Classes for OD&D Barsoom

[Finarvyn]

Basically, it seems like one could limit an OD&D Barsoom campaign to three basic classes.
* Fighter -- a must, and the most common.
* Assassin -- rare but mentioned, so could certainly be there.
* Noble -- make it more gender neutral than "princess" :wink: This would be a person skilled in oration and diplomacy and other charisma stuff.

In my campaigns, my group hates to have more than one person playing a given class. So, for possible additonal options:
* Thief -- not specifially mentioned, as best as I remember, but one basic enough to fit into the genre.
* Sailor -- or pilot, or whatever you want to call it. Basically the navy equivalent to Fighter.
* Healer -- perhaps similar to a cleric, but with healing abilites which would be non-magical in origin.
* Ranger -- this could represent Barsoomians who grew up outside of cities; emphasis on tracking and hunting type skills.
* Bard -- also not mentioned, but with Barsoomian society being interested in the finer things in life I could see someone who sings to entertain the nobility. Not sure about spellcasting, but a mix of fighter and thief skills would probably work out fine.
* Psionicist? -- could there be a class with enhanced psionics? I mention this only because some players demand a magic-type class, and this would fit a Barsoomian game better than spellcasters would.

I know that this is a pretty hefty list of possible classes, but it would give some good options if you want them.

[coffee]

I'm not so sure about the Thief. It's been years, but I distinctly recall Burroughs stating that theft was virtually unknown on Barsoom. People didn't worry about others taking their stuff, so I don't see that a specific class of people experienced at such things would come about.

However, many of those skills would come in quite handy for a scout, which military forces throughout the ages have used, so I could easily see renaming the class for that purpose.

[Finarvyn]

Good catch, coffee. I had forgotten the part about theft being virtually unknown on Barsoom. A "scout" would make a lot more sense!

[thorswulf]

A ranger type class could work. There were those bowmen from some city in a large wooded canyon or some such thing. So a woodsy archer works.

[foster1941]

A "ranger-type" class would fit, but I don't think it would look much like D&D's Tolkien-derived ranger (with his mandated lawful alignment, spell-use, ability to use crystal balls, extraordinary followers at high levels, etc.). A class that's good at tracking and survival and attacking from ambush -- is this an actual separate class or just backstory/flavor for a fighter?

[coffee]

You could combine attributes of both the Thief and the Ranger to make a Scout. I think that would make the most sense, given what has been noted above.

[Finarvyn]

foster1941 said:

A "ranger-type" class would fit, but I don't think it would look much like D&D's Tolkien-derived ranger

No, I wasn't thinking about anything remotely Aragorn-like.

While the Red Martians appear to be mostly city-dwellers, the Greens at least were nomadic. I could see some sort of class where Martians might "live off the land" by tracking and foraging, which sounds at least semi-Ranger-like to me.

[Deleted]

I will have to dig the Barsoom books out and reread them. I have always wanted to do and OD&D Barsoom. The things already posted above are firing me up to do something with it.