In The Way of the Earth the players take on the role of vaishineph, returned souls, individuals who lived mortal lives, died, and then are resurrected by the power of a minor deity called an aihalan. The aihalan imbues the vaishineph with supernatural powers and tasks them with tearing apart the military and ideological strength of the five oppressive kingdoms who dominate the land and the royal cults who stand at their head. The vaishineph, however, remember next to nothing of their former lives, and only slowly reclaim these memories over time. The life of a vaishineph is lived as a wandering servant of their aihalan in the shadows of society, working and plotting with other vaishineph, striking at targets of opportunity before fading away, and fighting for the liberation of the common folk in everything they do.
In The Way of the Earth a character’s class represents the profession they had in their moral life. A class grants a character their starting equipment and resources, bonus attributes and knowledge, and their initial resolve and willpower which dictates how many physical and mental hit points they have. A class also grants four feats that the character learns over time which enhances the character’s abilities in certain kinds of conflicts. Finally, a class grants a skill, which is a unique ability that a character can perform with a few minutes time and concentration that contributes some options and utility to their group. All told, classes in The Way of the Earth are much lighter sorts of things than classes in other role-playing games. These handful of class based abilities can be compared to a package of skills in a skill based game, and are, by design, much more open ended in terms of their mechanical benefits than the kinds of abilities awarded in other class based games.
- The Fortune Teller’s feat, Ruinous Omen, allows them to multiply the negative consequences of opponent failures in any kind of conflict, be that high seas naval warfare or high stakes political negotiation.
- The Overseer’s feat, Painful Demonstration, allows them to deal extra fear damage to all nearby opponents when they land a successful attack, be that a martial attack or social attack, making them equally effective with a giant crescent axe or intimidating words.
Classes are also not the only way that player characters define themselves in The Way of the Earth. While each player character has a class, representing their life prior to their resurrection, each player character also has a calling, representing their life after their resurrection. A calling is like a second class. Instead of improving a character’s mortal skills and abilities, a calling grants evocations which enhance a player character’s Whispers. A Whisper is like a spell in another fantasy setting, and every vaishineph player character can use The Way of the Earth’s open ended magic system to Whisper with a variety of effects. But each calling also provides a number of unique evocations which modify these Whispers, acting like adverbs to the Whisper’s verbs, and empowering the Whispers to achieve new things.
- The Hand calling grants the evocation “…from the violent edge” causing a Whisper modified with the evocation to channel its power through a readied weapon and multiply its effectiveness against a target struck by it.
- The Voice calling grants the evocation “…with a halted moment” causing a Whisper modified with the evocation to slow time in the caster’s favor, allowing themselves or an ally to get in an extra action before any opponent can react.
The role that a player character in The Way of the Earth adopts for their group is defined by a combination of their class and calling choices, which work together to create a unique path of character advancement.
With that in mind, here are four briefly stated goals that The Way of the Earth’s class mechanics hope to achieve.
1. Satisfy the archetype desires of those drawn to the biblical setting
The Way of the Earth’s Chaesharin and actual history’s 8th-6th century BC Levant are very similar in many regards. The geography and cultures, people groups and languages, levels of technology and religious mythology all have points of immediate and intentional comparison. Many of the major events and characters in the biblical books between Exodus and 2nd Kings have reflections in Chaesharin’s history. There is a Moses figure and an exodus type event, there is a Joshua figure and conquest period, there is David figure and a rising monarchy, and there is a group of foreign invaders and the shadow of exile on the horizon. No doubt many of the people interested in The Way of the Earth will be interested in part because of its dark and mythic biblical setting. And many of these people will come to the table with certain biblically inspired expectations about what kinds of characters they will want to play. To a certain degree, as a designer, it would be irresponsible to not find a way to accommodate these expectations, at least in part, even if The Way of the Earth has a large number of unique setting elements. As a result, one goal of the class system in The Way of the Earth is to satisfy these expectations. The game would be doing a disservice to its player base if there was not some way to play some of the biblical narratives’ most iconic characters, like Moses and Joshua, like David and Goliath, and like Samson and Delilah. The Way of the Earth’s twenty classes strive to hit most of these major archetypes. On the other side of the coin, there is no class in The Way of the Earth that does not have some point of resonance with the biblical narratives, be that an explicit character that the class is related to, or a specific event that the class embodies. For every class you can point to a verse or chapter and say, there, this is where it comes from, even if the inspiration is heavily dramatized.
2. Satisfy the archetype desires of experienced role-players
There are some role-players with deeply ingrained preferences when it comes to the characters they play and the roles they prefer to adopt. Some people always play the brash wizard and look for the most dangerous and most colorful spells they can. Some people always play the charming thief and try to smooth talk their way out of every situation. Some people always play the tanky fighter with the largest weapons and armor that gold coins and blood can buy. For these players, different settings are just different coats of paint for their time tested roles. No doubt some of the people interested in The Way of the Earth will simply know that it is a somewhat unique fantasy setting, and a place where they can swing new kinds of swords and sling new kinds of spells. And again, many of these people will come to the table with certain role-playing game conventions in mind about what kinds of characters and roles they will want to play. One goal of The Way of the Earth’s class system is to satisfy these players as well and this is where the game’s callings really shine. There are five callings in The Way of the Earth, and, while a bit simplistic, it can be helpful to think of the callings as roughly corresponding to traditional fantasy character tropes. The Eye calling, for example, lends itself to being played as a sneaky, roguish type, whereas the Hand calling lends itself to being played as the aggressive fighter or ranger type. The Way of the Earth’s system allows these callings to be chosen independently of a character’s class, so that players can use the callings to focus in on a traditional adventuring party role that they like while their class can give expression to role-playing desires or utility skills.
3. Satisfy at least some of the desires of those who enjoy skill based games
Some people who play role-playing games have long given up on class based games. It could be a result of simply preference, or because of the number of legitimate critiques that can often be brought to bear against class based games. In many role-playing games, a class is chosen at the beginning of the game and it locks the player character into a rather narrow path of customization and advancement. While a player character’s class and calling are indeed chosen at the beginning of the game in The Way of the Earth, the feats awarded by classes and the evocations awarded by callings are both more flexible than class abilities in other games. Additionally, player characters in The Way of the Earth also progress in other ways that players are free to choose later in their character’s development. Player characters gain trait points that they use to improve attributes and develop special skills according to their choice of kind. Player characters deepen their relationships with the various in game factions, which gets them access to new items and information. And player characters master their own choices of Whispers, which not only improve those Whispers, but also unlock access to other magic components out of which they can build and cast even more Whispers. So while it would incorrect to call The Way of the Earth a skill based game, its diverse systems of customization and advancement mimic many of the advantages of skill based games while attempting to avoid some of the limiting pitfalls of class based games.
4. Subvert and transform all of these desires for a dark fantasy setting
The fourth and final goal of The Way of the Earth’s class mechanics is to subvert and transform the desires players bring in to the game. The Way of the Earth is a fantasy setting, and it is a fantasy setting based in a biblically inspired world, but at its heart, The Way of the Earth is also a dark game about personal tragedy and redemption. Chaesharin is terrifying and oppressive. Characters are trapped between the violence and poverty inflicted by decadent regimes and the unthinkable alien horror of demons and other supernal beings. There are opportunities for heroism, but they are costly, painful, and leave deep and abiding scars on bodies and souls. No character class in The Way of the Earth is a towering beacon of martial prowess and righteous victory. That confidence and assurance is never offered to players in the game. The Way of the Earth’s character classes reflect relatively mundane professions that everyday sorts of folk would have. No one was an adventurer or champion in their mortal lives. No one begins their resurrected life fully prepared for the trials and tribulations they will face. A class in The Way of the Earth represents the rather desperate and hasty process of transforming a past life’s skills into weapons the vaishineph can use to survive in their resurrected lives. Players all of backgrounds will find that the classes and roles that they imagined playing are more complex than they had imagined. Classes sometimes offer unexpected abilities that seem to go against their primary purpose, or other abilities that reflect deep insecurities and fears that might come with the profession. Classes are frequently effective beyond their stereotypical scope, and weak in areas where an archetype might suggest strength. In the end, classes are less about heroic progression, and more as a means of keeping characters alive long enough to learn more about themselves and why the world around them is so broken and haunted.
Next Sunday I will be writing about character progression, and how classes, callings, and levels tie in to the player characters’ road to personal redemption in this broken world.
- ABH
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