Why roles? Why not have classes and be done with it? That’s a really good question and one needs only to look back at the various editions in D&D to see the answer. Classes can suck and many traditional classes have been downright horrid. The idea is to crack down the so called “classes” to their core components. This way, a proper group of adventurers can be designed for maximum enjoyment.
Note: When I write about roles, I mean “combat roles.” Eventually we need to write up the social system (there is but one system and its name is simple; hasn’t anyone learned from the mess that was the original AD&D), and then we can define both combat roles and social roles (and they can be different). I want to talk about “combat roles” and how they fit into classes. I’m going to use a lot of metaphors here for combat; American Football will be a very common one. (Chess may seem like an obvious one but in that game no piece has any defence whatsoever; they attack you and you die.)
The Attacker: This is called the “defender” in 4E but I believe the defender should defend. The attacker is the basic form of fighting. The basic notion of an attacker is that he goes from point A to point B attacking every enemy in his path. Let’s think of this in football. The quarterback passes the ball to the running back that goes straight up the middle bashing as many people as are currently in his way. In a more modern war approach, these are the people who stormed the beaches at Iwo Jima and Normandy. It’s good old hack and slash, and really, there’s nothing wrong with a little hack and slash.
The Defender: This is the “hold the line” type of guy. It’s not like if the guy in front of you dies, you move up; you hold the line. You are keeping them from attacking your important roles in the party. You can move up, but only as a line. In football these are the guys on the offense that block the attackers from getting to the quarterback. In the 18th century age of muskets, these were the men who formed the musket line of fire, moving up only as a group (this is a good point to mention that different styles work with different roles, although the classic musket did have a bayonet for when the enemy was in melee range).
The Striker: The goal of the striker is to “avoid the middle man.” Unlike the attacker who would not want to avoid the person in front of him, least he have the person in front of him now attacking his back, the striker avoids all opponents in-between himself and the goal. He can do this by two methods, ranged attacks or stealth that avoids defender’s blocking him or attackers getting attacks of opportunity. Now one might suggest that these are two separate notions and probably should be placed in their own roles, but in fact even a range weapon user needs to be able to avoid the middle man when that middle man attempts to enter melee. In football, we can see the striker as the wide receivers, or the running backs that don’t go up the middle but run around the line. In most warfare, we would call these people sharpshooters, or (gasp) Rangers.
The Controller: So far we have been dealing with man to man combat, with one of those men being the person in question. But what if you want to influence someone else’s combat? The controller, “arranges” the battle field, forcing attackers to move in some directions and not in other directions. There really is no equivalent in football, but in 18th century warfare, there was a controller of sorts. That was the canon. The canon wasn’t the same as would be seen in the next century. It was a bull in a china shop, throwing a ball that would bounce down the field taking out whoever was in front of it. (Remember, break a leg, especially with a compound fracture and it’s either death or amputation.) Green troops would panic at the sight of one of those coming. Good defenders would rejoice that it didn’t hit them, be relieved that it’s hard to move one of those canons and keep moving slowly forward along with the rest of the remaining line. Changing the terrain and causing emotional responses that gets the opponent to move as you want them to is control.
The Leader: The leader provides his expertise to aid and assist his allies in whatever means are at the leader’s disposal. “Hey Joe Fighter, watch out for that Troll to your right.” The knight in shining armour, George Washington on his white horse, are both leaders in the very classical sense.
Finally, we have the Sixth role, one designed mostly for NPC use. The Sidekick: The sidekick is always by someone else’s side, always working with the other, helping the other, defending the other, allowing the other to get a combat advantage. Batman had Robin, the Green Hornet had Kato and so forth. Probably boring as all get go for PC use, but a great role for NPC characters and monsters.
Classical example: So you have your classic combat condition, two grunts (defenders) a big guy you want to take out and a sidekick. The attacker heads right towards the two grunts (one against two … no one ever said they were smart). The striker goes around the grunts to aim for the big guy only to be intercepted by the sidekick who wants to protect his guy. The controller then through terrain changes or mind control changes the attitude of the second defender so they don’t dog pile on the attacker. The leader then gives a warning to the striker to allow him to avoid the sidekick,
Note at this point I never really defined what their basic things are. Are they using swords, or magic, or whatever. That is determined by another parameter. Sword users can literally be all roles. Magic users can be all roles. Some combinations have classic class names, some do not. I would like to call the second item, for the moment the “Source” (so far I have four sources, might, dexterity, knowledge and wisdom that correspond roughly to fighter/rogue/wizard/cleric).
Note: When I write about roles, I mean “combat roles.” Eventually we need to write up the social system (there is but one system and its name is simple; hasn’t anyone learned from the mess that was the original AD&D), and then we can define both combat roles and social roles (and they can be different). I want to talk about “combat roles” and how they fit into classes. I’m going to use a lot of metaphors here for combat; American Football will be a very common one. (Chess may seem like an obvious one but in that game no piece has any defence whatsoever; they attack you and you die.)
The Attacker: This is called the “defender” in 4E but I believe the defender should defend. The attacker is the basic form of fighting. The basic notion of an attacker is that he goes from point A to point B attacking every enemy in his path. Let’s think of this in football. The quarterback passes the ball to the running back that goes straight up the middle bashing as many people as are currently in his way. In a more modern war approach, these are the people who stormed the beaches at Iwo Jima and Normandy. It’s good old hack and slash, and really, there’s nothing wrong with a little hack and slash.
The Defender: This is the “hold the line” type of guy. It’s not like if the guy in front of you dies, you move up; you hold the line. You are keeping them from attacking your important roles in the party. You can move up, but only as a line. In football these are the guys on the offense that block the attackers from getting to the quarterback. In the 18th century age of muskets, these were the men who formed the musket line of fire, moving up only as a group (this is a good point to mention that different styles work with different roles, although the classic musket did have a bayonet for when the enemy was in melee range).
The Striker: The goal of the striker is to “avoid the middle man.” Unlike the attacker who would not want to avoid the person in front of him, least he have the person in front of him now attacking his back, the striker avoids all opponents in-between himself and the goal. He can do this by two methods, ranged attacks or stealth that avoids defender’s blocking him or attackers getting attacks of opportunity. Now one might suggest that these are two separate notions and probably should be placed in their own roles, but in fact even a range weapon user needs to be able to avoid the middle man when that middle man attempts to enter melee. In football, we can see the striker as the wide receivers, or the running backs that don’t go up the middle but run around the line. In most warfare, we would call these people sharpshooters, or (gasp) Rangers.
The Controller: So far we have been dealing with man to man combat, with one of those men being the person in question. But what if you want to influence someone else’s combat? The controller, “arranges” the battle field, forcing attackers to move in some directions and not in other directions. There really is no equivalent in football, but in 18th century warfare, there was a controller of sorts. That was the canon. The canon wasn’t the same as would be seen in the next century. It was a bull in a china shop, throwing a ball that would bounce down the field taking out whoever was in front of it. (Remember, break a leg, especially with a compound fracture and it’s either death or amputation.) Green troops would panic at the sight of one of those coming. Good defenders would rejoice that it didn’t hit them, be relieved that it’s hard to move one of those canons and keep moving slowly forward along with the rest of the remaining line. Changing the terrain and causing emotional responses that gets the opponent to move as you want them to is control.
The Leader: The leader provides his expertise to aid and assist his allies in whatever means are at the leader’s disposal. “Hey Joe Fighter, watch out for that Troll to your right.” The knight in shining armour, George Washington on his white horse, are both leaders in the very classical sense.
Finally, we have the Sixth role, one designed mostly for NPC use. The Sidekick: The sidekick is always by someone else’s side, always working with the other, helping the other, defending the other, allowing the other to get a combat advantage. Batman had Robin, the Green Hornet had Kato and so forth. Probably boring as all get go for PC use, but a great role for NPC characters and monsters.
Classical example: So you have your classic combat condition, two grunts (defenders) a big guy you want to take out and a sidekick. The attacker heads right towards the two grunts (one against two … no one ever said they were smart). The striker goes around the grunts to aim for the big guy only to be intercepted by the sidekick who wants to protect his guy. The controller then through terrain changes or mind control changes the attitude of the second defender so they don’t dog pile on the attacker. The leader then gives a warning to the striker to allow him to avoid the sidekick,
Note at this point I never really defined what their basic things are. Are they using swords, or magic, or whatever. That is determined by another parameter. Sword users can literally be all roles. Magic users can be all roles. Some combinations have classic class names, some do not. I would like to call the second item, for the moment the “Source” (so far I have four sources, might, dexterity, knowledge and wisdom that correspond roughly to fighter/rogue/wizard/cleric).
