Taking place in a heroic, fantasy-themed universe, Asheron's Call allows players to choose between six races and add skill points into different attributes, such as strength, coordination and quickness. The game is skill-based as opposed to class-based, allowing players to remain free of being locked into a single class.

Among the more unique features of the game, Asheron's Call allows one player to become a vassal of a patron of a higher level character, who then benefits from a small amount of experience that the vassal makes. As well, the game does not use character level as a major determining factor in battle. Level simply determines which skills and items are available, and so players may win against a much higher level opponent, or lose to one whose level is far beneath his own.