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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nagol" data-source="post: 5801701" data-attributes="member: 23935">Wasn’t there a thread about this a couple of weeks ago?<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/315734-design-goal-making-different-races-feel-different.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/315734-design-goal-making-different-races-feel-different.html</a>There are really two ways to make non-human behaviour and outlook different from humans: change their abilities or change their goals.Changed abilities can offer variant strategies for development and/or dealing with a tactical situation.  D&D has always tried to change their abilities (e.g, darkvision, movement speed, attribute modifiers). The difficulty is these changes have been tempered by balance considerations and a requirement that the race be reasonably able to operate in a setting fit for humans.   That means the changes are generally mild and thus have a very slight impact on the strategies pursued by the players.I’m in more favour of changing their goals.  Variant short term goals lead to constant behaviour shifts and variant long-term goals lead to different decisions on what situations to engage.   2e tried this with classes with its alternate xp system.  The Fantasy Trip had variant xp for demi-humans.  As I said in the other thread,  the change in reward structure wil drive different behaviours from the players and that change in observable behaviour is what really provides the appearance of otherness. The trick is to make the make the variances different enough that the PCs will pursue different tactics that are equally common/capable of being achieved with their expected abilities.</blockquote>

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