RPG System Preferences

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to RPG rules. Some things people might prefer are:

Tactical and crunchy or reality-simulating combat

Extensive character creation

Detailed character progression

Niche protection

Specialised skills and skill trees

Levels

And for each of those someone else wants the exact opposite or something in between.

Sub-System Example: Choosing a Character Class

My OSR character generator picks a random character class. I've been asked a few times to make it less random and more, uhm, realistic, I guess. Choosing like a person would. The problem is that people choose in very different ways. I've asked around to see if I can find some useful rules of thumb to build a heuristic around. These are some of the answers I've received on how people choose class:

Complementing the group (which is of course impossible to implement in a character generator unless you generate a full party at once)

Always picking the fighter because it's the simplest to play

Going for the class where ones abilities fit the best (but what do you do when you have both high DEX and high WIZ? Elf, Thief, or Cleric?)

Always picking a spell caster, because that's fun

Anything but the Thief

Anything but the Halfling

Fighter or Dwarf, because both of those get high hit points and are cool

Preferably Cleric, but that depends on the exact system: whether you get a spell at the first level, whether Turn Undead is a spell or ability.

The RPG world, as any other hobby, is filled with different preferences. This example is just a tiny portion of a very simple genre of rules and it's still mildly controversial.

-- CC0 ew0k, 2022-02-17