07-08-2015, 02:04 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jul 2013
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The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
Hey all,
So I got to thinking recently about modern day settings, and character roles within them, and I began to muse about parallels between modern-day 'real' world settings and fantasy settings. Most people who have some experience with RPGs know the 'standard' party archetype: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue. Even with the lack of classes in GURPS, players often tend towards these roles, and not without good reason, the above combination makes for a well-rounded party, provided the characters have more to them than just their 'class'. The above classification becomes more difficult in a modern, real-world setting, without magic or divine power. What would you guys say would be some good equivalents to these fantasy archetypes? Understand that I ask purely out of curiosity, one of the things I love about GURPS is the freedom from classes. Both the Fighter and the Rogue are fairly obvious, with options ranging from street thug and petty criminal, to commando and secret agent. Wizards and Clerics are a bit more troublesome however. You could argue that the Wizard is all about versatility, so perhaps a millionaire character might be the best bet, or a technician, who can put together clever equipment like a D&D Wizard memorises spells. The Cleric seems like a medic of some kind, but the inability of real-life medics or priests to instantly heal wounds, turn undead, or smite their foes reduces their versatility, and I'm not sure how one might go about replicating or reinterpreting such feats. So, what do you guys think, how would you re-imagine these classics for the modern, less fantastical age? |
07-08-2015, 02:27 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
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"Modern Day Earth" isn't nearly as tightly defined. A SWAT team and a party of dinner guests drawn into an investigation are both modern, but will have entirely different goals, face different problems, and bring different approaches to bear. So don't go looking for a direct comparison. With that said, the following are very common "classes", aside from "Fighter" and "Rogue'. In rough order of how often I see them: The Face: The modern equivalent of the bard is almost universal. Has some combination of social skills and wealth that opens doors and gets people to talk The Academic: Knows stuff about whatever the focus of the campaign is. In a campaign with some fantasy aspects, he'll be closer to a straight wizard. May be wildly inappropriate in some campaigns that are all about implementation or where the new GM doesn't know how to make him feel useful. Doesn't seem to stop people. The Investigator: Typically a law enforcement officer or journalist. Has some of the social skills of the Face, but narrower in scope and augmented with high Perception and skills and advantages tuned to uncovering clues over charming people The Techie: Interacts with modern machinery. In a truly modern day or latter campaign, likely to be a computer hacker. Slightly earlier, will probably be a mechanic of some sort. The Medic: A doctor or some other trained medical professional. May wind up frustrated with the slow pace of real world healing, but can be indispensable in a sufficiently bloody campaign. The Driver: Or the pilot, or the boatman. If vehicles are a big point in the campaign, someone's going to want to drive them. Honestly, this can create problems (because vehicles are usually sort of their own subgame in any system and one that only the driver is good at). (Not) Surprisingly, nearly all of these are found in Action! |
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07-08-2015, 03:21 PM | #3 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
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1. Combat 2. Stealth/intrusion (including lockpicking/traps). 3. Healing, whether magical or mundane. 4. Social/communications skills (very much including Languages, and Cultures) 5. MetaMagic (as per the College in GURPS Magic - the kind of magic that specifically interacts with other magic, by detecting it, analyzing it and nullifying it. Other forms of magic are optional but the party needs this one). For a modern campaign, the only change is that item #5, "MetaMagic", gets replaced with "Working with Technology", e.g. sabotating and repairing machinery, and piloting and repairing vehicles. In a sufficiently dungeonheaded/old school/stuck-in-the-70s campaign, one can ignore item #4, which means we're back at your 4 fantasy archetypes, with the AD&D-type Wizard then being replaced in a modern era campaign with the Techie (someone like MacGyver, which interestingly overlaps somewhat with Stealth/Intrusion). (Sean Punch wrote a post once, in reply to my list-of-5, that was much more elaborate (with 10 items, not 5), and also GURPS-specific. Perhaps someone can search it up for you, or else you can find it in published form - I think it's in the GURPS Character Template Tookit PDF. But if you want to Archetypize Sean's list then you'll have to do so on a Talent-by-Talent basis and I don't think that can be boiled down to as few as 4 or even 5 Talents.) |
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07-08-2015, 03:24 PM | #4 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
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Dungeoncrawling can be pure combat, but it doesn't have to. GURPS DF seems to me to suggest a good balance for action-adventuring. Lots of combat, but also plenty of use for non-combat adventuring skills (and with non-adventuring skills being explicitly omitted or else defined as "backgrund skills"). |
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07-08-2015, 03:57 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
Riffing off Miles' theme, my experience in play for well-rounded high tech parties looks closer to:
Face: Social skills are important. Shooter: Someone is going to play a gun nut. You'll probably need one. Detective/Sniper-Scout: High perception, observation and scouting skills, and good ability at shooting things from ambush. There are variations on the theme, but that's how I see the role. Smart guy: Medic, technician, gadgeteer, and Mr. Exposition. Again, there are going to be variations on the theme, but most Smart Guys end up doing a little of everything. My experience is that no one plays a dedicated medic or driver unless the scenario specifically calls for one. The Smart Guy will have some medic skills, and the Shooter or the Detective might know how to drive, but in practice healing and driving aren't primary focuses.
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07-08-2015, 04:21 PM | #6 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
It really does depend on what you're doing. The Infinite Cabal party I was GMing this evening contained:
a) Mad Wizard (Megalomania, healing, detection), b) Mad Wizard (Scientific investigation of magic), c) Mad Wizard (Astral plane, philosophy), d) Fighter-Diplomat, e) Token sane person and psionic. |
07-08-2015, 04:49 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
Saw this comparison done once as this
Fighter - Fighter (Ranged or Melee) Cleric - Medic, Doctor, EMT etc Wizard - Scientist, Computer Guy, Other Techno Wonk Rogue - Spy, Criminal Druid - Hippie, Guru, Environmentalist Barbarian - Hermit, Mountain Man Whats kind of funny is that it works really that simply, but there are of course other ways to break it down. Things that generally have no real counterpart. From Fantasy to Modern - Illusionist, Cavalier, Paladin, Ranger From Modern to Fantasy - Wheel Man, Wire Rat Nymdok You know now that I think about it, having several different Magic Systems and Styles that correspond to different computer bailiwicks might be fun. Programming, Security, Networking, Database, Graphics. |
07-08-2015, 06:19 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
A real world version for combat without being a regular military mission with supporting units and such is Special Forces.
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07-09-2015, 01:35 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Sydney
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
Don't real world modern parties seem to be more about redundancy? Two+ detectives, multiple seat team members, team of doctors.
Its more their minor abilities (my doctor is a Muay Thai student) and their specialties (mine is a Neuro surgeon) that define their differences. |
07-09-2015, 04:32 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Los Angeles
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Re: The Modern-Day Party: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue
Some ideas here as well (including Kromm's take on common group roles).
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