[Merged] The races of the world, Please something other then Elves/Dwarves/Orcs/Humans?

[Tale]

I think we kind of got distracted from talking about races in specific to discussing mythologies as a broader topic. I've pruned the thread to help get back on track. If someone wants to talk about broader mythological influences, that should probably be its own thread.

[Longknife]

A Corgi race would be pretty boss, ijs.

 

-5% maximum HP when walking up stairs as a racial weakness.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Longknife

[The Sharmat]

I actually would like a playable race that wasn't "natural". I loved the Dead Nations in Torment. It seems like a natural consequence of necromancy, if there is such a thing in this setting, but undead are rarely tackled in these things except as minions for some evil overlord.

[fan]

Here's something new:

• Ephemera / Transients
  

Since we already have the soul theme, I propose a disembodied soul race.

 

Transients have the ability to:

 

- create characteristic avatar(s), whose appearances and abilities are determined by the skill/might/experience of the soul. Imagine variants ranging from rudimentary golems to a guise indistinguishable from sentient races.

- invade dead creatures and take over their bodies.

- invade living bodies through a) permission or b) domination and "sneaking up".

- shapeshift their avatars into weaponized forms (special attacks, damage type)

- reverting into disembodied, fragile form. (relevant after avatar is destroyed in battle). May seek shelter in willing companions (option through romance?).

 

The transients are visible and vulnerable in their disembodied form. Creating an avatar is an investment of energy and materials: earth, stone and metals for the golems, flesh and blood and rare minerals for the more advanced builds. Losing an advanced form is more than a nuisance, and pretty much forces a return to a summoning circle.

 

Lore:

 

Transients are rare, and quite a mystery. The two dominant theories identify them either as a separate race with unknown procreation methods, or ghosts from dead individuals.

There is no transient society as such, each is a world onto its own and may have friends in any race. They suffer not from aging, although their life can easily be ended by disturbing the delicate flow of energy of their disembodied form (disruption either by a conductive material or any form of energy will do).

Religious zealots hold strong opinions about what should be done with them.

Transients "wear their souls on their sleeves", and all but the most skilled are notoriously bad liars. The lies aren't obvious in their words or motives, but from their avatar's expressions. Beware of transients that hide their faces.

Distrust/Animosity from individuals who fear their bodies being invaded is strong. Some suspect hidden transients in society. For obvious reasons, transients have to adhere to strict rules enforced by their own kind and the other races.

 

Each transient's standard humanoid/sentient race avatar always looks the same, and is explained either by personality giving form (race theory), or as an echo of their appearance in a former existence (ghost theory).

Even so, as the character evolves, details of their form reflect those changes.

 

The only real issue I see with this race is how to solve inventory continuity. The commands "companions pick up my junk and hold it for a while", and "give it all back" might do the trick.

[Volourn]

"Oh, yeah, you know what would make elves even better? If they were even more like racist white people. NO THANKS."

 

Yeah, because racism is a white only disease. Blacks, asians, and others are never racist. Seriously, do people really believe that nonsense? Those that doa re being racist.

[Arrgeron]

I'm indifferent about this, honestly. I love dwarfs and elves, and I really wouldn't mind seeing them in the game. However, its truthfully overdone. Guild wars 2 has a great original race there, and I'd love to see at least one original race with this new game.

 

Its hard to speculate though. This is an entirely new IP, who knows what they even have planned for the world? (Unless I'm super late and they've already established a bit of what the world is like)

[Gyges]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the "traditional" fantasy races, as long as they aren't all monocultural stereotypes.

 

QFT. Remember obsidian, we are entrusting you with our money. Be creative.

[MarkyMark]

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this but I'd love to see something like Tieflings from PS:T. The Idea of a humanoid creature with a sort of very powerful but also mysterious and kind of supernatural lineage is very interesting to me. Their could also be some cool game mechanics relating to the soul magic aspect. I.e. does the spawn of a god or demon have a soul, or a different type of soul? Would they be susceptible to different types of demon summoning or command. Maybe they'd be more powerful but have certain vulnerabilities.

[DAWUSS]

The next question is, if we are bringing in multiple races (species), where would that leave interspecial breeding? Will humans be able to breed with elves? Will dwarves be allowed to reproduce with orcs?

 

Personally, I'd rather that humans could only breed with humans, and elves only with elves, but that's just me.

[Tale]

Back on topic, please.

[Tagaziel]

A Corgi race would be pretty boss, ijs.

 

-5% maximum HP when walking up stairs as a racial weakness.

 

This. Absolutely, this.

 

Trivia: Neckbeards actually did that.

 

 

 

 

 

On the subject of inclusion of beast races, I've posted about that, about a minute before the Great Forum Crash of Yesterday.

[Volourn]

Animal based races can get really silly really fat though not overdone it can work.

 

Still, dwarves are a must. This is undisputable.

 

I like FAN's idea of a 'soul race'.

 

DWARVES DWARVES DWARVES WE MUST HAVE DWARVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

p.s. Check out my sign for a major reason why dwarves are a must have!

[novander]

I'd like to throw in another vote for the "we are tired of elves and dwarves" campaign. It's not so much that I dislike elves - I'm pretty sure I tried playing BG1 or 2 through with an elf only party at one point - it's more that I, like many people backing this project, did so when I heard the words "Planescape Torment", and one of the reasons that game was so great was that despite existing in a setting that featured elves and dwarves, it managed to avoid a lot of fantasy clich

[Akratus]

I would really love to see some tall dwarves.

[Henkkel83]

I don

[Shadenuat]

When exactly the last time we've seen true Tolkienish races? When did last time you had a talk with a faerie queen dressed in simple white dress taking steps down from an elegant elvish pavilion, instead of standing in some market dressed in chain bikini and waving her long donkey ears? When did last time a proud dwarf was becoming battle-brothers with noble elf in well-handled dramatic encounter? Most of the races in fantasy games today are diminished to a gimmick (elves as sex-symbols, dwarves for forced steampunk references, and those funny pesky gnomes).

I always thought that it's hardest to bring in classic archetype, because it would happen to be very boring, *unless* you make it that good, that it would resonate the biggest in the audience.

I want classical fantasy races done clever and good.

[limaxophobiacq]

I for one would prefer something without the classic tolkien/DnD races, and for all that is holy no more cheap racism anologies like DA elves ("Knife-Ears", seriously?). The only time I've seen a good racism-anology was in district 9 and that required a very specific plot + south african context to work as well as it did. If you could just as well write it with humans as with a non-human species (like DA getto-elves easily could have been), don't ****ing do it.

 

If you are going to do something with racism, I'd rather it be human on human racism (or even better lizard-man on lizard-man) and instead of boring old ghettos I'd rather visit a colony or satrapy suffering imperial oppression from racist administrators (who are racist because they're imperial oppressors, not oppressors because they are racists, ie. I don't want the racism to be the focus, just a nasty little flavour thing). And I'd like there to be a logic as to why they are racist beyond them just being bad/stupid people.

Edited September 17, 2012 by limaxophobiacq

[Oridan]

I'd like to see a centaurs, preferably available as companion(s). Remember the main centaur guy in the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", Disney version? He was badass. So yeah. Centaurs. I want. Pretty please, Obsidian?

 

Other races on my wishlist: Minotaurs, evil sorcerous dwarves (rather than jolly drunken ones) and bears. Yep, bears. On two legs like one of these guys perhaps.

[Yaskaleh]

When exactly the last time we've seen true Tolkienish races? When did last time you had a talk with a faerie queen dressed in simple white dress taking steps down from an elegant elvish pavilion, instead of standing in some market dressed in chain bikini and waving her long donkey ears? When did last time a proud dwarf was becoming battle-brothers with noble elf in well-handled dramatic encounter? Most of the races in fantasy games today are diminished to a gimmick (elves as sex-symbols, dwarves for forced steampunk references, and those funny pesky gnomes).

I always thought that it's hardest to bring in classic archetype, because it would happen to be very boring, *unless* you make it that good, that it would resonate the biggest in the audience.

I want classical fantasy races done clever and good.

 

Agreed. I'm sick and tired that elves in modern games are just there as sex symbols. I miss the old days of Tolkien.

[Tagaziel]

Tolkien's trilogy, while great, is actually very, very sanitized. Not to mention the generally unambigous white/black storyline and characters.

[Shadenuat]

Tolkien's trilogy, while great, is actually very, very sanitized. Not to mention the generally unambigous white/black storyline and characters.

It did work out in a sense that it did bring awe from readers.

Also, morally strong and good characters with black/white view of world are not automatically boring (example: Keldorn Firecam).

[Tagaziel]

After Andrzej Sapkowski, black/white settings are pretty boring. By the way, Keldorn is interesting because of his personal conflicts and quest, not his outlook on life. It's the conflict that's interesting, not the naive paladin thinking.

[Yaskaleh]

Tolkien's trilogy, while great, is actually very, very sanitized. Not to mention the generally unambigous white/black storyline and characters.

 

I do prefer more grey settings. What I was trying to get at was the looks and feel. Can you imagine a Noldor warrior running around in a string mankini armour with a sword the size of a skyscraper while trying to get you in bed? No, they're noble warriors who uses equipment and weapons that would work in the real world.

[Shadenuat]

By the way, Keldorn is interesting because of his personal conflicts and quest, not his outlook on life. It's the conflict that's interesting, not the naive paladin thinking.

His naive paladiin thinking (duty above all, ect.) was in conflict with his family matters. It was also which made him dramatic character at the very end (defending some village far away from his home). As I said, that's your basic archetype done right.

 

What I was trying to get at was the looks and feel.

I was mostly about looks and feel too, thought I am not against very moral characters. Developers today looove to bring some grey and tortured souls in party, to the point that actually crawling dungeons with these guys makes game insufferable (Anders from DA2).

[limaxophobiacq]

After Andrzej Sapkowski, black/white settings are pretty boring. By the way, Keldorn is interesting because of his personal conflicts and quest, not his outlook on life. It's the conflict that's interesting, not the naive paladin thinking.

 

I don't really see what's so naive about Keldorn (beside maybe his talk with the ranger whose name I forget). Actually I think he's a decent example of how you can do characters who are good guys without showing them as stupid and naive, though I think Obsidian could probably do an even better job than that*. (Also Andrzej Sapkowski didn't really invent morally ambigous fantasy settings, Conan was written ages ago and is anything but black and white.)

 

*I mean, Dak'kon and Fall-From-Grace are pretty unambiguously good people despite a few character flaws, but if there's a naive character in torment it's probably Annah (and obviously Nordom).

 

Edit: Don't take this to mean that I want something like an alignment system or some clearly good-holy supernatural power in the game.

Edited September 17, 2012 by limaxophobiacq