Ever heard of the Diamond Dogs? David Bowie has.

Greywander wrote:

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:The trait is just to give your race free extra training in a particular skill.

Ah, so it is actually the way it sounds. The creator of the race picks the skill to get free training. I think I brought up the issue of minmaxing before, but I guess that's not a serious one here, as you can't stack training. If you want to play a character of a different race with training in that skill, you can just choose to train that skill, so it doesn't really make one race "better" than another.

Exactly. I discussed why this doesn't encourage min/maxing in detail in the "Ask a simple question" thread, which was just a longer way of saying exactly why you did right here. =)

Greywander wrote:I'm assuming then that there isn't an equivalent to the older 2T+CM for ponies, and 3T for nonponies. This would become a moot issue if we changed to a 5+CM (like Living Legends) or 6+CM, as has been discussed in the Genetic Engineering thread, since then we wouldn't have to worry about covering for a missing cutie mark with an extra trained skill. I assume you guys are busy at the moment, though, and will reevaluate the racial system when you have time, so no need to feel rushed. I wasn't planning on playing a diamond dog in a game any time soon, anyway, just felt like they should have a racial template.

Absolutely. When finals are over we'll take a long look at the race system, plus additional expansions. We're also developing multiple other games. This one's just our favorite to work on. =)

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Greywander wrote:

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:The trait is just to give your race free extra training in a particular skill.

Ah, so it is actually the way it sounds. The creator of the race picks the skill to get free training. I think I brought up the issue of minmaxing before, but I guess that's not a serious one here, as you can't stack training. If you want to play a character of a different race with training in that skill, you can just choose to train that skill, so it doesn't really make one race "better" than another.

Exactly. I discussed why this doesn't encourage min/maxing in detail in the "Ask a simple question" thread, which was just a longer way of saying exactly why you did right here. =)

Greywander wrote:I'm assuming then that there isn't an equivalent to the older 2T+CM for ponies, and 3T for nonponies. This would become a moot issue if we changed to a 5+CM (like Living Legends) or 6+CM, as has been discussed in the Genetic Engineering thread, since then we wouldn't have to worry about covering for a missing cutie mark with an extra trained skill. I assume you guys are busy at the moment, though, and will reevaluate the racial system when you have time, so no need to feel rushed. I wasn't planning on playing a diamond dog in a game any time soon, anyway, just felt like they should have a racial template.

Absolutely. When finals are over we'll take a long look at the race system, plus additional expansions. We're also developing multiple other games. This one's just our favorite to work on. =)

So if the creator of the race picks the skill to get free training, and everyone who picks that race gains free training in that particular skill... then shouldn't there be specific skills assigned to the appropriate races in the RoE document? As it stands, most of them still say "pick one".

I'm also going "Whaaa???" to having Hippogriffs as playable but no Diamond Dogs. I'm new and all but I have come up with an idea for a racial build for them plus some spare traits for others to use in the system as a whole.

Diamond Dogs
Denizens of the dirt, Diamond Dogs desire jeweled delights. Whether they find them on they own or obtain them from others, this powerful pack will pocket their precious.

Earth Mover (2)
You may travel through dirt and sand with the same ease most others use for normal travel. You may also travel through clay-like or rocky soil with no penalties. Furthermore, you may close any tunnels you've made at will.

Herd Mentality (1)
Whenever an ally successfully aids you on a skill check, you gain an additional +1 bonus to the check.

Echoing Howl (1)
Diamond Dogs gain the "Call Out" trait.

Covet Your Neighbor (4) 2/day
Twice per day when another creature makes a skill check within your line of sight you may choose to record that die roll. These die results are “stored” until you expend them when using the following talent or until the next day when they are then lost until you observe another creature's skill check.

Beggars Can Be Choosers - Interrupt 2/day
Trigger - You or a creature in your line of sight makes a skill check and you dislike the result.
Effect - Treat the die as though you or they had rolled one of the stored die results. The stored roll result is swapped out for the new roll. For example, if you rolled a natural 1 - you could trade it out for the natural 20 you were lucky enough to roll at the end of your last extended rest. Likewise, if another creature rolled a natural 20 - you could trade it out for a stored natural 1.


Traits for Genetic Engineering or utility talents

Burrower
You may travel through dirt and sand with the same ease most others use for normal travel. Additional skill checks may be required for traveling through clay or rocky soil.

Earth Mover
(requires Burrower)
You may travel through clay-like or rocky soil with no penalties. Furthermore, you may close any tunnels you've made at will.

Some basic tunneling talents makes sense to add to the system for any number of creatures. I figure Covet Your Neighbor fits in with being awesome enough to not have a Cutie Mark and makes for very different play than other races. Alternate name idea for Beggars Can Be Choosers was going to be "The Other Side of the Fence".

So, I suddenly got into a Diamond Dog craze, and decided to see if they were in Pony Tales.

I was displeased that they were not, but was pleased to find this thread.

As per the above suggestion - "storing" dice rolls is a rather interesting mechanic... gives me the idea of a race that isn't too good at doing things on their own but is great at mimicking others.

Diamond Dog - Updated suggestion proposal:

Updated proposal for Diamond Dogs as a system canon race.  Dropped the custom racial due to various comments from the designers about making things that encourage people to just repeatedly roll.  Everything else seems like it fits in to how they are in the show.  Anyone have suggestions for flavor text?

What if, instead of a skill training they could get Cultural Knowledge to gems and digging? or something like that - I don't think we have any races that use the Cultural Knowledge for flavoring, but there's good potential there.

Or... wait, no scent tracker? Would that be something they would have?

The above build was based off before Scent Tracker got the cost lowered.  Let me copypasta from the most current expansion submission.  I think Dan's comment in the Crystal Ponies thread has got me thinking they'd actually work better for Cultural Knowledge.

Race - Diamond Dogs: