I’m interested in sharing TB with a group of potential players, but I’m fairly certain they will ask about the Stock and Class requirements. I can already imagine someone wanting to create an Elf Burglar or Dwarf Paladin.
I imagine this is part of the ‘Love letter to early D&D,’ in which dwarf and elf were both race and class selection, etc. If that is the case, I’m totally fine just saying so, but wanted to confirm.
I didn’t find anything with a search that seems to tell whether mixing stock and class can be done in a different manner than described in the rules text.
Just don’t mention “stock.” Tell thim: You can be a human or you can be an elf, a dwarf or a halfling. Want to play a human? Okay, you can be a warrior, cleric, magician, paladin or thief. Done. And if they complain, tell them they have to start the game with no persona and no fate.*
Also remember that any character can learn any skill, including Arcanist or Ritualist (useful for helping even if you can’t throw spells or prayers around). So if they want to go off-model and play an “elf that steals things” then they have to try stealing things and eventually they’ll gain Criminal 2.
It’s a wink and a nod to my favorite version of D&D, but I also don’t see it as terribly restrictive because like Mouse Guard, you can grow your character any way you want in play–you just have to play him/her that way.
In Moldvay, you didn’t have to worry about dual-classing or multiclassing. If you wanted a fighter/magic-user, you played an elf. If you wanted a variant fighter with some thief-like skills, you played a dwarf or a halfling. If you wanted your character to die so you could roll something else, you played a thief.
When I was initially noodling with the game, I deliberately left out the thief class for two reasons: OD&D didn’t have a thief class, and I was really tickled by the fact that anyone could be a thief by focusing on some combination of the Criminal, Scout and Dungeoneering skills. To this day, my favorite way to make a rogue is to start with a human warrior. I have come around on that–I love the thief class that we eventually worked up and previewed in the Kickstarter.
A few random thoughts:
[ul]
[li]Encourage players not to get too hung up on the class thing. I have a human warrior that I play that took Survivalist as his human skill. He hails from the Wizard’s Tower (and took Alchemist). He uses a bow. His class says Warrior, but I play him as a ranger/alchemist.[/li][li]You can tweak things and create more options for your players by creating unique towns for your setting. The settlements in the core game are generic. It’s easy to grab them, give them a name from your setting and go. But if you have an idea for a village or city in your setting that is unique, go ahead and give it a custom set of skills and traits! In Middarmark, I have a village that is also the center of a Young Lord’s fertility cult. Its skills are Carpenter, Peasant and Theologian. Its traits are Devout and Rough Hands.[/li][li]If you’re willing to put in some elbow grease, you can make your own classes. There’s no reason you can’t make an Elven Wardancer or Dwarven Stoneseer using the Elven Ranger and Dwarven Adventurer as templates. Nature questions stay the same, skills and level benefits are different.[/li][/ul]
I like what the non-human classes say about their stocks. Only a lousy burglar would ever leave their cozy hobbit hole, only a dwarf full of wanderlust and with an irrepressible desire for adventure and glory would leave the mountainhome, and only an elf scouting the far ranges of the uncivilized world would leave the forest grottos of the elves.
