Prerequisites

This morning, I want to write about something I wanted to write about yesterday, but didn't because I didn't think anyone would want to read it, but now I've changed my mind. Not that I think anyone would particularly care about what I'm writing about, but that I'm going to write it anyway.

My topic today is Prerequisites and an idea I had for a new role-playing system.

There are many fantasy-style role-playing systems in existence, the most popular of which is easily either Dungeons and Dragons or World of Warcraft (Because role-playing gamers LOVE alliterations, for some reason). In either of these games, you create your own character by choosing that character's Class, along with a few other, less-important traits. The Class of the character determines what the character's skills and abilities are. If you choose the Fighter or Warrior Class, your character's skills will lie almost exclusively in the realm of physical combat. If you give your character the Wizard Class, he or she will be good at casting spells, but won't be good for much else. If you make your character a Ranger, they'll be good at archery (or dual-knife fighting), existing in the outdoors, tracking, and dealing with animals, which is useful if you're outside, but considerably less useful if you're inside or underground.

Let's say you wanted to create a character like Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. He's a skilled sword-wielder, but he's also an excellent tracker. He's described in the movies as being a Ranger, so you'd probably choose the Ranger Class for this character, but then you'd also want him to wield a sword. In Dungeons and Dragons, a Ranger's weapon of choice is always either a pair of knives or a bow and arrows (Yes, Aragorn does use a bow in the movies, but it's not his primary weapon). If you want to build a character that's a skilled sword-wielder, your best bet is to make him a Fighter, but then you won't be as good at tracking. The Class-based system is very limiting in terms of what Classes of characters gain which skills.

And there's another problem with this kind of system. The way these characters improve the skills their Class has given them is by gaining Experience (often shortened to XP). And you gain XP (and this is where things get truly ridiculous) by defeating enemies in combat. Are you a Ranger who wants to become better at tracking? You have to go and fight some monsters. Are you a Wizard that wants to learn how to cast more powerful spells? Go out and fight some monsters. Are you a Fighter that wants to be better at fighting? ...Okay, that one actually makes sense, but that leads me back to the Prerequisites idea.

If you want to become good at something in real life, you have to spend time engaging in activities that will make you better at that thing. This usually means study or practice or both. Practicing works for certain skills, even in the Class system. A Warrior becomes better at fighting monsters by "practicing" fighting monsters. That makes all the sense in the world.

But let's say you chose the Wizard Class. Generally speaking, Wizards are all about high intelligence and superior knowledge. They should benefit from studying, right? Not in the role-playing systems I know of. In order to gain experience as a Wizard, you have to actually go out and cast a few spells, but that makes sense to me, too. You can study something all you want, but you never really learn it until you go and practice it. But the thing is, just studying and casting spells isn't enough to help you gain XP as a Wizard. In most role-playing systems, you have to use spell-casting to defeat monsters in order to gain experience from your practice and studying. Clearly, the system is flawed.

A better system would allow you to gain skills through study and practice, whether you ever use those skills to fight monsters or not. In the Prerequisites system, if you want to gain a particular Benefit, such as having a certain skill, you have to meet that Benefit's Prerequisite, which in this case would likely mean study and practice. Also, in this system, you'd be able to study and practice, and gain experience and become skilled at any skill you want. Say you already have skill as a tracker. You can still study and practice sword-fighting so you can be good at both. Or if you already have skill as a melee fighter, you can still study the art of casting spells. You're not limited in your potential and options by which class you chose, because you never choose a class in the first place. Rather, you choose which skills you'd like to have, then study and practice those.

However, there are certain Benefits that you can't gain just by studying and practicing. Those Benefits would have their own Prerequisites, and anyone who meets those Prerequisites qualify for gaining those Benefits. (And now we can link the conversation back to something religious!) Say you want Divine Favor. Say you want God to help you do stuff, to strengthen you, to give you knowledge and wisdom. You have to meet the Prerequisite, and in this case, the Prerequisite is righteousness.

The Nephites, throughout all their conflicts with the Lamanites, have relied on the benefit of Divine Favor to win against the larger armies of their enemies. As long as the Nephites were righteous, they met the Prerequisite, gained the Benefit, and won. But whenever they stopped being righteous, they no longer met the Prerequisite of Divine Favor, so they lost the Benefit and started losing battles, too.

We see this concept illustrated rather clearly in Helaman 4. In this chapter, the Nephites and the Lamanites are at war (again), and this time, the Lamanites are winning. Verses 11 and 13 tell us why:

Now this great loss of the Nephites, and the great slaughter which was among them, would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God.

And because of this their great wickedness, and their boasting in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands.

In verses 15 and 16, we see the turn-around:

And it came to pass that they did repent, and inasmuch as they did repent they did begin to prosper. 

For when Moronihah [Leader of the Nephite armies] saw that they did repent he did venture to lead them forth from place to place, and from city to city, even until they had regained the one-half of their property and the one-half of all their lands.

 Moronihah knew that since the Nephites had repented and had begun to be righteous again, that the Lord would again be with them, and would strengthen them and allow them to prosper again. They met the Prerequisite, so they gained the Benefit. And I want to make it clear that in this incredible system God has created for us, anyone that can meet the associated Prerequisites can gain any Benefit they want! Okay, so spell-casting isn't one of those options, but almost anything else! Do you want to be financially successful? Want to have strong family relationships? Do you want to find true happiness? Find out what the Prerequisites are (God has already told us most of them), and meet them.

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— 

And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130: 20-21)