Class Design: Superspy Game II

Let's continue our superspy game OGL-based class design. Remember last time, we were stuck with the problem of what to do with our Technician and Investigator classes. Our Assassin (combat aligned) and Con Man (role playing aligned) classes were fine. Here are the problems with each:

Investigator: This class feels like it would be boring to play for many players, being the guy who looks for clues, cracks codes, and searches through documents. In a more action-oriented game, who would want to play a class relegated to paperwork?

Technician: At least the Investigator gets to do their paperwork during play, but the technician gets to setup gear, crack computer codes, defeat security systems, and fix vehicles. Most of these activities are one time affairs, or even worse, done off-stage, "Okay, while Mike sets up the listening gear, we get to go to the party and talk with the ambassador...." Picking this class means you get to work on the gear, while the other players get to do the fun stuff.

Again, some players may love these activities, and if you write rules well for these, they may be perfectly fine classes. But, we are working in a more simple action-oriented game like Basic D&D - but with spies. We need to focus the classes on action and adventure, and make every choice a fun one. Let's pivot the class designs as follows:

I will propose merging the two classes into a Specialist class, a master of using spy gear to obtain information. Since many missions rely on gathering info, or keeping that info from dropping into the wrong hands, the specialist becomes a key person who gets to use the cool listening devices, pick locks, breaks the codes, and notices the hidden laser alarm system. The focus goes from passive (search and fix) to active (use gear to do cool stuff), and cleans up the number of classes to three.

This is only one way to design classes for a game world, and your ideas could go along a totally different take on things. It is important to think of the "fun" for each class, and even bring in things like combat modifiers. There is a port of the DnD 3.5 rules system that attempts to do a modern rules set, and it sticks to the source material too closely. Paramedics in this system are based off of clerics, and are the second best fighters in the game. It's an odd choice, and it shows a little too much reliance on the original design, rather than starting fresh and coming up with things that work and are fun.