Playable races?
Pegasus
I'm in the process of forming my own Fantasy and Science fiction RPG forum
and need a little help pinnng down some loose ends in regard to playable
races.
I have the stock standard Humans, Elven people, mythical creautres
(gryphons, dragons, unicorns ect.), Dwarves, fey folk, 'little folk' i.e.
hobbits or somesuch, weres, shapeshifters and several other more elaborate
creations of my own doings. I think I have generally covered the main areas
without getting too technical or in-depth, but some feedback would be
appreciated. Is there annything else I could include?
Pegasus
Unobtrusive
> and need a little help pinnng down some loose ends in regard to playable
> races.
So far, you've only listed "fantasy" creatures. Are there to be "science
fiction" races also? Like nekojin/catpeople or other anthropomorphs,
likewise are there to be cyborgs and androids? How will cyborg...ising...
affect the standard races?
How about the "less corporeal" types, also? I've played a spectre in a D&D
game once, lots of fun indeed.
--U
Pegasus
"Unobtrusive" <men...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:PLDVg.42707$rP1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
At the moment, I'm focusing mainly on the Fantasy side of the 'beastiary'.
Best to get one down pat before I start on the other. I have somewhat of a
'spectre-like' creature of my own devising, and there are more to come. As
far as the sci-fi side of things go, there are several 'base' races/species
and then from there, all humanoid beings are capable of being mutated into
whatever form the player wishes to game with (within limits, of course).
Once I get a little more work done on the forum, I shall post the link up
here for all to see.
Pagrin
biological mechanics as if were of your races down pat, and create as
much consistent rules to what works as a character as you can.
I don't mean rolling this dice to get this result kind of rules, but
rather can races inter-breed etc. Many forms of games have Half-elf
races for example, but this can open some very messy doors if you're not
careful. For example if and elf and a human can inter-breed, and a Human
and an Orc can inter-breed, doesn't that also mean an Orc and elf can
inter-breed.
Then you have the problem of are cross bread races in themselves able to
bread children.
In some settings this can be fine, because you can treat their racial
backgrounds much like we have our historical backgrounds in the real
world. IE I have a strong Scottish history but there is a little Irish,
English and recently I've discovered a little French as well.
But in other settings this can become needlessly complicated and hard to
manage.
On the idea of numbers of playable races, I have a little anecdotal
information which may be helpful. When I was doing LARP style
role-playing I was involved in defining the races and rules which were
within the game, so I polled the members of the club (Around 200 at the
time) to find out what races Should be open for players.
I don't remember the exact list, but it turned out to be around 20 or so
races, which included Humans, several forms of Elf, Dwarf, Halfling,
Gnome, Orc, Goblin etc, and a few strange ideas like Minotaurs for example.
Time passed and people seemed to be enjoying the games etc, then one day
about 18 months latter I went through the list of characters being
played. A large portion of the sub races, where not in use at all.
Several of them seemed to be only played by the person who had request
it, but were of little interest to anyone else. And strangely almost no
one was playing a human.
In fact most people seemed to be playing High Elves, Drow, or Dwarves.
Partly because of the tweeks to the rules, but mostly because after
having played an obscure race once, they wanted to play a character
which fitted in with what their friends were playing. So in effect they
were forming "family units".
In short what I'm saying is many races can in fact become to many races
rather easily. When faced with a lot of options many people can become
stalled, unless they already have a very defined view of what they are
looking for in a character.
I don't want to discourage you at all, but I've advise you to develop
what is needed, then what you want, then what others want in that order.
If you plan it right you can always add races as time goes by.
Pagrin :-)
PS: Sorry about being quiet for so long, but since my duties for
Conquest have increased, I've been a bit all over the place.
I'll try to post more often.
Unobtrusive
In fact, I'm having to trim my own gaming product due to the massive races
section... 83 pages seems too... "heavy" for some, although the other half
the time people seemed to revel in their newfound freedom.
All in all, good advice!
How is Conquest going, anyway? VorpalCon was a blast, but I'm still
recovering. I found "Settlers of Catan", however, and I'm addicted.
--U
Pagrin
went well also.
Conquest is going well, we are slowly getting games, and more are coming
which is good. Everything else seems to be on track for the organizing
of things. So overall I'm happy at the moment.
Someone mentioned Settlers to me recently and were asking if we were
having a tournament for it, but so far I haven't found anyone interested
in running one. I don't suppose I could tempt you? Or failing that, if
you know of anyone else who might be interested?
Pagrin :-)
Pegasus
"Pagrin" <Pag...@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
news:452b76ac$0$11970$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
Eep! All this talk about Cons of various descriptions has got my feathers
ruffled! Does anybody know of any happening on the Eastern shore of
Australia, near Sydney? I desperately want to go to one, but I haven't heard
of any information so I've been in the dark.
As far as the races go, I've taken your advice Pagrin and have included
guidelines for several half-breeds and the general race list has been
refined somewhat. I've decided that we're only playing 3 races of elves
(unless there is a serious request for another), those being the Sylvan,
Drow and Grey. I'm yet to find any particular classification on whether the
Dwarven race can be subdivided, but perhaps it's better to leave them as one
big collective race.
Pagrin
Sydney is the home of a couple of cons over the year. Necronomicon is
over the Easter weekend (Same time as Conquest down here in Melbourne)
There is also Macquarie Con as well which might still be yet to come
this year.
> http://www.necronomicon.org/
Sorry don't have a link for Macquarie con. I'm not sure if Sydcon is
still running, but if it is you should be able to find links somewhere
if you google it.
Failing those there is Gencon is Brisbane next year, and Arcanacon,
Conquest, Retrocon, and Unicon all in Melbourne throughout the year.
www.conquest.asn.au the links page on our site lists the rest of the
Melbourne cons as well.
And I'm sure Vorpalcan will run again even if the orgs for it might not
what to think about it yet. :-)
Pagrin
PS: Dwarf options - Mountain dwarf, Hill dwarf, Gully dwarf, Mul
(Half-dwarf). other than that there is always Gnomes as well, which can
be mixed in. :-)
(One option for dwarf is the best at this point, expand only when you
need to.)
Pegasus
(snippage)
>> As far as the races go, I've taken your advice Pagrin and have included
>> guidelines for several half-breeds and the general race list has been
>> refined somewhat. I've decided that we're only playing 3 races of elves
>> (unless there is a serious request for another), those being the Sylvan,
>> Drow and Grey. I'm yet to find any particular classification on whether
>> the Dwarven race can be subdivided, but perhaps it's better to leave them
>> as one big collective race.
> As it happen I do know a little about con on the Eastern coast.
> Sydney is the home of a couple of cons over the year. Necronomicon is over
> the Easter weekend (Same time as Conquest down here in Melbourne)
> There is also Macquarie Con as well which might still be yet to come this
> year.
>> http://www.necronomicon.org/
> Sorry don't have a link for Macquarie con. I'm not sure if Sydcon is still
> running, but if it is you should be able to find links somewhere if you
> google it.
>
> Failing those there is Gencon is Brisbane next year, and Arcanacon,
> Conquest, Retrocon, and Unicon all in Melbourne throughout the year.
> www.conquest.asn.au the links page on our site lists the rest of the
> Melbourne cons as well.
> And I'm sure Vorpalcan will run again even if the orgs for it might not
> what to think about it yet. :-)
> Pagrin
>
Excellent! Many thanks, Pagrin. I'll have to check them out for sure.
> PS: Dwarf options - Mountain dwarf, Hill dwarf, Gully dwarf, Mul
> (Half-dwarf). other than that there is always Gnomes as well, which can be
> mixed in. :-)
> (One option for dwarf is the best at this point, expand only when you need
> to.)
*grins* I'm keeping Dwarf as Dwarf, no special categories. The stars know a
simple fantasy RPG doesn't need that many categories to sum up something
that a Dragon PC of mine put quite nicely:
"Mmm. Dwarf. Just like the snack-sized version of human, only with twice the
calories and three times the hair."
Thanks once again for your vast store of knowledge,
Pegasus
Unobtrusive
Sorry all, not that it's that important, but between training, household,
work, publishing, and private life, I've had no time for the net.
Pegasis: Syndcon has just been past; it was over the October long weekend,
but at least you can mark it down for next year.
Arcanacon's also something to look forward too! Even clinical dehydration
couldn't keep me away! (I had experience with that, too... *L*)
--U
Pegasus
0_0 I must keep track of these things! Is there a website with all of the
'cons' listed, or does one have to find them all by hand?
Pegasus
Pagrin
within their area, but there is someone who was setting up a very nice
looking site which listed them all. I was going to add that to the
posting I made, but when I checked the site all their graphics had been
replaced with an image about the person being a thief, and a lot of
links seemed to be dead, so I suspect they are having a few problems at
the moment.
I know the Conquest site has links for the other Melbourne cons, so I
guess the Sydney and Canberra based cons would do the same. Failing that
pester me and I find as many links as I can to post.
If you and Unobtrusive are coming across or down for Arcanacon let me
know, and I'll try and meet up to say hi. It's unlikely I'll be at the
whole con, but I'm bound to drop by. :-)
Pagrin :-)
Pegasus
Well,I was actually doing some of my usual net-surfing and I found this nice
site. Worth a look:
http://www.convention.com.au/
I'd love to come across for Arcanacon, but travel is off the list for now. I
even had to remove a trip to Melbourne next year... not happy :-P
*grins* I am, however, going to try and haunt both SydCon and MaquarieCon.
Now, to convince some friends to come along. That's the hard part!
Pegasus
Unobtrusive
> 0_0 I must keep track of these things! Is there a website with all of the
> 'cons' listed, or does one have to find them all by hand?
> Pegasus
It's a little hard to find, but if you look on the Wizards of the Coat
website, you'll find a section that says "look for a convention near you!".
It's not the most accurate schedule, but it's a start!
--U