Classless FMC Basic, and why i love Experts

A short home rule for modding FMC Basic to have multiclassed/classless characters. But first random ranting, because I can. >:)

A while ago, Marcia and I had a chat about how the Expert class basically functions as a "classless" option in FMC Basic, both by having access to partial versions of both of the other classes (enchanted weapons and arcane scrolls) and having a class feature built around being a kind of choose-your-own character. 

I actually quite dislike the Specialist class as presented in Lamentations of the Flame Princess and other similar games (including the idea of Experts in One D&D and the skill based identity of Rogues in 5e). One reason being that skills and the abilities that classes get in RPGs are often only really distinct mechanically - its absurd to me to imply that the study and practice of swordplay (or mage-craft) isn't a skill. So having a class whose identity is having MAD SKILLZ is just funny to me - is the implication simply that every other skill is easier to learn compared to swords and wizards? Are wizards and warriors not highly skilled at what they do? Idk its all a little silly, both my argument and what I'm arguing against. The other problem I have is that it often lumps characters into "WARRIOR, WIZARD, AND LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE", which just feels a little lop-sided. GLOG (and similar games like Troika) for all its glory sidesteps this by just having unique character types for whatever you want. Surgeon? Second Surgeon? Labourer? Leper (cheating cause they're a half caster)? Butcher (i ♡ cannibalism)? Nerd Sage? Not to mention the alchemists, monks (the bookish kind) and merchants that pop up. 

Anyway, despite the Expert basically just being the same thing, I really loved it from the moment I read it. Its particularly this line in reference to skills that did it:

Feel free to invent your own, too!

Experts being based around freeform invented skills immediately lends itself to considering all the kinds of characters who don't live for violence or arcane esoterics. I have a deep enamour with the idea of playing astronomers and archaeologists and herbalists and princesses, all those characters who so often have to be crammed into the combat system to have a place in the game (and even then, FMC Basic's magic system decentres violence in a very refreshing way). People who are just kind of ordinary yknow? 

The rest of the system also doesn't really contain "abilities" in the modern push button sense, all the classes are quite reserved in their mechanical weight and complexity, so having skills just be "you can get a second try at the dice flip, or attempt impossible tasks with ordinary odds" fits fine. Also of consideration that by the nature of skills being an Expert only ability, and explicitly only something that increases the characters chance of success (and allowing impossible feats), it means that all characters have an open set of possible actions not limited by having to ask permission from the game in the form of buying skills/feats/abilities etc. Having an expert with the "disabling traps" skill obviously doesn't mean that no one else can disable traps, while a disarm ability or peoples perceptions of the 0e thief's skills (lockpicking, hiding in shadows, backstabbing etc) tend to imply by how they're written that only characters with those skills can attempt those things. 

Also, I think Against the Wicked City's post Notes on a semi-successful skill system has a really interesting sounding take on open ended skill systems. 

Anyway. Sorry, I can and have gushed about this game for hours. 

I think its worth distinguishing between the different things that "classless" games can represent.

Cairn, Into the Odd, and Knave Searchers of the Unknown are great examples of the "purest" form of classless characters. When a game is true-classless, usually subsystems that would otherwise be locked behind character types are free for anyone to try. Everyone is fairly equally capable of each aspect of the game, limited only by trade-offs or in-world investment in each aspect. My name for these would be "unclassed" characters because they function a lot closer to an NPC or a character with a class without their class (lol. in the sense that most men with earrings are just men without earrings with earrings, but Howl is a man with earrings who has earrings).

Howls Moving Castle. Both of us are having a yuri moment

Sexy Battle Wizards is an interesting example because its a mono-class game (everyone is a battle wizard), but classless in the same sense that everyone in Knave are of the Knave class (ne-er do wells who can swing a sword and cast spells from scrolls and slink around the dark etc). So, yeah idk i feel like monoclass games are sort of classless, and classless games are often monoclass games. If everyone is the same class then classes aren't in the game. I'd just call this a mono-class game, though its only distinct from a game of unclassed characters because the Base Adventurer just happens to be someone who is normally a specific class in a classed game - within the assumptions of the game its not different.

Adding Knacks to Knave is interesting, because it still feels distinctly classless but obviously allows you to emulate classes. So, I'd count build-your-own class as a version of a classless game. Black Sword Hack (Chaos Ultimate Edition) is my favourite version of it, with its selection of backgrounds that quite joyously include stuff like Bookworm and Herbalist. Though, interestingly in Black Sword Hack all characters are explicitly Warriors, having exceptional martial prowess even without taking on abilities from violent backgrounds. Ideally with this version of a classless game, you still have an open set of ways of interacting and roughly equal access to the subsystems of the game, with the customisable bonuses merely enhancing your ability to use the systems, rather than gating them entirely. Black Sword Hack does gate certain subsystems behind backgrounds, but by their nature (pact with a demon?) they seem like promises of things that could be acquired through the means of adventure and quest anyway. Buildable class, or class builder game. 

Knave 2e and Runequest OpenQuest are class builder games that just use numbers to represent class-ness stuff. 

Hell, from the right perspective every character in GLOG is essentially of the Adventurer class, and the "classes" are just Adventurer specialisations. Thinking about this line

You can think of the base adventurer as Indiana Jones minus the Archeologist. They're still a capable person, they're just not specialized.

Class templates are just adding the Archaeologist back in, like subclasses. You could play a 5e game using only Fighter and its subclasses to emulate most other classes lol (well, you might need to turn paladin into a subclass but you get the idea. Actually, if you made arcane and magicless paladin subclasses that'd work even better. idk where im going with this). But I'm getting a little absurd at this point lol.

Experts in FMC Basic are interesting because they are both unclassed and a buildable class, being both capable of access to both of the class subsystems/niches (magic and combat) and being customisable as their only unique ability. AND THEyre already in a game with classes! weird right?

Anyway. What if FMC Basic was a class builder game? Thatd be funny. 

SILENT TITANS SHIFT MOUNTAINS WITH THEIR UNSPOKEN WORDS

Art by Me :3

Every character can attune to a magical weapon OR an arcane focus, and can use scrolls (woah OP!). 

When making a character...

Pick:
VALIANT!   - 5 max hit points, and 1 Prowess 
CUNNING!  - 4 max hit points, and 1 skill (pick anything you can think of, I dare you)
WEIRD.        - 3 max hit points, and 1 Mana (renaming Energy and you can't stop me!!! Its even cooler if you come up with a unique name for it for your character).

Use FMC.B rules for Prowess, Skills and Energy Mana

ACARANE DOMAIN
If you ever get permanent access to Mana, decide a theme for your magic! What does it look like, where does it come from, how does it work? Still have to use a consumable container for your spells, but your "scrolls" could be prayers or whispering hermit crabs or crystals. Decide what your BLAST is made of, so when you spend Mana to deal arcane damage it has a cool consistent vibe or specific element (pyromancy and lightning my beloveds <3, but also consider like..... ghost sword). btw, just shooting bright blue ARCANA is really cool, think of pure magic like the "energy" in stuff like halo or star wars or elden ring. 

Elden Bling

Also, optional new house rule: You can sacrifice spell scrolls to generate 1 Mana, and other magical items to potentially generate even more. Let it ooze like technicolour opalescence. Mana BLASTs are either based on the item that was destroyed, or just straight raw Arcane Energy.

Another possibly cool house rule? You can inject Mana directly into your body and your weapon to give you +2 Prowess per Mana spent for a turn. Treat your weapon/fists/skull as doing magic damage, or whatever kind of damage is associated with your Magic Domain/Theme/Whatever. Domain. yes. good word. This is basically only useful while using a magic weapon, or when fighting a ton of enemies at once. Maybe. 

GEAR
And in addition to general equipment, pick 2 of the following (things can be picked multiple times):
1. One-handed melee weapon
2. Shield
3. Two handed melee weapon (but only this, don't pick a second thing)
4. Ranged weapon (best paired with ammo)
5. Magazine of ammunition
6. Spell scroll (invent your own. If you have a theme, make it fit or explain why it doesn't. Cant directly harm creatures, you need raw Mana for that)
7. Toolkit (if you want specialised tools then pick which craft its for, otherwise its just anything youd find in the garage-kit of an average dad. Which I guess lines up with like half carpentry type tools half mechanic tools? Ideally you list out all the tools that are in it, but if you dont care to know then thats fine idc)
8. Book of Lore (pick what you study! My list of esoterica might be good inspo idk. I actually really like this as a solution for skills - knowledge is stored in the books, doing is stored in the character)
9. Instruction Manual (pick a skill! While you have this book with you, you are treated as having this skill. Woah homebrew item? Inspired by a great LotfP houserule)
10. A Big Bomb! (like a fromsoft firebomb, use it like a fire BLAST dealing 2d6 damage to each adjacent figure. I just wanted to add an extra one to get to d10 because I realised the assorted tools an Expert can get lines up with my modified idea of toolkits instead of generic toolboxes. Which is a happy accident)
11. Healing potion! Its just a Scroll of Healing, but you drink it. 
12. Chainmail armour NOTHING HAHAahahah!!!! if you want something cool, loot a corpse or something idk

EDIT: I realised after posting that Instruction Manuals could totally mess with the niche of Experts, but I suspect it wont be a problem in the same way that +1 swords shouldn't mess with Fighters that much (though, they are rare and magical). But if it appears that Instruction Manuals mess with the game too much, just make it so that the user has to have the book actively in their hands while performing the skill (heh try climbing now loser). Alternatively, consider adding Book Attunement - meaning you can only benefit from one book (of lore or skills) at a time. Tbh, requiring book attunement to "unlock" skills at level up (doing and knowing skills?) would be kind of cool. Give that Fighter a sword-arts manual and let them gain a level in Cunning with the "one on one duelling" skill. Possibly more interesting than "unlocking" a skill would be if attuning to a skill book let you gain XP at double rates if you stay attuned for the entire adventure. Argh my girlbrain, this is spawning so many ideas, what if Book Attunement could be used like a temporary trait from any class? So. Turns out FMC Basic already does this, because (based on their origin blog post) Arcane Focus are items that contain Energy, and obviously Magic Weapons are quite similar to item based Prowess. So, perhaps it makes perfect sense for Instruction Manuals to only be usable when Attuned to in the normal magical gear sense, but a single Instruction Manual could maybe contain multiple skills? Add a cursed skull to your game that can be Attuned so that it may whisper the secrets of Remaining Unseen. 

LEVELING UP

Gain XP as usual, but use your time in downtime to spend XP to gain a level, and the bonuses of one of the starting "types". 

How much XP you have to spend depends on what you're buying and what level you're currently at before spending. 

Type

(level you're currently at). (cost to buy the traits of this type)
Valiant

1. 1,500    2. 2,500    3. 4,000    4. 8,000

Cunning

1. 1,000    2. 2,000    3. 3,000    4. 6,000

Weird

1. 2,000    2. 3,000    3. 5,000    4. 10,000

So, if you start as a Valiant character at level 1, you would need to spend 1,000 XP to gain Cunning traits, which would bring you to level 2. If you are level 2 and want to gain a Weird trait, you need to spend 3,000 XP. Hope that makes sense. Btw these are just the values in FMC.B that you need to earn to level up, except presented as costs rather than thresholds.

Also, to cultivate the weird old school vibe that elfs had (kinda the original multiclassers right?), you could decide that you need to pick what type you're gaining XP towards, like you're investing ahead of time. I think it used to be described as "each adventure pick what class youre gaining XP for". 

You know what would be funny? If when you defeated a monster you got Fighter XP, and when you got treasure you got Mage XP, and when you made a friend or betrayed someone you got Expert XP (as though they were a defeated monster).

RESTING! woops shouldnt forget that.
Everyone heals [ max hp ÷ level, rounded down ] per week. Or just 4 hit points if the table doesn't want to do the maths.

DUAL CLASSING

Alternative to this ENTIRE hack, just pick two classes at level one, get the best bonuses from both, half the equipment from each or all the equipment of one, and add the Experience requirements together. It'll certainly be interesting. This is the multiclass system that Cavegirl has in her Cavegirl's Really Simple D&D&D game. This is more strictly multiclassing than a class builder system, but probably much more fitting for a standard game for when you realllyyyy want to build a ranger without just taking weapon skills as an Expert or spell blades without just giving your Mage a sword. Perfect for a cute little astrologer I think.