CoS doesn't force you to take specific abilities, that way you will never feel like Charlie Brown... "I got a rock".
Instead, you can quest for specific Tomes of Knowledge, each one representing an Ability. When you go up a level you will receive a number of Study points, which you can spend on any Tome of Knowledge that you have in your Codex.
With this system you get to choose what Abilities your character gains, and how much study time you spend to improve the Ability. There is no limit to how much you can improve an Ability, though we do have a system of diminishing returns to keep players from pushing one ability until it is 'God Like'.
Also, there is no class system. You choose what your character learns, and you can mix and match abilities from any of the leagues to create your own unique brand of character class.
You stated that there are no classes, won't everybody's character end up the same this way when they all take the same 'best' abilities?
Yes, Citadel of Sorcery has no formal character class system. And yes, this means you get to pick whatever Abilities you want. However, there are systems built into the game that will naturally channel a player into taking the majority of their Abilities from one of the five Leagues, and then likely take a good number from a second League, with a few scattered Abilities from the other Leagues.
So right off the bat, everyone will not be the same. However, even characters that specialize in the same League will likely be quite different. Even if two players took nearly the same Abilities from the same League (unlikely, but possible) they will still diverge because of our study and practice system.
Players can only study their Abilities so much per level their character achieves, so they have to decide which of their Abilities they wish to study more. As you study any specific Ability that Ability gains new features. This means that your character is not only based on what Abilities from what League, but also which of those they studied and how much.
Finally, there is practice. The more you use an Ability, the better you get at that Ability, so practice also affects character development.
In addition to this, there is another system we call 'Uber' Abilities. More on that later, but this system will also keep players from becoming 'mud'.
Last, but not least, we also offer the University. This is an actual place you can go and meet with councilors to help you develop your character. This is by no means required, but it is there for players who don't want to have to figure out their own custom class to create.
The University offers thirty Cadres, which are basically a pre-made study curriculum that, if followed, will help the player become a certain style of character. This is as close to a class system as the game offers. You could say CoS has 30 classes, except that you don't have to become one of these; you can design your own character class as you see fit.
What about magic?...does the world have magic and if so what kind?
Citadel of Sorcery has a very unique magic system, though we haven't yet released all the details.
We will tell you that it is integral to the entire world, and will impact how you fight, quest, heal, use abilities and interact with the entire world. It is so important to the game play that we're keeping it under wraps for the moment.
Without going into the actual system of magic, we can mention that there are two schools of Magic, one based on 'spells' and the other based on the use of 'Spirits'. Neither of these is religious in any way, meaning there are no player 'Clerics' to use the old D&D terminology.
