Can a single class RPG, completely scratch the itch for RPG play?

I don't see why not.

When I first started playing, it wasn't just RPGs. Nearly everyone I met when it came to any game at all, it was always, "Let's just try a game, you'll pick it up as you go along." If there were a few rules that were both simple and essential (and again I must emphasize few), they might be explained up front. But other than that, it was learn as you go. The fighter is the only class whose abilities require no explanation. And so everyone's first character was human fighter.

In fact, I know I played several human fighters before ever even trying out another class.

Apart from my older cousin who got me into RPGs that my mother never wanted me to hang out with, I knew zero people who played RPGs. I had to recruit everyone I gamed with. That meant small groups full of newbies. That meant for years it was nothing but all human fighter parties.

There are a lot of positive things I have to say about it.

First, it was much more about imagination back then. This isn't nostalgia, or some polemic against modern attention spans and electronic gizmos. It's simply that when it's the norm to not have any skills or widgets on your character sheet, how to do things and solve problems in-game necessarily HAD to be driven by imagination. You just didn't have any other choice.

Second, here was at least one way in which it also caused the DM to create "better" adventures. With a party of all fighters, fast healing was largely by potions. That meant more potions were generally put into the game. So whereas nowadays after the party takes a few licks, everything has to grind to a halt while they rest and heal up, back then it was, "Shit, low on hit points. We need to find the next monster and hope it drops a potion."

Third, if someone ever did end up playing a cleric, if most of the healing was coming from potions found along the way, the cleric would actually be able to do something other than being the designated party heal bitch. It turns out there are whole lists of 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th level spells for them to try out.


Funny thing is, many years later when I was in high school and already playing the pretentious adult versions of RPGs that are the norm today even in old school circles, I remember reading in a computer magazine an article comparing DOOM to RPGs. And it was glowing about how well the power-up placement and heal potions were placed in DOOM that it really kept the game moving forward, great pacing, and it even created an ebb and flow of drama, which was remarkable because unlike RPGs, DOOM had almost zero story. It was just going around shooting monsters.

Obviously someone writing computer game reviews probably isn't going to share a lot of the same values as a real role-player. And so sure, there were some ways in which I felt the article was stepping on my dick. But it did have a point about what DOOM had gotten right, which was obvious enough that 8 year old me had gotten right in RPGs, and what adult me and almost everyone else in RPGs had been getting wrong.


Now whether or not you limit your games to fighters only. Or any single class. Whether or not you use potions for pacing or stay stingy, at the very least an idea that works well is viewing the came as first and foremost the players' imaginations vs the imaginary world, with special character/class abilities being what bails you out when you screw up. But I think a single-class game is not a bad way to jump start that style of play. 8 years ago I ran a campaign for a group of mostly strangers and I made them all start as human fighters. Within an hour, every one of them had unique personalities and roles within the party. It was actually some of the better roleplaying I'd seen, and most of the group were complete newbs. I believe there really is some merit to this idea.

Lots of RPG don't even have classes and they work out fine.

That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave. In that game, differentiation in character abilities is determined primarily by what you carry.

I haven't played any single-class RPGs (by that definition), but am intrigued as well.

I have played in an all-magic-user D&D 2e campaign that was a blast! It was 2e, so we were all different sorts of specialists, and had all sorts of detailed and specific spell-attack combination routines ready to go.

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 06:55:53 AM

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave.

I think the poster was giving examples of how a single class could work in play, without looking at specific RPGs written that way. If a campaign works for a single class, then an RPG ought to be feasible that does the same thing. In other words, one could build a 5E D&D "wizards only" rules set and eliminate the remaining classes and reference to their existence. That would count as a single-class RPG and could be made to work.

Quote from: finarvyn on November 05, 2023, 07:08:28 AM

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 06:55:53 AM

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave.

I think the poster was giving examples of how a single class could work in play, without looking at specific RPGs written that way. If a campaign works for a single class, then an RPG ought to be feasible that does the same thing. In other words, one could build a 5E D&D "wizards only" rules set and eliminate the remaining classes and reference to their existence. That would count as a single-class RPG and could be made to work.

Sure, makes sense. The OP mentions "Adventurer" games as an alternative name for "Single Class". In that, I think there's still a key difference here: It sounds to me like the games the OP is asking about have a single generic class, that covers all aspects of "adventuring" , as opposed to the "single class" being just one of D&D's classic 4 (or similar).

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 06:55:53 AM

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave. In that game, differentiation in character abilities is determined primarily by what you carry.

I haven't played any single-class RPGs (by that definition), but am intrigued as well.

I have played in an all-magic-user D&D 2e campaign that was a blast! It was 2e, so we were all different sorts of specialists, and had all sorts of detailed and specific spell-attack combination routines ready to go.

It was.  I felt that was the best perspective to answer the question from.

There are already too many RPG systems for me to enumerate here that don't have distinct classes.  Many of these are well established and well loved.  PCs are distinguished from each other by stats and skills and one could argue that from a class style perspective that these are games with a single class.  That would make the inquiry in the original post pointless as it's already been answered.

Therefore, the most productive way to address the OP is from the other end of the spectrum and think about games that have a firm class based game play and then answer the question.

You can definitely play a game like 2020 with everyone taking the same "class" as it has lower impact on PC development.  OTOH, D&D 4e heavily relied on a variety of PC classes to be functional.

This only leave the why as to the party being made up of the same class and that pretty much writes itself.  I think even the least imaginative amongst us can come up with a list for the reason for any single class PC party in just about any gaming world.   

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 07:23:58 AM

Quote from: finarvyn on November 05, 2023, 07:08:28 AM

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 06:55:53 AM

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave.

I think the poster was giving examples of how a single class could work in play, without looking at specific RPGs written that way. If a campaign works for a single class, then an RPG ought to be feasible that does the same thing. In other words, one could build a 5E D&D "wizards only" rules set and eliminate the remaining classes and reference to their existence. That would count as a single-class RPG and could be made to work.

Sure, makes sense. The OP mentions "Adventurer" games as an alternative name for "Single Class". In that, I think there's still a key difference here: It sounds to me like the games the OP is asking about have a single generic class, that covers all aspects of "adventuring" , as opposed to the "single class" being just one of D&D's classic 4 (or similar).

You mean like Barbaric! or ICRPG Magic?  I think it works well.

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 07:23:58 AM

Quote from: finarvyn on November 05, 2023, 07:08:28 AM

Quote from: Zalman on November 05, 2023, 06:55:53 AM

Quote from: BadApple on November 04, 2023, 08:55:20 AM
That entirely depends on the system.  Some systems have built in weaknesses for classes to force party cohesion.  4e was like this.

As a story concept, it very much works.  Four barbarian brothers seeking their fortune as a final rite of passages into manhood so they can go home and start their families and build their lands.  Five wizards working on their doctoral thesis by doing research in the catacomb system beneath the forbidden city.  Three rangers just doing their job on the frontier by fighting monsters and rescuing settlers.

Hm, this seems to be about single class campaigns in an RPG with multiple classes. I interpret the OP's question to be targeting RPGs with only one "class", like Knave.

I think the poster was giving examples of how a single class could work in play, without looking at specific RPGs written that way. If a campaign works for a single class, then an RPG ought to be feasible that does the same thing. In other words, one could build a 5E D&D "wizards only" rules set and eliminate the remaining classes and reference to their existence. That would count as a single-class RPG and could be made to work.

Sure, makes sense. The OP mentions "Adventurer" games as an alternative name for "Single Class". In that, I think there's still a key difference here: It sounds to me like the games the OP is asking about have a single generic class, that covers all aspects of "adventuring" , as opposed to the "single class" being just one of D&D's classic 4 (or similar).

I was envisioning running a game, where every PC was an adventurer; and differentiated by their skills, background, things they learned or picked up along the way, etc.  Not necessarily, "Choose your Character Class".  No Class Labels.

Quote from: Jam The MF on November 05, 2023, 12:26:20 PM
I was envisioning running a game, where every PC was an adventurer; and differentiated by their skills, background, things they learned or picked up along the way, etc.  Not necessarily, "Choose your Character Class".  No Class Labels.

It works.  Traveller, the second oldest RPG does this.  Usually the systems that do this are skill based rather than level based.

Star Wars D6 is classless.  They have things called templates, but they're just pre-filled character sheets.

After all a farm boy pilot with a knack for pistol shooting and fixing machinery might look a lot like a smuggler pilot who is good with pistols, and fixes machinery pretty good. 

Sure.

Knave seems to be particularly popular in OSR circles.

I've played GURPS for decades and my friends still use it when creating campaigns where all the PCs are somewhat similar (e.g., knights or military).

Pendragon also comes to mind, everyone is a knight.

In fact, most Chaosium RPGs are not strictly "class" based. They might have templates and professions, but your skills and abilities defined your PC.

A lot of people got serious mileage out of Runequest.

Quote from: Jam The MF on November 05, 2023, 12:26:20 PM
I was envisioning running a game, where every PC was an adventurer; and differentiated by their skills, background, things they learned or picked up along the way, etc.  Not necessarily, "Choose your Character Class".  No Class Labels.

This is explicitly the purpose of how 1st and 2nd edition Runequest was written.