Ark: thread of tough love and abuse #4

[Ark]

what do you prefer? the love or the abuse?

this seemed like a hot topic so I figured it deserved its own thread.

racial disciplines

in the Final Haven game system every race except humans (RACISTS) get a discipline unique to them. personally I do not agree with this as I feel it draws people to races the don't like or care about simply for a mechanical benefit. this leads to said races being portrayed and role-played poorly.
their are counter arguments and reasons I am aware of and I still don't agree with them, even if it does turn everyone into different color humanoids (guess what the difference between African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Europeans is?)

Disciplines further don't fit the racial theme because they are optional, so an Orc can be no different than a Dwarf, they just have the option to be. Systems have done races well and in this system there is room for improvement and rather then just saying don't do it (I will anyway, don't do it) I have decided to come up with solutions to the problems.

1) include humans into your bonuses (RACISTS)
2) remove racial disciplines, actually, just rename the disciplines and let anyone pick from them.
3) remove the extra life from everyone but human (RACISTS) and just chalk it to costume.
4) instead of racial disciplines add 1 positive bonus, and 1 negative bonus

an example of #4 would be:

Orc - they are strong but fast to anger. they can always resist press, but never resist taunt.
Tsunotaur - strong but not very acute. they have +1 combat reflex, but gain no benefit from the spot skill.
Avyana - are very acute but delicate. the gain access to the spot skill, but may never resist press.
Dwarf - are hardy but take long to travel. gain +1 minute bleed out time but travel time is doubled.

these are all examples thought up at time of posting and should be treated as such, if they suck, or are broken, I don't really care. simply posting an idea.
if your going to do race differences please do them well. in the case of number 4 humans having no bonus and no negative could actually be a good thing.

-Ar__________________>(^_^)>k "I stole the k!!!"

[Kaylan Chargeender]

guess what the difference between African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Europeans is?

NOTHING...they are all HUMAN. They are not elves, and dwarves and such.

1) include humans into your bonuses (RACISTS)

They have, they get to hot HAVE to wear costuming. Thats the humab bonus, they are like US the players.

2) remove racial disciplines, actually, just rename the disciplines and let anyone pick from them.

Im fine with that since I think picking a race should require QUALITY racial costuming and give both RACIAL advantages & DISADVANTAGES. That is prevelant in every other system of quality I have played.

3) remove the extra life from everyone but human (RACISTS) and just chalk it to costume.

Uhm...i think even humans get the +1 LP


4) instead of racial disciplines add 1 positive bonus, and 1 negative bonus

Orc - they are strong but fast to anger. they can always resist press, but never resist taunt.

Used to be Press

Tsunotaur - strong but not very acute. they have +1 combat reflex, but gain no benefit from the spot skill.

+1 minute bbleed out
Used to be

Avyana - are very acute but delicate. the gain access to the spot skill, but may never resist press.

Used to be flee

Dwarf - are hardy but take long to travel. gain +1 minute bleed out time but travel time is doubled.

Used to be Resist Poison (I think)

and humans used to be the support one...

[Ark]

Im aware of what boons were tied to the races, but I like the essence boon idea. but I believe the idea of a small bonus and negative the does not really add power but simply flavor to the race is a good one.

[Gideon]

Let us first address the Human “Racism.” Well I agree the racial Life Point should be turned into a generic costuming Life Point for Humans. Possible keep it as a racial Life Point with the exception of Human were it turns into a costuming Life Point.

I dislike racial advantages and disadvantages, and I believe it is a flaw for many LARPs to have racial advantages and disadvantages. I have played in a LARP that successfully implemented different races without any mechanical differences in the races. And, I have been to too many LARPs were all of the Warriors are Orcs and all of the Spellcasters are Elfs and all of the Craftsmen are Dwarves, ect. ect. because of racial advantages and disadvantages. I do personally feel racial disciplines are a much better choice. Yes, Racial Disciplines still will draw people to certain races for mechanical benefits grant it; but at least we still see Elf Warrior, Dwarf Empaths, and Orc Sages. Because, when there is this currently present lack of mechanical racial advantages or disadvantages we as the players can explore other parts of a Races Society, we can play an Orc Empath, and reflect their role/Persona in an Orc society in the way we RP the character, without being terrible at being an Empath because we are playing an Orc. This is in contrast to a rules set that has Racial advantages and disadvantages and these rule sets do tend to produce cookie cutter PCs because there is a mechanically “best” way to make ones character. Also, disadvantages deter people who want to play a certain race-path-discipline type, because people really do not want to deal with this mechanical disadvantage. And I do believe if one is playing a race because they want to play that race then they will do a better job at it then someone who is doing it for mechanical reasons.

Now I will admit small advantages and disadvantages means that choosing a race for the advantages or not choosing to play a race you want to play, because of the disadvantages is mitigated. And it seems that this is along the lines of what Ark recommends, but I have been put down by racial advantages and disadvantage in the past and I do not think minor racial advantages and disadvantages would really add anything to this game, so I would really rather not see this added to this elegantly simple game.

I will say I like the flavor that racial disciplines bring to the races and the game and that they do add a little racial flavor without the drawback of high end advantages and disadvantages. And I will not disagree that I believe some people are playing their races for the racial disciplines (which could be for legitimate reasons).

On the count of human disciplines I have no opinion, and I could fight for either side for the fun of it but that is not the point of this thread.

[Ark]

I had thought about the type casting that would go into races if they had advantages and disadvantages, but I figured they could be made small enough to not really matter.

and as far as a human discipline you could go with a jack of all trades style one that I think I proposed around here already iirc.

1) any level 1 discipline skill
2) any level 1 discipline skill
3) any level 2 discipline skill
4) any level 3 discipline skill