Races

[Kvetch]

I know it's been said before about the fact there are *only* 8 races in 4D.  Because it makes sense to have the same number of races from each dimension, we get stuck when we try to think of what could be from Old West Than Cowboys (sorry, Gringos) and Indians.  I don't have an answer for that because both are really just "human" race with fancy names.  And other than the names, there is really no difference between them.  I could come up with quite a few races for Prehistoric (because in prehistoric you're taking on the myths which is why we have Centaurs and Fauns currently from prehistoric), Minotaur would be a classic example - give him a natural attack gore and less natural dexterity to equal out.  For Medieval you have books and books (and roleplaying reference materials) to give you oodles (what exactly is an "oodle?") of races - goblins and kobolds from the Nightdragon Realms could be examples of this.  And for Future, you really want me to go there?  You can create almost anything and call it a race from future.  The "tentacle slugs of Varga 9" for example or any of the races created for the invasion aspect of the game.  I suppose if push came to shove on the old west thing, I'd suggest taking the Indian tribes and using them as races to give us more.  Too bad those gringo's didn't have tribes, though we are talking the old west so we could have "golddiggers" and "claimjumpers" I suppose...  But that would just putting a new name on an old horse - lots of new names.  Anyone have any ideas?

[Jaros]

I would like to be a swordfish.

[Virisin]

I am the walrus.

[Molly]

I really think there are lots of things this game needs than more races, which will only increase the difficulty of balancing things.

True, I've always thought it would be cool to have an "uber" race like Dragon, with wings, scales, claws and firebreath, but I think that would cause more problems than it's worth.

[Kvetch]

Ooo... I wanna be a dragon too... oh, wait, I can just switch into one.  Problem solved. 

[Greg]

Speaking for myself, I find races fun when playing as a member of one race feels different (for reasons other than role-playing) from playing as a member of another race.

Modifying numbers that are relevant to combat (especially to every combat) can only take you so far before combat balance goes right out the window.  This makes it hard to build races that feel distinct in play without building uber-races that are simply much better than the alternatives.

One way around this might be to give each race the opportunity to learn certain skills or spells regardless or what their class is.  As long as you can put together an interesting set of these skills and spells, you can produce a race that will feel mechanically different in play.

Maybe this is already the case to some degree?  The webpage says, for instance, that Dwarves can see in the dark and that Martians have some sort of ESP, but it isn't really spelled out.

For example, for the 8 races that are presently in use, the package might be something like the following.  The benefits of a race shouldn't become redundant if combined with any particular class, so there should ideally be a Rogue skill, a Caster skill and a Warrior skill in every race package.  I haven't made sure that this is so below - in fact, there are all kinds of things wrong with this list, but it gives the basic idea of the sort of thing I'm talking about:

Centaur
Charge
Kick
Sanctuary
Trample

Dwarf
Infravision
Pick Lock
Tinker

Elf
Bow
Identify
Sneak

Faun
Charm
Drunk
Sneak

Gringo
Firearm
Mount
Mounted Combat
Riding

Indian
Antidote 1
Forage
Tracking

Martian
Foresee
Fortify Mind
Meditate

Spacewolf
Detect Invisibility
Detect Poison
Trap Aware
Tracking

[Greg]

  Anyone have any ideas?

Some more thoughts on this.

I do not believe that you need to have the same number of races from every dimension.  Indeed, I think it would be just fine to abandon the Gringo/Indian distinction and have a single race "Human" that can come from any of your four dimensions and is the only race that can be native to the Wild West.

If you want more "races" for the West, I suppose that you can use professional or social backgrounds where they don't conflict with classes - Cowboy, Miner, Englishman, Yankee, Mohawk, Cherokee, whatever.  What mechanical differences you could introduce to distinguish these, on the other hand, is a very difficult question.

[Jaros]

I think the game is racist.

[Prometheus]

Hum interesting ideas Greg. Each race has some minor bonuses but skill / spell bonus is interesting. Not sure how hard it would be to code. Hums.

Prom

[Tocharaeh]

my thing is we have to really think about skills that get USED. Like seriously, who uses bow? No much nerfing has gone on in the past against ranged attacks, that it is pointless.