this is a thread to attract SE4 forumers to the first Dungeon Oddessy roleplay thread

[Krsqk]

I would tend to lean toward including non-human races. I would add that, as a matter of courtesy, one should only assign cultural traits to an NPC that negatively affect their own character. Positive traits are less problematic, but can still interfere with character/story development. Checking with the other PC(s) by PM beforehand is probably the best option if one wishes to affect their character.

Besides, if we don't have other races, how am I going to include that half-orc, half-dwarf dragon-riding mage-warrior?

And, no, it's not myyyy precioussssssssssssss. Although it did have me laughing out loud.

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ooc:[everybody in jack's world knows life-extension techniques?]

Just about. The goal of the council is to further the science of magic. Once life-extension techniques are known, nearly infininte energy is available due to the Harnessed Uncertainty Jewels, and food can be created from energy, combined with an emphasis on sharing knoweledge as a means to increasing it, it is quite possible to make disadvantaged classes basically dissappear. A small number of missionaries could concievably spread knoweledge, food, culture, techniques, et cetera at a cost of time (and not really anything else). With virtual immortals, time isn't an issue. Parents would teach their children, and the techniques would eventually become sufficiently widespread that people would start demanding it be taught in an orginized fashion (like basic math and computer skills, today). With magic so commonly available, just about everyone will learn some of it (sort of like reading or driving in the United States - almost every adult knows how, just because it is so common and so necessary for everyday life). If Life Extension gets added to the curriculum, just about everyone will learn. How many people would skip immortality classes? And of those who did, how many wouldn't go back and try again later on in life, especially once it was obvious that they worked? Those that don't would soon be an extreme minority, as they slowly die off of old age. Some might purchase magic items that have similar effects (sort of like buying Windows for your computer rather than learning C and using Linux - it's a trade off of money vs. personal effort). I'm basically just building the world in my head and running through probable consequences of the way I have described things as being run.

This would also likely happen with flight and/or teleportation as well.

As conjoured food is tasteless, farming would still happen, primarily for the flavor of decent food. Many would still pay craftsmen for their labor (whatever the craft) rather than learning it themselves. People will still want payment, so they can buy food that tastes good. An economy would build around this, preventing socialism from fully developing. However, even those that wouldn't work would still be fed; however, they would never be satisfied with a lifetime diet of tasteless food, and would be likely to try to imporve their station (get a job/farm/hunt/et cetera) to get better tasting stuff and to pay for any desireable gadgets. Also, the economy would run greatly around the mages and farmers, although they would likely end up being treated much like skilled engineers today.

Mostly, think of the Federation in Star Trek: the Next Generation (or Voyager or Deep Space Nine), replacing science with magic and tossing in immortality as a common thing.

Of course, the final exam on the Advanced Immortality class would be murder....

Originally posted by Krsqk:
I would tend to lean toward including non-human races. I would add that, as a matter of courtesy, one should only assign cultural traits to an NPC that negatively affect their own character.

Makes sense.

Originally posted by Krsqk:
Positive traits are less problematic, but can still interfere with character/story development. Checking with the other PC(s) by PM beforehand is probably the best option if one wishes to affect their character.

Again, this makes sense to me.

Originally posted by Krsqk:
Besides, if we don't have other races, how am I going to include that half-orc, half-dwarf dragon-riding mage-warrior?

And, no, it's not myyyy precioussssssssssssss. Although it did have me laughing out loud.

Me too

[ July 09, 2003, 04:33: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

ok, i don't know what happened to my original post on this, i couldn't find it.

i have no objection to different races.

i do object to 'elves are good, orcs are evil'. elven culture might be good, in focussing on learning and peace, but like you said, that would be there culture.

i don't object to strengths and weaknesses.

i do object to 'elves are superior, orcs are inferior'. in other words, if elves are long-lived, gracefull and inheritly skilled at everything, it's because they spend a lot of time studying life-extension and body-manipulation magics, which would give them extensive weaknesses elsewhere - perhaps more than if they took a more balanced approach.

regarding humans, i do object to the 'humans are somehow superior and have no specific strengths and weaknesses' attitude.

I would tend to lean toward including non-human races. I would add that, as a matter of courtesy, one should only assign cultural traits to an NPC that negatively affect their own character.

huh? you mean, if your an elf, the npc is an elf, you shouldn't give all elves massive bow skills?

Besides, if we don't have other races, how am I going to include that half-orc, half-dwarf dragon-riding mage-warrior?

ok, everything but the dragon is fine.

how are you going to balance that?

i can see several ways an immortal society could be 'fragile': ambition or lack of drive, extended anxiety over all they've got to loose and/or major recklessness, boredom. basicaly, although everyone would have a lot of time to 'be all that they can be', they would also have a lot of time to 'be all they shouldn't be'. extremes.

[ July 09, 2003, 06:23: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Krsqk]

I think I'm in agreement with you. No inherent strengths without balancing weaknesses, and vice-versa. No arbitrary racialgood/evil, although cultural good/evil is acceptable. No "humans mop up the board" stuff. Does that about cover it?

I do think that across the board, the average human's strengths/weaknesses would be less min/maxed. However, I also think that the human race would have more distant extremes and a vastly wider variety of skills present in any randomly chosen subset. In other words, there really would be no racially-determined human trait--the "average" skill level is only obtained by averaging all humans.

I mean, don't create an NPC which does not interact well with a PC without first checking with that PC. I would also be careful with the scenario you gave, though--I think the less racial determinations are messed with, the better. Some generalizations such as "Most elves are faster than most orcs" would be fine, but things with strong in-story effects should be related to the character rather than the race where possible (even if they are overall true for the race)--it leaves more flexibility for both your own PC and other PCs when writing.

ok, everything but the dragon is fine.
how are you going to balance that?

The dragon is afraid of mice.

[ July 09, 2003, 06:27: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well, humans do tend to be more varied than most fantasy races. how about we try to change that?

[Krsqk]

Let's see if I have this right. Every race is varied, with only the slightest (if any) racial modifiers. Instead, modifiers should be cultural and/or character-specific where possible.

OT: did you see my response to your OOC? Which were you concerned about?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well, for an example, why should all dwarves be strong and stout? that sort of thing.