At the school I teach at, I run weekly games for students. This year, I want to run an open table game set in a slightly gonzo fantasy world, where an ancient empire has suddenly fallen into decline. Power is fragmented, and seemingly up for grabs. Alongside local governments various organisations are vying for power.
Here's three such organisations for the classic three: variations on Fighters, Thieves and Wizards (format inspired by unions from bastionland, the GLoG from goblinpunch, and materialist progression from adventures buffo.)
Condemned Conscript
Your lives were forfeit the moment you went down the path of crime. Only through facing death can your humanity be redeemed.
Gear: A helmet, a spear, a shield and a pouch of blood red berries.
Duty: Answer the call when the Vanguard is deployed in war.
Stipulation: You must wear a noose around your neck while you are serving your sentence.
Rituals: After you are convicted to serve in the Condemned Vanguard your fellow convicts will put you through one of the following rituals. Those that serve another campaign, willingly or as punishment for a crime, will be put through a ritual they have not gone through before.
Corpse Mimicry: Participants eat the flesh of a rotting cadaver and afterwards lay still to imitate the corpse.
From now on you are able to perfectly mimic a corpse. Only through magical means can it be determined that you are actually alive.
However, you always smell of rotting flesh, no matter how much you wash or perfume yourself.
Honourless Fighting: Every participant brings something they value deeply. They throw it on a pyre, after which they have a massive brawl until the fire dies down.
From now on you feel no shame at fighting dirty. You perform dirty tricks with such ease that your first trick against an unsuspecting foe always succeeds.
However, something about you seems shady to strangers, making it harder to earn their trust.
Amour Filling: Each of you wears the Universally Ill-fitting Curas in turn. The wearer gets pummelling until their flesh swells to fit the uncomfortable breastplate.
From now on you can alter the shape of your body to fit snugly in any suit of armour or clothing meant for human-shaped and -sized creatures you happen across.
However, after you alter your size, your body feels battered and bruised for the rest of the day.
Wound Knitting: A sacrificial goat is opened up at sunset. Together participants push on the wound to stop the bleeding until dawn, and the healed goat is set free.
From now on you can stop any wound from bleeding given enough time. Major wounds take minutes and lethal wounds can take up to an hour.
However, knitted wounds reopen under even relatively minor stress and most wounds will require additional care to heal.
Unionised Thief
The Haves stole our wealth, wrote the laws and called it legal. We Have Nots will steal it back, write rules of our own and fight injustice.
Gear: a crowbar, a hand drill, a length of rope, and a glow tortoise.
Duty: Enforce the Union’s monopoly when the need arises.
Stipulation: You may not steal from the poor, nor from fellow union members.
Rituals: When you join the Union of Thievery you are expected to partake in one of the following rituals to show your dedication to the cause. Those who contribute to the Union in major ways are expected to humble themselves by participating in a ritual they have not yet participated in.
Sticky Digits: During a new moon, participants continuously skin their hands and feet as thicker, rougher skin quickly grows back after each peel.
From now on your hands and feet can always find grip, even when climbing near vertical walls, and you have a strong hold on everything you keep in your hands.
However, it is harder for you to get out of sticky situations as others have a stronger grip on you whenever they try to grapple you.
Appraising Eye: Participants swap one of their eyes with each other, looking through the eyes of each other participant until they regain their own eye.
From now on you can tell at a glance how much someone values whatever it is they are looking at or talking about.
However, strangers feel threatened under your gaze, causing them to react accordingly whenever they initially meet you.
Stomach Pocket: Each participant consumes the stomachs of various regurgitating creatures. They then regurgitate all but one, which is assimilated by the body.
From now on you can store things in a pocket in your stomach. Whatever you store must be able to pass down you gullet, but weighs nothing while stored like this.
However, on a gut level people can feel you are hiding something from them. You are met with suspicion wherever you go.
Rubber Joints: Participants are covered in liquid rubber, while squirming on the ground, involuntarily bending in impossible ways.
From now on you are able to contort your body every which way, allowing you to pass through any hole your head fits through.
However, your joints might slip involuntarily whenever you are under a lot of physical pressure, causing you to collapse momentarily.
Dream Scholar
All spells are chaos. Dreams are our connection to chaos. To master ones dreams is to master magic.
Gear: a flask of milk, a down pillow, a heavy blanket, and a dream journal.
Duty: Present a new spell to the Academy at the end of every semester.
Stipulation: You are forbidden from using magic to directly influence politics and wars.
Rituals: When you enroll into the Academy of Dreams, you'll have undergone one of the following rituals. Outstanding members have a chance to participate in rituals they haven't yet participated in.
Bath of Expanded Dreams: Participants sleep in a bath of warm milk, while lullabies about magical phenomena are sung.
From now on, your dreams are about theoretical magics giving you access to a number of random spells each night. You also grow two small lumps on your skull which store captured spells.
However, from now on you become incredibly sleepy when the sun goes down.
Meditation of Lucid Slumber: Participants sleep in a circle while the Dream Shepherd describes the Idol of Sheep in vivid detail.
From now on, you can revisit something exceptional you have seen while awake in your dreams and capture it as a spell. You also grow a small lump on your skull which stores captured spells.
However, you can only get a good night’s rest on a specialised pillow.
Synchronised Sleep: Lay with heads together while synchronising your breathing in a room filled with steam of chamomile tea.
From now on you are able to invade the dreams of others when you rest your heads next to theirs, allowing you to learn spells based on their dreams. You also grow two small lumps on your skull which store captured spells.
However, your sleep becomes incredibly deep, making you hard to wake.
Binding of the Dream Beast: Attract a Dream Beast with a saucer of honey and keep it engaged in conversation until the break of dawn.
From now on a Dream Beast functions as your familiar. It will follow your orders to the best of its ability, but can only interact with other Dream creatures or creatures that are dreaming. You also grow a small lump on your skull which stores captured spells.
However, you need to drink warm milk with honey or your sleep is restless.
Final Thoughts
This way of making classes is pretty fun. It is close to GLoG classes with the 4 templates, making them relatively easy to cobble together, but the addition of the rituals from bastionland makes them both more silly (which I like) and 'grounded' in the setting (which means my brain doesn't hurt).
I'm pretty happy with these, but I'll see if the students like them as well. As I have about 14 players (spread into 2 groups) I'll probably want to make a few more of these, which should be relatively easy as I have rough versions of among others a paladin, a witch and a ranger.
With the first session starting soon, I'll have to get a move on and finish at least those three before then.
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