What's your favorite small race?

I wanna play as a brownie.

What you are saying is that closed-boundary options prevent choice.

I would say it creates individuality.

You say restrictions reduce choice, I say restriction elementally gives rise to choice's form and gives it meaning.

In the beginning, the Nameless felt the formlessness and starting dividing it into choices. What meaning is a plane of fire if its the only plane? if you are in that universe and live in plane of fire its not by choice, rather by fact/definition. things only have meaning relative to their counteroptions.

We can't have limitless choice. You cant be both a full-blooded human and a half-elf. have cake AND eat it. Restrictions are a part of nature.

Nobody would say 31 flavors of icecream prevents choice. That is a system where each type is essentially different. Apparently this was considered a feature worth advertising. Ppl like choice not cuz each option turns out to be the same thing, but because it gives them control over their reality. Noone picks vanilla flavor and is pleasantly surprised it tastes like chocolate. They picked vanilla on purpose.

At some level you understand all this, you just think objectives like 'have lots of hp' ought to be independent of the race choice, which you prefer as cosmetic. Fair enough, but it does sacrifice immersion.


My solution would be a 3 tiered race system.
by demographic
1. designed for the fluffy rainbow pony
2. middle ground
3. mixmaxers

at character creation
1. The fantastical (sarnak, arasai, froglok) would have some light base restrictions and no bonuses. best skins.
2. The demihumans (elves, dwarves, halflings) would have no base restrictions and slight bonuses.
3. Humans would have no base restrictions and significant bonuses. worst skin.

multiclassing
1. can be wizard/fighter. archtype conflicts dont matter
2. can be wizard/illusionist. subarchtype conflicts dont matter
3. no multiclassing

if you discover a new class and you want a human of that class you have to create it from scratch on that account.

there is an inherent aversion to playing humans via lore. their cool factor is zero. So what you will see is ppl choosing between a known superior choice and fluffy rainbows. Yeah your toon is stronger, but its not cool (and it has restrictions i'm not willing to deal with)!

I would also design the faction system around the idea that humans are not fully accepted as part of the fantasy universe. Making being human the rough route, like having to do all the access quests, walk to school uphill in the snow, both ways. faction restrictions, racist glass ceilings, questline breeches.

In practice the world will not be dominated by humans. This system is a trade-off, and playerbase is diverse. Sure you will have guilds of all humans, but that is just 1 style. You will also have guilds of all fantastical races.

The great thing about this is that the bonuses can scale depending on gear and would be set by game designers. in fact it could start negative and put hidden bonuses on gear that only apply to humans. in other words its magnitude would be completely determined and could be balanced with fluffiness to strike the proper payoff.

multiclassing is very powerful. i think the inherent versatility of nonhumans could be very balancing(and complemetary) to humans bonuses. humans would do their own job well, and the nonhumans would fill in the cracks for group cohesion and dealing with unexpected X-factors that arise.

kiara, IMO what you truly want, choice without consequence, is an impossibility. choice without consequence in fact destroys choice within that dimension. Take consequence out of 'max hp' and race choice does not exist within the dimension of 'max hp'. Race choice is then collapsed into a dimension whose sole axis is appearance/skin. if you are playing a character (in that universe) and you are playing a character who is capable of 'max hp' it says nothing about your race choice. its like being in plane of fire in a universe with only that plane. do you live in universe? yeah. do you live in plane of fire? yeah. i'd hardly call it 'by choice'.

i suspect the ppl who want to destroy the meaning of choice also want to play the unicorn riding fairy, and the ppl who want choice would accept the lore-bland human in exchange for REAL bonuses at char creation. thus you get highly "versatile classed" appearances (the fantasy race skins) and highly restricted vanilla human.

this duality also creates huge opportunity at lore table for the intertwining and friction between humans and others.

This is obviously silly, as we cannot choose to be two of the same thing at once (unless we're playing Munchkin). I only want one race. If another race is cool, there's alts. If I want to play a heavily armored Fae tank, the option is good. I like playing characters that go against the grain in some way (not for all of my characters, but some).

I don't understand half of your metaphor here, but you're also putting words in my mouth and/or misunderstanding my point. Could well be I did not phrase myself well enough. I rebelled against 50% HP because the number is pretty ridiculous. I have no objection to racial penalties. Just absurd ones.

Unfortunately, in MMOs, there is this driving need to crunch numbers. If a race is too disadvantaged, they can be all but unplayable when a group decides to be elitist at you. While this may not apply to EQN and their direction, I have been stung by it before and am cautious of this elitist mentality.

Exactly! Gnomes are the soul of the earth. And they can dance a jog like nobody's business =)

I don't think anyone is asking for any race to be "too disadvantaged". I think every race should have advantages AND disadvantages. For instance, a Gnome might be smaller and have less hp. But they'd also be fast than, say, a Barbarian. Smarter than an Ogre, or have better eyesight than a Yummin.

If you're only looking at disadvantages, of course you're going to ask for all the races to be equal. But there are tradeoffs in everything. In Venomizer's post above, 31 flavors of ice cream are mentioned. Yes, great marketing. And maybe you like all of the flavors. But when you go for ice cream, you probably don't ask for one of each. (That's a different chain's ad =p) So you pick the one or three (if you like waffle cones =) you like best. In the case of a game, the one who's advantages and disadvantages best suit your play style =) And since they've already said that every race can be every class and eventually have every skill, if all the races are inherently equal in stats, the only difference there will be are the skins =/ That's not such a fun choice.

H

What? His bloodlust for the one green dragon that murdered his wife? That, the vendetta of a single man, is equivalent and somehow cancels out the genocide being carried out by the dragons?

As for your other comment, what part of any novella gave you the idea that the Combine wanted to exterminate all of dragonkind?

I remember hearing way back when that orcs would be a playable race. I take it that has changed?

I know they aren't a small race, but there are no general discussion forums. What gives with that anyway?

Actually I'm almost wholly going to look at the skins. That's the only choice I really care about. Next I'll look at the disadvantage - does it completely and utterly cripple the playstyle(s) I want? With total multi/switch-classing, is there any point in taking this class if I suck at half the classes? The advantages actually play into a very small portion.

No, I'm not asking for races to be equal. However, with all access to all classes, it does follow on that I expect we will end up with pretty equivalent races.

Hi There,

If the Brownie is included as a Fae race that would be interesting. Be wary of your Jum Jum.

Otherwise I've played as my main a Halfling with the original Everquest and within Everquest II. So if the Halfling isn't in one of the starting races i'll make an adorable pout.

So not being an old EQ player, I have to google some terms people use to learn them. Seeing old images of the Arasai, awesome! Still cannot have enough Fae!

Checking the poll again, now Fae are on equal with Gnomes at 24%! We need more Fae, we need more Gnomes!

Personally, halflings hands down! Alot people connect with hobbit feet, also they bring a warmth and hopeful feel. It has always been awesome seeing someone brave enough to play a halfling and just seeing them in high game content. Plus, they are good to eat!

Halflings and then Fae, the smaller the better

Actually i love all small races even elves should be tiny like they were in mythology

Yay, Fae need more support!

Though the elves thing is pretty subjective, depending on which mythology you're picking

Froglok ^^

Why not add new races like a half Fox, Wolf or Rabbit. Like the Elin race from Tera. I am sure they can't copy right the races since we do have tons of them in the Anime world.

Dare I say it, Bunny Girls! Cute Cat Girls!

or we could just create a Chibi race

Don't deny my my Gnome-Punting fun.

Half-lings are my favorite, I will definitely be playing one agian

This is an epic idea we need more anime in the game world i love this idea
great idea Vintson i love it
plz vote up if ur an anime lover

Well yeah.. that old cookie cut style of gnolls people tend to use are indeed big brutes v:


But why should they have to be kept that why?
They could make a good small chubby kind of beast race along side Ratonga in the neutral zone v:
And would also make a good counter to the usual norm of larger male/smaller female characteristic.
Like so.

Plus with there being four different types of hyenas [See here X], could make plenty of customizable choices for em.

I have a very strong desire for a playable race of hyena people v:

I have to go with Halflings without a doubt. They are my small race of choice.