must be raised separately if the GM decides to break the broad groups into finer distinctions. If the GM likes keeping the skills together as groups, then raising an entire skill group level should cost more experience points than in a system with narrowly-defined skills perhaps as much as ten times the cost.

Cercopes (Fantasy Race)

Cercopes (or Kerkopes) were originally a pair of brothers in early Greek mythology. By the first century BC, however, mythological writers had expanded them into their own race. It is in this later definition that they are used here.

Cercopes (singular: cercop) are a small, apish race that love to play tricks and pranks on anyone they can. Born thieves, some of them even dared to steal Heracles’ weapons! When he caught them and tied them to a pole for punishment, they amused him so with their jokes and banter that he let them go. Players should not attempt to play a cercop unless they have a roguish sense of humor.

Cercopes are small humanoids with ugly, apelike faces and a prehensile tail. A cercop stands about four feet high (120 cm), but generally stoops a bit. The face is not hairy, but both sexes tend to have long sideburns that often meet under the chin this hair does not continue to grow, but stays the same length, as monkeys’ hair does. The bodies have some scant hair on the back, and the tail is furred except for the final six inches (15 cm).

Arms, legs and chests have no more hair than the average human male does, and they wear clothing with a tail hole. Their feet resemble monkeys’ feet, but they cannot manipulate things well with them. They are not fond of shoes, only wearing them when attempting to disguise themselves as another race.

Cercopes stand upright most of the time, but lean forward to run, with the tail acting as a counterbalance.

Their tails are strong enough to be used in combat and to aid in climbing. However, a cercop cannot do fine manipulation (such as pick a lock) with its tail. Cercopes speak their own language, and need to learn another to speak with the rest of the party.

The average cercop has a Mediocre Strength and Damage Capacity, but a Good Dexterity. Their intelligence runs the same range as humans.

Cercopes have the racial gifts of Exceptional Balance (+2 to any action requiring balance, even in difficult situations), the Ability to Land on their Feet with no harm from twice the distance a human could, and Prehensile Tail.

Their racial faults are Impulsiveness (act first, think later), Compulsive Jokers (practical and otherwise), Kleptomania, Unattractive Appearance to other races, and Bad Reputations as Thieves and Tricksters.

They have a bonus of +1 to the following skills: Acrobatics, Move Quietly, Climbing and Fast Talk. They have a -1 penalty to use any weapon of Medium size or bigger.

The net result is that it counts as a fault to be a Cercop.

Since anyone playing such a character actually gets some useful bonuses if playing a thief, the GM should be sure to enforce the faults especially the Bad Reputation.

NPCs will have a hard time trusting a cercop, usually with good reason.

This racial template gives a strong incentive to creating a thief character. However, it is possible to make a cercop warrior or even cleric if desired. Certain faults can be “bought off.” That is, a character may have a gift of Not a Kleptomaniac but it costs one gift, which would nullify the free fault level. However, the Unattractive Appearance and Bad Reputation cannot be bought off these are inherent prejudices in others, not in one’s self.

A cercop character could take a fault: No Tail perhaps he lost it in battle. This would give extra levels to overcome the -1 penalty to all medium and large weapons if a character wished to be a warrior cercop, for example.