As Wastewalker develops a following and the rules are refined, we’re going to take some time to call out various rules variations and adjustments Wastewalker makes. We hope that doing so showcases some of the different, and fun, elements of the game without making reading through the whole of the new rules text cumbersome!
Anyone reviewing the classes of Wastewalker will notice a few things, but perhaps rather prominently is that despite the multitude of classes the Starfinder Roleplaying Game supports, there are exactly three base classes covered in the Wastewalker playtest pdf: the envoy, the operative, and the soldier. So, why?
Going back to some of the core design goals of Wastewalker, a big factor is the ability to quickly draft characters, and their powers, and the ability to quickly riff with one another and develop the setting, adventures, and more. Going over even the core classes in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, we have a great number of options of varying complexity and that tends to slow things down.
Delving a little deeper into the d20 game engine, there was the Unearthed Arcana rules released some time ago which offered a plethora of alternative options for characters, classes, monsters, and more. One of those options was for a set of new, unique, “generic” base classes: the expert, the spellcaster, and the warrior. In essence, these are the three real core functions of a character in a d20 party: on one end of the spectrum, you have a class who is specialized in interesting arts and abilities (the spellcaster). On the other, you have a class rooted in brute force and raw combat power (the warrior). And then, in the middle, you have a class that straddles the line (the expert). Original drafts of Wastewalker started with these three roles in mind, and after adjusting and shifting to Starfinder as the base for development that idea stuck with me. Reviewing the core classes, the envoy, the operative, and the soldier leapt out as deftly filling out those roles, in spades.
As fantastic as the post-apocalyptic world can be, my own desire was for something a little more grounded and less fantasy fantastical. As well, I find magic, spells, etc. a bit more difficult to balance out well without disrupting a setting. Theoretically, the magical classes could be reskinned to something far less mystical and something more technical, but that introduces a lot of work for not as much reward and it felt like too many players would still just feel like they are playing a magical character with a dirty coat of paint. Avoiding the particular classes of the mystic and technomancer, and even the more complex solarian, let me set aside those concerns without doing them injustice by trying to shoehorn them in.
After that, it ultimately came down to the original classes, and abilities, I had wanted to work with. Moving systems from Pathfinder to Starfinder meant that a lot of certain work was done, but it also meant that the Starfinder characters brought their own options and baggage. The Mechanic, for instance, actually is a pretty solid fit for the overall aesthetic but it has its own complexities that don’t mesh as well with “quick” design and it assumes a lot of the starfaring elements are present. As I played with various ideas for custom, original, classes, I had a lot of difficulty parsing some of them out because really they could fill two of those classic niches and it was becoming weird to find a home for each that didn’t feel redundant.
After working through a number of interactions, everything came back to those Unearthed Arcana generic classes and the basic roles they filled. With that decision, a lot of elements clicked into place for me. Bringing the pool of character classes down to those three roles, embodied by the Starfinder envoy, operative, and soldier classes, allowed me to cover pretty much all of the important ground. Archetypes (more on that later) then could fill out additional roles, allowing someone to take the generic role they want (expert, “spellcaster,” or warrior) and add on the flavor of a berserker raider, a clever messenger, a dedicated hunter, and more, and ultimately provide some fun and interesting character opportunities.
Anyone so inclined can certainly run the other Starfinder base classes through in Wastewalker, but the arrangement made suits my own designs for Wastewalker just fine.
