D&D and RPGs - So Close, yet So Far Away

 I am writing this down in this blog mostly so I wouldn't have to keep repeating myself in Discord every time the topic comes up.

The main point I have is this - Dungeons and Dragons, in its current iteration is not part of the RPG hobby. 

Yeh that sounds like a bit of a hot take, but let's break it down.

A lot of the marketing that Wizards of the Coast have used since D&D Next was first announced (which eventually became 5E) and what is being done with One D&D right now has lead to that separation. Now, most of that also comes from the broader play culture surrounding it - the streamers, youtubers, opinion pieces, subreddits what have yous. 

D&D is D&D. It is not an RPG, it is simply its own hobby that you can be into and more importantly - consume. Always consume. Because to acknowledge that D&D is simply an RPG means to tell people "You know, if you don't want to  play this, or pay for the books or consume - you could just do something else." And why would you, if you were in WotC's shoes or the "influencers" that have hitched their wagons to D&D, want to do that? 

I mean WotC did do that during the 3E era - it's what got us the OGL and ended up spawning not just the OSR but also stuff like Pathfinder.  This kind of closed off marketing and approach is hardly new - it's what Apple does, it's what Games Workshop do with 40k if you want another example in gaming.

It is removing the actual hobby aspect of the hobby, and simply replacing it with an external authority and consumerism. After all, if you're a hobbyist you might have to write your own scenarios and campaigns, or talk to other hobbyists and see what they've made and steal their shit. Ya know, you'd have to put in the work and effort and have little incentive to actually pay more money to WotC. 

But if Wizards are the final authority on the game, if your "hobby" is simply buying D&D merch and books and running them as written? Then they have you.

And this is what I mean when I say that D&D is not really part of the RPG Hobby. It has deliberately been walled off out of the hobby, made into its own private playground where you don't have to actually put up the swings yourself, the authoritative Wizards will just do that for you. 

Unlocking Classes

 Here's my very messy process on how I handled unlocking new classes in my Greylands game. I've talked about it with other people on the OSR Discord server and there's a few others who also do similar things in their games, though their actual process seems to be slightly different than what I settled on. 

Why bother unlocking classes?

In my specific case, I decided to go down this route after sitting down to do my initial class list for what I was going to have in my campaign. After doing that, I quickly realized that those were probably a bit too many. I know anyone coming from 5E or Pathfinder or any similar game would probably laugh at that notion, but for me the list felt bloated, so I started to trim some classes off.

However, I still wanted those classes to be around. One of the removed classes was the Hill Cantons War Bear, and there was no way in hell I was not shoving war bears into this campaign one way or another! So I made them a possible class that can be unlocked through the course of play. 

Another reason is that letting the players unlock access to new classes through their actions in the campaign just brings a sense of progression not tied to individual character levels or items. They, as a group, have now changed both the campaign and their own options as players through interaction with the game's fiction. 

Class unlock procedure

• Players become aware of a distinct group or faction that I inform them might be unlocked as a playable class.
• They have a positive initial interaction with the group which sets the stage for further relations.
• The players complete 3 distinct actions that help solidify their standing with the group. These vary from group to group and in how difficult or easy they may be.
• Once all 3 actions have been performed that particular class is now unlocked and any future characters may be members of it.

The steps in the procedure don't quite have to happen in order, but I came up with this whole system more or less on the fly and initially they needed 4 distinct actions in order to unlock a class, but those felt too many and kind of cumbersome so I paired it down to 3.

Let's see how this actually worked in the campaign. I'll use as an example the two classes that the group managed to unlock.

Unlocking the Cleric:

1. The party found that the former temple to the Sun Lord in Greytown was little more than 4 ruined walls and no roof. (Party becomes aware of the group, or in this case lack of it)

2. The Acolyte in the party started to gather the locals and any adventurers willing to listen as he tells them tales of the Sun Lord. (A positive interaction regarding the faction/class, and also the first action to unlock the class - restore the interest in having an actual temple with clerics in it in town.)

3. The party gathers and donates 1000 GP in order to have the temple restored and rebuilt. The process takes 1d4 weeks to complete. (Second action to unlock the class - get the actual temple fixed up so that Clerics would even have anywhere to stay.)

4. The party pays to send a messenger out to inform the nearest church to the lack of priesthood and have them send over people. As the nearest town is barely an oversized village and is also 4 days away, it takes 1d4 weeks for anyone to actually arrive in Greytown. (Third action to unlock the class - get some actual clerics!) 

5. The Clerics arrive and start up regular services in the restored Sun Lord temple, unlocking the class for any future characters. 

Fairly straightforward stuff this. I also generally made a point to inform players for what would be the next step in unlocking a class, if the step was obvious enough. 

Let's look at another example, unlocking the War Bear:

1. The party, as they explore the Greylands, runs into a clearing in the nearby forest. The clearing is full of bears armed with polearms, spears and pikes, walking around on two legs and chatting with each other. In the middle there is a large wooden statue of a bear with a crown of leaves, and treasure piled at it's feet. The party is polite and shows interest in what is going on. (The party becomes aware of the faction or class and has a positive interaction with it, also fulfilling the first step towards unlocking the class.)

2. The bears tell the party that their Master will be showing up soon, and the characters should come meet him and bring a tribute to him. The characters agree, and after they find a suitably impressive piece of treasure they bring it to the clearing, where they meet Medved. They are reverent and polite and offer him tribute. (Second action - they show loyalty to the bears and their leader. As a consequences they can now hire 1st level War Bears as retainers, in addition to the human ones they could find back in town).

3.After further visits and talks with Medved and his bears they learn about the strange activities in the forest by odd looking (and clearly evil) elves. Since the war bears are not exactly subtle or sneaky, the party is asked to provide some intel and information on what is going on, which they do after managing to capture an elven prisoner and bring him in for interrogation. (Third and last action - do a service to the War Bears and gain their trust.)

4. Some War Bears decide to settle in Greytown and take on adventuring as an activity, impressed by the deeds of the characters, unlocking the class for any new characters made in the future.

Another opposite example would be the Goblins that reside underneath the ruins of the manor of the local boyar. They were, in fact, going to be a potential unlockable class, however the party not only didn't have a friendly interaction with them, they in fact would use excessive violence (hurling flaming oil all over the place, taking prisoners and then murdering them after they have surrendered, etc) which immediately closed off any possibility of the goblins becoming playable. 

All in all, for something I cobbled together while playing, I'd say it works well enough. My plan for a future campaign is to actually make class selection very restrictive and limited, so I don't know when I'll use it again, but I suppose this could work for getting access to new types of hirelings, or just a new race for characters, if you use separate race and class in your game.