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Old 09-11-2006, 03:49 AM   #10
KaVir
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
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My opinion is that the effort to produce something original should apply to the concept and mechanics, not the name and description of the race.

If you invent a new race and call it a "Ixylotnith", described as being green and slimy with three legs and two tentacles, then it might sound fairly original, but it's hardly something that a player can relate to. And if it its mechnically exactly the same as a dwarf, what's the point?

Take a standard stock mud, rename "dwarf" to "Ixylotnith", "elf" to "Zhproliid" and "halfling" to "Uioptyup" and you've not created any original races. All you've done is obfuscate the existing ones, and I can't see how that improves the game.

On the other hand, take some well-known races and give them unique cultural backgrounds and original implementations, and you end up with an original set of races that players can also relate to. Look at the elven races from Dark Sun or Earthdawn, for example of what I'm talking about.

That's not to say I'm against the idea of completely new races, I just don't believe that giving a race a new name has any bearing on its originality. For example the plant-like "Boreal" race you mentioned - I would rather call it something like "Dryad" or "Treant", so that players instinctively have an idea of what to expect. The originality and innovation would then come into play when designing its special powers and abilities.

For me, the most unoriginal way to handle races is to give them a name and some stat modifiers and then leave it at that. In my opinion, if you're going to have races then they should have just as much impact as classes (to the point that, if you strip out profession-type classes, you're not technically classless - because the 'races' provide sufficient differentiation that they end up providing the same impact as classes, and thus they become the "classes" from a game-design perspective).
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