In fantasy Role-Playing Games (or related genres with Character Class Systems), there are certain archetypal classes that are always guaranteed a spot; the brave warrior, the sly thief, the bookish wizard. Once the basic classes are accounted for, the game can include more flavorful and interesting class concepts. There's the mighty barbarian, the stealthy assassin, the stalwart blacksmith, the pastry chef, the dauntless shopkeeper, the... wait, what?
Some of these games will feature an option for players to select a class (or recruit a named character) not only unsuited for adventuring, but associated with stereotypical villagers, humble trades, and everyday citizens. Farmers, smiths, cooks, merchants, and other workaday professions are suddenly given their chance in the spotlight, alongside knights, mages, and the other usual members of an adventuring party. Whether they're intended to be mocked, cheered on as underdogs, or taken just as seriously as the normal adventurers is up to the tone of the work.
A Humble Trade Class usually falls into one of six depictions, though these categories aren't absolute and may overlap:
Comedic: The class is objectively terrible, with an awful (or outright non-existent) stat progression on level-ups, and class features or attacks that have little to no beneficial effect. The goal is to poke fun at the idea of one of the clueless villagers attempting to go questing, despite the fact that they have no idea what they're doing. It's easy to identify this depiction when the name of the class sounds especially mean-spirited, like "Peasant," "Peon," or "Helpless Villager." If a player selects this class instead of a more conventional option, it's effectively a self-imposed hard mode. If the work is tongue-in-cheek or a modern-day Affectionate Parody of RPGs in general, then the Humble Trade Classes might be humorously mundane without also being underpowered, like "Punk Kid," "Disgruntled Employee," or "Pizza Delivery Guy." On some rare occasions, this depiction may turn out to have a kind of Magikarp Power and turn into something incredibly powerful at high levels as a reward for the player's determination, but this payoff is in no way guaranteed.
Functional: The class fits cleanly into a conventional party role with no reduction in power or ability, and is merely wrapped up in the cosmetic flavor or theming of a mundane profession. A blacksmith might be a tank, a cook might be a healer, and so on.
Introductory: The class is essentially the "beginner" stage of any new character (and often also a kind of Vanilla Unit), who won't acquire the benefits of a more conventional adventuring class until they reach a certain level of experience, complete some number of quests, find a special mentor/trainer character, or fulfill some other objective. In this depiction, the player's goal is usually to spend as little time in this class as possible, although there may be hidden benefits or special skills that can only be acquired in the starting class, incentivizing completionists to put off the promotion. This is common in Role-Playing Game sub-genres that really enjoy the narrative of a character starting out in humble beginnings (like Wuxia), or sub-genres that want to emphasize an inexperienced character's vulnerability in the face of danger (like classic Tabletop RPGs and their descendants inspired by the Old-School Renaissance/Revival ("OSR") philosophy of design).
NPC: The class is technically included in the game in some fashion, but was never intended to be used by players. In most cases of this depiction, the class is meant to give texture or a loose advancement structure for professions that don't really make sense for adventurers, and as a result, the class is woefully underpowered compared to the adventurers' skills and abilities. If the work is a video game, the game has been altered in a level editor (or directly hacked or modded) to make the class accessible. If the work is a Tabletop RPG, the class exists in sourcebooks or supplements intended only for Game Masters, thus requiring special permission from the Game Master for player use.
Quirky: The class has its own niche outside of the classic RPG roles, and participates in combat in a peculiar way that defies normal categorization. The class might be an Item Caddy with unusual mechanics themed around crafting or their trade, like consuming items from inventory to quick-craft something during a fight. Instead of direct damage, they might harry enemies with pesky Status Infliction Attacks or debuffs; if they're a Support Party Member, their experimental cures, mystery dishes, or hastily constructed devices might have a chance to harm allies instead of healing them. The class might be an unpredictable sort of combat Gambler, with lots of Randomized Damage Attacks or Random Effect Spells. They might wield money, crafting materials, or sprites of typical storefront props (like crates, anvils, pottery, or furniture) as impromptu weapons or projectiles.
Utility: The class has reduced combat capability, in exchange for greater utility and flexibility when interacting with the game's non-combat portions, and/or passive boosts to item and money acquisition. If the game has flavorful sub-systems for non-combat (such as Item Crafting, Design-It-Yourself Equipment, Cooking Mechanics, a Persuasion Minigame, monster training, overland exploration, or similar systems), the class will have handy perks for interacting with these sub-systems, or have special abilities that unlock more functionality. While conventional classes often perceive these sub-systems as entertaining sidequests or brief diversions, the Humble Trade Class might be able to turn these sub-systems into sources of serious money, rare items, secret characters, or legendary equipment that other classes would normally need to go adventuring to obtain.
While these characters could theoretically work in any classic role-playing game setting (like Space Opera, Cyberpunk, Superheroes, or Urban Fantasy), they seem to be more common in medieval fantasy, for some reason. This might be because medieval mundane professions tend to be at least somewhat combat-adjacent (like herbalism, hunting, and woodcutting), or maybe because villagers in fantasy worlds seem especially dowdy, downtrodden, or humble, which makes them funnier when converted into Hidden Badasses.
In the subset of "isekai" stories where the protagonist is transported or reincarnated into an RPG Mechanics 'Verse, there's a decent chance that the protagonist's class will turn out to be one of these. If this happens, the protagonist might decide that they're not cut out for Saving the World, and then derail the stereotypical adventure to take up a cozy life centered around their newfound profession. Alternatively, with some creativity and some practice, they might turn their class's skills into a Swiss-Army Superpower, allowing them to hack the rules of the RPG Mechanics 'Verse in strange and unpredictable ways that the world's denizens have never seen before. (This variant is almost always the case when the protagonist is a Genre Savvy gamer who already knows their way around an RPG.)
Sub-trope of Character Class System and Job System. Super-trope to Burly Blacksmith, Chef of Iron, Friendly Shopkeeper, Intrepid Merchant, Mighty Lumberjack, and related tropes when these tropes appear in a game as a character class (or the class of a named story character). Occasionally, this will be a super-trope to magic users, but only very modestly powered or un-heroic ones, like Fortune Teller, Hedge Mage, and a very pharmacology-focused Alchemy Is Magic. Similarly, this might be a super-trope to gearheads and gadgeteers, but more Marionette Master and Mr. Fixit than The Engineer. If the game has special weapon types solely for these classes, may overlap with Weapons of Their Trade. May overlap with Item Caddy, Joke Character, Mechanically Unusual Class, Starting Point Class, and/or Utility Party Member, depending on how the classes are presented in the game.
Note: When contributing examples, please avoid instances from Farm Life Sim games and similar genres, where the core premise of the game is to play as a character from a humble profession. Examples should come from media where the Humble Trade Class exists alongside the more typical adventurer classes or characters.
Examples:
- A Budding Scientist In A Fantasy World: The System that applies to everyone older than 6, has classes for everyday life, such as Fisherman / woman, or Tailor.
- Common Clay: Everyone in the RPG Mechanics 'Verse is granted a Class, the large majority of them pertaining to ordinary life. Clay's hopes are shattered when the gods make him a Commoner, a class that usually stalls out at Level 1, yet he doubles down, finds roundabout ways to kill monsters for XP, and finds that the class eventually levels up into a surprisingly effective Jack of All Stats.
- Demon World Boba Shop: Anyone in the RPG Mechanics 'Verse can develop a Class based on their career, leading to System-recognized cooks, smiths, librarians, and so on alongside professional adventurers. This can lead to cases of Mundane Made Awesome as they advance and specialize, like a chef who makes, specifically, impossibly delicious breakfasts.
- Log Horizon: The In-Universe MMO Elder Tale has several Utility subclasses, such as Chef (which allows you to cook higher-level food recipes), Scribe (which allows you to produce detailed in-game maps), and Housekeeper (which... well, there's a reason Serara regrets picking it). After the Apocalypse, these become even more useful: Chefs are able to cook food that actually retains its flavor, while Shiroe is able to use his Scribe subclass to write magically-binding contracts with effects like turning Rundelhaus from a Person of the Land into an Adventurer and abolishing the concept of player-owned zones.
- Ars Magica has a restricted character creation system for the "grogs" who do minor jobs for Magical Society (guards, servants, and the like): fewer Virtues and Flaws than players' Magi and Companions, no Major or Story Virtues or Flaws, and no magic (except possibly lesser supernatural gifts). Although they can have decently respectable positions in-universe, they're meant to serve the narrative, not drive it.
- Cyberpunk (RPG): While the system (across its multiple versions) has roles that cleave to standard mercenary and Caper Crew tropes (like the Solo, the Tech, and the Netrunner), it also features roles that specialize in the more humdrum functions of the gritty future (like the Media and the Corporate/Exec).
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In early editions, co-creator Gary Gygax insisted that only he was allowed to create new character classes for players to use. As a result, all classes created by other TSR employees could only be used as Non Player Characters. Many of these mundane classes appeared in TSR's Dragon magazine:
- Issues #3 and 63 have a Scribe NPC class that specializes in writing things.
- Issue #70 has a Smith NPC class that creates metal items such as armor, weapons and horseshoes.
- Issue #147 has two versions of a Sumotori NPC class (sumo wrestlers).
- As a joke, stats for the Henchman class based on Nodwick were released. The class's main powers were hauling huge amounts of loot for the party and being "able" to block attacks aimed at party members, based on Nodwick's Butt-Monkey status.
- 3rd Edition: The Dungeon Master's Guide includes five low-powered classes specifically for NPCs: the adept (for minor magic users like hedge wizards, town priests, and village wise men or women), the aristocrat (for nobles knowledgeable in statecraft and politics), the commoner (for farmers, day-laborers, and peasants), the expert (for artisans, scholars, smiths, and other trained professionals), and the warrior (for militia members, night watchmen, and town guards that lack the formal training of a proper fighter).
- 5th Edition: While the game has done away with the NPC classes of 3rd Edition, the Sidekick classes (of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) are the spiritual successors to the Adept, the Expert, and the Warrior (with the Expert and the Warrior keeping their names, while the Adept was changed to the Spellcaster). Due to their comparatively lower power, they're intended to provide frameworks for NPC party members and allies, as opposed to the players.
- The Eberron campaign setting explains the abundance of magic and Magitek with Magewrights that gain limited access to mid-level spells. They generally work in crafting guilds or as spellcasters-for-hire, since their capabilities are strictly inferior to player classes like Wizards and Sorcerers.
- In early editions, co-creator Gary Gygax insisted that only he was allowed to create new character classes for players to use. As a result, all classes created by other TSR employees could only be used as Non Player Characters. Many of these mundane classes appeared in TSR's Dragon magazine:
- Dungeon Crawl Classics: All players start as "0-level" characters, and won't receive their first class level until surviving an adventure via the game's "Funnel" mechanic (in which a survivor from the player's squad of 2-4 characters becomes the 1st-level character, moving forward). While 0-level, the character effectively only has their occupation (and in some cases, race) as their title, which cover a wide spectrum of humble trades.
- Fabula Ultima: The Wayfarer from the core book and the Merchant from the Natural Fantasy Atlas are very much this trope. While they have some combat utility (like the Wayfarer's companion or the Merchant's ability to turn inventory items into poisonous expired goods), almost all of their class skills have to do with the non-combat parts of the game. As this is a game where multiclassing is required as a part of character creation, it's usually expected you'll build your character's combat role from other classes instead, and then work features from these classes in. The Gourmet from the Natural Fantasy Atlas is also thematically a Humble Trade Class, but more the random flavor than the utility one.
- F.A.T.A.L.: The game has a huge number of classes, the vast majority of which are mundane professions such as Cheesemaker, Saddler, or (of course) Whore. Because the rules strongly encourage playing a Honest Rolls Character, including a randomly-chosen class, there's only a small chance of your character getting an actually exciting class like Knight or Mage.
- Downplayed in Ironclaw. The Host's Book has a list of "Other Careers" intended more for NPCs than PCs but there's nothing stopping players from creating characters with them.
- Outgunned: The Nobody Role is the action movie analog to this trope, meant to portray cashiers, schoolteachers, waiters/waitresses, office workers, and similar characters that got caught up in the plot's whirlwind of action by accident or circumstance as opposed to choice. As a consequence, their starting feats are oriented more towards areas of technical knowledge and social interaction, instead of combat or cool stunts.
- Pathfinder:
- Pathfinder First Edition: The First Edition had NPC classes falling under this umbrella — Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert and Warrior — that were essentially much weaker versions of the PC classes. These are normally reserved for very minor NPCs, with more plot-critical NPCs usually being given a PC class (or may be upgraded to one after their introduction if they wind being more important or focused on than the Game Master planned).
- Pathfinder Second Edition: Though not strictly "classes", the book NPC Core has customizable stat blocks that fit the same role, covering hundreds of professions. Three big changes to the system from its previous edition and its D&D forebear is that non-combat NPCs can have both a combat level and a professional level. For example, a university professor may have the stats of a level 0 character, befitting their total lack of combat training. But when dealing with topics in which they are a professor of, they do skill checks as if they were 12th level, showcasing the mastery of their specific field. The second is that every stat block has been given abilities relevant to their professions to make their interactions (and potential clash with the players) in their respective field more interesting, much in the same way monsters have combat abilities to spice up combat with players. For example if the players find themselves in a legal battle, the judge has the ability to remind people they are under oath, applying a debuff to anyone's attempt to use deception around him. Meanwhile, the barrister can use their legal lore skill to impose a penalty on the opposition's party diplomacy checks, by citing legal precedents that weaken their case. Lastly, the book adds the concept of "troops", groups of NPCs who act like a single creature, who represent NPCs individually too weak to be a threat to players, but who as a group can be dangerous (ie:an angry mob of peasants, or a squad of city guards).
- Ryuutama is set in a world where everyone, from the nobility to the common folk, is expected to take up arms and go on an adventure at least once in their lifetime. As such, almost every playable class is of some mundane profession such as Merchant, Farmer, or Artisan. The Noble is the only class that starts with a bonus to combat, but also the worst class for traveling and surviving in the wild.
- Vaesen Nordic Horror Roleplaying: As Vaesen is a mystery RPG and not a fantasy adventure, there are a fair number of mundane archetypes (like the Academic, the Servant, and the Writer) mixed in with the more iconic action- and investigation-oriented ones (like the Hunter, the Officer, and the Private Eye).
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay includes plenty of Basic Careers like Peasant, Servant, Farmer, and Dung Sweeper, with skills and Starter Equipment to suit their low station in life. Fitting the gritty Low Fantasy theme, many PCs also have such humble roots (especially the Honest Rolls Characters encouraged by the game), but everyone has a chance to progress into Advanced Careers and go From Zero to Hero.
- The Witcher: Game of Imagination, while classless, engages with this trope on two different levels. On one hand, there is absolutely nothing preventing players from making blacksmiths, carpenters, miners and similar and then sending them on the path of adventure, tangled with the rest of the party by chance or accident. On the other hand, there are dwarves, who get in their racial splat a free pick in a rather long list of Craft skills during char-gen free of any charge — so even if you make a seasoned mercenary or an intrepid merchant this way, they still will have a background in smithing of some sorts or at least masonry.
- The Witcher Role Playing Game is a class-based, combat-centric game set within the Witcherverse. Players can pick from "traditional" classes fit for a fantasy-themed RPG, but there are also Craftsmen, Doctors, Bards (who deal with entertainment, not magic) and Merchants. You might also know those as Techie, Medtech, Rocker and Corpo, since the same company made both games. That said, the Craftsmen represent humble makers of all sorts of things and the game provides a rather extensive set of crafting mechanics.
- Ancient Domains of Mystery: In addition to more traditional fantasy classes, the PC can also choose to be a Farmer, Merchant, or Weaponsmith.
- Battle Brothers: Your bros can come from any walk of life. In fact, vast majority of them are going to be farmers, lumberjacks, butchers, miners, smiths, fishermen, masons, simple servants and so on and forth. This is further enforced in the Peasant Militia start — you can only recruit lowborns, significantly altering how the game plays. On top of that, various random events check for the presence of a bro with a specific background, so it's often very helpful to have a roster of "armed civilians" rather than a band of career soldiers and noblemen.
- Bravely Second features the Patissier asterisk. This class puts whoever uses it into the outfit of a chef, and they can whip up various confections to inflict debuffs and status ailments.
- Darkest Dungeon: In a game full of battle-hardened rogues, outcasts, and warriors, the Antiquarian stands alone as the character with the most mundane job. She's unique in that her combat performance is mostly sub-optimal (though there are party builds where she shines), but her special passives increase the party's gold carrying capacity, and allow her to find special "antique" loot drops to sell for extra cash.
- Dragon Quest:
- Dragon Quest III: The Merchant class is the Utility Party Member version of this trope; they have lukewarm stats, but can appraise items and augment gold drops.
- Dragon Quest VII: The Sailor and Shepherd are both the Functional type of this trope, they fit neatly into the other vocations. Reimagined also has each character have a default vocation of their own, which fits the Introductory version since they're available before you get real vocations and have basic skillsets.
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: The player has access to some classes that aren't named like an adventurer's class, such as Pilgrim. But those are still player classes instead of the NPC classes that they have.
- Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City: The Farmer class is one far more suited for exploration and item gathering than combat, with such skills as allowing them to harvest from all three types of harvest point, doubling the number of times they can harvest in a day, and instantly sending the party back to town.
- Fantasy Life: The game splits different character classes into "lives," with a handful of standard choices (like the Paladin, the Mercenary, and the Wizard), and then a slew of Humble Trade Classes (like the Blacksmith, the Tailor, the Miner, and the Carpenter).
- Final Fantasy XIV: Outside of the loads of combat jobs and classes you can obtain in the game, there are eleven other classes a player can take up that are not combat-related. The Gathering, or Disciples of the Land, classes are Botanists, Fishers and Miners. The Crafting, or Disciples of the Hand, classes are Carpenter, Blacksmith, Armorer, Goldsmith, Leatherworker, Weaver, Alchemist and Culinarian. The eleven classes are used to make various items and either use them or sell them on the Markets.
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Despite the fact that all the characters are generic classless adventurers, they each can pick one of eight family trades, which results in different rewards. For example, the Fisherman trade will receive fish from home, while the Miller trade will receive bread. This choice might not seem important at first, but it turns out that the Alchemist, Merchant, and Blacksmith trades are all required to get an Ultima Weapon.
- Final Fantasy Tactics: One of the two basic classes is the Chemist, which has terrible stat growth and whose only combat utility is using items. However, this is actually pretty important, as characters don't inherently know how to use different items and can only learn through the Chemist class. Leveling this class is also required to unlock the entire mage branch of the job tree.
- Fire Emblem:
- The Villager is a class that is often characterized as an offensively impotent class but has the potential to become so much more. First debut in Fire Emblem Gaiden, which the first three characters in Alm's route starting as, and one villager joining in the middle of Celica's route. It returns in Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, which has the skill Aptitude, which increases the characters' growth rates. In the remake of Gaiden, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a new character named Faye joins Alm as a Villager, and there is an item called the Pitchfork that allows you to turn any of your units into a villager, comparable to reclassing from previous titles.
- The Transporter in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and its prequel is another passive class exclusive to Merlinus in both games which trades fighting capabilities in exchange for the ability to let other units access the player's Supply Convoy. While present in the map, any extra item the player's units pick up will be stored in the convoy instead of dropped. In the latter game, he initially starts out in an immobile tent that certain enemy units will try to make a beeline towards, requiring another unit to stay back and protect him, but if he levels up by surviving a chapter enough times, his class promotion switches out the tent for a horse wagon to let him move more freely around the battlefield.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Every character starts as either Commoner or Noble, depending on the character's origin, acting as a beginner class to climb up to higher-tier classes. The only difference between the two is that the Noble has a few extra growth rate in Charm.
- For the King: The premise of the main story is that all of the realm's heroes have already died attempting to investigate the King's murder, leaving ordinary citizens to take up the quest. The default characters are a blacksmith, hunter, minstrel, and scholar, each with Starter Equipment appropriate to their trade.
- Liberal Crime Squad: In addition to classes such as Soldier, Agent and Biker, the list of other professions include jobs such as Angry Juror, Amateur Magician, Art Critic and Child Worker. Some of these professions have the related stats such as Authors having higher Writing skills or Mathematicians being good at Science and Computers.
- Makai Kingdom: The Merchant class doesn't have impressive combat stats, but they act as a shop within the main hub between missions, and they gain experience the more you purchase from them.
- Miitopia: There are some unconventional jobs in this game. We have a Chef, Pop Star (though functions similarly to Bards in other RPG series), Scientist, etc.
- NetHack: You have the option of playing as the Tourist class, whose starting equipment includes a credit card (useful for lockpicking), an expensive camera, a few scrolls of magic mapping, and a Hawaiian shirt.
- Octopath Traveler and its sequel both feature a Merchant and Apothecary class. The Merchant is a Jack of All Stats with some abilities centered around gaining money or spending it for special skills, while the Apothecary is closer to a Combat Medic with extra skills around mixing ingredients for special effects usually centered around healing, status buffs, or low-level elemental attacks. Additionally, while not explicitly given class titles, certain characters can invite random villagers to temporarily join the group.
- One Step From Eden: The Shopkeeper is a playable character, powered by how they don't have to pay money to use the shop, and can do so at any restful time, unlike everyone else who has to find her.
- Phantom Brave and its sequel Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero have a playable Merchant class, who is responsible for selling weapons and items to your other Phantoms. Although she is a weak physical fighter, she learns abilities that are useful for generating money, and increasing the Merchant's level expands her inventory.
- Ragnarok Online: There's a Merchant class (complete with bargaining skills and the ability to open a mini-shop) that can later upgrade into a Blacksmith class (that can forge weapons and empower its own abilities with status buffs). Both of these classes are strong contenders in their own right, without any real downgrade in power or capability.
- Streets of Rogue: The list of available player classes includes a few that don't seem like combatants. Whether or not they are any good in a fight depends on the class:
- Shopkeepers are surprisingly strong with guns, starting with a shotgun and a maxed-out firearms skill. Aside from that, they have the ability to convert items into money at any time, and can resolve problems with money (up to paying the Final Boss to surrender).
- Bartenders have the ability to turn consumable items into Cocktails that can be offered to unsuspecting NPCs to inflict Status Effects on them. They're also inherently charismatic, making most NPCs friendly towards you, making it easier for them to win the election in the final level, bypassing the fight against the Mayor. Their combat ability is average, so violence isn't completely off the table if necessary.
- Comedians are weak combatants, but have the unique ability to tell a joke. This is a risky ability that can make people around you angry, but has a chance to make them friendly or even turn into allies. If you were going to kill someone anyway, you may as well try your luck with a joke and potentially turn that enemy into a friend.
- A quite literal example found in the Ultima series from Ultima IV onward, wherein each class was associated with one of the Eight Virtues of Ultima, one of which actually was Humility. Accordingly, the class associated with Humility is the Shepherd, which has no special combat or magical abilities and has slow growth in all stats. While quite useless in gameplay, taking the Shepherd class makes a lot of sense from the role-playing perspective, since embodying all Virtues is the ultimate goal (at least, in IV), and Humility is one of the harder ones to master.
- Vampire Survivors: While the game features a number of tough vampire slayers, you can also eventually unlock and play as Big Trouser, the merchant that sells Golden Eggs and gag weapons in each stage. Fitting with his nature, he gets +1% Greed per level, and starts every stage with the Candybox, which allows him to select any previously unlocked (but un-evolved) weapon as his starter.
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Most of the jobs have names that reflect fairly mundane professions, including several characters' exclusive jobs, such as Barmaid for Saeko, Clerk for Eri, and Homeless Guy for Nanba (other characters' exclusive jobs are more action-oriented, such as Detective for Adachi, Hitman for Han, and Gangster for Zhao). Other potential jobs include Hostess, Idol, Chef, and Foreman, with all of these being functional (though with typically over-the-top framing caused by Ichiban's imagination). Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth removes most of these in favour of more glamorous/action-oriented job titles, though it does add Housekeeper.
- The Order of the Stick: Roy discovers that Lord Shojo has been putting on Obfuscating Insanity for the whole time he's been interacting with the party during their trial due to destroying the first Gate in the Redmountain Hills. When Roy talks to him about this, it's revealed that Shojo, despite being the leader of an order of Paladins, isn't one himself, and instead is a 14th-level aristocrat (as the comic takes place in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse based on Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition). Roy says he feels dirty inside for being played by someone who doesn't even have player character levels.
- Dimension 20: Fantasy High:
- Freshman Year: The Aguefort Adventuring Academy teaches classes dedicated to those who will be in adventuring parties (such as wizards, fighters, and rogues) while the Mumple School is dedicated to teaching NPC professions, such as barkeepers or people who sit around and repeat gossip all day. A Running Gag this season is the Bad Kids threatening to send people to Mumple after they beat them in combat, due to the school being so unprestigious.
- Junior Year: Part of the reason Kipperlilly Copperkettle has a massive I Just Want to Be Special complex is that her parents are both Mumple graduates — her father's a realtor, her mother works in city government, and Kipperlilly believes that the Bad Kids, particularly Riz Gukgak, have an advantage at Aguefort because they have tragic backstories. As one of the players puts it, Kipperlilly is jealous of Riz's "tragedy porn".