This is a quick interlude between my discussions of anti-patterns to discuss something I find very interesting. That series will continue after this article.
Types of TTRPGs
There are two main varieties of TTRPG, Class Based like D&D and Skill based like Traveller, GURPS, and “World Of Darkness” games.
In my time playing TTRPGs I have mostly played Class Based games, though I have played a few Skill Based ones over the years (more than a few if you count video games like Path of Exile). I have found I greatly prefer the simplicity of Class Based TTRPGSs to the complexity and build focused nature of Skill based TTRPGs.
The Problem
I don’t really like Skill Based systems, yet I like the flexibility that you get in Skill Based systems and none of the many variants of Class Based system ever seem to scratch that itch. Perhaps this comes from playing too many video games like the venerable “Final Fantasy Tactics” where I have literally made a teleporting, fast-talking, gun-slinging Cleric, despite it being class based. This was only possible because the computer did a lot of messy math for me on the multi-classing insanity of making that character and tracking its progression. Try making that character concept in a Class Based TTRPG. It simply can’t be done; or if it can the character will be so multi-classed that he will very likely be mediocre at all the things he can do, and it will have taken way to long, long time to figure out how to build him. This sort of character is easier to make in a Skill Based game; just go down the Skill List until you get skills for guns, teleportation, healing magic, and specific social skills. Yet, to know how to build this character well in a Skill Based game will take serious system mastery, a mind for character build optimization, and a good amount of time spent optimizing it. This process is something many do NOT enjoy, myself included. The other problem is you have to come up with the character idea and sometimes that idea is still not build able in the skill system (I ran across this in the oldish RPG “Exalted 2e”). One common solution to this problem is just following a character build from an online guide. But riddle me this, if you are following the online guide by wrote, then logically you simply get a pre-perscribed list of skills defined by someone else, and how exactly is that any different than a Class? You have lost all the flexibility of the Skill Based system. Similarly the more Class Based RPGs try to give you character options like a Skill Based RPG might, the more they lose the benefits and simplicity of being Class Based. Just look at D&D 3.5e or any version of Pathfinder to see what happens when you have many skills, feats, high levels of multi-classing nonsense and complicated classes with multiple paths that can vary wildly from PC to PC. You basically have ended up with all the issues Skill Bases systems have and few of the benefits of those systems, and have lost most of the benefits of Class Based RPGs like simplicity, speed of character creation, and the ability to easily focus on the character instead of the character build. I know that these types of Class Based systems can work for a while, but they eventually turn into a complete mess and have a tendency to completely burn out players. Neither system by itself gets me what I want.
I think the OSR stumbled on this realization about Class Based RPGs a long time ago, and it is one of the many reasons they tend to prefer a the very clearly defined and overly simple classes found in B/X and its seemingly limitless number of OSR-created variants. Yet, I think B/X classes are too simple, sometimes way too simple (see the B/X Fighter), and there is little room for flexibility. I want a happy medium. I want a class based system that is still simple, has well defined classes, and yet flexible enough to make whatever I want. After looking at a plethora of Class Based RPGs I have come to the sad conclusion that such a system does not exist, and likely can not exist. Thus no Class Based or Skill Based system can get me what I want.
But there is an obscure, nearly forgotten, stunted shrub of a third RPG System Type that might do the trick called a Track Based RPG.
The Third Way: Tracks
At this point it is worth asking. “what are Tracks and what makes something a Track Based RPG?” Tracks are a tightly themed building blocks of a class and are basically a list abilities, like stealing, or shooting bows, or arcane magic that must be taken as a whole. Selecting a Track is kind of like committing to buy an entire themed tree of skills from a skill based game at character creation, even though you wont get the various feats and abilities until a later levels. A Track should be small, contained, and very focused to “do one thing and do it well” (a design philosophy I appreciate as Unix/Linux guy). Tracks should be something like, just the thief skills and not things like backstabbing and defensive abilities, or just the spell casting from clerics and not Turn Undead and others abilities.
In general in Track Based RPGs each PC is made of 3 Tracks to provide abilities, which are slotted into some kind of Template to fill out the Hit Dice, Attack Bonus, Saves, etc. These RPGS do not allow multi-classing as every character is basically already multi-classed through their selection of the tracks. In fact, if I recall correctly which I might not, Tracks were invented as a way to solve mutli-classing issues in Class Based RPGs derived from D&D 3.X.
The History
To my knowledge there have been only TWO explicitly Track Based RPGs published, both are woefully incomplete (neither have a bestiary!!), are a bit corny, and gained little traction.
Legend, the First Track Based TTRPG
As far as I know, the first Track Based system to be published is called “Legend” by a now-defunct company called “Rule of Cool” in 2011. The company name alone should tip you off that this a rather silly game, and a quick look at the Track names and art will tell you all you need to know. In fact I seem to recall one of the developers saying something like “If your character can’t fly or teleport by level three, you’re doing it wrong.” Not my style these days, but I digress. Legend itself is an extremely homebrewed version of D&D 3.5e, and if I am honest it was way ahead of its time, even despite its shortcomings. All that said, the main thing that caught my attention about it was the Track System.
In Legend each Class contained three or more Tracks that gave the Class all of its abilities. The class itself determined things like hit dice, attack bonus, and saves. If you played the Class straight you just picked three Tracks from those native to the Class, but you also had the option to swap out one (or two for a penalty) of your Class’s Tracks for Tracks from any other Class, or even from Tracks that were sort of free-floating and not attached to any Class. To me this is the nascent form of a pure Track System which later Track based Games would use.
Want to be a Rogue that can cast Divine Magic? Just swap one of the Rogue Tracks for Shaman’s (Cleric) Spellcasting Track. Its literally that easy, no muss, no fuss, no character build nonsense eating hours of your time. That Character can now do Rogue things like sneak and backstab, and cast like a full fledged Cleric. Want to that same Rogue be able to rage like a Barbarian or have hand-to-hand skills like a Monk? Just swap out one more track. Done. The Track System was a really good idea but as I said Legend itself was a pretty incomplete game, and despite getting some initial traction, it never never took off and eventually sputtered out by around 2014.
I tried running this back in 2011, but the lack of bestiary really killed it for me. It was WAY too much work as a DM to make monsters from Tracks (a bad idea that was core to Legend), and the power level was just ridiculous.
You can still get a PDF copy of Legend here for free: Legend PDF.
If you want to try to play Legend, I strongly recommend using these community expansions made/compiled my a person called “Koeh” from the “Giant in the Playground” forums.
It’s actually playable with those added.
The Stuff of Legends
The second game that uses tracks is called “The Stuff of Legends” (TSoL for short), and was made by some fans of Legend in an attempt to make a re-thought, improved, and more complete version of the game. Whoever “Koeh” is, was seemingly not involved. It still has no bestiary… but it does have tools to “quickly” generate monsters, so that is honestly an improvement over vanilla legend. Sadly much like Legend itself, this game comes off feeling rather odd and almost like a superhero themed game. This is likely due to the system attempting to be usable for almost any setting (which is almost always a bad idea). Again the main interesting thing about TSoL is the improved Track System that no longer has any base classes. Tracks in TSoL are broken in three types, Major, Minor and Innate. Just pick one of each Track type, and boom done. No build planning, No Starting Class to swap from, no skill trees, its just done; you now have a custom Class made from those three Tracks. Everyone has the same base HP and gains Track their abilities at the same set levels. Simple, but it works. All in all its is a good system but simply not my style of game. The game is still under development and may even eventually get some missing TTRPG features like a bestiary, random map/dungeon generation, random encounter tables, reaction table, morale rules, mass combat rules, or a faction system (which is likely a very, very tall order for a game that is trying to be an almost universal system.)
For now it is what it is, and you can download a free PDF of the game here: https://stuffoflegends.games/
Both games are worth reading at the very least, even if TSoL is not easily playable due to the aforementioned lack of bestiary.
Early 5e Hacking
There is one more Track based game, its a hack of 5.0e D&D simply called “D&D Next Hack” by “Knight90 of the Wizards of the Coast Forums.” It simply swaps out the class system in 5e for a track system. This is really just a fan made splat book expansion for 5e since it is completely reliant on 5e for everything aside from the tracks (spells, items, and all mechanics are 5e). I’m going to call it “Legend 5e” for short. Legend 5e has a system where you first pick a class Template to fill with tracks from “Warrior,” “Mage Knight,” and “Mage” and each lets you pick a specific number of “Martial” and/or “Magic” tracks. These Templates determine how the character progresses with respect to Proficiency Bonus, level of Magic, ability score improvement etc, but the class abilities and spells themselves are all from tracks.
It looks like a very playable system, and if I knew 5e well enough I would actually give it a run. It seems to roughly be what I want, though I can’t help but feel there is serious room for improvement in light of old school gaming. Such as turning B/X’s “Race as Class” into a “Race as Track” system. All in all I really like it.
It’s definitely worth looking at, and honestly is something like what D&D 5.5e should have been or 6e should be.
You can find it for free here: Legend 5e PDF
Why Do I Care?
I think Tracks are basically a generalization (in the math/physics sense) of both Classes from Class Based RPGS and Skills from Skill Based RPGs. What I mean is if you take the Track Based design to an extreme in one direction you get Classes and in the other direction you get Skills. Make Tracks very complex and only give PCs one of them, and you have Classes. Make Tracks literally one ability and let PCs have as many as they want, and you get Skills.
This is what I am looking for, this is the generalized version of both Class Based and Skill Based RPGs that can solve my problem presented at the beginning of the article. I think there is a lot of room to develop and expand the idea. For example things like Legend 5e’s Templates seem like a good improvement over Legend’s swapping tracks out of classes. It would be nice If one of these games existed with a more subdued power level, and more OSR sensibilities.
Will There Ever Be Another Track Based TTRPG?
Well sort of.
Koeh is apparently working on a rather direct successor to Legend called “Mythic Hallow” which you can download a preview of here. No idea if it will materialize into a full fledged game, but it is interesting to follow, and seemingly few if any people have more experience playing and running Legend and Track Based TTRPGs.
AND LASTLY
I have no Idea if “DM Blackwall” of “Blackwall Games” has heard of “Legend” or Track Based RPGs, but his newest game “Horde Wars Advanced” is quite debatably a Track Based RPG.
In “Horde Wars Advanced” players pick two tightly themed sets of class abilities called “Careers,” which to me seem to just be Tracks by a different name. Like in TSoL, everyone basically gets the same progression as they level, aside from new Track abilities. So it’s actually not even that different from one of the two main Track Based TTRPGs.
If this game counts as Track based (A reasonably large if), then it has some oddities for one of these games. First it is very unique that you only get two Tracks; all the others use 3. Similarly, it is odd you get ALL the abilities (and Spells!) at level one aside from the Capstones, which are basically super abilities you can unlock from your race or from a chosen Track each time you get one.
That said, with only two Tracks chosen, a case can easily be made that this game is NOT Track based and merely a Class Based game with a forced mutli-classing system. Honestly I think either is a fair argument.
Only time will tell if Track Based RPGs catch on, but I can honestly say that I hope they do, as they seem to be they best future for TTRPG systems.
Going Forward
I would love to see a Track Based TTRPG with old school sensibilities. A game with one foot in the old and familiar and one foot in the new and unknown. A game with high lethality, fast combat, Dungeon Delving, Hex Crawling rules, AD&D style skills, Random generators for dungeons/maps, Racial Tracks, Stat/Race requirements for Tracks, monsters that are NOT Track based for simplicity, Travel rules for ships, economic rules, etc. Basically ACKS2 or AD&D with Tracks. Who knows? Maybe someday it will catch on.
EDIT:
It appears a NEW Track Based TTRPG has been released since I wrote this article. It is a Final Fantasy Fan Game called “Final Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaing Game Legend Edition.” I haven’t played it yet, but after reading through the rules it is very much based on Legend, looks well made, and unlike the other explicitly track based games, it has a bestiary! So it should be playable!
You can find it here, give it a look.
Neoclassical Geek Revival is a track-based game with old-school sensibilities. Although the designer dues not refer to itself that way. I think you can have up to three pieces of any class.
Check it out:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/373288/neoclassical-geek-revival-acidic-2nd-edition
https://www.neoclassicalgames.com/product-page/neoclassical-geek-revival
Barbarians of Lemuria has a career system as well. Your character can start adventuring after multiple careers or only one.
Nice piece. I posted a note earlier in the week about this very topic. I hadn't thought of Track Based as a category but it fits rather well.