Fantasy roleplaying has a tradition of being executed by a party of adventurers whose skills complement each other.\u00a0 Warriors use traditional weapons and armor to handle physical threats, wizards use spells to either give the party an advantage or deal with arcane threats, roguish types sneak into places and disarm traps, clerics heal wounds and hold back supernatural evil, rangers guide the group through trackless wilderness, etc.\u00a0 This tradition has remained strong for decades not only because it adds variety but also because it gives each player at the table a unique role.\u00a0 They know what their job is and the other players want them to do it.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons I latched onto fantasy roleplaying when I was younger was I could see the cohesion the class system gave a group.\u00a0 Everyone was supposed to be there.\u00a0 A new person joining a group was welcomed from the start because their character filled a needed role.<\/p>\n
The problem, however, is I see this taken too far.\u00a0 There\u2019s a notion in fantasy RPG circles that a party must be balanced or it won\u2019t succeed.\u00a0 Gamemasters assume it\u2019s their job to give a player group every kind of challenge and if they don\u2019t have a specialist that can handle traps or enemy spell casters the party is toast.\u00a0 Any concept can become restrictive if taken too far and I think it\u2019s time more people entertained the idea of an unbalanced party.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like to see new players joining a group pressured to play a character class that doesn\u2019t appeal to them.\u00a0 Sure, this can sometimes push a player out of their comfort zone and let them explore new options.\u00a0 It can also annoy people.\u00a0 Gamemasters should feel free to let the players\u2019 party have unfilled roles.\u00a0 Better yet, a party that favors one class or one type of class can be a great change of pace.<\/p>\n
Unfilled roles are not the problem many people think they are.\u00a0 If there\u2019s no cleric to turn undead then use less undead in the planned adventure.\u00a0 Fantasy roleplaying has long had tools to help a gamemaster make up for any gap in the party that may occur.\u00a0 Hirelings can be the muscle a party needs if it lacks fighters and barbarians.\u00a0 Magic items can heal the party or cast the handful of spells that a wizard might supply.<\/p>\n
A focused party \u2013 a party of all fighters or all spell casters \u2013 allows a gamemaster to focus on one segment of the game world and really develop it.\u00a0 An all-fighter party could portray the battle tactics of different nations or evil races in detail.\u00a0 The doings of lords and generals would be of greater interest.\u00a0 A thief group allows everyone to spend time on how thieves guilds operate.\u00a0 Complicated heists in a castle could take up whole game sessions.\u00a0 A party of all spell casters allow the group to explore the nuances of wizard societies (it worked for Ars Magica<\/a>).\u00a0 Discovering the true principles underlying magic could be the pivotal point in the campaign.<\/p>\n The unbalanced party is a simple idea but I think it has a lot of potential for the game group that wants to explore it.\u00a0 I have long believed that players rely too heavily on character class to make their character unique.\u00a0 Personality, fighting style, [fantasy] race, interests and specialties are great ways to stand out in a party.\u00a0 Different versions of original D&D White Box are popular these days and it only offers three character classes.\u00a0 The OSR has something to teach us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fantasy roleplaying has a tradition of being executed by a party of adventurers whose skills complement each other.\u00a0 Warriors use traditional weapons and armor to handle physical threats, wizards use spells to either give the party an advantage or deal with arcane threats, roguish types sneak into places and disarm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gearsonline.net\/fantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}