Showing some appreciation for 'generic' character classes...

Because I'm really starting to appreciate them.  Quite a bit, actually!

I can remember when I first came across NPC classes in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide (Warrior, Expert, Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner) back in...hmm, like 2003...?  I thought they were such a good idea that I immediately wanted to start making characters with them.  The Expert class, especially...I mean, why wasn't it already a widely used option?  It just seemed so versatile, and (personal side note, skip to next paragraph if that sounds terrible) it matched up with what I had as a sort of lifelong dream, to earn the right to be considered an Expert in one topic or another.  (It's why I eventually pursued a PhD...I was levelling up myself(!)...and arguably became just that, for one specific thing.  One beautiful, very narrow, practically worthless, conversationally tedious thing.)

I also liked that the DMG specifically highlighted the Expert class as one that may be worth promoting to the big leagues...to pull a quote from the SRD:

The expert could make a PC-worthy class choice, but only for those players willing to create a character focused on something other than a traditional adventuring career.

As someone who was pretty new to the ways of D&D and enjoying the chance to immerse myself in whatever class ideas I could get my hands on, this sounded awesome!  And then...I thought it was pretty cool when I happened to open the Sage miniature in a Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game booster and realized that they had actually made him an Expert, according to the full RPG stats that were found on each mini's card (on the opposite side from the skirmish game stats).  (I think, anyway...)

The Sage, from an eBay listing; I can't wait to see the other side of the card and be proven right.  Someday.  Maybe.

When I eventually realized (via the SRD) that the 3.5 book Unearthed Arcana also included so-called 'generic classes' (Warrior, Expert, Spellcaster) that served as amped-up versions of the NPC options...and I found out that the True20 system, right from its start in the original Blue Rose book, sorted every character into a similar tripartite taxonomy...I started to really take an interest in this approach!

I think that part of the reason I've become so drawn to these classes is that they're a fairly clean combination of aspects I like in some of my favorite RPGs.  I love D&D-style class-and-level gaming because of its history, its implementation of genre archetypes, and its interesting 'stories' that are told without any dice being rolled, just by internalizing the abilities of a specific class.  And I love West End Games' Ghostbusters (maybe my fave RPG ever) and many of the games it has inspired, as their straightforward attribute + skill mechanics are easily grokkable and contribute to a freewheeling tone where it seems like, somehow, 'normal' people fit in and anything goes when it comes to the adventure.

Dr. Peter Venkman's Ghostbusters stats; from the very helpful collection at Ghostbusters International

I like where generic classes sit in between these two approaches and have had them in mind a lot lately while considering the setting that shares a name with this blog, especially since I typically think about the Monstrous Matters campaign as some variant of 'Ghostbusters + D&D.'  And to a lesser extent, I like applying the generic classes to thoughts on UNLTD/POA/whatever I end up calling this 3.75-inch action figure skirmish game thingy I'm kind of working on...

So, let's see...

I have one spot in my home where I actually display action figures (other than the Lego minifigs that topped our wedding cake).  The lineup changes based on whim and convenience.  Here's a pic I took a few months back; I figure that eventually, I'm going to want to have all of these characters statted out for playing war, so I guess I'll start with that parapsychologist down in the lower right (next to Tars Tarkas) since I already have some 'official' numbers to base him on.  Seems like a good testing ground for an Expert class (and I certainly have no issue treating the Venkman of the first film as a Level 1 character!)...

(He came from the awesome Plasma Pack set featuring the entire 'busting quartet in 3.75" form, btw...a pretty awesome 48th birthday gift from the parents this summer...!)

----------

Peter Venkman, Ph.D.

Expert, Level 1

Human, 34 years old

Affiliation: Ghostbusters (the 'real' ones)

STR       DEX        CON      INT       WIS      CHA

10 (--)  13 (+1)    10 (--)   11 (--)   19 (+3)  19 (+3)

HP 4   Move 30 ft.

Attack Bonuses: +0 melee (expertise with unarmed attacks), +1 ranged

Proficiencies (Expertise***)

Saves: Dexterity, Intelligence

Weapons: All simple weapons

Armor: Light armor

Languages: English

Skills: Investigation, Insight, Perception***, Deception***, Persuasion***

Tools/Talents: Parapsychology

----------

UNLTD: The somewhat silly acronym that wouldn't die in my imagination

I love a good organizational acronym...usually a backronym (maybe?)...in my gaming.  From SLOP, to the CROwN, to BADGER, to the Agents of SKA, to...well, probably some others I'm not remembering...there's definitely an argument to be made that I've spent too much time playing with letters in my head for the purposes of organizations that don't actually exist.

In addition, those who have paid close attention to the RPG settings that have interested me over the years (no, I don't expect that to actually apply to anyone) will know that I have had a long-running fascination with applying the portal fantasy trope to my games.  The earliest expression of this that I can remember took place at my bachelor party back in 2011 (celebrated at Con Nooga), during which I DM'ed a short adventure built on the premise of an Earth expedition into a dungeon on another world.  Because I'm a sucker for a good acronym, I started out with the plan that the adventuring team would represent the United Nations League of Terran Defense...or...♬dunh dunh dunh♬...

UNLTD

By the time I actually ran the adventure, the org had changed into the Unaffiliated League of Terran Defense, or UnLTD.  Because that's...more rebellious...?  I'm not really sure, and I was never sure how to feel about that lowercase N (especially when I thought about logos), and I always kinda felt like a "League of Terran Defense" sounded more like the human protagonists in a kaiju story than what I was using it for.

Anyway, this idea would ultimately see publication in Fight On! #14 as "Agents of the CROwN," as the fictional team was redirected to the Council for Research on Otherworldly Narratives...also featuring Kelvin's clean and distinctive artwork...

Now, the Stargate reference that Kelvin brought into the mix isn't really something I had thought of, but it made so much sense and would go on to influence my thoughts on portal fantasy gaming quite a bit in the decade-plus since then.  I eventually realized that some variation of Stargate + D&D is actually a pretty common idea to pop up in online RPG discussions.  (This will come up again, gimme a sec...!)

So then, quite a while (more than 2.5 years) ago, when I was in one of my phases of thinking a lot about gaming with 3.75-inch toy soldiers, I started tagging my posts with "UnLTD."  I think I was zeroing in on that as a name for the ruleset, as the whole "League of Terran Defense" idea kind of seemed to work, and the name could imply the unlimited possibilities of gaming with the huge variety of 1:18-ish scaled figures out there.  But...somewhere along the way I hit on the name People of Adventure, which could be a tribute to Fisher Price's Adventure People (one of the OG toylines in that scale) and could be abbreviated POA...almost clever as the name of a game with action figures.

Recently, though...I was thinking about some of the figures I need to stat up for the game.  These are some that I think my Mom found at Dollar Tree and kindly sent my way...

And I couldn't help but get Stargate vibes from these.  And then, at some point, it hit me: The absolute LEGENDS among 3.75-inch action figures (for a lot of us, anyway) are the G.I. Joe and Star Wars lines...and isn't Stargate kind of a wacky combination of those two?

For whatever reason, now that I'm thinking about the figures that way, the name UNLTD seems pretty good again!  Why wouldn't the United Nations put together a League of Terran Defense to protect Earth from fantastic invaders (and potential invaders) from other worlds?

Yeah, that gun is something else...I'm gonna have to have a post on that, I think...

I think that UNLTD lives on...!

(As I always write when I don't know how to end things...more to come!)

ChatGPT seems to have opinions about the sort of games I want to play

I've been continuing my experimentation in using AI to code games/game aids by playing around with a character generator for the various threads of gaming that bounce around in my head.  The main games and settings I'd like to establish by the end of the year (fingers crossed but yeah right) are the Monstrous Matters setting, my own little fantasy heartbreaker (and an associated setting...?), and People of Adventure (POA), my take on skirmish gaming using action figures, with rules rooted in the RPG mechanics of the first two.  And then, beyond that, I'd eventually like to have something concrete in place for Agents of SKA, Underground Elemental Beastfighting, and probably 100 more that I wrote about one time and promptly forgot about.  Anyway, as I (use ChatGPT to) build the generator, those first three plus Agents of SKA are the campaigns I've included to form the skeleton to which I can add other settings later.

So, of course, in the midst of making adjustments and returning code to me during our conversation, ChatGPT decided these should be the campaigns I make characters for:

Classic Dungeons

Underworld

Skyward Isles

Vault Raiders

Mutant Frontier

Agents of SKA

Generic Fantasy

Post-Apocalypse

Science Fiction

Wha--?

Now, to be fair, I'm running with three different systems for the characters — 5e, my Monstrous Heartbreaker, and a system neutral option — so I think the really generic choices on there can be chalked up in part to the AI "wanting" campaign names that it finds very appropriate to associate with "5e" and "System Neutral."  Still, though...I truly don't get why chatbots will occasionally change things up like this out of nowhere (it's made a similar call for my species and class choices, as well as the general layout of the generator)...almost as if they think they know better even on matters of opinion, intention, and creativity.

And...well, maybe that's true, as when called out on it, ChatGPT first apologized(!), then went on to say, "That’s the version I included in the code above — these are your intended campaigns, right?"

Oh, okay...trying to tell me something, ChatGPT...?

We did get this little misunderstanding worked out, but it didn't take all that long for it to contribute some campaign options once again, with the choices becoming:

Agents of SKA

Underworld

Epic of Elaria

At this point, I started to wonder if maybe this AI has its own fantasy heartbreaker that it's looking for a chance to bring into being.  I asked it to create a cover for an Epic of Elaria RPG book and got this...

...so I guess it's pretty much generic fantasy, but the elves have one really long ear that they use for...making precise measurements...?

I'll post more here if I find out more about what happens in this Epic, or in any of the other campaigns toward which I'm being guided...

Rehashing a 5e-ish Soldier class...to get me rolling...

Man...I had a nice little blogging rhythm going for a brief span...which I guess was easy enough when I was just doing irregular work from home.  Now that I'm back to "the grind," I'm a bit disappointed in how easily I've let the million and one blog posts I want to write get repeatedly pushed off to another tomorrow.  (I do have kind of a cool job though...where I scan my fingerprint to get into the lab and have to unironically say, "I can't tell you that," when folks ask about some of the details of my work.  It's honestly nothing all that exciting, but it's fun to play important government contractor sometimes...maybe I'll work that into a post at some point...)

Image from Joepedia

So, I need to do something to give me a nudge back into action, to help me maintain my delusion that I'm getting closer and closer to finishing some of the projects I've started over the years, then left to barely keep a heartbeat through a trickle of attention here on Monstrous Matters.  I'm finding that, sometimes, I want to post about something specific, but then I think, "Wait, that'd be better if I ALSO posted this character with it..."  Which then leads to, "Oh, if I'm gonna post that character, I need to outline this class first..."  Which quickly devolves into "How can I write up this class without first finishing that other class I need to compare it to?"  And by that time, I'm well past thinking about whatever post idea prompted the whole chain of events, and the cycle gets to start all over again when I read a science article or see an action figure I want to pick up.

This is (hopefully) a post that's going to make it easier to write down the stuff I want to, when I want to, IF I actually have the will to.  Now that I've posted some thoughts on classes for my fantasy heartbreaker, I want to revisit the Soldier class that I scribbled down a couple years back (with action figures in mind) so that it'll fit the simplified, OSR-inspired, 5e-ish form of Monstrous Heartbreaker classes.  The basic fighting class for the game is The Warrior, which is essentially just a simple set of rules that boost a character's effectiveness in combat in different ways.  I think The Soldier should be similar but give a bit more of an impression of formal training in things besides dealing and taking damage.

As for balance...?  I definitely don't want to end up with comparisons that make one class better than another in every reasonably conceivable RPG scenario.  BUT...I'm also a believer that anything different about two similar components of a game is an opportunity for scenarios where either one can outshine the other.  So let's see where that puts me with...

----------

Image from Joepedia

The Soldier

Hit Points: [5 + CON] per level  (Hit Die: d10)

Proficiencies

Armor: All armor, shields

Weapons: All simple and martial weapons

Saving Throws: Strength, Dexterity

Skills: Athletics, Survival

All characters have had a life leading up to becoming a 1st-level adventurer, and many have hobbies and interests outside of their main profession.  Decide on some of these details for your character, and select one additional Skill (from the Skill list) and two Tools and/or Talents to represent the proficiencies gained from these activities.

Equipment

Begin with a set of campaign-appropriate equipment (per DM).

Tireless

Beginning at 1st level, you treat the effects of exhaustion as one level lower than usual.

Military Specialty

You have trained for one specific role above others. At 2nd level, choose one or two of the specialties from the following list of items in bold. You gain the underlined items (skills, talents, tools, weapons, and/or languages) as proficiencies. If you already have the proficiency from another source, you gain expertise.

Asterisks (**) indicate the "cost" of each specialty. You may choose one ** specialty, two * specialties, or one * specialty taken at the level of expertise (does not stack with expertise otherwise gained).

Airborne (Athletics, Parachutes) **

Artillery *

Chaplain's Assistant (Perception, Persuasion) **

Cook *

Communications (equipment) *

Diving *

Dog Handler (Animal Handling, Dog Training) **

Electronics *

Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor (Unarmed Combat, Perception) **

Heavy Weapons *

Intelligence (Perception, Deception) **

Interpreter (Choose four languages) **

[Biome] (Arctic, Desert, Jungle, etc.) Warfare (Nature, Survival) **

Medic (Medicine) *

Pilot (aircraft) (Flying, Aircraft Repair) **

PT Instructor (Athletics, Perception) **

Radar *

Rifle Instructor (Two-handed Small Arms, Perception) **

Sabotage (Insight, Demolitions) **

Small Arms Armorer *

Transportation (Driving, Ground Vehicle Repair) **

Action Surge

Starting at 3rd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. Starting at 17th level (seriously? good luck to you...), you can use it twice before a rest, but only once on the same turn.

Ability Score Increase

When you reach 4th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

----------

Image from Marvel.com

The idea with this class is definitely to have the skills of a "typical" member of an infantry as the core (so that many members of the Joe team fit the model, and to feed the mechanics of action figure campaign play), but I wouldn't mind having it flexible enough to also cover similar roles like those taken on by the drivers of the Wheeled Warriors' Lightning League, or MCU Sam Wilson's work in the Air Force. The list of options is definitely a work in progress...as I tried to get the ball rolling by looking through some early G.I. Joe file cards and adapting what I found there, but it's surely an effort that could use a deeper dive into that source material, and maybe even a little more reasoning around the balance of specialties (yeah, even after scoffing at the idea of balance up above).

But now that I'm "free" to stat up Soldiers to my heart's content, I suppose I'll see how that all works out...

Thanks for reading!