From: darshan
Date: 2002-02-01 09:40:42
Someone asked for something related to this, and I can't remember
anyone actually discussing this here. Here are some of my
thoughts about character creation.
There are regions (eg. Lamarhen, possibly Thalamon) which
have their own culture but whose populations are multi-racial.
Therefore we may want to offer the player equals chances to
affect the selection of both the culture and race of his character.
Eg. the player first picks his race. (From a full race list?
From one modified by a pre-defined racial distribution (eg.
you'd have a x% chance of getting to be born as a Necrolyte, and
an y% chance of getting to be born as an Orc)? With a query form
that picks a suitable race for him? Randomly? That's not the
issue here)
Associated with every race would be a list of the cultures
in which the race is featured. The player would either be
set into one of these cultures or be offered a list of
cultures - but in any case, the culture selection will have
to be distribution-based: eg. a chrein character would have a 95%
chance of starting out in Nin-Calaris, a 6% chance for
Lamarhen and 3% of ending up in Althainon. However
these will be just empty names for players unless we either
show them a world map with region names and startup cities
in it, or give them some illustrative but veryveryvery scant
text descriptions of the different regions.
Finally, some regions may have several possible starting
locations. Players also need to pick, or be given, one of
these.
From: beregar
Date: 2002-02-01 10:47:17
In-Reply-To: 471
A question: When do we allow multiple player races to the game?
As far as I understand, there will be only one race as a starting race, does this mean there is only a one culture too, so if the race is "elves" will it include both the moon elves and the dark elves. If the race is human, does it mean we will be having choises from all human cultures (Brahjian, Creith etc)?
I vote for some sort of hand drawn map which shows partially the surrounding areas around the starting locations, not too much so player's won't use screen captures to build maps.
- Beregar
From: darshan
Date: 2002-02-01 11:15:09
In-Reply-To: 478
Answer to the question: I don't know.
I understand that for the Nemen test phase there will be
one subrace only (I vote for hilosyphs).
The hand drawn map is the way to go. I didn't even think
about that option.
From: beregar
Date: 2002-02-06 14:39:31
In-Reply-To: 482
i don't remember who wrote this, but i moved it from other read to this thread.
When people start playing Majik3d(tm)(r)(c), they face a problem. There is a list of races, short descs and rules say that in this game you have to roleplay, at least in some way.
Ok, you want to play a farmer. That's ok, every race has a farmer, pick any of them.
Ok, you want to play a mindless hack and slash char (I don't mean there should be players for that;). That's ok as long you do not choose Moon elves, Tore, Osthelian Pixies, Tilan, Dwarves.. instead of orcs, Althainions, trolls etc etc..
Ok, you want to play a char wearing all armour and swords you can. So, play as long you don't choose Dark elves, Brahjians... etc.
Ok, you want to play fully pacifist, that's ok until you choose Dark elves, orcs.. instead of Moon elves... etc.
Ok, you want to be a human, works as long you choose Althainions, Brahjians, Chreith, Dachoi, Hilosyph, Tore'e..
Ok, You want to play a seaman.. a bowman, a horseman, hunter, wolfrider, tarzan...
I think you misunderstood the concept of roleplaying. Cultural backgrounds obviously offer some skills for player to choose as does the starting location and possible professional background. So for example a Brahjian would get certain set of predefined skills which defines what he or she was taught when he/she was a child. This set should not be completelly predefined allowing them to choose "hobbies" but these are limited by the enviroment. Obviously a Brahjian living in the desert can't learn to swim so it is neither fixed in his/her background selection or available as a "hobby". There could be actually many of these sets based on a social status of the player and they don't necessarily need to give only skill bonuses but also material benefits (such as more money for a noble) and penalties (the same noble is more tied to certain place and his/her position).
Then the player could choose sort of apprenticeship, these should be limited according to background (nobles usually don't do labor) but you should also be able to choose none and instead of that pick a larger amount of "survival" but since the character has to learn these skill all alone, skills would have smaller percents (or whatever).
The main point, however, is that any player should be able to do anything. If a dark elf wants to be pacifistic farmer, he is probably an outcast or finds it difficult to play such since racial background options and apprenticeships are not available to him in dark elven cities. if, however, he was born in some other region (starting location), there might be an option for him to be a farmer.
- Beregar
From: Archantes
Date: 2002-02-06 22:11:38
In-Reply-To: 596
The thing is.. see, I did not mean that to be that straight.. :)
I ment that there would be an advisor system, that would suggest things, not say not to choose any of these. The thing is, that if majority of players play against their culture, it would be a mess.. IMHO
This would only help people to find players that think and play alike with each other, if they want.
Of cource you can play any char/race/profession combination you can find.
