The purpose of this page is to figure out what in the world James’s job should be.
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This is a supplement to James’ job.
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A job modeled after my experience
There should be little to no monster hunting.
I think subconsciously I want James to be similar to the fantasy RPG class I always gravitate to when possible: the rogue/mage.
I love the subtly of rogues and how they have to rely on cunning to overcome their weaknesses. However, pure rogues are a little too devious and down-to-Earth for me. A little too tactical and practical.
I love the imaginative bending of reality and cerebral nature of mages. However, pure mages are a little too straightforward for me. They are complex, but they also rely on raw power.
When combined, I can get the best of both worlds with less of the weaknesses. Both subtlety and depth. Stealth assisted with cantrips.
With that said, I still want James a little more ordinary than any classic fantasy RPG class. Up front, James is a Victorian gentleman.
I forgot about Sapphire and Steel. I was fascinated with the show and saw potential in applying some of its ideas in both the Marloth game and story, but at the time I was focused on the game and ended up not seeing a great way of applying it to the kind of game I was making. I also noted that the show would probably translate better to the Marloth narrative, but never pursued that direction and forgot about it.
Now that I am fleshing out all of these other job issues, it’s remarkable how closely Sapphire and Steel fit the bill for James’ occupation.
I may be focusing a little too much on what tasks the job would involve. That is very important, but since I’ve been struggling along that direction, there’s another angle to also look at.
To some degree, I have a broad set of services I can provide, but most of those services revolve around particular domains. Most of my services are derived from domain knowledge. The knowledge comes first and the possible tasks that can be performed come second.