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Class-based or class-less, I think it's important to remember aptitude.
Sure, in most games I can either pick a class of skills and be stuck with it forever and not be able to do something dramatically different, or I could pick anything I want and not give any thought to whether or not my character -should be capable- of doing these things.
Aptitude is so often overlooked. It's great that a mercenary can cook, and still be a mercenary. But if he's spending all his time improving his babka recipe, he's not spending all that much time doing merc stuff. And something's gotta give. In addition, I would hate to play a game that allows me to be proficient in *everything.*
I like limitations, it's what gives your character..character. Knowing that yeah he's a nasty buff uber blademaster who also happens to be lousy with defense.. or maybe the thief who can't cook at all. I mean, if he could cook, he wouldn't need to steal the food would he? He'd just make his own. And probably a lot better than that stupid bakery anyway.
Or what about the leathercrafter, why would he have -any- aptitude whatsoever in perfuming? I mean..the guy's sitting in a room filled with vats of bat guano for 10 hours a day, there's no way you can convince me he has ANY sense of smell.
Aptitude - that's a great key that's very undervalued and underused in many muds. Let the players decide what their characters are -capable of- and then give them a base set of skills that coincide with their aptitude, and allow those skills branch into more complex things related to the base set over time.
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