Bringing Backgrounds to the Foreground (2018)

It's been a busy week for me, so I haven't had much time to write. One of the few things I've been thinking about a bit (again) is the Power Sources and Knowledge skills in the game, so I want to touch on that a bit today.

So, generally, we want Power Sources to serve a few roles:

1. To give theme or flavour to a class
2. To inform the background of a particular character
3. To provide characters with their Knowledge skills
4. To be the mechanical axis by which players can "re-spec" their class

Let's break this down into more detail:

• Arcane classes are those that deal with magic -- pretty straightforward
• Divine classes deal with religion, gods and demigods, etc. and usually dabble in healing
• Martial classes are the ones that fight using weapons (or hand-to-hand) -- warriors
• Primal classes deal in the elemental, the natural, and the primitive
• Shadow classes deal with dark powers, or shady elements within society

One of the design choices that came out somewhat recently, was tying 2 specific Knowledge skills to each Power Source, and giving Training/Expertise based solely on that (rather than previous iterations -- which would let you pick 2 skills out of 3, or have a separate Knowledge progression alongside Power Sources, among a few other ideas -- that were eventually scrapped.)

Arcane characters get Arcana and Royalty & Nobility. Characters with this power source have both an affinity with some sort of magic, but also an understanding of political structures (and perhaps contacts at high levels of government.) These two concepts may or may not be connected to each other, on a given character; Paladins and Druids with the Arcane power source may simply be trusted bodyguards or advisers to a king, or a tribal leader, in addition to their magical talents.

Divine characters get Medicine and Religion. Typically these two are tied together, thematically. Usually classes that bestow healing are based in some sort of faith (in the case of Druids, Paladins, and Clerics, for example) or else are generally expected to be knowledgeable characters all around (such as Monks or Bards.) Alternatively, this power source can serve as a sort of motivation or specialty for otherwise martial-focused classes, such as the Acrobat, Fighter, or Warlord.

Martial characters get History and Local. The History skill represents a familiarity with significant events, their causes and effects, and the lessons that can be drawn from them; the Local skill represents familiarity with the common folk, including customs and etiquette. As has been said, this power source will mainly be found on warrior classes, but it can also be used to give a sharper context to others -- such as Clerics, Bards, or Spellbinders. It could also allow classes that are expected to be widely knowledgeable to expand their skill sets.

Primal characters get Geography and Nature. These skills both potentially cut very wide swaths. The Geography skill can provide knowledge of the literal locations of things, but also insight into what the current terrain features tell about what might lay ahead. The Nature skill can help discern weather patterns, tides, properties of various plants, as well as various information about wildlife. Again, while this Power Source is mainly found on classes like Druid, Ranger, and Barbarian, it can also be used to differentiate one Fighter or Warlord from another.

Shadow characters get Dungeoneering and Streetwise. Generally, the Dungeoneering skill helps when identifying anything to do with the underground world; Streetwise is for dealing with the figurative "underground" world. So this Power Source ends up covering a lot of ground, from Rogues (wheeling and dealing within various black markets) to Occultists (searching for lost secrets in forgotten catacombs) to Rangers (living on the peripheries of society, and hunting the darkest, most dangerous monsters.) When applied to a class like the Acrobat, it turns a simple Martial Artist into something that feels more like an Executioner, for example.

Nuts & Bolts

Now, the basic mechanic of "re-specs" is meant to allow players to change their class, while maintaining some thematic consistency with their character. To achieve this, we make it so that it is easier to re-spec into a class which shares a Power Source with your current class. With that in mind, the baseline idea is to give every class at least two Power Sources.

In this way, Arcane subclasses like Invoker, Sorcerer, and Wizard can be related to Druids and Shamans; Fighters and Warlords become "cousins" with Rangers and Barbarians; shadowy archetypes like Blackguard and Hexblade begin to cross paths.

The other mechanical lever that we can use Power Sources for, is to grant additional customization to classes that don't have as much (such as Roles and/or Specialist Classes.) Right now, each character starts with one Power Source, and gains another at 3rd level; certain "specs" gain an additional Power Source, whereas most subclasses give its parent class alternate options for which Power Sources they can pick (at starting level or at 3rd level.)

I'm thinking this might change a little bit: probably classes with less customization will gain a 3rd Power Source at 5th level; the classes currently gaining Power Sources from a "spec" will likely instead get this power source as an option (much the same way that certain subclasses do) but they may also get an extra Power Source at 5th level. These are just some ideas that I have been kicking around, which will hopefully both streamline and unify the progression tracks a little bit (much the way Performance skills need to be ironed out, I feel.) This will also help in the process of making sure that Power Sources are available to a wide enough number of classes, that none feel underutilized or too niche, but also that there isn't a overabundance of classes which simply have access to all the Power Sources (or combinations thereof.)

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More busy times still to come, but nevertheless the next post should be up on October 30th.

Let me know what you thought of this post, and if you'd like to see more in-depth discussion of anything we've touched on today.