Here… another, and more direct way to get to Treyvan. Anyone who wants to play D&D and can’t find a group or time, really should check it out.
Also, I am given to understand that the d20 Call of Cthulhu which just came out has a classless system, in which one could presumably build all those folks listed.
However, I haven’t had a chance to play yet (nor will, sadly, for a while) so I dunno for sure.
I havn’t either, but D20 Modern, which is the prototype behind CoC, will still have the problem with characters starting out with “more than nothing.” Temporal power, monetary power, what-have you, are, generally, supposed to be achieved by adventuring.
Now, some games aren’t like that, but it’ll be interesting to see how they handle it. My opinion, though, is to invoke Rule 0. You want to do something? Get the DM to tell you, okay, you can do it. There. Done.
I find that most D&D characters are rather generic. Not in capability, but in character. Most of the people I’ve played with have a basic story, and can do what almost every other character of that class can.
Really interesting D&D characters are unique. There’s something about them that makes them one of a kind. It frequently means going outside the class skill list. It sometimes means weakening a character type’s in game abilities to create a more interesting person, although this part depends on how much fighting or skill checking is going to be going on.
I’ve run one adventure using the no CoC rules, and it is, indeed, a classless system. Or rather, there are two classes: offensive and defensive. Offensive gets better attack bonuses, defensive gets better save bonuses. Then you pick a profession, which is just a list of class skills. There are a dozen or so professions listed in the book, and making up new ones is just a matter of picking the appropriate skills. I was surprised at how well d20 adapted to Call of Cthulhu. My group of four players rolled up characters in about an hour, despite having to share one rulebook, and everyone quickly found a “voice” for their characters. I’m looking forward to running it again.
My only real beef with the new rulebook is the amount of space wasted giving stats for Great Old Ones. It was fun, at first, finding out what Nyarlathotep’s AC is, or how many attacks per round Hastur gets, but ultimately, how useful is this information going to be? There’re a good twenty five pages of stats for creatures with an average CR of 30+. Even in the most Monty Hall-ish, uber-twinked D&D game, how often are you going to need these stats? To say nothing of the underpowered shoggoth snacks that are your typical CoC character. I wish they’d saved the Old Ones for a supplement and used the space for an extra adventure or two.