Have a little class, people.

[unodiablo]

For anyone that hasn't played 2PAM, it's also very much like this (I don't have Amber Diceless tho) as well. The 'Stats' of the game are functions of Action Movie characters boiled down to their most basic elements; Shoot, Fight, Stunt, Luck, Mojo and Skill... Shoot can mean you haul a BFG around with you ala' Rambo, or you're just really good with a 'lil pea-shooter ala' James Bond. Fight might make you a Kung Fu master, a boxer, pit-fighter. You just assign the dice amount and an Aspect (descrition) of the stat.

We used 2PAM to run a D&D-like game once too...

[Valamir]

I don't have much to add to this conversation, but I have a question... Back in the day when we were still playing D&D, we used to use this old Dragon article that let you make your own unique 'class' by picking from the list of what any D&D char could do, and then you added up your total from those you chose and got a exp point modifier.

So you could dump the things you didn't want, and add other little desired tricks from other classes... (i.e. a wizard with pick pockets and cleric spells) Was this us trying to drift towards Narrativism, or at least away from Simulationism, or do you think it was just a way of giving more 'protagonization' ability to the characters?

I wouldn't read too much into that Sean.  It certainly had nothing to do with Narrativism, and arguably little to do with protagonizing.  In fact, going with my comments on the Classes vs Realty thread, most classes involve Standard + Differentiators.  

D&D has been adding more Differentiators since its origins.  Original D&D had Elves as a Class.  AD&D allowed Elves to be further differentiated as a race with a seperate class.  Later supplements added Non Weapon Proficencies and AD&D2E built on those to a whole slew of kits.  D&D3E goes even further with select-a-skill and dial-a-feat.

I'd say the article in question was nothing more than an attempt to dial up the level of Differentiator while clinging to a class structure.  At which time the class structure loses all meaning and one might as well go with Chinese Menu from the ground up.

[Seth L. Blumberg]

Really, I think the brief appearance of the "customizable classes" concept in AD&D (especially in the "Player's Option" books) was a drift towards Simulationism, and away from Gamism.  Certainly that's how I applied it in my one abortive attempt to run an AD&D2e campaign.