Barren Realms MUD

A bunch of us were sitting around talking today, throwing around some ideas, which got me thinking (shocking, I know). Here goes:


I was thinking of an option that could be chosen at character creation, to allow for more diversity for players who have already "beaten the game" as all races, and are looking for something new and (hopefully) exciting to try. I thought back to Divebomb's "Outcast" quest, and how much fun that was to have a realy difficult challenge to work through. For any of you not familiar with it, characters started off the game by using all their enhances, then having all their stats set at 3, the minimum the game allows I believe. There were also some other restrictions, like not being able to group with non-outcasts, or to receive help from them in the form of items or spells. I think that a version of this sort of thing, selectable at character creation, could really add soem diversity to BR.

I see this working from a game-story perspective as new sub-races for each of our current mortal races, each being considerably weaker in terms of their stats, but having certain unique abilities not possessed by their "normal" counterparts. This would have the added benefit of providing a place to include some of the best ideas that have been proposed over the last few years for new skills and spells, but without the need to eliminate the current races, for those who like them just as they are. Of course some care would have to be put in to make sure that these new races wouldn't become over-powered, but since they would be starting out with only 3 for base stats I don't think that likely to happen. Mainly, it would just be something new for experienced players who would like to try a challenge, with a few fun little things thrown in on the side to play with.

Now, I haven't thought this all through, but I do have some ideas for a few of the races. I think that the more these "new" races differ from the old ones the better, so it would probably be really nice to use some of the ideas that have been put forward as to how to revamp the existing races when working on these new ones. Of course the more changes get made the more coding time that requires, so some sort of balance between idealism and realism would have to be found as to how much change we could put in and what would stay the same.

Elves-->Drow:
Drow, or Dark elves, are subterranean versions of elves. I think that it would be really nice, just from an ascetic point of view, for elves to have slightly different spells from normal elves. The mechanics of the spells could be exactly the same, even, just named differently. Ball lightning maybe, instead of the standard fireball? Cave-in, instead of Call Lightning (which, obviously, would work opositely). Also, I think the Drow should get certain of the less-useful abilities like infravision for free as an automatic ability after a certain level, due to being raised exclusively underground. Drow may be somewhat more powerful fighters than standard elves, particularly in their ability to poison thier blades and "fight dirty", but are somwhat less adept at using magic. As such, they could gain a "poison weapon" ability (much less powerful than taint, maybe adding a "poison" spellweapon ability to the blade instead of actually increasing damage, or something along those lines) instead of enchant weapon, as well as the dirtkick skill, but sacrificing their ability to use flaming items.

Dwarves-->Duergar
As Drow are to Elves, Duergar are to Dwarves. The same automatic infravision I think would make sense, and it would probably make sense for the Duergar to get drow-type spells instead of the current elf and druid-type spells Dwarves get. It would be really nice to see Duergar made according to some of the ideas put forward for replacement dwarves, but again i don't know how much coding time that would take.
Duergar might lose some of their combat ability, like enhanced damage or third attack, in exchange for more spell casting ability.

Illithid-->Mind Flayer
Okay, yes, I know that Illithids and Mind Flayers are the same thing in traditional D&D lore, but for the life of me I can't think of another name for a sub-race of Illithids. I think that it would be nice to see Mind Flayers being more closely based around the idea of enslaving thralls to use as minions than the current Illithid race. A few of the combat spells that illithids have could be sacrificed, and a few new spells designed specifically to help out charmed creatures could be added to replace them. We have spells that can be cast on everyone, and spells that can only be cast on the caster. How about spells that can be cast on anyone BUT on the caster?

Human-->Tiefling
Tieflings have, somewhere in their past, an ancestor who wasn't entirely human. This "outsider" blood makes the Tiefling both somewhat less than human, and somewhat more than human. I think that a Tiefling would be more attuned to the spiritual side of being a monk, though not neccesarily as powerful on the physical side. As such it would probably make sense for the tiefling to sacrifice one of the human's autoattacks, but to have access to certain spell-like abilities through harnessing their chi and/or the power of their Tiefling blood. A stunning attack, using a fair bit of mana and acting as a (less powerful?) version of a stunning snake arm might be gained at a certain level?

Kender-->Gnome
This one is a little more of a stretch, since I don't think kender and gnomes have too much in common, but I think it still makes a certain kind of sense. Gnomes aren't as powerful as kender when it comes to battle, and are certainly not as talented with poisons, but they do have much improved magical ability. Gnomes might lose their ability to backstab and/or taint, or at least lose some of the effectiveness of each, but in exchange pick up more spellcasting ability. They might even be able to (and yes, i know this is quite a bit of coding) be able to craft magical rods of spells they know how to cast. Gnomes are known as tinkerers and inventors, after all.

Druid-->Dunedain
Dunedain may not have quite the same connection with magic that druids have, but their connection to nature is similar. They wouldn't be able to use flaming items, or to cast the more powerful druidic spells, but could possibly call an animal companion to their aid (think charm person without having to find a person to charm), and could track in a manner similar to avians.

Avian-->Kenku
Okay, this name I just pulled from a net search, not sure if it's actually got its own literature or if some guy just made it up, but i like it anyways. Kanku are very much like our own avians in appearance, but not as combat oriented in a traditional sense. Maybe think more about owls than eagles. In game terms, they would sacrifice some of their combat ability in exchange for greater spellcasting ability.


In general, all of these sub-races would be more like jacks of all trades, cutting back on the individual races' areas of expertise in order to gain some other abilities. Combined with the idea of starting with 3 for base stats, which among other things severely cuts down on practice sessions, these new races shouldn't become unbalancing forces, just something new to try out for fun, with a few new abilities thrown in here and there. The more the better, of course, but too many means massive amounts of coding beyond the already substantial amount needed to make these (or similar) new races work.

Anyways, please comment on what you guys all think of the idea *smile*

Personally, I like it!

These sub-races might have a "dark aura" that prevents them from grouping with the normal classes. It might also deflect normal player spells to keep "batteries" down. But, this aura might fade in certain areas... Like the arena...

Another thought I had is that these classes be incapable of being a certain alaignment. Like drows must be evil or neutral and Dunedains must be good/neutral? This would make equipment limitations too. This might "limit" characters too much though... But it would add an interesting challenge to gameplay.

I wonder if these classes should have thier own trainers or use the existing ones? Maybe there could be a special "underground" for these characters under the Calathar fountain?

Lastly, is there anyway to give those drow fighting skills to my weak hero elf now???

Angels.

I think we need a race of Score's Angels.

The End.

And NO, DEMONS DON'T COUNT!!!

First, (before anyone else can say it) we're still not looking for ideas for new races.

Second, while the premise is pretty good (weaker versions of our existing races for a challenge to old players), the implementation seems primarily to be: whatever the (regular) race does well, let the weaker version do it slightly less well, but add the opposite factor to make up for it. (Duergar are better spell-casting dwarves. Drow are better fighting elves. Etc., etc.) If we'd even consider doing something like this (adding essentially 7 similarly "new" races, when our current ones already have little variety between them), I'd really rather see the dark versions get at least one or two fairly powerful, different skills to differentiate them from our existing races. (Good examples were the suggestions for mind flayers and gnomes - new spells that can only be cast on charmies, so they can help in battles more, and the ability to "tinker": create rods/staves/wands, to be specific.)
Especially in the recent ideas posted and tweaks considered (that we like), we seem to be moving more towards making each of the different races play quite differently from the others, as far as strategies used, equipment, etc. Because, frankly, when they play differently (especially if there are options as to how you can play it), they're more liked as a race, they have a certain feel that you can't accomplish with any other race. And maybe that's just my aesthetics kicking in, but I'd really rather not put in 7 new near-clone races to complement the 7 we already have.