Does anyone remember an AD&D adventure where you started without a class? You were just normal people that kind of assumed a class based on what you did in the adventure. I think I remember you were all shipwrecked on a Wizard’s island or something ....
I can’t remember the name and it’s driving me crazy!!
The
Greyhawk Adventures hardback, published right on the cusp of 2nd Edition's release, had a system for creating 0-Level PCs who worked their way up to full 1st Level characters based on a sort of training points system, and could even end up with a customized Class based on what Class(s) tutor(s) they trained with and how long and far they took their training. The book also included an adventure for Classless 0-level characters, during which was determined your final Alignment, Ability Scores, and character Class based on how you played, the decisions you made, and who you trained with and how long, with the possibility of ending up with a custom Class that borrowed features from any number of Classes other than what your final class ended up being. I remember that having a Fighter who could Turn Undead and/or cast one or two 1st level Magic-User spells per day was a possibility.
Your PC starts out under the tutelage of a teacher (you could seek out additional tutors to learn additional skills from other Classes) and would build up points throughout the course of the adventure through training and/or adventuring (the whole adventure and training system could last several months or even years) and use these toward paying for your finalized Ability Scores and Class Abilities. The cost to reach full class level 1 was based on the XP table of the the Class you were aiming for, with cheaper Classes (like the Thief) being much easier to achieve than more expensive Classes like the Magic-User, Ranger, or Paladin (Classes with Ability Score requirements, like the Ranger and Paladin, cost even more points to raise your Ability Scores to the minimums needed to enter the Class.)
If you achieved 1st level in any Class while still paying training points for abilities from other Classes, you could take an XP penalty to your base Class XP table to retain the non-standard Class Abilities for the rest of your career, with the XP penalty being based on whatever non-standard Class Abilities you learned.
I tried running it once back around 1995 or so, and it was a very interesting, if somewhat clunky, system (sort of like the custom Class creation/Class modification system included in the 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide) but it
did allow for some Class customization in 1st/2nd Edition;
Greyhawk Adventures was specifically advertised on the cover as being compatible with both 1E and 2E, but it was a mishmash of both, with the Ranger Class Abilities of Karll, the Duke of Urnst, being a kind of weird mix of the 1E and 2E Ranger (as I recall, he was listed as having both Weapon Specialization and Magic-User spells from the 1E Ranger, along with the Hide in Shadows and Move Silently percentages of the 2E Ranger.)
