WoRPA Race/Species

[Imp]

So should WoRPA be greatly concerned with the likes of different races/species?

Should each race be given their own abilities? (Lizard people are immune to poison, Dwarves are tough little buggers)

Also should a Player be given the choice to make their own race with abilities?

[Kiall]

I say a race's history and culture should be the determining factor for abilities, as well as whatever biological assets they might have

and a player should only be allowed to make a race only if they're willing to create, that race's culture, homeland, and socioeconomic structure, and whatever deviant biology that race possesses (compared to humans)

[SQJ]

I'm willing to do that because I was hope/expecting to be allow to use a new race. It would suck if we couldn't make races.

Ps all of them are non magical.

[Mary Sue]

I think we should cover our basics really first of all.

RPA has many personas already in place:
Dragons
Angels
Demons
Anthros
Humans
Spirits
Machines


All of these already come to my mind when I think of our members. It gives us a nice place to start too.

Then we can add more races as we go.

[Imp]

All good points!

Kiall, True, abilities should be dependent on a general or even detailed understanding of the background as to why or how they obtained them.

Pure, I'm with ya on creating your own race. I know I'd be into doing that. Also races won't be given magical spells but some minor ones may have a better grasp on them... but then again we'll see what happens.

Mary Sue nailed that sucker into the ground! That will be the starting line for us to expand on.

[Kiall]

hmm that might be a bit much at first but then a few of those could be considered 'afterlife races' (also you put down human twice thar Mary XD)

so barring the aftelife races there's

humans

dragons

anthros

and machines

now these are some very strange and different creatures to all be living in the same world together, we need to ask ourselves how are they connected? how do other races view them? is there some sort of Dragon Empire? where dragon emperors rule over the other races as a sort of master race? or is it more of a dragon democracy? or are dragons just flying lizards that sometimes capture princesses and teach depressed little boys important life lessons

Anthros! do they just live out in the wild forests doing whatever? how is it viewed to hunt them if so? are they slaves? It would be very tempting for them to be considered sub human by other races and we all know what that naturally leads to...(slavery...i'm talking about slavery)

and machines! where do the machine men align in all this!?

Tolkien spent three books telling us how three races lived together alongside humans, and all he had was, short people with beards, shorter people without beards, long eared people.

i'm just saying we should probably start with just two or three races not including humans that aren't drastically that different physically from one another,and then once those all fit together start adding more

[Mary Sue]

Well, Kiall, the problem is is that we're not building ANY world. We're building RPA.

RPA has fantasy AND Sci-fi AND real life.

So why not have machines? Or cyborgs?

Are we only going to focus on the fantasy aspect or include it all?

And I volunteer myself to find a way to intermingle all the races we create. I'm good at that. (Doh. I'll fix it.)

[SQJ]

Yeah I have a slight(completely) different view.

In my stories I have over 50 races interacting with each other but in my stories I have four human kingdoms ruling over four super sized nations with each race ruling territories within, very much like states in ancient Greece was kinda run mixed with your modern states in that they are allowed their own laws and their own armies, but also allowed their own conflicts with the major human nations reserving the right to pull men when from territories in times of major wars.

In my stories technology is exclusive to each race as there's an element of separation due to the land's sheer size. So machine men would make sense, whether or not they were liked would be another issue.

So everyone is separated everyone is doing their own thing. Which is a major different story for the Human cities where races combine. You could even add an element of city mouse VS country mouse. As you get groups raised into their culture and those raised out of their culture.

[Imp]

Kiall, that is a good idea. Plus with Mary, I thought she was making a joke ont he fact that there are so many human characters.

Another good point to add in is like what we see with the Human race is that we all have our own cultural and historical background. So adding to that, perhaps the above you listed, Kiall, could be given a default background so if other players want, they can change the history a little bit to match something they may favor more. This way we have a good starter as a guideline but also leave options for changes on those races.
Just a thought.

EDIT
Mary Sue once again brings up a good point. We can't leave the sci-fi nor modern aspect out of it. Also Pure has something golden there as well.

I'm actually going to be collecting this information and putting it under that [Read First] thread. There, all the essential information on characters will be kept and modified depending on what goes on here.

[Mary Sue]

What if...and this is a BIG what if... the world was divided into dimensions? So...one world, just different dimensions, and there is a means to move between them.

That way we can have a variety of skills, races, and classes without solely focusing on one aspect of RPA.

[Kiall]

oooh! dimension hopping! I like it! that's thinking outside the box! that's being a rebel which no puny box can hold!

that'd definetly help explain some of the more fantastical creatures, and the varying shifts in technological advancement

[Mary Sue]

oooh! dimension hopping! I like it! that's thinking outside the box! that's being a rebel which no puny box can hold!

At first, I thought you were being sarcastic. XD

[Kiall]

what? no! I think it'd be a great way to spread out are world without things getting ridiculous. Plus! i'm a big fan of the Myth Adventures Series so working something like that into the world would be really cool

[SQJ]

What if...and this is a BIG what if... the world was divided into dimensions? So...one world, just different dimensions, and there is a means to move between them.

That way we can have a variety of skills, races, and classes without solely focusing on one aspect of RPA.

So.......Like there'd be like one location run by X and then there's be the exact same location that would be run by Y because it's another universe.
Or there'd just be other lands with their own realities with one having no knowledge of the other?

[Mary Sue]

They would know each other, because, as I said, there should be a means to travel between the dimensions.

For instance: A human (you Pure) walks through a portal and enters the castle of the Dragon emperor Spirit's Breath. Spirit's Breath, built his castle around the portal to control who goes in and who comes out of the portal. But he knows where it leads and what lies on the other side. (Even if his subjects don't.)

[Imp]

Hmmm... perhaps this should be made into another thread which could be solely based around how these genres are all on one planet. Plus keep in mind some fictional universes out there have managed to combine all these aspects together in a way. Warhammer 40k has a hint of it in some aspects. Final Fantasy also shows some good examples (namely FF-12). Just thought I'd add.

So obviously the machines and cyborgs come with a strength/toughness advantage as well as the dragon folk. Shall we also include weaknesses to all these races?

[SQJ]

@Alice, wouldn't that alter the dimensions*No pun intended* of the game. I mean one couldn't fit an army through a portal right? Esp, if there's a fort raining arrows on the portal.


@Imp
Yeah weakness should be added for the default races.

As for the new races that come up. Yes should have a character sheet.
The sheet must ask for
Culture-
Strengths-
Weaknesses-
Etc...

[GraftRaven]

There could be some sort of astral law set in place by the gods to prevent building too close to the gates.

Gates could also be different sizes, say there's a personal gate close to where you are, but you could move something huge through the much larger gate in the middle of nowhere.

As for weaknesses for machines, they probably wouldn't be able to use magic, or (depending if they're more of a golem) could be vulnerable to certain elemental magic.

[SikstaSlathalin]

Think a good thing to do would set up an Elder Council type deal with all this representatives of each race meet at some place and decide stuff. I did this with a lot of stories I've done I find it's easy to handle and it gives us some structure to play with.

[Mary Sue]

Sorry if I derailed the thread there. XD Bad Mary! Bad!

I do think we should have strengths and weaknesses.

@Siks: That's interesting! I kind of like that.

[Imp]

I also like Siksta's idea. O_O
Here is the thread for all concerns on how the genres all live together. (http://role-player.net/forum/showthread.php?p=738732#post738732)

[SikstaSlathalin]

Should we put down a set number of generic Races so it won't get too saturated?

[Imp]

We could, yes. There will be a certain set of default classes optional and then also the create-a-race option for those who know what skills they want form the list and abilities too.

[Imp]

(I know I'm double posting but screw Editing the above. This is a major change in direction)

In attempt to finishing this area up.
What if...
What if the player chooses the race BUT instead of having any list, we simply add ONE Strength and Weakness? Both must be fair and can be easily judged by whoever else that may have an issue with it.

Why the change in mind? Setting up abilities for a race may take time and slow the character building process a little. But with players allowed to think of their own strength and weakness for their race(these abilities MUST match the typical abilities given unless it is a custom race), they can better enjoy what they have instead of being limited in a sense.

However, although we can watch over every choice and moderate them all, the weakness aspect of it may be silly to add. Mainly because many races aren't immune to poison and thus would be silly.

SO in the end, I feel allowing players to add a fitting strength(slight resistance to magic/fire/ abnormally strong/ etc) for their race would be more enjoyable. Keep in mind they are of course limited to one strength and this area will be monitored to ensure that all are unique AND balanced.

[SikstaSlathalin]

That could work, we may be able to just have some chars. have some natural skills that fall under the ones you set.

Like a race I made called the Fearstalkers are stealthy dream eating monsters. They must hunt at night so they'll have natural stealth and such powers and they're lizards so they'll naturally agile and strong.

[SQJ]

When you say add a strength and weakness you mean poeple outside of the race creators should add one strength and one weakness?
Sorry lost there.

[Imp]

First I'm thinking we'll just offer 2 strengths option instead of also adding a weakness cause that probably would be a waste (someone may say "well my human is weak to fire" which many other races are too so blah to that).

And I may go edit the above post, BUT the main points to the Benefits is that you have an option of giving your own race(or rendition of a known race) anything that usually or loosely relates to them and thus making them unique compared to others. It would also help if they give a reason behind it as well just to ensure how it may be logical in a fantasy/sci-fi setting (not too hard).

So some players who choose orks may be heavily resistant to fire (as seen in Ragnarok Online) or have brute strength (as seen in WoW) or whatever else they decide to use off that race like Poison-Immune.