What do you want the other race(s) to be?

[horocaust]

I think that they simply went with those 3 traditional first to be able to draw into the game a less "hardcore" audience. So they're just winking.

But the audience, the entirety of it, is, in fact, hardcore, else they wouldn't support this project. Considering polls, people want Eternity to be like Torment and Baldur's Gate, and both of these are not the softest of games. Considering polls again, most people who support the project have gaming experience which spans decades, and they've seen elves and dwarfs done to death and beyond. Now, maybe there's some appreciation for it and I'm just being a hipster, but I really think we have too much cliches to ask for more.

[IchigoRXC]

@Horocaust I understand that you feel that dwarves and elves have been done to death, but perhaps as you stated their inclusion is for the BG fans. You get the crazy races in slots 4 and 5 for the PST fans and the traditional Humans Elves Dwarves for the traditionalist fans (but with their own take on subraces and culture I am sure)

 

I Want both, I am greedy, I won't lie. I do understand your POV though

[horocaust]

(but with their own take on subraces and culture I am sure)

Yes, I do hope that elves won't all live in forests and dwarves all be blacksmiths, and concept art of vaguely Indian dwarven ranger does give me that hope, but if you want Indians, why not just make Indians? That's my biggest objection to DA considering races: dwarves were unusual because they had a caste system and were resistant to magic, and elves were gypsies and jews when they weren't druids. But if you just took humans and gave them the same properties that elves and dwarves had, the game wouldn't have lost in quality. So in addition to fantastic French and Byzantine people you'd get fantastic gypsies.

[Godwin]

Some sort of Orc would be fine with me, the races really don't have to be origonal so long as they are well done. I mean all it takes is a dog to shag a cat and you've got a new species!

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

I'd like to see something like ratmen or the sort, and they'd be the residence of souls who messed up in their past lives. A tormented race for souls which need to redeem themselves. Not necessarily ratmen though, just something "uncomfortable" for the soul, as ratmen for example would probably have many parasites and so on. A race where a high position in the society would mean that the soul succeeded in redeeming itself.

[ogrezilla]

I would have loved all humans. Just different cultures of humans.

[IchigoRXC]

Gnomes, because Tiax will rule all!

 

Nah I am still sticking with hippo people.

[havok45]

I think some sort of shade race like the OP mentioned would be cool. With the godish race maybe something like Hound Archons?

[yulva]

I definitely don't want insect people.

 

Humans, elves, dwarves, godlike and insect people as a fifth option?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who can succeed in a little "Odd One Out" here. I'd rather be half-kobold... Or anything else that seem to properly fit the universe.

Edited September 24, 2012 by yulva

[hideo kuze]

I would have loved all humans. Just different cultures of humans.

I think the point of having different races is that it allows exploring different social and cultural paradigms that are not possible with humans, due to our own fabricated idea weaved with history threads.

It's a sad truth that I don't recall ever having seen such a thing.

 

The strangest I've seen (as a playable) in any videogame have been the drow (in BG2), that where a violent matriarchal race.

(technically I played with a troll in ToEE, but yeah, in terms of culture or dialog, it was as flat as it can be)

 

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a cartoon episode (from Once Upon a Time... Space) where humans met a reptilian alike alien race.

And while they exchange impressions the aliens said that they ate, like, 90% of their offspring (eggs).

The humans where horrified.

The aliens proceed to explain that due to their large number of eggs laid out, if they didn't do such a thing the planet ecosystem would collapse due to their numbers.

And the human became more understanding, but still horrified.

 

I'd really like to see some out-of-box cultures.

[Wolar]

Dwarves are already in, so I'm happy.

[hideo kuze]

I definitely don't want insect people.

 

Humans, elves, dwarves, godlike and insect people as a fifth option?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who can succeed in a little "Odd One Out" here. I'd rather be half-kobold... Or anything else that seem to properly fit the universe.

 

I've used the same expression as you as it "fitting the world", but the more I think about the, the more convinced I get that the fact is that we know nothing about it apart from the fact that it's a fantasy game with magic where the pinnacle of technology are firearms.

Our pitfall is assuming that because because we'll have humans, elfs and dwarfs, every other race should fit according to D&D.

Should we really trap ourselves in this?

[TrashMan]

I'm happy with just humans, elves and dwarves.

 

The more strage races there are, the weirder the setting becomes.

[horocaust]

The more strage races there are, the weirder the setting becomes.

And that's a wonderful thing. I'm tired of generic.

[yulva]

I've used the same expression as you as it "fitting the world", but the more I think about the, the more convinced I get that the fact is that we know nothing about it apart from the fact that it's a fantasy game with magic where the pinnacle of technology are firearms.

Our pitfall is assuming that because because we'll have humans, elfs and dwarfs, every other race should fit according to D&D.

Should we really trap ourselves in this?

Well you're right, we shouldn't assume that this is D&D. But the fact remains that the developers are constructing the game world under the light of D&D, and 4 races out of 5 are probably going to be ones that have their roots there (if we liken the godlike to tieflings/aasimars). Plus, we can still anticipate some of the content can't we? Even if we can't, insect people, to me, feel like they'd struggle to fit in most fantasy worlds as one of the pinnacle races.

 

Or maybe ocean-cruising firearm-using insectoids are just not my thing.

Edited September 24, 2012 by yulva

[Lysen]

I'd like to see something like ratmen or the sort, and they'd be the residence of souls who messed up in their past lives. A tormented race for souls which need to redeem themselves. Not necessarily ratmen though, just something "uncomfortable" for the soul, as ratmen for example would probably have many parasites and so on. A race where a high position in the society would mean that the soul succeeded in redeeming itself.

 

I wouldn't mind to see ratmen too. Or maybe goblins and kobolds, who live in the big, crowded human-dominated cities and treated as second-class citizens or worse.

[Aedelric]

Many games have great races, Forgotten Realms has Kobold, Guild Wars has Skritt and Charr, I would love to see things inspired by such great races.

 

I am happy with many things, so long as the new races are not utterly ridiculous or something we know very well but with an new yet unpronounceable name.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Aedelric

[hideo kuze]

goblins...

 

 

j/k

 

this one is a cool goblin

 

 

and this one is not a bad insectoid at all

 

 

although I prefer the aracnoids

 

[Vulee]

I'm happy with just humans, elves and dwarves.

 

The more strage races there are, the weirder the setting becomes.

I agree.

They have already strayed a little too much from the proven fantasy template, at least for my liking.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Vulee

[twincast]

Ah, yes, races.

 

I'm a firm believer in staying with the basics before you venture into creating (often over-the-top) other races.

 

And please, evil monsters are fine, but no "evil races" or "monster races" in the common sense.

 

I am not at all a fan of how D&D went through a thesaurus for dwarf, elf, dead body, dragon etc. and gave every one of them a unique design that often didn't even match up folklore at all. Hobgoblin; 'nuff said. The result: Creature overload.

 

<rant about monsters and magical races in European folklore deleted for your reading pleasure>

 

What I'm getting at is that they can go wild on undead and beastly monsters for all I care, but I only want one humanoid species each of dwarf/gnome, elf/fey, troll/ogre and ettin/giant and maybe orcs and goblins for big and little "brutes" and fairies and/or titans for bipeds that are more forces of nature than creators of culture, with the differences in portrayal in real-world regions handled by giving them roughly according cultures in-universe (which mechanically would be sub-races).

 

When it comes to "original" races, I prefer equivalents to (D&D3.5's) plane-touched (primarily of the elemental kind, but in this single case predominantly good ("divine") or evil ("demonic") races are fine as well). Insectoid races wouldn't fit the setting IMHO, but I've got a huge soft spot for biped cats and lizards in fantasy (not so much in sci-fi). Can't think of much else.

 

As for races from other cultures/traditions:

• The Mediterranean mythologies are mined way less for RPG's than one would think. Satyrs and nymphs would be cool, but other than that? Not too keen on minotaurs and centaurs (both originally demonizations of foreign cultures) because of their extreme chimeric nature, but if the devs want to implement them for NPC's, the more power to them. All others I can think of are either unique monsters or small groups of them and only really lend themselves to being monsters in a fictional universe as well. Hmm, harpies would be fine as either monsters or a cultured race, but again not really apt for use as PC's.
  
• The jinn races of Arabic folklore and Islam (specifically ifrit and marid) would work, but then again, they're basically just elementals.
  
• Succubi and incubi of Christian superstition are cool, but only really work as special demons, so again NPC-only.
  
• India basically only has the naga to offer, which are a cool variant of the dragon archetype, but as PC's? I'm heavily tending toward nah, but at least they'd be easier to implement than quadrupeds and winged people. I suppose you could base a race with multiple pairs of arms on Indian mythology, but I'm not sure whether I'd like that.
  
• Japan? No kappa, thank you very much. Tenngu? Again, winged, and I'm not particularly fond of them, either. The other roughly humanoid creatures that aren't undead/monsters are all either variants of the basic ones or animal (or dragon) spirits that can shapeshift into humans (usually young women or old men), so not really usable either.
  
• I'm not too sound on the rest of the world, but all other examples (that aren't clearly unique monsters or deities) I can think of are either generic nature spirits or (usually shapeshifting) animal spirits.
  

[Vargnatt]

Reading Changeling reminded me of Doppleganger...even though they aren't at all similar.

 

I could see a Doppleganger or a Shapechanger on a minor scale (think Mystique, I would throw in another example but it would be a spoiler) being interesting. But I don't think implementation in a rewarding fashion would be realistic- that is to say having people and the world react to your different changes in a meaningful way. The best one could probably do is add a slight stealth bonus and probably a one off comment or so.

Was thinking about dopplegangers too, but only for NPCs/companion, not for PC

[Kilroy_Was_Here]

I wonder if we could have all part animal species as one 'race'. Rat people, cat people, dog people, bear people etc. Remember that 'subraces' are confirmed. So each type of animal would have a distinct appearance and bonuses/penalties but still be part of the larger whole.

[yulva]

 

As for races from other cultures/traditions:

• The Mediterranean mythologies are mined way less for RPG's than one would think. Satyrs and nymphs would be cool, but other than that? Not too keen on minotaurs and centaurs (both originally demonizations of foreign cultures) because of their extreme chimeric nature, but if the devs want to implement them for NPC's, the more power to them. All others I can think of are either unique monsters or small groups of them and only really lend themselves to being monsters in a fictional universe as well. Hmm, harpies would be fine as either monsters or a cultured race, but again not really apt for use as PC's.
  
• The jinn races of Arabic folklore and Islam (specifically ifrit and marid) would work, but then again, they're basically just elementals.
  
• Succubi and incubi of Christian superstition are cool, but only really work as special demons, so again NPC-only.
  
• India basically only has the naga to offer, which are a cool variant of the dragon archetype, but as PC's? I'm heavily tending toward nah, but at least they'd be easier to implement than quadrupeds and winged people. I suppose you could base a race with multiple pairs of arms on Indian mythology, but I'm not sure whether I'd like that.
  
• Japan? No kappa, thank you very much. Tenngu? Again, winged, and I'm not particularly fond of them, either. The other roughly humanoid creatures that aren't undead/monsters are all either variants of the basic ones or animal (or dragon) spirits that can shapeshift into humans (usually young women or old men), so not really usable either.
  
• I'm not too sound on the rest of the world, but all other examples (that aren't clearly unique monsters or deities) I can think of are either generic nature spirits or (usually shapeshifting) animal spirits.
  

Creatures in myths aren't generally in groups so it'd be difficult to make them into a general race.

If not, there are a lot more creatures in all of those mythologies.

[Fooine]

What we know so far: Humans, Elves and Dwarves are in. There have been allusions to the "Godlike", which are somewhat akin to D&D's Aasimar and Tiefling. The fifth unknown race has been described as "truly odd".

 

Personally, I think it'd be interesting to have them be outsiders to the land the game takes place in. I like the idea of a major role in the game's conflict being played by an immigrant who, if it weren't for whatever event happens in the beginning, wouldn't have much interest in being involved. Some people raised the idea of beastfolk and I think it'd be a great fit, though maybe not "truly odd" enough. Bipedal amphibious trader fishfolk from across the ocean then? Nah, that's a crappy idea.

 

Whatever it is they're planning, I'm anxious to hear more about it.

[Monte Carlo]

I can imagine Lycanthropic characters making the cut.