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RPG races

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 04:32:39 No.20778443 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>20780235 >>20780369

>orcs
>elves
>dwarfs
>Humans

INVENT SOME NEW INTERESTING CREATURES GOD DAMNIT. TOLKIEN YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:17:35 No.20779589 Report

Quoted By: >>20779631

>>20779566
It works in a universe where people can throw fireballs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:20:04 No.20779607 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779535

What would be interesting or new about autocthonic dwarves? Aren't they already from underground?

Underground dudes still underground. Err?
Or is there another definition/ academic use of 'autocthonic' I am not aware of?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:21:31 No.20779621 Report

Quoted By: >>20779710 >>20779959

>>20778911
>by "funny" I mean "stupid"

Do you even GM? If you'd pay attention, the same archetypes exist all throughout every setting ever. Even settings where fantasy species exist.

Asari/eldar/chozo = elves, volus = dwarves, forerunners/protheans = primordials, Tau = blue japanese, Covenant/Space Marines = The Papal State, Inquisition & most "intellectual" villainous races = nazis, ad nauseum.

There is no originality. When you break the mold of the standard array (regular/wise/conservative/mirthful/war-culture) you lose people's interest because they have to learn something.

The same goes for a story's plot. www ipl org/div/farq/plotFARQ html
Find a plot that doesn't fit into the seven basic plots. You won't.

Deal with it. Or don't. Most of /tg/ doesn't bother to actually learn from their peers. I try to, but you've nothing to offer.

>and fyi, fantasy encircles all games that are non-fiction

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:22:36 No.20779629 Report

Quoted By: >>20779896

>>20779582

Though I wouldn't quite use gimmick, one the more interesting things about race building to me is exploring the quirks of the new race that would make them very different from people: a race of stone men with no need to eat, breathe, or sleep, an insectoid race composed of mini queens with partial hiveminds, a plant race who's attitudes and appearance change based on the season. I love to see how these kinds of things would play out into their societies.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:22:55 No.20779631 Report

Quoted By: >>20779642

>>20779589
if there flight was explained as magical, it wouldn't be a problem.
that's why angles have never bugged me.

But bird-people are suppose to fly by flapping their wings, and when I try to picture that it just brakes down.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:24:12 No.20779642 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779631
It's explained by the universe having different physics you OCD twit. Biology, therefore, wouldn't work the same there.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:24:58 No.20779651 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779567
Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:27:56 No.20779684 Report

Quoted By: >>20779696 >>20779751

>>20779567
>shoehorn Vaan and Penelo in
>not making a conscious and amazing design decision that most people are too pleb to get
I posted this in a stereotypical condescending 4chan way but I'm dead serious. Having Vaan be the player character but not the main character was a brilliant choice that sadly went over a lot of people's heads.
I wish more JRPGs did shit like that.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:29:24 No.20779696 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779684
It would help if the player character weren't an effeminate cocksuck.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:30:06 No.20779705 Report

Quoted By: >>20779750

okay, finally found an anology for why really bad anatomy bugs me.

So your playing a fantasy computer game with fairly modern graphics and you see this bad guy with massive spiky armor, but when they move the spikes keep clipping through his body all over the place.
Eventually it's painfully obvious he should not be able to move at all with those metal spikes, because they keep clipping all the way through his arms, chest and even head.

Do you think "it's magic, there no reason this clearly solid armor should just pass through everything", or do you think "fuck that is some lazy and awful design there"?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:30:33 No.20779710 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779621
>Deal with it. Or don't. Most of /tg/ doesn't bother to actually learn from their peers. I try to, but you've nothing to offer.

Then why are you still here? Go cry to someone who cares.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:35:24 No.20779750 Report

Quoted By: >>20779754 >>20779763 >>20779809

>>20779705
okay, finally found an anology for why people who complain about bad anatomy bug me.

Please draw a venn diagram of "People who have a working knowledge of human muscular anatomy VS. People who design tabletop roleplaying games"
Please draw a venn diagram of "People who complain about bad anatomy in tabletop roleplaying games VS. People who design tabletop roleplaying games.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:35:26 No.20779751 Report

Quoted By: >>20779786

>>20779684
>pretending it wasn't specifically done to appeal to the standard japanese fanbase
It's confirmed, idiot. Also, the rest of the team consists of relatively hardened veterans. Where do "literal children" fit in?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:36:17 No.20779754 Report

Quoted By: >>20779765 >>20779789

>>20779750
Draw a venn diagram of "people who are intelligent VS. people who design tabletop roleplaying games" oh wait there's no overlap

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:37:03 No.20779763 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779750
I got 4 circles, is this normal??

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:37:20 No.20779765 Report

Quoted By: >>20779789

>>20779754
Depends on your standard for "intelligent".

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:39:31 No.20779786 Report

Quoted By: >>20779801 >>20779806

>>20779751

I thought the point of them being young and relatively unskilled was to emphasize them being swept up into something much bigger than them.

Plus they double as exposition delivery tools, so as they learn we learn.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:39:45 No.20779789 Report

Quoted By: >>20779809

>>20779754
>>20779765
Doesn't matter. If you think all RPG designers are stupid, and you somehow expect them to magically pull a working muscular system for bird-people out of their asses, your expectations are way too high.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:40:58 No.20779801 Report

Quoted By: >>20779837

>>20779786
>Plus they double as exposition delivery tools, so as they learn we learn.
Uh, no they don't. They live in the world and know the politics way better than we do, and there's not a huge amount of exposition that exists to begin with. Most of the exposition is about stuff like the Ancient Conspiracy that the rest of the cast didn't know about either.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:41:12 No.20779806 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779786
>Plus they double as exposition delivery tools, so as they learn we learn.
Hey, he gets it? Hey, dude. High five. You're great!

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:41:25 No.20779809 Report

Quoted By: >>20779856

>>20779750
>>20779789
inb4 bell curves as implemented by FATAL

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:44:22 No.20779837 Report

Quoted By: >>20779878 >>20779886

>>20779801
Okay, basically, here is how it goes:
In JRPGs, you normally play as some character, and then he drives the plot completely independent of what you want, and you go "well, this isn't how I'd roleplay this character!" (mostly if you're more used to WRPGs)
In FFXII, you have Vaan, who you play as, but doesn't drive the plot. They make your character irrelevant to plot progression so that you don't feel "out of character", because you, like the character you control, have no control over the plot.
FFXII is the better way of doing it because it at least masks, or justifies the lack of control present in JRPGs.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:46:48 No.20779856 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779809
Oh god please don't. I'll be good, I swear.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:48:57 No.20779878 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779837
>In FFXII, you have Vaan, who you play as, but doesn't drive the plot.
Except you totally do, because for some reason you're a respected member of the team that's actively influencing things, and you're equally as strong as the rest of those veteran combatants are.

Nevermind the fact that you can, in fact, change who your character is as you wander around the world map, so you're not even required to BE Vaan.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:49:52 No.20779886 Report

Quoted By: >>20779901

>>20779837
>FFXII is the better way of doing it because it at least masks, or justifies the lack of control present in JRPGs.
You people are absolutely the worst. "Hey, look, we did the same shitty thing as everyone else, but it's okay because we vaguely justified it". Pull the other one and tell me Bioshock or SpecOps is a triumphant masterpiece of game design.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:51:18 No.20779896 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779629
Yeah, figuring out how a different species' society would work is most of the fun in race-building. I mostly just think of gimmicks for them because it helps me get something onto paper that I can build upon

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:51:58 No.20779901 Report

Quoted By: >>20779989

>>20779886
Never played either of those, but FFXII is an acknowledgement of the flaw in JRPGs and an attempt to advance the genre.
It IS better than the alternative, which is complete stagnation of an incestuous and generally awful genre.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:55:51 No.20779942 Report

Quoted By:

Guild Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance are my two favorites for on-traditional fantasy races.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 06:58:10 No.20779959 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779621

Er John Scalzi has these aliens in Old Man's War that struck me as original. They come down and perform religious ceremonies then fight, then leave. I was all like alright honorable fighter culture, but then he introduced the notion of the aliens were baptizing the planet for some future nefarity My socks were knocked off.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:01:37 No.20779989 Report

Quoted By: >>20780006

>>20779901
>FFXII is an acknowledgement of the flaw in JRPGs and an attempt to advance the genre.
No it isn't, because it would have actually avoided the WORST jrpg things by excluding the child protagonists, and the only thing it actually accomplished with them is that stupid, convoluted bullshit about "well you're not in control now", which isn't even accurate.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:03:41 No.20780006 Report

Quoted By:

>>20779989
>Child protagonists
>worst thing in JRPGs
>not most of the things FFXII DID fix
Oh. Okay, so this conversation is done. Seeya!

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:13:14 No.20780074 Report

Quoted By:

This Final Fantasy derailment is quite upsetting. I would be all for discussing the various races in the game, but this FF discussion is quite dumb
>>>/v/
polite sage

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO Motie Demon Mote In God's Eye Ch (...).jpg, 264KiB, 1056x1600

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:16:28 No.20780107 Report

Quoted By:

I think that looking for inspiration in Science fiction for fantasy races is quite a good idea. Larry Niven has a few races that are animal-like at first glance, but he develops them quite well. I'd like to see some Pathfinder stats for the Moties

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:22:55 No.20780163 Report

Quoted By:

>>20778679

This. Slapping a new coat of paint on an old concept is nice, but really doesn't change much in the end

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:30:03 No.20780235 Report

Quoted By: >>20780324

>>20778443
You have obviously never read the Black Company saga... You should look at reading the books of the North, part two.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO BlackCompany5.jpg, 41KiB, 516x531

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:37:26 No.20780324 Report

Quoted By: >>20780401 >>20780405

>>20780235
That is to say the second and third books in the series. I believe the third is where the really weird shit starts appearing. The stuff like the menhirs, the mantas (think the mantas from Demons Souls, only they fire lighting bolts instead of spears), and the reverse centaurs.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:40:35 No.20780369 Report

Quoted By: >>20780400

>>20778443
Actually on a setting im trying to build we have a heavy emphasis on lizardmen and insectoids

Sir Derpington of Herpglen

Sir Derpington of Herpglen Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:43:27 No.20780400 Report

Quoted By: >>20781082

>>20780369
You should also throw in a few silicoids (being with silicon based biology as opposed to carbon, basically computers that have the ability to reproduce)

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:43:29 No.20780401 Report

Quoted By: >>20780548

>>20780324
Great books those are, the ones on the north are the ones I enjoyed the most

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:43:38 No.20780405 Report

Quoted By: >>20780470 >>20780548

>>20780324
>reverse centaur

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:49:25 No.20780470 Report

Quoted By: >>20780565

>>20780405
And the closest you can get to airship battles without having wizards everywere because the flying carpets versus the winwhales and mantas was always awesome

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:57:13 No.20780548 Report

Quoted By: >>20780861

>>20780405
Yes, just like this. The main character in the band of eponymous mercenaries use their females for 'a good time'. I shit you not.

>>20780401
HOLY SHIT, FLYING-CARPET JET-FIGHTER! ALL OF MY WANT! HNNG!

That's a cool picture by the way. Where did you get it, it looks like it's an actual illustration of The Black Company carpets.

This is the only image macro for want I have right now, so you'll have to excuse me.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 07:58:50 No.20780565 Report

Quoted By:

>>20780470
I can't believe I lost all of my images on my old hard drive. I used to have a dozen images to describe how hard I came when I saw this image. Sigh...

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:04:59 No.20780626 Report

Quoted By: >>20780863 >>20781117

>>20779361

>anthromorphic spider-woman
>worried about weight ratios
>in a FANTASY creation

Anonymous

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Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:26:07 No.20780861 Report

Quoted By:

>>20780548
Oops, I meant to say: "The main character in the band of eponymous mercenaries says that some of them use their females for 'a good time'." Whatever.

I seriously want to play like, a menhir or something...

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:26:27 No.20780863 Report

Quoted By:

>>20780626
>it's magic
it's lazy and bad design.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:41:56 No.20781033 Report

Quoted By:

>Snow Whales, Dirt Birds, Ice Vampires, Whatever the fuck you want to call the Sload, xenophobic crabmen, 20something sub-species of Khajit based on the cycle of the moons, Argonians and the Hist

I dunno, guys, TES is pretty popular.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:45:59 No.20781082 Report

Quoted By:

>>20780400
Yeah except they'd need entirely different environmental conditions as all the carbonoids.
Also carbonoids are just called carbon-based life, stop trying to sound smarter than you are by making up the word silicoid and then acting as if it has a readily agreed upon meaning.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 08:51:10 No.20781117 Report

Quoted By:

>>20780626
No, you're being intellectually lazy.

A fantasy setting with magic doesn't automatically imply the laws of gravity apply differently to different objects sometimes but sometimes not.

This is exactly the reason we have cookie-cutter races. Because people/designers/artists have an idea for something and they bash through all reality and all considerations to see it happen.

If people gave more thought to the anatomy and functioning of the creatures they imagine, we'd have a lot more interesting creatures.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2012 12:43:03 No.20782798 Report

Quoted By:

Tolkien had more races in his lore than people give him credit. What about all the celestials, the dire wolves, the half-elves, the stone giants, the trolls, the goblins, the hobgoblins, the draugr and you fucking forgot hobbits you daft ass.

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