RACES
So, to a prior topic on races, I’ve been putting together a list of Racial Tags to use for those who want to have a more defined list of mechanical traits for their races. Here is what I have so far. Thoughts?
Astral Sight: You can use Discern Realities to notice magical power and spirits which would be invisible or otherwise undetectable normally. A successful check means he can tell there’s magic or a spirit present, and its general direction.
Claws / Jaws: You have vicious claws or jaws capable of dealing your damage.
Darkvision: You can see in complete darkness, but only in greytones.
Hearty: You are immune to disease and poisons.
Eagle-Eyes: The character has long distance vision.
Endurance: You live in an extreme environment and are not harmed by it. (Polar, Volcanic, etc. – gain 1)
Enhanced Hearing: The character can distinguish the tiniest sounds at long distances, but is susceptible to loud noises nearby.
Enhanced Touch: The character’s fingers, tentacles, or whatever are extremely sensitive and can feel tiny details or sense minute movements in a device (such as an old lock).
Flight: You have wings and are capable of flight.
Hard Hide: You have a thick skin which acts as 1 Armor.
Heightened Smell: The character can detect minute differences in smells, picking up trails and the presence of certain substances long after they’ve disappeared.
Glamour: You are hard to target as you have a confusing, shimmering appearance granting 1 Armor.
Jump: The character can jump much further than normal.
Long-Lived: You’ve been around a long time and gain a +1 when Spouting Lore about old stuff (legends, events, history).
Low-Light Vision: You can see normally even in dim and faint light.
Nature Bound: Choose your native terrain. You are completely at home in this environment and can take advantage of it as needed.
Otherworldly: You can resist emotional or mental attacks, however, you often don’t know the best way to react in social situations.
Oversized: Your attacks gain the Forceful tag.
Small-Sized: You can use your small size to your advantage such as climb things, sneak and hide, fit into small spaces.
Stable: Ignores the Forceful tag from Large or smaller creatures.
Taciturn: You are a listener, not a talker and have a natural ability to remember what others have said.
Treasure Sense: You can identify where precious minerals and metals may naturally be found, and can evaluate gems and jewelry.
Water-Born: You have gills and may breathe underwater unaided and can swim perfectly as easily as a human walks.
Fast / Slow – not sure how to make a mechanic for something like this in DW.
OOH! I really like the idea of racial tags, rather than picking from a pre-existing list of races. Maybe allow 2-3 tags per character? This is awesome! I love it!
EDIT:
Fast: You are quick limber. Take +1 rolls to defy danger using DEX
Slow: You don’t avoid attacks very well, and have adapted to minimizing the damage you suffer. Take +1 to defy danger using CON
I love me some tags.
Hands-for-legs: Your species having evolved among the trees you can traverse through them like Tarzan OR you can climb up and down jagged terrain like a spider on her web.
/sub
Sub!
David Schirduan
Well I guess you could go that route. I hadn’t been thinking of replacing races but more along the lines of defining races.
Some people here (myself included) still cling to the idea that we want to present a campaign world to our players. I’m all for letting them fill in blanks and define empty spaces, but I want a core framework to already exist that defines the basics of the setting. This is for either homebrew or existing settings that people like to often use (I see a lot of Eberron references for instance).
So what i was thinking was that instead of a player saying I’m an elf and letting them make-up on the fly as they go what it means to be an elf and have to explain why, give then the basic framework of what all elves in this setting share in common through the use of the keywords. I would also have a 2-3 page ‘fiction’ source for each race that gives a better picture of elf culture and life.
For instance, your classic d20SRD:
Elf might have the following tags – Eagle-Eyes, Enhanced Hearing, Long-Lived, Low-Light Vision, Nature Bound (Forest), and possibly Otherworldly
Dwarf might have the following tags – Darkvision, Hearty, Long-Lived, Nature Bound (subterranean), Stable, Taciturn
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
I was thinking this would be an easier way of making races more “important” or “mechanical” than the route Adam had suggested, which was basically racial CCs that you gained moves from each level in addition to your class moves. I figure a few fiction based, or minor +1 “one-liner” tags would be easier to track and manage than a whole extra set of moves. Its basically like a set of Aspects/Stunts (e.g. Fate).
Also, David, I really like those spins on Fast & Slow. That’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for but was afraid to cross over into actually dishing +1 bonuses around. However, in some cases, I can really see it working.
Daniel Peled I like that new tag. That would work well for any such species. I could see this going well for say the Eberron Shifter or the ape race from I think Planet World?
Does anyone else have any Tags they can come up with for other classic races from other setting such as Warforged?
Some moves I have seen can easily convert to Tags instead. Just a few samples that have come to mind are:
Catfall: Provided you have at least 1 Hold left, you won’t take damage from falling. (by Joe Banner)
Lightfooted: You can run across snow or similar surfaces without falling in and you don’t leave tracks on hard earth. (by Carl Gerriets)
Prehensile Tail: Your tail can grab items as if a 3rd hand. (by Carl Gerriets)
Strong: Increase your maximum STR to 20.
Another though for some balance to humans, using this tag.
Human Adaptability: Begin with +1 starting move from a playbook not currently being played or instead begin with 1 advanced move (2-5) from your playbook.
/sub !!
How about using the race moves AND the tags for races? in this way all the dwarfs for example have darkvision but only a dwarf fighter can parley using his CON.
In my campaigns I let my players choose any racial move from their class races and pick any race, as long as they can explain why their character has this special move.
I’ve been seriously considering making a set list of Tags for each race. This basically makes races a it more like Races in FATE. Each tag has a defined perk to it, but they also work like an Aspect.
So for instance if you have the CLAW tag on a race you would get the Tag’s definition as follows:
Claws / Jaws: You have vicious claws or jaws capable of dealing your damage.
However, you could also use it as an Aspect. (e.g. Using the Claws as a form of Leverage in Parley – “I use my claws to gouge deep gashes in the bartop just before asking the barkeep one last time if he’s seen the man with 6 fingers on his left hand”). In other words if the Player can use narrative to explain how their tag can be used in ways other than the tag’s “defined” use, they are then using the tag as an Aspect.
Then atop that, yes, your race would still have Racial class moves.
I know there are others with a similar mindset out there, that want more solidly defined races, especially anyone who wants to run DW versions of any pre-existing campaign settings such as Eberron and Dark Sun using DW. For such games, I don’t think it breaks the precepts of the game to lay a basic framework, saying that “THIS” is what an Elf “IS” in this world. Rather than letting the player define what an Elf is in those worlds. JMHO.
Maybe I’m leaning a bit heavy on the system? I see DW as a variant version of D&D Basic. Maybe my take on more detailed/defined races leans toward making my games a slightly more advanced version of DW….
DW = Basic D&D
ADW = AD&D
nice. my players can be kind of lazy so they like certain things defined a bit more, races fall in that category.