Racecraft- Players making their own races... Now with an exciting offer!

[Breakstone]

Alright, I tested this out with a few players today in my group. One made a Pandarian race, one made a race of Salamandians (ancient, noble, walking salamanders), and one made a race of men who transform into dragons.

Some notes.

- At first, all players chose abilities with both a +2 and a -2 to physical scores. After one player found out he could get a bonus point, he chose the Homogeneous ability.

- All players wanted to see the list of Flaws before the list of traits.

- Two players chose the "Oddly Shaped" flaw. This makes me suspicious that it might be too good for a whole 2 extra points.

- One player had trouble creating his race (the transforming into dragon men). A "Creating a Modifying Traits and Flaws" section would help a lot with this.

- That same player did not like the restriction on the standard +2/-2 ability choices. Perhaps a section after abilities that descibes a special option to take additional bonuses or penalties would be good. I imagine it will cost around 3 points for a +2 to an ability, and taking another penalty would grant 1 bonus point.

- We created a new trait called "Peripheral Vision" for three points. Races with Peripheral Vision would be immune to flanking.

 

[SpiralBound]

Alright, I tested this out with a few players today in my group. One made a Pandarian race, one made a race of Salamandians (ancient, noble, walking salamanders), and one made a race of men who transform into dragons.

Could you please post these races? More examples of your system in use would be nice to see.

Some notes.

- At first, all players chose abilities with both a +2 and a -2 to physical scores. After one player found out he could get a bonus point, he chose the Homogeneous ability.

That sounds like what I would expect most players to do.

- All players wanted to see the list of Flaws before the list of traits.

That's interesting... did they say WHY? I'd be curious to know what made it more interesting/attractive/useful for them to see the flaws before picking their traits.

- Two players chose the "Oddly Shaped" flaw. This makes me suspicious that it might be too good for a whole 2 extra points.

I found that flaw to be a bit too vaguely phrased actually. I kinda knew what you were getting at, but perhaps you need to describe it a bit more specifically. Or perhaps it could be broken down into a group of more specific flaws that are only worth one point each... dunno.

- One player had trouble creating his race (the transforming into dragon men). A "Creating a Modifying Traits and Flaws" section would help a lot with this.

Good call. You may need to write a mini "how-to-article" to incorporate into this anyway.

- That same player did not like the restriction on the standard +2/-2 ability choices. Perhaps a section after abilities that descibes a special option to take additional bonuses or penalties would be good. I imagine it will cost around 3 points for a +2 to an ability, and taking another penalty would grant 1 bonus point.

That sounds like a good addition, and the points sound about right. Would need playtesting tho'.

- We created a new trait called "Peripheral Vision" for three points. Races with Peripheral Vision would be immune to flanking.

Nice.

So, will you be rewriting your document to incorporate these changes? I had downloaded your racecraft page and was intending on testing it out in 2-3 weeks, but if you're still refining the system, I'd prefer to use a newer version.

 

[ARandomGod]

- We created a new trait called "Peripheral Vision" for three points. Races with Peripheral Vision would be immune to flanking.

An enhanced peripheral vision is a quality often found on herbivourous 'prey' races. They typically sacrifice the ability to see one thing well for the ability to see more things.

Using this logic you could have peripheral vision cost less 'points' (that whatever you assigned?) in exchange for a penalty on it's attack rolls..

Just a thought.

 

[Estlor]

I don't think it's terribly odd that players looked to the flaws section first. It's probably not because they wanted to create their negatives before they thought about their positives; rather, they probably had an idea what they wanted to make and wanted to find out how they could maximize their available points to make it happen.

Personally, I'd do the same thing. Cherry-pick flaws from the list that are easily offset or have no real, tangible effect on gameplay first, then consider any that might flow logically from the racial concept. At that point, I'd know how many points I had to come up with kewl abilities.

As for the oddly shaped flaw, it probably is over-priced. It really only comes into play 1) when buying armor, 2) when finding magic items and 3) when interacting with "alien" environments.

If you want to leave its value as is, you'll probably need to find ways to play it up in the campaign. Maybe all the magic items you find in treasure are designed for human or human-like people and this oddly-shaped person cannot wear/use them effectively. Maybe the only wizards that could make them similar items that fit them require quests to find/convince/pay. How about when they walk through town? Do children run screaming from the sight of them? Do the town constables come running to kill the vicious "monsters" that are invading town? Can they visit an inn for food and drink, or will the innkeeper refuse to serve them/jack up the prices?

 

[Breakstone]

Alright, the new version of RaceCraft is up: http://breakstone.freezope.org/racecraft.html

Big updates, such as these:

- 2 bonus points for Small Races
- Racial Trait Points lowered (Racial Enemy, Monster Hunter)
- New Racial Traits! (Shapechange, Fins, Amphibious, Peripheral Vision, Ability Increase)
- Lowered points for Oddly Shaped
- Transformation is completely changed
- And everything is Alphabetized!

 

[SpiralBound]

*yoink!*

Read that later!

 

[moritheil]

Alright, the new version of RaceCraft is up: http://breakstone.freezope.org/racecraft.html

Big updates, such as these:

- 2 bonus points for Small Races
- Racial Trait Points lowered (Racial Enemy, Monster Hunter)
- New Racial Traits! (Shapechange, Fins, Amphibious, Peripheral Vision, Ability Increase)
- Lowered points for Oddly Shaped
- Transformation is completely changed
- And everything is Alphabetized!

Still waiting for an answer re: your take on weapon familiarity and more diverse racial stats.

 

[ARandomGod]

I think that the peripheral vision ability is pretty good... So good in fact that I'd move it to four points*.

I don't think that the natural attack is worth a full four points, and I'd move it to three.

These two may be playstyle based. In my campaigns a natural weapon is rarely all that useful. However the ability to not be flanked is huge, possibly even a little better than an extra feat or an extra +2 to an ability score, and perhaps not, depending on the class chosen. But definitely on par with those abilities.


For the shapechange ability I think it would be nice to have an additional ability that can be bought that would increase the number of times per day the race can use the shapechanging ability, this time with a flat cost instead of a cost dependant on the abilities gained. Initially I suggest a base cost of 2 points, and allow this ability to be taken multiple times, each increasing the number of times you can shapechange by once per day.

*OK, I have an additional motivation for this, I'd make the ability cheaper by one point if the race also either the diluted senses flaw or the short sighted flaw. You can only apply this additional discount once.

Thereby encouraging people who make a race with that ability to chose one of those flaws, if only because biologically they do make sense. Eyes set far apart on the head give better peripheral vision, but also give a lessened ability to focus in on a target.

You might actually consider that as an additional flaw worth one point, the race sufferes a -1 to all attack rolls. I wouldn't roll it into the peripheral ability, because it is nice to be able to make such a race without that flaw, but I'd make that give a discount to the peripheral as well as it's normal flaw bonus point.

 

[Breakstone]

I have been making custom races for quite some time now, and while I am impressed by the logical layout of your page, one thing that was disheartening was the suggestion that only one +2/-2 modifier pair should apply to any race. Not only does it imply that races are differentiated along at most two stat dimensions, it further disallows the creation of more varied and extreme races.

In my most recent update, I attempted to fix this through the following:

- Taking an additional penalty (-2) to a Physical Ability (Str, Dex, or Con). This cannot be an ability already granted a bonus or penalty*: 2 points

- Taking an additional penalty (-2) to a Mental Ability (Int, Wis, or Cha). This cannot be an ability already granted a bonus or penalty**: 1 point

* For example, one could choose Nimble (+2 Dex, -2 Str) and then suffer an additional -2 penalty to Constitution.

** For example, one could choose Absentminded Genius (+2 Int, -2 Wis) and then suffer an additional -2 penalty to Charisma.

And the new racial trait "Ability Increase."

I do find that your system for adding things such as stonecunning, resistance, and spells at will is nice, although I would caution that in the end, each act of racial creation is still best performed as an ad-hoc judgment, to produce a coherent result.

I totally agree that, for a DM, ad-hoc judgement is prefered. But my application for RaceCraft would be a campaign in which the Players make the races, hence the need for the guidelines.

I am curious about Weapon Familiarity, which seems to be a throwback to the days when elves got +1 with long swords. Is this the intent? I'm not sure about the balance of it compared to the 3.5 way of dealing with a race's weapon familiarity (automatic proficiency, or proficiency as a melee rather than an exotic weapon).

Actually, I based it off of some of the Talent Feats in Arcana Unearthed (now Arcana Evolved), specifically Natural Archer and Natural Swordsman.

I eagerly await further information on your approach to racial creation.

And I eagerly await more feedback! Thanks for posting!

 

[Vlos]

Always find articles like these intersting as I love to create new things.

01) Agree with others about Physical stats .vs. Mental stats and different weights. Since you use points for other things, maybe adding point modifiers to these will help balance them. For example:

- Reserved Strength: +2 Con, -2 Str
- Ironhide: +2 Con, -2 Dex
- Thick Skull: +2 Con, -2 Int, Points(-2)
- Stone Deaf: +2 Con, -2 Wis, Points(-2)
- Stoneface: +2 Con, -2 Cha, Points(-2)

I would maybe even adjust Thick Skull to a -1 beacuse INT seems to be the highest rates mental stat, thus taking a -2 to Int is a bigger hit than taking a -2 to Cha.


02) Natural Weapon, I would base the damage on size of creature rather than giving them a base 1d4. Also, if they choose this, they usually get both claw and bit natural attacks. This would keep it inline with creatures that get Natural attacks.


03) Peripheral Vision (3), seems too cheap. Not being able to be sneak attacked is big, thus would possibly boost back to 4. If you think about it, its a 8th level rogue ability? I would maybe put in the level +4 wording similar to Improve Uncanny Dodge. Someone 4 or more levels higher, can probably still sneak up and flank you.

04) Winged. You have most other "modes of movement" so add flight by granting wings. Fly at half land movement rate, poor maneuverability. Then also add other Traits to increase speed (equal land movement, twice movement, etc) also add Traits to increase maneuverability. Maybe 1 point for each class.

05) Prerequisites, where you have these, rather than have something like "Base Intelligence 10 or higher", make it so that they must have +2 bonus to STAT, so replace with "+2 Int". Because you really don't know what the base INT is until stats are rolled.


Thats all for now.