Class Fantasy RPG

It’s finally here — the perfect gift for your Maoist-Third Worldist nephew, doomsday prepper divorced dad or Q Anon yoga mom. For the past year, I’ve been tirelessly designing and play-testing a new MORPG (multi-player offline role playing game).

Class Fantasy is an action RPG card game that pairs fantasy character classes with political ideologies. The game accommodates 2 - 12 players. Your goal is to defeat other characters in battle and achieve utopia. A limited supply is now available for purchase. Finally, a game that unites the whole political spectrum (and family) by forcing them into irreconcilable conflict.

Each class has a unique portrait card and set of skills. The Cleric is an Anarcho-Communist. The Crusader is an Eco-Fascist. The Warlock is a Techno-Feudalist. The Druid is an Anarcho-Primitivist (of course). The Warrior is a Social Democrat. The Paladin is a Civic Nationalist. And the Thief is an Anarcho-Capitalist. These and many other characters come to life in Class Fantasy. The game includes twelve unique classes, each with their own combat abilities. 

Inspired by games like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft, Class Fantasy explores the essential role playing and world building process that links the game space and the real world.

Players use a combination of cards and dice rolls to deal damage to their opponents or heal their allies. The turn-based game play will be familiar and accessible to both beginner and intermediate gamers. Class Fantasy is simple to learn but complex to master.

Overlaying the Political Compass with the Dungeons & Dragons alignment chart, creates a dynamic game play of strategic alliances. Players on the left or right, and libertarians or authoritarians, may team up to build political coalitions. But these alliances only last for so long, as players may choose to betray their allies for personal gain. Victory is achieved when players of one alignment have defeated their opponents, when Lawful players triumph over Chaotic, or when Good defeats Evil.

In Class Fantasy, cards and abilities are thematized to each character and ideology. Anarcho-Primitivism may take a turn to Touch Grass, while Civil Libertarian issues a Hot Take. On the following turn, Social Democracy uses the melee ability Labor Strike while State Socialism casts Central Planning. In the fantasy game space, physical abilities often serve as an allegory for labor while magic is used to represent technology.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
— Arthur C. Clarke

In the last few years, gaming communities have been a hotbed for radicalization and political recruitment. There has been much debate over whether these extremely online politics are “real” or some kind of elaborate LARP. It’s worth pointing out that actual politics is already incredibly larpy and cringe af. And it’s precisely this suspension of disbelief that makes it powerful. Roleplaying allows us to envision another world, even if just for the duration of a party meeting or a D&D game.

While mainstream journalists have often attributed this radicalization to obvious factors like age and demographics, I've always thought that there is an equally important but far less considered aspect: the game environment is itself an ideological sandbox. RPG world building is an exercise of the political imagination.

Will your political ideology emerge victorious? Will you crush your opponents through a centralized authority? Or will you build solidarity with a team of players seeking a common goal? I’m excited for you all to play Class Fantasy.

Sincere thanks to all our play testers: Filip Kostic, Ben Davis, Yung Chomsky, Grace Menninger, Josh Kline, Georgica Pettus, Dean Kissick, Sean Kennedy, Rachel Rossin, Anika Jade, Harris Rosenblum and Liv. Congratulations to the reigning North American Champion, Morgan Limmer, who definitively proves that Market Socialism does indeed work in practice.

Class Fantasy is now available for purchase in a limited supply. Get the game here.

For press inquiries, send mail to: joshuacitarella [at] gmail.com.