Aesthetic can be more than simple cosmetic

[Crystal]

The appearance could be more than purely cosmetic and it can be applied in many flexible ways. Imagine that during character creation, if you choose a different height you’ll need to fix it by two menus, one of advantages that you will need to rebalance by another of disadvantages (I don’t know the real game variables so I’ll be guessing the examples).

 

Advantages menu for taller heights:      +1 Strength, +1 Resistance, +3 Intimidation, etc...

Penalties menu for taller heights:           -1 Dexterity, -3 Reflex, -3 Stealth bonus, etc...

 

So, if you want to be taller, you will need to configure your own advantages/disadvantages from menus that contains only the stats that are affected by body size (ie you won’t see Wisdom in Height menus). Here are a few examples of possible final configurations:

 

1^st possible configuration for a tall person:    +1 Strength /–1 Dexterity

2^nd possible configuration for a tall person:   +3 Intimidation /-3 Reflex

3^rd possible configuration for a tall person:    +1 Strength +1 Resistance /-6 Stealth bonus

 

By this way you will have a unique character far from the basic stats. In the same way, when you see a tall NPC in the game, you won’t know if he will be strong or only intimidating. This system could be applied in more ranges by multiplying the basic points of advantages/penalties in some way like this:

 

Smallest (+2/-2), Small (+1/-1), Average (+0/-0), Tall(+1/-1), Tallest(+2/-2).

 

Also could be applied to all aesthetics even in asymmetrical ways. The following examples are for beauty:

 

Ugly:             x2/x2 to all Unsightly choses

Unsightly:   +3 Stealth /-1 Seduction (you are less noticeable by others)

Normal:        Average

Beautiful:     -6 Stealth -3 Speech/+2 Seduction +1 Luck (you are noticeable and don’t need to talk often)

Gorgeous:    x2/x2 to all Beautiful choses

 

This can go even more deeper, for example, a beautiful person who wears a helmet can easily lose all benefits (Seduction) but continues carrying some penalties (Speech) while others may be gone (Stealth).

 

The possibilities are endless and pretty easy to implement to the character creation stage. You better think about it.

[JFSOCC]

In Knights of the Old republic, playing a dark side character actually made them ugly. That makes me not want to play dark side for this effect, and I think that is stupid.

 

I expect a little bit of ego stroking in an RPG, which means that if I want to play as "tall, dark and handsome" I should be able to do so without compromising my stats. Idem Ditto for if I want to play with any other look.

[Sedrefilos]

I never ever liked such things. Who is to decide who is beatifull, who is gorgeous and who is ugly in the game? Who says a tall person is stronger than a short? Why a tall person can't be as dexterous as a shorter?

This is stereotype shi t (and in some cases racist and sexistic) and mostly don't even make sense. Hopefully they won't be in the game either (I believe I can count on the devopers for that).

Edited April 28, 2013 by Sedrefilos

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I want to say that Temple of Elemental Evil had this to a minor extent. Taller characters had greater movement speeds and weight burden maximums relative to shorter characters with equivalent attributes. It sounds very nuanced, but that can be difficult to implement meaningfully and will likely distract from core features. In my opinnion, these kinds of influences tend to influence character concepts in a negative manner. Less flavor, more adonises.

[.Leif.]

I really appreciate it when a character being tall, attractive or ugly has more of an effect on the stats than a modifier to Charisma or Constitution. It'd be nice to see traits like wrathful, generous or lustful to show up on the character sheet, The perks you could earn from the Fallout series comes to mind.  If your character worships or obeys dark spirits, they might make a large osbcene ritual scar on their face denoting themselves as devotees of Guzlurk the Eviscerator. The spirit-healers of Zul-Kesh could wear enchanted henna to ward off bad vibes. Tattoos could not only show everyone that your character belongs to the Ebon Blade assasin-clan, but also be magically enchanted like those in Planescpe or the Tattooed Monk from 3rd Edition.

[Klice]

I never ever liked such things. Who is to decide who is beatifull, who is gorgeous and who is ugly in the game? Who says a tall person is stronger than a short? Why a tall person can't be as dexterous as a shorter?

 

This is stereotype shi t (and in some cases racist and sexistic) and mostly don't even make sense. Hopefully they won't be in the game either (I believe I can count on the devopers for that).

 

Well, somebody who weight more than somebody else has more chance to be stronger. Beautiful means well constructed, even if there's a subjective sense of beauty you can find somebody that a lot of people would find beautiful. Taller people have been known to be less agile than smaller people (they have "less" to move). Of course there are exceptions, but that is NOT stereotype **** as much it is not sexist (I can't believe a feminist has come this far ), female develop their muscle structure less easier than male, Black people have better endurance potential than Caucasian, Inuit or Canadian endure cold better than Spanish people, etc. It's fact, it's reality, we're not equal, deal with it .

 As to include in the game, that is another question. On the other hand, instead of making physics affect attributes I'd really like to see it the other way around; I'm kind of sick to see svelte human female having 18 force and wearing full plate armour.

 

In Knights of the Old republic, playing a dark side character actually made them ugly. That makes me not want to play dark side for this effect, and I think that is stupid.

 

I expect a little bit of ego stroking in an RPG, which means that if I want to play as "tall, dark and handsome" I should be able to do so without compromising my stats. Idem Ditto for if I want to play with any other look.

 

I agree on one part, it's stupid to make evil character ugly. Evil has to seduce, an handsome darklord is way better ! I hope one could still make ugly character, I know people who like to play very ugly characters :D

[Lephys]

I never ever liked such things. Who is to decide who is beatifull, who is gorgeous and who is ugly in the game?

Obviously, human(oid) eyes and brains and psycology. Since real-world human sapience is being modeled in the game world, such notions must also exist. Of course, I believe you should be able to cosmetically customize your character however you'd like and have their beauty be a completely mechanically-recorded thing (Such as if you choose some kind of background/trait, so that your character is found attractive by most in the world).

 

Who says a tall person is stronger than a short? Why a tall person can't be as dexterous as a shorter?

Well, all other things the same, physics does. If my forearm muscle is 3 feet long, and yours is 6 inches long, I have more mechanical strength in my arm than you do (not to mention more leverage, etc.). But, again, I think that, in an RPG, character cosmetic customization should warrant a bit of abstraction (like playing a 7-foot-tall character with 5 STR, or a 4-foot-tall character with 20).

[thenez]

I would like to see customization regarding height, weight, etc but wouldn't like it to affect your actual attributes or gameplay. Except in some cases like special traits that could be added to the character.