Racial Idea Thread

[Xel Unknown]

Like the Title said, we build ideas for new racial powers!

[Ramsus]

I don't really see the point. You didn't tie any mechanics to it. Also, the idea has as many advantages as disadvantages.

[Xel Unknown]

My understanding is that one point racials are mostly meant to be RPing flavor... And I kinda like the idea of some people being able to RP that their race is last of their kind. Again it was just the best I could think up off the top of my head. It's just adding options for people to RP as. That's it nothing else.

[Ramsus]

No. All traits have mechanical bonuses. All of them. And you of all people know very well that it's easily possible to RP the only member of your race without some trait telling you you can.

[Xel Unknown]

Point taken, dumb idea... Removed it... Will go back to the drawing board.

[Cardbo]

Lithovore(1)
You can eat gems and they're delicious

Holeymoley(1)
You can tunnel through dirt as easily as most folks walk on land.

[sunbeam]

Lithovore also doesn't seem to do much...
Wait, what about that joke robot ability? The one that requires you to refuel with something every few days. What if we mixed the two and got something like this:
Voracious Lithovore(1)
You just have to eat gems. They're so deliciously crunchy! Normal food can sustain you for 3 days, but after that you fall comatose until you can eat a full meal of gems. You gain an extra magic point.
Also very reflavorable, as long as the new craving is something somewhat rare and expensive. (So instead of, say, coffee, You absolutely have to have a special rare Afrikan blend, with whipped cream on top.)

[Xel Unknown]

Lithovore also doesn't seem to do much...
Wait, what about that joke robot ability? The one that requires you to refuel with something every few days. What if we mixed the two and got something like this:
Voracious Lithovore(1)
You just have to eat gems. They're so deliciously crunchy! Normal food can sustain you for 3 days, but after that you fall comatose until you can eat a full meal of gems. You gain an extra magic point.
Also very reflavorable, as long as the new craving is something somewhat rare and expensive. (So instead of, say, coffee, You absolutely have to have a special rare Afrikan blend, with whipped cream on top.)

This stikes me a needing to be a higher then one racial point....

So here's my answer:

Extreme Omnivore (1)
Your race can safely eat nearly anything, be them rocks, metal, gems, or whatever.

[sunbeam]

...That would be fantastic. Such fun! I want a character that insists on eating every door he comes across, no matter the shape or material. And eventually he comes across a portcullis...

[Xel Unknown]

Realized a major flaw that I'm going to try and fix.

Extreme Omnivore (1)
Your race can safely eat nearly anything that's 100% natural and non-magical, be them rocks, metal, gems, or whatever. Your race still has limits to what your digestive system can take and some things are a bit harder to digest then other stuff. But most stuff that's lethal to other races is fair game for you eat.

[kajisora]

Now i'm tempted to create a character that lives entirely off of doormats....
Or boots.

I have a nice one, I think:
A trait that has a different effect depending on the emotional state of the character. Or other characters.Could be great fun in RP.
let's see...

Others:
Empath (1)
Choose a skill. As long as all allies you can see are in a positive mood, act as if you have a CM in that skill.
At least three allies must be in sight for this skill to have an effect.

Self:
Highly emotional(1)
Whenever your character gets angry, it gains a +5 bonus to brawn checks. While this is active, all other skills suffer a -3 penalty.

[Xel Unknown]

Not bad ideas... But Let's try to come up with more then just one point racials on this topic. Here's one that I'D LOVE to see added to the system. :3

Natural Filer (4 or 5)
Characters of your race can fly with average maneuverability (you suffer a -5 penalty to precision and brawn skills while flying). With a little training you can fly even better.

[kajisora]

Thing is though, there are already a lot of flying skills and utilities out there. I'm not sure how often precision and brawn come up during flight: I haven't had to use it yet for any of the flying characters I'm playing, except for a single endurance check.
It might be nice to think up some traits related to flying that isn't focused entirely on how well you fly in general.

Examples:

Heavy weather flying(2/3)
prerequisites: Flight
Heavy wind? Rain and thunder? Snowstorms? No problem.
Characters of your race are used to flying in heavy weather, and are unaffected by penalties arising from flight in difficult conditions.

or just stuff that works well in combination with flight:
Heavy Body(2)
Charging and ramming things come natural to characters of your race. Whenever you have the space available to build up momentum you gain +(10?)
to any skill checks requiring brute force.

Would be fun to play a winged rhinoceros: fly up a little ways, dive bomb. no more obstacle.

[Xel Unknown]

Flight itself might most likely need a skill check of Athletics or Acrobatics to do anything in the heat of a moment type of thing... IE: trying to fly to save a falling friend or flying itself to do something awesome. I do agree we got a lot of flying talents, just figure we're missing out on having a "better then normal" flying racial in this system WE got a lesser then normal flight skill, feels incomplete without a "better then normal" racial too. And I gotta say love your ideas. They're coolio.

[kajisora]

Flight itself might most likely need a skill check of Athletics or Acrobatics to do anything in the heat of a moment type of thing... IE: trying to fly to save a falling friend or flying itself to do something awesome. I do agree we got a lot of flying talents, just figure we're missing out on having a "better then normal" flying racial in this system WE got a lesser then normal flight skill, feels incomplete without a "better then normal" racial too. And I gotta say love your ideas. They're coolio.

haha, thanks.
Maybe I just haven't done enough flying around to notice the checks all that much. There are already two traits in the genetic engineering doc.
It's almost like flying: 1 point, -15 to skill checks
Flight: 3 points, -10 to checks.
Going by the point costs, every next level of flight would cost another 2 racial points. Which they do, as that is the cost of a utility talent. It is 1 point cheaper to get flight through racials, but once you have IALF, there is no difference in cost.
Then again, maybe flight as a racial should be cheaper than flight as a non-racial trait, in which case it might be easier to make a single skill which you can sink as many points into as you want:

Flight(1+x)
Your race has the ability to fly. you suffer a -[15-2.5x] penalty to precision and brawn while in flight.
Penalty is rounded up.

Would get you the current system.
Changing the math around a bit could make it cheaper:

utility equivalent	Points spent	P: current	P:a=2.6	P:a=2.7	P:a=2.8	P:a=2.9	P:a=3
IALF	1	-15	-15	-15	-15	-15	-15
	2	-15	-13	-13	-13	-13	-12
Flight	3	-10	-10	-10	-10	-10	-9
	4	-10	-8	-7	-7	-7	-6
FSchool	5	-5	-5	-5	-5	-4	-3
	6	-5	-2	-2	-2	-1	0
CChaser	7	0	0	+1	+1	+2	+3
	8	0	+3	+3	+4	+5	+6
FAce	9	+5	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9

P is the Penalty, a is the modifier for penalty reduction per point spent.
a=3 is way too powerful, i think.
2.7 or 2.8 might work out nicely, 2.5 or 2.6 would be nice if you just want to fine-tune your character.
But there is the whole messiness of math and decimal numbers putting people off.

Still, there is something to be said for putting all 12 of the racial points a lvl10 Evolution Destiny character has into flying...
Would get you a +12 to checks at the a=2.5 setting, and a whopping +18 at a=3

[GentlemanOtherwise]

Trying to figure out this one.

Elementally Aligned [?]
You have some sort of physical element to which your body responds very well- while in contact, you can bask in it to restore your health and to add bonuses to your rolls, as well as all other sorts of positive effects related to the element. This should be fairly common (fire, immersion in water, electricity, blood) but not TOO common (air, dust, food). You can substitute this element for natural requirements of one's body (food, water, sleep and oxygen) as well, though this requires Endurance rolls.

Conversely, this element's opposite harms you. Exposure makes you weaker, deals constant damage over time and produces varied negative effects. This should be thematically opposed to the positive element concerned (i.e. a Frankenstallion's monster, recharged by electricity, has learned that 'fire... BAD'; an icy elemental charged by freezing temperatures melts around fire).

[Whiteeyes]

That's a neat idea; it'd work great for a salamander.

[kajisora]

me gusta....
should probably specify the weakness at character creation though: prevents a lot of unnecessary confuddlement.
Happy seasons!

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