Welcome!
PlaneShift uses a skill-based system, which means no classes. Your character trains whatever skills he/she wants, and there will be no limits to what they can train. Right now the only available working skills are Sword, Axe, Knives&Dagger, Melee, Light Armor, Metallurgy, all 6 Ways of magic, and Mining. A lot are planned however, included Cartography, Nightvision, Martial Arts, etc. There is an old list
here, but you can find a more recent one within your game client when you open your Skills window.
Right now you are going to see a lot of the same characters. Not all races have skin/hair/face variations, and those that do, have them in limited amounts, but of course our goal is to give people tons of options as the game progressses.