I started making a really simple game that would be easy for kids to learn. At first, I wanted to stick pretty close to D&D 3.5. I sketched out some concepts for class and race, for example:
Wizard:
Strength: 1
Speed: 2
Magic: 3
Skills: detect magic, identify magic, read magic
Bear:
Strength: 3
Speed: 2
Magic: 1
Abilities: charge, threaten
A wizard-bear character would then have 4 strength, 4 speed and 4 magic. Pretty lame combo - a bear fighter would do much better in combat, even if he couldn't use magic. The problem with this is it would lead to character stereotypes - bears will always be fighters, and fighters will always be bears, which is uninteresting.
This led me to discard the class and race concepts in favor of a classless, raceless point-buy system. Players get 12 points to distribute between strength, speed and magic. You can pretend to be a wizard-bear if you want because your race doesn't affect your stats. This would lead to greater variety, but there's no longer any reason to care.
So, in the case of a simple game, does adding a race concept make the game more interesting or less? Discuss.
Wizard:
Strength: 1
Speed: 2
Magic: 3
Skills: detect magic, identify magic, read magic
Bear:
Strength: 3
Speed: 2
Magic: 1
Abilities: charge, threaten
A wizard-bear character would then have 4 strength, 4 speed and 4 magic. Pretty lame combo - a bear fighter would do much better in combat, even if he couldn't use magic. The problem with this is it would lead to character stereotypes - bears will always be fighters, and fighters will always be bears, which is uninteresting.
This led me to discard the class and race concepts in favor of a classless, raceless point-buy system. Players get 12 points to distribute between strength, speed and magic. You can pretend to be a wizard-bear if you want because your race doesn't affect your stats. This would lead to greater variety, but there's no longer any reason to care.
So, in the case of a simple game, does adding a race concept make the game more interesting or less? Discuss.