In my judgement, class systems serve two purposes in RPGs. The first purpose is to provide some archetypes for players to express themselves. Roleplaying games are, first and foremost, a way for players to play the role of a fictional character—hence the name of the genre. Classes serve as a broad umbrella to allow the player to roleplay. Secondly, the class system is meant to limit what a player can do. For a roleplaying game to be stimulating, it must give meaning to player choices. If players have no limitations, then their choices are less significant. Insignificant choices disengage players. Conversely, choices with significant outcomes strengthen the player’s interest in the character. Choosing a class is one of the first significant choices a player makes in an RPG. Let’s talk more about limitations.

A game without limitations is not engaging. Limitations encourage players to stop and think, use strategy, and ultimately use creativity to be successful. In an MMO, limitations are what separate players by skill level. In a situation where limitations don’t exist, there is less variation between power ratios. We can think of this as “skill in” to “power out”. For example, a game where power is the same, regardless of skill, would have a 1:0 power ratio, meaning there is a 0% difference in power between players of different skill. A 1:1 ratio would mean that if player A is twice as skilled as player B, then player A would perform twice as well. Games with a low ratio are very welcoming to newbies, and tend to appeal to players until they get some skill. Veteran players might start raging if the skill:power ratio is too low. Although, veteran players have been known to rage if the skill required for average players is too difficult in cooperative scenarios. As with many things in life and game design, the optimal situation is balance.

Let’s examine resource systems.

Resource systems exist in games to provide limitations. In an RPG, resource systems include mana, health, energy, currency, and the like. The purpose is to encourage the player to use skill and strategy to overcome some limited resource. But historically, do they work? Let’s examine the mana, energy, or rage resources that exist in some large MMOs. They have a history of breaking. There are 3 basic outcomes of a mana resource that make games not fun to play. The first possible outcome is that you constantly run out of mana. This ruins the game experience, because instead of playing, you are waiting for mana to recharge. And because you’re going to run out of mana no matter what, there is really no strategy involved other than to just not cast any spells. This is called being mana-starved. Usually, the player and developer respond by increasing mana-gained-over time. This leads to a net-gain of main during gameplay, making it impossible to run out of mana. This is called a mana flood. Now, in perfect balance, the player chooses which spells to cast and manages mana by using lesser spells while waiting for mana to regain. The issue with this is that mana regeneration is still creating the bottleneck for what the player can accomplish, and this is usually a fixed number. In other words, the player’s power is determined by an in-game number, rather than by the player’s skill, and that defeats the whole purpose of having a resource system to begin with!

What’s worse is that every game with a spellcaster tends to use mana. For warriors, just invert the mana bar and call it a rage bar. These kinds of systems are cliché, antiquated, and fall prey to the same problems.

Let’s revisit what the purpose of a resource system should be. Ideally, it should create some kind of skill:power output. It should allow players who are more skilled to excel, while still allowing lesser skilled players to perform adequately for the vast majority of situations. If done properly, this should immerse new players in a fun experience of whimsical curiosity, allowing them to explore game mechanics without getting frustrated. It should also appease the veteran players who want to know that their greater skill makes them superior to players who have less practice.

Are there cases where a mana system fits the above criteria? Sure, but those are rare occurrences, and I would argue that the system is still overused and mediocre at best.

I have been looking at resource systems for Everheart in non-traditional ways. I see them as mini-games that help immerse the player in the combat without distracting them too much from the actual fight. In my next post I will discuss the class and resource system of Everheart in greater detail.