Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 stargazer_dragon Apr 30, 2010 7:41:10	just a random idea I had. more a curiosity on what others thought then anything I have the energy to impliment at the moment but heres the idea strip all the races of all mechanics so all that remains is the fluff rp junk. char creation wise they do nothing. Take all the racial powers (or racial power equivilents like the dwarfs second wind) and place them all into a huge list *refluff some of them to allow other races to use them without seaming realy out of place Make a list of the other racial features like 7 speed instead of 6 Darkvision, better healing surges junk like that and assign them to eather 1 point or 2 point catagory based on game effect. remove racial requirments from all feats. grant a floating +2 to two difrent ability scores Grant a bonus skill Grant a racial power of the players choice from the list of powers Grant 3 points to use on racial features. Select class and continue building char as normal While this would be a ton of work refluffing and making the lists and junk and even more work making the char it would make races pure RP and allow for a Ton of personal prefrence options next to no 2 chars would ever be the same and if the features or racial powers had minor rp effects also that would be a even bigger pluss. The bonus skill made up for the normal racial skills most races offer without adding a bonus that could stack further with abil mods granting a bonus feat could well be worth while also but race wise it would allow you to take the features that you most liked and assuming features were assessed power wise properaly and assuming all class powers are roughly balenced then all the chars would still be properaly balenced it would just make them customised to the max, would also make new races SUPER easy to input as it would be simply rp new ideas for racial powers features and the like could be balenced and added to the lists without the need to do the rest of races. was just a idea that sounded super cool though probably to much work for me unless I realy got boared
#2 Alas Apr 30, 2010 9:27:42	I don't know that it's quite the same as your proposed "generic race," but I was just musing recently about broadening the races, so to speak. What I have in mind is something like what White Wolf did with the various fey types for the new edition of Changeling. (Off-topic: is it still the new edition after five plus years?) Where a kith used to define one particular type of changeling (redcap, sidhe, troll), now a kith refers to a whole category of similarly themed changelings (the wizened, the fairest, the elementals). I think something similar could work nicely for D&D. For example, instead of writing up a half-ogre race, I'd write up a framework for "giant heroes" that covers half-ogres, half-giants, half-trolls, lesser firbolgs, goliaths, and so forth. The framework would offer some features that all these instances have in common, like ability score bonuses, speed, and language options. It would also offer a small selection of racial abilities for customization, like a half-troll's healing ability, or a fensir's affinity with stone (the fensir appeared in the Fiend Folio last edition-- I love those guys). Similarly, instead of elf and eladrin, there could be a "fey heroes" framework that adds sprites, pixies, and other Feywild types back in. There could be a "dark heroes" framework for all the half-demons, vampires, and revenants; a "beast heroes" framework for lycanthropes, shifters, and flat-out talking animals; and a "construct heroes" framework for warforged, shardminds, golems, talking scarecrows, and so forth. The advantage of such an approach to race is that it really opens up the field for some player creativity and party diversity. The disadvantage is that in order to maintain parity, the actual differences between races would have to be muted-- quite drastically, in some cases. If "beast heroes" is going to cover both shifters and, say, pseudogragons, the pseudodragon is going to have to be abstracted to the point that it's neither a better nor worse choice. Also, the older I get, the more I'm interested in plain old human heroes, so I don't know that I'm up to the effort required. ;)