Great to see progress on dwarves for PE in the latest newsletter. As someone who tends to roleplay dwarves in
video games, I had a few requests come out of that email.
Firstly, it sounds like the dwarf has been created as a "smaller human" and my concern is that this can result
in problems with animations/stature/posture. The original Everquest had some issues with this, for example, when
it introduced its new graphics engine. Legs ended up a little disproportionate, and some animations/build options
that were possible previously disappeared. Hopefully the engine will be flexible enough to accomodate racial traits
such as sturdier legs, and variable length limbs to allow the kind of sturdy dwarf that high fantasy requires. This
differs to the JRPG stylings where dwarves end up looking like elf-children (sigh).
Secondly, will it be possible to have longer beards? Sounds silly, I'm sure, but often facial hair is designed for
Human builds, and copied across to other races as necessary, so you don't get the kind of full-body beard that
games like Warhammer or D&D describe (memories of the D&D spell SilverBeard come to mind).
Finally, beards on female dwarves. Most games these days seem totally based on western-human views on
what makes an attractive human female (breast size, face proportions, lips, hairstyle, ass). It is rare to see
games offer different approaches for other races. However, games like Everquest (1 & 2) show that it is
possible to offer different takes on females for other races. Dwarf females can have beards, for example,
perhaps suitably manicured or inlaid with jewels etc. In those games, lizard, ogre and feline races had very
different options for the female appearance.