Racial Package Deals

[Xel]

In my my fantasy game, many of the players often make the

argument that racial disads do NOT, or should come out of

base disads. Therefore actually making it a package 'Deal'.

That way there is a reason to want to use a package deal.

 

In a way i kind of agree, but I can see the argument both ways.

I just want to know what other people out there do so I can fix

my problem.

[Curufea]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

The purpose of a points based system, such as the Hero system, is balance.

If you don't care about balance, or that one PC is much more powerful than another PC, then don't worry about the points.

[CourtFool]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

This has been argued before rather vehemently. My personal opinion is if racial disadvantages do not count against your disadvantage total why would anyone want to play a human?

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

Non-human races are bogus.

 

If I want to be a big strong fighter, why in the world would I want to play Dave the barbarian? When I could play Kevlare the Orge. I'm stronger, tougher, meaner and more imposing than Dave could every hope to be. Oh yeah, and I got an Irrational Hatred of Pointed Ears and Enraged with people insult me.

 

Dave's player whines, "But I'm a barbarian, I hate Pointed Ears for attacking my village, and I feel enraged when people insult me."

 

Kevlare's player responds, "Hah. For entire generations, we have hunted Pointed Ears, and your human blood could never feel the rage that we do, as a race, I mean. Plus, although we have excellent night vision, but we can not stand the light of the sun."

 

Dave's player continues, "But, I'm farsighted, I have telescopic vision, but it prevents me from able to learn how to read. And I, too, am light sensitive, so I see better in the dark instead of the daylight."

 

Kevlare: "But, I am socially challenge, everyone looks at me and judges me unfairly based on my looks and my limited vocabulary."

Dave: "Dude, barbarian."

 

Kevlare: "Women fear me and hide their children?"

Dave: "Dude, barbarian."

 

Kevlare: "I pick my nose. I make rude noises. I have body odor."

Dave: "So does the mage."

 

Kevlare: "We regenerate from anything except fire, and I have this killer overbite that does 1D6, 2 w/STR and 3 DEF natural armor."

Dave: "Dude, I am so playing an Ogre."

[Markdoc]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

GM: "Why should your fighter get neato-kewl powers for free?"

Player (in whiny voice) "But I have pointy ears..."

 

Kind of sums it up, really.

 

Cheers, Mark

[CourtFool]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

Images, Only For Pointy Ears...

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Racial Package Deals

 

Xel - you posted this in two different forums, three times. If you want a straight answer, please only post it once.

 

My take on it, as posted elsewhere is:

 

There are many ways to handle this. On one hand, no - disads are an inherent part of the system and getting points "for free" would be misleading. For example, assume a race had 30 pts of racial disads - essentially that race would be built on 30 more points than other races and such characters would, in the right circumstances, be better than others.

 

GURPS takes this approach and after years of play I find it unbalanced and somewhat annoying. Plus, nobody wants to play a race that doesn't get some racial disads.

 

On the other hand, such disads do establish a baseline for the race, and offset abilities that a player may or may not want. For example, if all elves can detect magic as a sense and you want to play an elven fighter those points in terms of fighting are wasted. Sure they are cool from the POV that it is an interesting ability, but if you want to be a pure elven fighter you will not be as good as a pure human fighter because you have points tied up in detect magic.

 

I think a nice comprimise, albeit one I do not employ, would be to allow immutable disads to be included as part of the racial package. Essentially, separate the race from the culture. So, disads that are socially imposed (e.g. Dwarven Grumpiness) would not be included because they could be bought off at a later time. However, a small race that has a 5 pt Physical Limitation for size, or a race that is Vulnerable to Iron would include such disads in the racial package deal since nothing short of a wish will change that. You still run the risk of having unbalanced races unless you take great care to build the packages fairly. My suggestion is that you take all the points from such disads and put them towards abilities that have limited focus but help round out the character. A good example would be Fey Vulnerability to Cold Iron using those points to have Magical Awareness and Enhanced Perception or Power Defense. These are cool abilities that many players would not purchase for a character that wasn't specifically designed in that vein (e.g. a Wizard). So a Fey warrior would have the ability to detect magic but it wouldn't reduce his the points available to be spent on combat abilities. If you do this, you should consider a minor disad for humans with a minor perq/talent/power as well - don't make the disad too onerous but just enough to make them interesting. Versatile - +1 to all skill rolls comes to mind (+1 Overall, Not for Combat -1/4, Not for pure Characteristic Rolls -1/4: 7 pts) perhaps offset by Racial Reputation (as gregarious and domineering) or something similar.

 

Also, bear in mind that in a fantasy setting with many races common to the world, no race should qualify for Distinctive Features.