Dashwood

It's pretty hard not to rip from DnD, they covered quite a bit of ground with AD&D 2nd ed, basically every conceivable humanoid is covered, from hippo men (Giff, Spelljammer) to Minotaurs (Humanoids Supplements/Krynn) toad peeps (Bullywugs, Humanoids Supplement) Yetis (Alagai Humanoids) incorporeal beings of force (Lights, and Lantern Archons Planescape MC) mineral people (Various denizens of the Plane of Earth) and and and .... I could go on but I think the point is made.

Is this a loaded poll? Options 1 and 5 are exactly the same, If you were "Totally True to AD&D" you can make your own if you really felt like it you could make, say, 40' turtles that communicate via telepathy as PC's. the rules are in the DMG. as for the more Canon options, the Humaniods supplement allowed PC's to be a large number of races, from Gnolls to Ogre Mages. and then, of course, there were dem planetouched, Modrons anyone?

I want me some Hyengokai, they is off the hizzle.

One thing that bugs me slightly in games in the "Black White Grey" Morality systems, games like Mass Effect being the worst. Don't get me wrong, I loved those games, but the problem was in the "Blue Red" Morality, they even made it easy to choose via their wheel system. The result was inevitable, choose Blue and you get long term rewards, choose red you get short term rewards and a badass. Best example, metaphor for the whole cracked system was in the "Scars" of Mass Effect 2, the more bad things you did the more scars you got, the more good the less. Unfortunately, real life don't work like that, people who stick their heads out for others often lose them, or have hidden agenda, people who selfishly manipulate others will, if they're good enough, make dem millions. I think PE should reflect on this, players who selflessly follow the "Good" path should be beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the Tyranny of Evil Men. However Evil dudes should, by and large, have it easy for large sections (at the cost of alienating companions and screwing over communities). The Ending should reflect this, people who selfishly acquire whatever they can should lead to absolute destruction of the societies they operated within (after all, PC's are supposed to be amazing characters, they should have an huge influence on these societies) and Characters who act meekly and modestly should cause prosperity ect etc etc. However it shouldn't be that simple. Societies around the world are somewhat separated from another when it comes to the Morals they hold close, the Chivalric code, for example, is a literal world away from the Japanese Bushido code, there are some parallels but many differences (IE Suicide vs Ransom) So I'll use a quick example to demonstrate what I would like (sorry about the jumble) there are three nations, A, B and C A has no natural resources and a rocky local terrain. because of it's somewhat disadvantaged situation, it's main source of income is raiding nations B and C. because of this people who are agile and strong are venerated, those who help the weak are either tolerated (if foreigners) or hated (if within the tribes/clans, wasting of good resources! shocking!). B has some metal deposits, but these are of poorer quality, and large well watered floodplains. it has a feudal structure, but due to frequent peasant revolts has a somewhat liberal outlook. those who work for the greater good, and don't try to laud their own achievements, are considered good folk, those who take advantage of others are branded as criminals, and those who act selfishly are received coldly. C has large deposits of Iron, and is a coastal power. it is a republic, and is more wealthy than A and B. it places no moral emphasis on giving or taking, individual citizens decide their opinions in regards to this. However, people who break oaths and the like are regarded with scorn (due to the damage a break of contract could do) We'll use three example adventures and place them in each nation to see what reaction they get. Alpha takes what he wants at the point of a sword, but will flee if he encounters anything stronger Beta is meek, and gives freely, he fights for his own moral compass (as it were) Gamma is a shrewd businessman, he will take what he can but always sticks to his word. Alpha will be worshipped in A, possibly even becoming the leader of a tribe, in B he will be a criminal no matter where he turns, and in C he could only succeed as a Mercenary and even then chances are he would be kicked out soon enough Beta will be a hero in nation B, his virtues match their own, in Nation A he will be treated with suspicion, and due to his nature probably only be able to trade, if he was a native he would have been hounded out of said nation by now. in Nation C he will live an average life, he won't succeed but he won't be killed outright either. Gamma will have a good chance to succeed in nation C in Nation B he will be treated with suspicion, his selfishness will not appeal to the majority, and in nation A he would probably succeed best in short spurts, too long and he will be crushed by someone stronger. Its very basic, but do you guys get the gist?

What would you suggest otherwise? the D&D character Archetypes cover more or less everything, Rouges for being sneaky, mages for casting spells and fighters for hitting things. as for fighters in D&D terms, whilst they were still just hitting things with swords at level 20, they should (if the DM is half decent) also be involved in several inter planar intrigues, run their own keep, have hundreds of Men at Arms under their sway and generally be an important person in their crystal sphere/plane. Wizards, by comparison, are usually just butthurt loners in Astral fortresses.

Here's my 5 picks 1. Fighter- can be turned into three archetypes, or a mixture of any two, the Knight (heavy Armor and longsword-esque weaponry), the Barabrain (light armor and anything that requires 2 hands to wield) and the swashbuckler (my favourite 2nd ed AD&D kit, it's disadvantage (according to the fighters handbook) was being too awesome, with rapiers and sabres and no armor) 2. Mage- with several classes of magic, covering several provinces. each mage can either be a member of all provinces or choose one to specialise in. 3. Rouge- thief character with whatever archetypes thos people want to play. 4. Cleric/Priest- worships some form of god, the god you praise decides which powers you get (NOT spells), so a priest of *GOD OF HEALING* could touch people to heal them and undead to destroy them, and later develop this ability, ect etc etc. 5.Bard- jack of all trades, can thief, fight and cast spells, in short, bloody bosses.

Some people aren't getting the point, this isn't Voice Acting for main characters, major NPCs or the PC, it's for the sideshow bobs and relative unknowns, the countless "Commoners" and "Peastants", "Thugs" "Orcs" "Goblins". The Nameless Ones, as it were. Few games, if any, have had an extremely varied amount of "Background" voice actors, and any deuce with a mike can make a moderately good "Die Do Gooder!" generic humanoid impression, hell after a good few years of DMing I've really noticed the difference between sessions where I actively zest up the random commoners with some form of unique speech as compared to the ones where I cop out with a "he tells you the cave is north" approach. as for the snarky about Drama students, they may have no job prospects but they have good voices and good voice control,most of them have been in dozens of professional(ish) productions. Lastly for the BG:EE enquiry, I'll check it out.

As I said, I have at least 50 odd Drama students on call, these are people who are intending to use their voices professionally, and a top quality recording studio. these guys (and gals) love the sounds of their own voices, and I don't doubt more than a few would run through a script or two for free. What does it hurt to at least screen some free voice talent? 5 or so minutes out of your day for something that could cost a bleeding fortune? If it's bad there's no need to add it, but if it's good ....

IIRC there was something about the fact the game may not be fully voiced, due to a lack of funds for hiring voice talent. Screw That. Obsidian, you have in excess of 26 odd thousand people backing your project with cold hard cash, why not ask them to do it? For example, I'm currently at Victoria University (Wellington New Zealand) If pushed, I could gather a bunch of Drama students, push them into a (university sponsored) recording room and give them scripts. It's free voice for side quests and NPCs, non essential stuff, whilst the remaining voice talent could be hired (after all, you don't want to distribute story related scripts to complete randoms) I'm sure there are others in a similar situation, If you put out the call you could have, quite literally, thousands of voices for your game, imagine the babble as you entered a busy market place, hundreds of actual people trying to talk over one another (in a recording studio of course), you could have hundreds of people do their best Orc/Goblin impressions, imagine getting a different insult from those pesky raiders before engaging them in combat, imagine having to play hundreds of hours before hearing a repeat of someone's voice! No "Arrow in the Knee" repeats, ask a different fan to voice act each guard, each with their own anecdotes and ways of dealing with trespassers! (vocally, of course) Just a thought.