[Forked from the Escapist Magazine Interview Thread] What implications does E...

[Alzrius]

The point being made is that small changes in a race can have large impacts on what sort of society they have. Conversely, large changes can have comparatively minor impact on a society, compared to the "human baseline."

The major point made in the pair of linked articles (and stated explicitly in the second one) is that magnifying or minimizing an existing human trait has comparatively little impact on human(-like) behavior. By contrast, adding something completely new can result in radical, and unexpected, changes.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Which, evolutionarily would probably cause a delay in the expression of teleporting. So we can assume teleporting doesn't express until adolescence.

If adolescents could get 30' off the ground with no effort, and then be stuck there for five minutes, bad things would happen. And that's if we assume it holds off until adolescence.

One of the basic conceits with magical abilities is that we assume that only a few people have them, and that those people have above-average minds. It's built into the mechanics. If everyone has this type of ability, we would then expect it to be used much more foolishly.

 

[I'm A Banana]

One of the basic conceits with magical abilities is that we assume that only a few people have them, and that those people have above-average minds. It's built into the mechanics. If everyone has this type of ability, we would then expect it to be used much more foolishly

They called it "birding."

Think of a pigeon in a park. Sitting on top of a statue all day. Think of why that statue's head and neck and face is covered in pigeon droppings.

Now imagine you're walking through a beautiful sylvan glade and you feel a warm trickle dampening your hair, and you hear the sniggering of immaculate porcelain youths in the trees just above you...
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[Manbearcat]

Engineering-wise, this refrain strikes me as a tempest in a teapot.

- Any regularly trafficked area that would require emergency entrance or egress would be completely unaffected by the cultural dynamic personal, short range teleport on a 5 minute schedule. If stairs/doors/elevators were only usable on a 5 minute schedule, the structure would never pass a code inspection. A singular catastrophic event that required orderly and immediate egress would cost significant loss of life with subsequent philosophy changes on infrastructure.

- Defensive battlements could only be vertically staged (taking advantage of the mobility) if military units strictly forbade the liberal usage of Feystep. It would either be the purview of a commander who is mobilizing strategic withdraw/advance as a unit or the Eladrin military would be a chaotic free for all.

- Eladrin prisons could make easy use of blindfolds, long or steep cells, and manacles.

5 minute scheduling is just way too long to have significant implications for the engineering philosophy that underwrites the infrastructure and city planning for an extremely large, even if lacking diversity, social body. Might there be some vertical, recreational flourishes (such as decks only accessible by 30 ft teleport or earthmote access)? Of course. But any breathless hand-ringing over it strikes me as fanciful, I'll-informed silliness that is probably more edition war curve fitting than it is serious, objective analysis. I'm sure I could easily examine any number of non 4e core races and find some real challenges to infrastructure and city planning credulity. If I was so inclined. Which I'm not. Because this is a recreational fantasy game. If I can look past dragons, giants, and Arthropods 50 - 100 times the size of a chicken, I can handle Eladrins as a core race.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Like a bag over the head?

And tie them up so they can't remove the bag? You will end up spoon feeding your prisoners if you want them alive and unable to teleport. You might use pits with sheer walls higher than 30' and just lower the food, but you have to have some pretty specialized prisons.

Anyway, that was just one of the things I mentioned that was problematic, the other ones, like locked doors not being a problem and walls below 30' not being of any use is something that makes a race of teleporting eladrin even less logical.

 

[Klaus]

And tie them up so they can't remove the bag?

Once they're in a windowless cell, the bag can be removed and the hands untied. Human can't teleport, and we tie our prisoners all the time.

You might use pits with sheer walls higher than 30' and just lower the food, but you have to have some pretty specialized prisons.

You mean like oubliettes? Because, again, human can't teleport, and still we built those.

And all you need is a controlled access point (a "sally port") to render all attempts to escape useless.

And taking those things into account is what brings a magical world to life, instead of being just Dark Ages with funny make-up.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My point wasn't necessarily that they would have to make completely different kinds of prisons- they clearly don't- but rather, they wouldn't build a typical prison at all. Cells with bars are useless. Where Mayberry could get away with a small, barred cell, its eladrin counterpart could not. Not unless, as others point out, the prisoners are hooded, shackled and spoonfed.

A prison isn't just about keeping prisoners behind the outer walls, it's about controlling prisoners at every step of every day. Consider a moderate sized prison with 200 inmates. If you can't keep them in their individual cells, they'll be able to act in concert to capture guards and escape.

Which is why you'd see pits, mines or labyrinths as opposed to traditional RW prison architecture.

Similarly, you wouldn't have an utter absence of stairs or ladders. Eleadrin can't blink upstairs with furniture, nor can they teleport up in the air and hang there while building a structure. But they might very well minimize their use, and/or place them differently within a structure.

As for emergency egress...when all you need is LoS to 'port 30', you can get a hell of a lot of people out of any building in seconds as long as they can get to a spot in the room with a view.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They called it "birding."

Think of a pigeon in a park. Sitting on top of a statue all day. Think of why that statue's head and neck and face is covered in pigeon droppings.

Now imagine you're walking through a beautiful sylvan glade and you feel a warm trickle dampening your hair, and you hear the sniggering of immaculate porcelain youths in the trees just above you...
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If I could give out a point whenever I wanted, you'd have earned 2 in this thread.

 

[Hussar]

And tie them up so they can't remove the bag? You will end up spoon feeding your prisoners if you want them alive and unable to teleport. You might use pits with sheer walls higher than 30' and just lower the food, but you have to have some pretty specialized prisons.

Anyway, that was just one of the things I mentioned that was problematic, the other ones, like locked doors not being a problem and walls below 30' not being of any use is something that makes a race of teleporting eladrin even less logical.

This just isn't true. You are on one side of a ten foot high wall. You can't teleport to the other side because you have no LOS. Granted you could teleport to the top of the wall. But, guess what? It's a ten foot high wall. Most people can climb it anyway.

How are locked doors not functional? Unless there is a window in the door you cannot teleport.

Great Eladrin thieves are stymied by curtains. .

And mad props to KM for his bits. Cool.

 

[Blackbrrd]

This just isn't true. You are on one side of a ten foot high wall. You can't teleport to the other side because you have no LOS. Granted you could teleport to the top of the wall. But, guess what? It's a ten foot high wall. Most people can climb it anyway.

How are locked doors not functional? Unless there is a window in the door you cannot teleport.

Great Eladrin thieves are stymied by curtains. .

And mad props to KM for his bits. Cool.

The usual problem with walls in war is that they are manned, and as you climb it, they drop rocks, boiling water, melted led or pitch on you and set you on fire. If you instead could just teleport up and start a fair fight the defenders advantage is reduced significantly.

You are of course right about the curtains. I bet Eladrin cities had the best curtains ever!