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

[SirMonkeyMonk]

I'm not so sure if the godlike are a race or more a description of a race or races, but I expect them to have some connection to soul powers or at least to be believed by others to have it.

 

I always races that are really reconisable and distinctive, but still be able to live in a normal city. For example centaurs would have too much trouble with normal buildings and corridors because of their bodies, but a (concious) construct could perfectly live there. I like them to be different in quite fundamental ways though. Example smaller races, like halflings in NWN, which have to treat weapons as one size category bigger. Thing I like in races, ones that have a different healing system, claws (can't use weapons?), have to sleep more often (or be resummoned?), stony skin (resistant against piercing, weak against buldgeon), immune to magic (good and bad), something that truly effects a race, preferably in a good and a bad way. Ofcourse a lot of these things will be difficult to add to a game and can easily unbalance a game.

 

Ofcourse will certain races be better at certain skills, but I don't like it too much if there are only one or two classes a race can be decently powerfull at. If let's say, dwarves can only be good fighters and healers, how would a dwarven society (or military force) deal with the needs or rogues, wizards and archers? The dwarven rogue might lean more towards being a gadget using trapsetter than a silent sneaky backstabber, but each race should be able to fullfill each niche in a team to some degree. Else I expect there to be niches that humans can't fullfill either.

 

Additional to my last point, why are humans always the most versatile race? They are often quite big and a bit bulky, at least in appearance on one side of the spectrum, while their abilities are evenly split.

[Tale]

I can imagine Lycanthropic characters making the cut.

I hope not. 3 standard and 1 D&D expy already, how many races are left? Don't need any more from the standard list.

[Tauron]

Ehh I hope PE avoids too many animals/humanisk/hybrid creatures that are acually a fullfledged intelligent species. Minotaurs, Centaurs, were-things, Ogres etc are in traditional setting more of abominations, cursed creature monster, failed magic experiment or as from original mythology gods had sex in animal form with another creature and voila, you have abomination. Too weird to live and too rare to die. I hope they stick to that formula. If they add village of minotaurs milking cows, than PLEASE give us option to kill them all. Minotaur skin makes good boots and cenataur hooves are for good luck!

[hideo kuze]

Ehh I hope PE avoids too many animals/humanisk/hybrid creatures that are acually a fullfledged intelligent species. Minotaurs, Centaurs, were-things, Ogres etc are in traditional setting more of abominations, cursed creature monster, failed magic experiment or as from original mythology gods had sex in animal form with another creature and voila, you have abomination. Too weird to live and too rare to die. I hope they stick to that formula. If they add village of minotaurs milking cows, than PLEASE give us option to kill them all. Minotaur skin makes good boots and cenataur hooves are for good luck!

 

Racial cleansing you say... /lol

 

I would be ok with this, apart from the fact that I don't want any godlike party to be able to wipe an entire population in a region (a village is ok, a city maybe... a whole region... no way!)

 

Anyway, back on topic:

so what races are you exactly proposing?

Edited September 24, 2012 by hideo kuze

[Mamoulian War]

I really like Minotaurs, as you might imagine. I'd like to see a race of vegetarians with strong social unity among the females, and fierce competition and frequent violence among the males. Both males and females would be nothing to mess with: tall, horned, and thick with physical power. Because of their herd nature, they'd be capable of true egalitarianism at higher populations than humans or elves - thriving towns of a few thousand could get by this way - but it would not be in their nature to unite different communities into a larger heirarchy. The strongest bulls would be dominant in their community, and not easily allow anyone to rule over them. War among Minotaurs would be rare, and done by champions - the strongest bull of one community fighting against the strongest bull of another. When humans, elves, or dwarves invade their lands, Minotaurs are often disguisted by their apish barbarity. The Minotaurs would be given to deep rumination, not idle displays of cleverness or invention.

 

Minotaurs is what I wish for as well

[twincast]

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.

Erm, yes? I don't really see what the point of your post was.

[Kage Tempest]

I can imagine Lycanthropic characters making the cut.

I hope not. 3 standard and 1 D&D expy already, how many races are left? Don't need any more from the standard list.

 

Lycanthropic races are hardly standard, the only reason why they are used in World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 was because they were NOT the standard type of Tolkien type of races seen in most western fantasy type of worlds/novels. Khajiits from the Eldar Scrolls are an anomoly in itself as the race of cat like people pretty much appeared in one of the earliest TES games with a very bizarre history combined with an improbable culture pairing.

 

I for one would support an anthropomorphic race as long as it was flavored to be something more like Guild Wars rather than something from actual Lycanthropic origins. By flavored to be something more like Guild Wars, I don't mean a very strong industrious race that loves war, guns, and more war, I mean something that doesn't follow the norm.

 

Centaurs sound interesting, but creating art assets to accommodate their body type, weaponry, and even coding what armors they can in fact use just sounds needlessly tedious. Planar Races though are very common in a lot of table top Role Playing Game scenarios.

 

However, I feel like now would be a good time to remind everyone that while we in these forums may be an active "voice" of those that are interested in the game/are backers/ are future buyers, we shouldn't hold Obsidian up to our demands to add or exclude content based off of our personal preferences. Ultimately this is their world we are trying our darnedest to influence.

[eimatshya]

However, I feel like now would be a good time to remind everyone that while we in these forums may be an active "voice" of those that are interested in the game/are backers/ are future buyers, we shouldn't hold Obsidian up to our demands to add or exclude content based off of our personal preferences. Ultimately this is their world we are trying our darnedest to influence.

 

Of course, and I'm not trying to tell them how to do their jobs nor do I expect them to read every thread that goes up on the forums. Still, it's (1) fun to speculate and weigh in on stuff we are passionate about and (2) I imagine getting an idea of what the fans are interested in would be helpful for a developer. When I plan out pen and paper campaigns, I often ask the players for their opinions on stuff that I'm considering putting in the campaign, and after each game I make notes of what seemed to resonate well with them and what didn't. I want the players to enjoy the game I run, after all. That doesn't mean I do everything they suggest, I still retain executive control over the project, but I find it helpful to get an idea of what they want, so I can make a campaign that we will all enjoy. It seems reasonable that Obsidian might take a similar approach. Even if they aren't taking such an approach, or if they are but aren't following this thread, (1) still holds.

Edited September 25, 2012 by eimatshya

[Tale]

Lycanthropic races are hardly standard, the only reason why they are used in World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 was because they were NOT the standard type of Tolkien type of races seen in most western fantasy type of worlds/novels. Khajiits from the Eldar Scrolls are an anomoly in itself as the race of cat like people pretty much appeared in one of the earliest TES games with a very bizarre history combined with an improbable culture pairing.

"Standard" may have been the wrong word. However, they're a common enough enemy type in D&D that they made their way into both Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights 2, they're a Druid kit, an enemy type and player race in World of Warcraft, have made 2 separate appearances in Elder Scrolls games, and are a major facet of World of Darkness, which then saw an appearance in in Bloodlines, if not Redemption (I haven't made an in-depth effort at Redemption). And beyond RPGs, they have a massive cultural impact including in modern fiction, being part of two popular fantasy novel franchises that then were made into movie franchises in the past 10 years, as well as yet another movie franchise not directly originating in other media.

 

They're not precisely an honest attempt at original creativity in a fantastic context, or even part of the shallow end of exposure for unoriginal creation, at this point in time.

 

Tieflings/Aasimar/Godlike have less exposure than they.

[eimatshya]

I've seen a few people mention Dopplegangers and Werecreatures. I think those would both be fun, but in the case of Dopplegangers, I think that might work better in a game with a set protagonist who is a Doppleganger. That way they could focus on integrating his ability to take on the appearance of other people into the narrative, which I think would make it much more fulfilling (sort of like how the Nameless One's immortality and the Harborman's Soul Eating were fully integrated into PST and MotB).

 

As for the second option, there might be some interesting things they could do with a society of were-creatures. They could develop rights of passage that everyone needed to go through to learn how to control the beast in them. Maybe the race came into existence when the awakened soul of a human or similar being was reincarnated in the body of an animal. The awakened soul carried with it some of the magic it possessed in its former life and its desire to be human again (or elven or whatever) caused a metamorphosis in the animal and it began to shift between human and animal form. Eventually, it learned how to control the transformation, and became a true shape shifter. He then began hunting down similarly afflicted individuals and teaching them to control their shifting. That story could be improved on, but my point is that I think there would be some interesting things that they could do with were-creatures. I don't know if that would be a great race though, since it would involve humans, elves, and dwarves (the same problem people noticed in my Deathborn idea in the OP). It might work better if it was a follower, rather than a playable race.

[Kage Tempest]

Lycanthropic races are hardly standard, the only reason why they are used in World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 was because they were NOT the standard type of Tolkien type of races seen in most western fantasy type of worlds/novels. Khajiits from the Eldar Scrolls are an anomoly in itself as the race of cat like people pretty much appeared in one of the earliest TES games with a very bizarre history combined with an improbable culture pairing.

"Standard" may have been the wrong word. However, they're a common enough enemy type in D&D that they made their way into both Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights 2, they're a Druid kit, an enemy type and player race in World of Warcraft, have made 2 separate appearances in Elder Scrolls games, and are a major facet of World of Darkness, which then saw an appearance in in Bloodlines, if not Redemption (I haven't made an in-depth effort at Redemption). And beyond RPGs, they have a massive cultural impact including in modern fiction, being part of two popular fantasy novel franchises that then were made into movie franchises in the past 10 years, as well as yet another movie franchise not directly originating in other media.

 

They're not precisely an honest attempt at original creativity in a fantastic context, or even part of the shallow end of exposure for unoriginal creation, at this point in time.

 

Tieflings/Aasimar/Godlike have less exposure than they.

 

From a view point encompassing all of modern popular culture, I will have to agree with you on that one, however, from the standpoint of RPGs and table top roleplaying Tieflings/Aasimar/Godlikes have had much more exposure as playable PC races/protagonist assisting NPCs/Characters allied with protagonists than lycanthropes in the golden ages of the 1990s to like around 2004 ish when more hard core RPG games were more popular before they kind of fell off the face of the earth.

 

If we look at what we know of the Lore of Project Eternity thus far, it seems far more likely they will put in several similar groups of god like or god touched beings as a new race rather than something that looks even remotely anthropomorphic like lets say a centaur. Personally I favor the look/physical description of anthromorphs in a fantasy setting mainly because they are exotic and distinctly NOT human looking, yet they are (as depicted in games, and popular epic fantasy novels [excluding modern fantasy from this argument since all modern fantasy plots involving anything anthromorph related seems sexual in nature >.>]) bipedal and can be flavored to support co existing with other bipedal races [al la elder scrolls and guild wars].

[Sargallath Abraxium]

...e'erythin's better wit' Wemics...start there...

 

 

...WHO LUVS YA, BABY!!...

[dlux]

These guy are pretty cool, a "Wolpertinger". It is basically a horned hare with wings and fangs. http://en.wikipedia....ki/Wolpertinger

 

 

 

 

I recently found out that these little suckers are a pet in WoW ^^

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2012 by dlux

[eimatshya]

I've been thinking about different possible races that they could come up with through their soul mechanic, but they usually end up as stuff that wouldn't really be a race (like the suggestion I made in my original post).

 

One possibility might be something like the following (this is the legend they tell of their origin, which may or may not be true):

 

Long ago, the mage-lords of some forgotten civilization enacted a new punishment for those who attempted to overthrow them. They were taken to the caverns below the capital where a primordial being of untold might had died and infused the rocks themselves with his power. Drawing on the great energies of that place, the mage-lords would level a terrible curse that ripped the souls from its subjects but left them mysteriously alive. Overtime, either due to the loss of their souls or because of some property of the curse, the Anathema (as they became known) began to change. Their bodies contorted and they became monstrous, hunch-backed creatures. They lost the ability to empathize with other beings or to work together as a group. They felt only a hollowness and sense of being incomplete.

 

Despite their hideous appearances, many sought a way to fill the emptiness inside of themselves through sex. Strangely, but perhaps as part of the curse's design, the Anathema found that they could still reproduce but that their offspring were just as soulless and twisted as they were. As such, generations after the rebellion that lead to their creation, the monstrous descendents of the original rebels were still around to remind the other citizens of the price of rising up against the mage-lords. The Anathema were housed in public cages when they weren't being forced to toil away at the most degrading jobs the mage-lords could find for them.

 

This all changed when a rival nation invaded. When their troops stormed the capital, there was so much chaos that many Anathema escaped and fled into the wilds where they scattered (due to being unable to work in any unified way without some outside power forcing them). One of the Anathema encountered a Shaman who began teaching him an art called Kshar (or something, I don't know; that's what popped into my head). This art consisted of both meditation as well as the study and recitation of a series of mantras on right action. Through this art, this Anathema found that he could satiate the sense of loss inside himself. He still felt no empathy, however, the Mantras served as a form of guidance for his interactions with other beings. Although the Anathema could not feel compassion, he could fake it by adhering to the detailed code presented in the Mantras.

 

His studies of Kshar and its mantras led him to believe that what would be right and compassionate must be to train other Anathema in Kshar. He left the Shaman to search for other Anathema and began teaching them. In time, many of the Anathema learned the art and through it gained focus. Eventually, these Ksharha, or followers of Kshar, founded their own settlement, which in time grew into a civilization. The Anathema who did not learn Kshar never overcame their hunger and many became wicked creatures who preyed on the helpless. Some sought to quell their emptiness by trying to steal the souls of others. Enough of these rogue Anathema have survived over the centuries and managed to interbreed during brief, and dangerous encounters with others of their race to perpetuate the non-Ksharha element of the race, whose number is at time increased by Anathema who fail to learn the Ksharha and are forced to flee the Ksharha nation.

 

The Ksharha themselves are an unusual culture. Their soulless nature necessitates the strict incorporation of the Kshar in every aspect of their lives, as their dedication to it essentially turns it into a pseudo-soul. Since their entire society would quickly break down if any significant number of them ceased adhering to Kshar, group meditation and study are mandatory parts of every day. A special monastic order serves as law enforcement to deal with any Anathema that reject Kshar. If Ksharha slip up and kill someone, they have no sense of guilt over the action (they cannot feel guilt). They would know that the act was, probably, against the Mantras and would try to do better in the future if they wish to continue being Ksharha, instead of empty Anathema, but there would be no remorse. Ksharha who serve in violent professions such as soldiers walk a fine line as it is easy for them to move from killing out of defensive necessity and killing for more casual reasons. Consequently, Ksharha soldiers tend to study the Mantras even more strenuously than their brethren to keep themselves from losing Kshar.

 

As they lack souls, Anathema cannot use magic, however hard they may study the Kshar.

 

Anyway, I don't know if this would actually fit in with how souls work in P:E. We don't know what exactly a soul does for a person, other than make it possible to use magic. Still, it was fun to come up with.

[eimatshya]

These guy are pretty cool, a "Wolpertinger". It is basically a horned hare with wings and fangs. http://en.wikipedia....ki/Wolpertinger

 

Hah, those are pretty neat! I wish they were real, I'd totally want one as pet.

 

Thanks for sharing!

Edited September 25, 2012 by eimatshya

[Sensuki]

Thri-Kreen

[Zere]

I vote for somekinda noble savage, like a tuxedo wearing viking or something.

 

Ofc not the generic viking drinking beer and smacking skulls. But like some half-undead Skeletor (Draugr is btw scandinavian myth, not some Skyrim thing) or some other odd race viking wearing monocle.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Zere

[yulva]

Erm, yes? I don't really see what the point of your post was.

My point was that in myths, mystic creatures don't come in groups or populations. But making them into a general race is possible (such as minotaurs) even if it's a chore and sometimes doesn't work. So, a lot more unique stories could be taken into account in matters such as determining races since there are a lot more creatures in the mythologies you mentioned. Edited September 25, 2012 by yulva

[Flying Magician]

Thri-Kreen

 

Playable race of overpowered insectoids who don't fit any setting? Bad joke indeed.

 

I also hope they won't go with some cheap fanservice. Like lizards and goddamned furries, as others here suggested.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Flying Magician

[Thulean]

I wouldn't mind if it was just humans. I'd prefer it kept simple though. Beyond elves and dwarves maybe lizardmen or minotaur.

[Semper]

what about pandas?

[Flying Magician]

Obsidian seems to go the Arcanum route. Generic fantasy with revisionism and modifications. The map is generic, the names are generic. So be it: a generic set of fantasy races, why not. There's not even a big differences of climate in the world, just generic temperate forests and things.

It's idiotic to demand exotic things in those conditions. Lizards, insects, intelligent machines, whoa, really?

 

Humans divided to several nations or tribes would be good, though. After seeing the artwork of a primitive dwarf hunter, I'd go even further: a dying race of pre- humans:

neanderthals.

 

As some less or more controversial RL researchers suggest, neanderthals had better intelectual and physical predispositions. Died out after being overpopulated by homo sapiens. There's also said they got titanium bones and golden nanobots.

 

Bonuses to strength and intelligence stats, big penalties to charisma and so on. The point is to provide a slightly overpowered race, designed for solo playthrough (low CHA - no followers, etc).

[Galdegir]

Humans, Elves (with a dark elves subrace I hope) and Dwarves (with a dark dwarves subrace I hope) are deffinetly in. The other races I would like to see are:

1 - Orcs - strona and hardy with a few subraces some honorable like orcs from Heroes V some like orcs from Tolkien

2 - Gnomes - not the tiny humans like in other games but with a totaly different look maybe a bit alien very slender with big eyes

3 - Minotaurs - they could be a bit like the Charr from Guild Wars 2, a militaristic war like people

[Monte Carlo]

Thri-Kreen

 

Playable race of overpowered insectoids who don't fit any setting? Bad joke indeed.

 

I also hope they won't go with some cheap fanservice. Like lizards and goddamned furries, as others here suggested.

 

Hmmm. I quoted Phraints (from Arduin) earlier in the thread. The idea is that a spacecraft crashed gazillions of years ago. The aliens on board, the insectoid phraints, dispersed. They are inherently non-magical and have good resistance but are unable to cast spells. They speak human languages poorly, have to eat specially prepared foods for their mouth-parts and are feared and reviled. OTOH they are astonishingly fast, agile combatants and tough to boot. They are sought after as bodyguards.

 

Now playing one was tough. The phraint is part of a hive mind and still feels lost in this strange world. You have a negative charisma stat and struggle to communicate. BUt it was awesome fun trying and the attitude of other characters to you was a blast. Maybe such a race should ne NPC-only (a largely silent, bizarre looking but deadly bodyguard like a Phraint, who you grew to understand over time, would be an awesome NPC IMO).

[Amentep]

I manged years ago to get my DM to allow me to play a Lizard Man. I actually couldn't go in to towns (because they tended to attack Lizard Men since there was a hostile tribe nearby and that's all they knew) but it allowed us to work with the hostile Lizard Men in a way that the DM hadn't initially planned (because I was able to get on with them rather well eventually).

 

Only problem was to get equipment I had to let one of the players use my money (or barter with the other Lizardman). I'm sure the gnomes were cheating me when they went into town.

 

Anyhow, I like playing nontraditional races, but I think I'll be happy to explore the races Obsidian create and how they fit in with the world, so no real opinion on the issue I guess.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Amentep