Tabula Rasa Interview, Part Two

Computer Games Online has published the second installment to their Tabula Rasa interview with Destination Games’ Starr Long.

Q: What are some of the different classes and what is their importance in the game? Can players choose multiple classes?

A: In most RPGs, you have to choose your character class before the game starts. This is before you even know how the game plays and which play style most appeals to you. In contrast, Tabula Rasa uses a progressive class tree. Everyone starts as a recruit. You gain experience from killing enemies and completing missions. This experience increases your level. At each level you are given points to apply to your attributes and/or new abilities and/or pump points for your abilities. At certain levels you can make a choice of which branch of the class tree to keep progressing. The recruit is a jack of all trades with some fighting skills (ex. rifle, hand to hand) as well as support skills (ex. healing disk). After several levels you can choose to turn your character into a Soldier (firepower) or a Specialist (support). At even later levels you can then specialize your character even further, however all characters can hold their own in a firefight. At any time during this advancement you can use our Character Cloning System to make a copy of your character that you can use as the starting point for a new character. This allows you to explore the various classes or ability allocations without having to start at level one every time.