Re: CF: Re: "Monster" races

[Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>]

David Andrew Michael Noelle wrote:
>
> Well, I suppose if people really want to play a severely limited race
> that has no significant benefits to balance it, we should probably let
> them.  We'd just have to make it clear that those races aren't
> expected to be played seriously, and can't really compete with the
> balanced player races.  I'd hate to see what would happen to this game
> if dog, cat, and green slime players decided they wanted to be
> balanced with humans, elves, ogres, and beholders.  As long as we have
> a clear seperation between serious, balanced races and "just for fun"
> races, I don't have a problem with it.  Play a goldfish if you want.
> Just don't expect your goldfish to become a powerful wizard.

 I agree with a lot of the above.  But there are a few things to consider:

 1) Are people really going to want to play these obscure races that are
severely limited?  If not, why bother spending the effort coding them and
debugging problems that may arise.
 2) I'd hate for new players to try out one of the races and think the game
really sucks because they can't do anything.  How many people will actually read
the documentation and realize those are not serious races.  IT also adds more
selection/clutter to the character selection process.
 3) as with #1, I'd be curious on the demand.  I don't think the experience will
really be unique, but rather limiting (a dog would probably basically be a
fighter with very limited options on what they can wear).  That is certainly
different than a cleric vs mage vs fighter.  If you want limited abilities, you
could always choose to play a human like that.
 4) You get into all sorts of rpg/realism issues.  Should a slime be able to
read or hear?  Probably not, but if the slime can't read/hear, that would
eliminate a lot of quests.  Likewise for the ability to pull handles or do other
actions.

 I think if anything, a first step would be to allow some of this/abilities via
polymorph.  That way, a character can get some feel for these alternatives in a
limited basis.  That may be interesting (imagine getting hit by polymorph and
having to play a dog for a few minutes).  Since polymorph keeps the same mental,
having that dog be able to read can then make sense.
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