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What's your favorite race to play as?

Creed

Sage
Goats themselves aren't very cool by default, if you know what I mean. However, neither are bovines, and- as stated- I do love the Kossith. So having hulking ram-like humanoids would be fine by me! A few of my friends play Magic, and I saw a card with an impala-humanoid-centaur wielding magic and it was pretty cool. Then again, Magic uses a lot of hybrids and all the ones I've seen are cool. Like the elephant-humanoids.
 
Goats themselves aren't very cool by default, if you know what I mean. However, neither are bovines, and- as stated- I do love the Kossith. So having hulking ram-like humanoids would be fine by me! A few of my friends play Magic, and I saw a card with an impala-humanoid-centaur wielding magic and it was pretty cool. Then again, Magic uses a lot of hybrids and all the ones I've seen are cool. Like the elephant-humanoids.

Bullshit. Goats are awesome.
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I feel like a more wiry build might suit them well. Imagine an entire race of stubborn, angry jackasses who cuss and drink constantly, and eat anything they want to, literally. Those would only exist as enemies if they were these big, beefy giants. Besides, I've already got Dark Elves, Dwarves, some humans, and a race of weresharks for the muscle department.
 
I'm out of new ideas for the races in the first game, so I guess I'll just use two of the ones I was going to save for expansons. Here's an updated version of my racial layout, with the changes in red:


Just to lay out my general idea for the races without revealing too many details:


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4 high races, consisting of the oldest and most advanced societies/cultures. 3 Elven races and Gnomes. sometimes prone to racial supremacy, though usually not violently so.

*Gnomes, a race of brilliant inventors who, while lacking in warrior potential, are talented rogues and mages. magical automatons and constructs are a hallmark of their race's militaries. surprisingly more racist than the first group of High Elves.

*your standard High Elves, they're arrogant, aloof, and somewhat xenophobic, but have the credentials and history to back up their claims of superiority. have a government somewhere between an aristocracy and a meritocracy.

*a separate High Elven culture based on free markets and independence, a loose federation of sorts. vigilantism is a popular method of dealing with government corruption, and will definitely be featured in an important plot arc.

*a violent and militaristic subspecies of Elves. powerful warriors, lacking the frailty most elven peoples are prone to. mental instability is a common trait. kind of like an Elven form of the Krogan.


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4 middle races: less political power than the High races, also much younger and with shorter lifespans. They developed later, and on another continent. definite distrust of the more "exotic" races. all human races.

*a French analogue. poor class making up most of the population, and a corrupt monarchy in charge. still working out all the details.

*a German analogue. pre-Germany, based on the people before there was a single unified German nation.

*a Viking analogue. probably the most amalgamated of the human races, names and voices will be based more on England prior to Roman domination, but will play a role in the story and history similar to the Vikings.

*a Greek analogue. pretty much your standard Greeks, but with tweaks to religion and mythology.


...Wierd that humans seem to be so poorly thought-out in my fantasy world. They're usually the hardest thing to screw up in stories.



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4 lesser races. little to no political power, and frequently resentful toward other races. very nonhuman appearances. even more lesser races, but they will not be playable and will mostly exist as enemies in the game.

*an insectoid race. no hive mind, but still incredibly loyal to the hive, where a literal hive mind exists; powerful collection of centuries of accumulated knowledge and memories from members of the hive are stored in a magical construct of some sort. all player characters are gender-neutral drones, so you don't end up with something like the Argonians (seriously? Boobs on a reptile?)

*a shark-like race. little magical potential, if any. has an ability to take on a bestial form that is extremely powerful, similar to Lycanthropy in some regards. armor and weapons will not carry over to the bestial form. oldest race in the game world.

*goblins. not comical like in most games. very cunning and intelligent. not inherently malevolent, but pariahs among most of society nonetheless. sharp, angular features for the most part.

*a canine race. chaotic, ruthless, but with a pack mentality that allows for a surprising empathy for other members of their concept of a pack, regardless of race. essentially anarchy, with all the instability and danger that comes with such a government. the members of this race tend to be more than a little insane. appearance tends to favor coyotes, hyenas, and jackals. not popular with the gnomes, for various reasons.

I think I might have accidentally made everyone racist. Oops.

Comments and insight into these races is still highly valued.
 

SM-Dreamer

Troubadour
When I played WoW (like... 6 years ago, before WotLK), I loved playing elves (which is odd for me, because I generally don't like elves. or maybe just standard elves...) and trolls. Sometimes I would deviate into undead, orcs, or draenai. I rarely played as a human.

However, in TES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim), I've always played as a human, mostly avoided the elves, and while I admired the khajiit... I was never able to play them.

Now, with that being said. Maybe it's because I grew up with anime and manga, but I love demons/youkai - not human, not elves, not necessarily shapeshifters, but just supernatural animal/nature spirits. Chaotic, but not inherently evil. That's what I'd, personally, love to play.
 
When I played WoW (like... 6 years ago, before WotLK), I loved playing elves (which is odd for me, because I generally don't like elves. or maybe just standard elves...) and trolls. Sometimes I would deviate into undead, orcs, or draenai. I rarely played as a human.

However, in TES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim), I've always played as a human, mostly avoided the elves, and while I admired the khajiit... I was never able to play them.

Now, with that being said. Maybe it's because I grew up with anime and manga, but I love demons/youkai - not human, not elves, not necessarily shapeshifters, but just supernatural animal/nature spirits. Chaotic, but not inherently evil. That's what I'd, personally, love to play.

You're in luck! There'll be plenty of chaotic to go around in this game, whether you want it in good (the Libertarian strain of Elves), neutral (the crazy-ass hyena-jackals), or evil (psychopathic weresharks and roid-raging Dark Elves) format!
 

Ophiucha

Auror
I tend to pick 'beast' races - Qunari, Argonians, minotaurs, whatever the case may be. I have a lot of fun trying to design interesting characters with the often more varied character creation tools, and they usually have interesting and handy racial bonuses. Beast races get flat bonuses a lot of the time, like 100% night vision or water breathing or something. I also have a fondness for the green men, orcs or gnomes or something similar.

Following that, I usually go for dwarves, just because I like to play stockier characters and often this is impossible with humans and elves (at least for female characters).

Between humans and elves... I generally just pick the one with the most interesting culture/unique story markers and bonuses, so it varies from game to game.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Elves. I'm all about them. Occasionally I play a human, but its fantasy! And if I lived in a fantasy world, I'd love to have pointy ears and be super hot. Shallow, yes. :p
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I like to play races that are close to human. Yeah, I'm boring.

In The Lord of the Rings Online all my favorite characters are Elves. My main is an Elven Minstrel and I adore her. I have a Hobbit and a couple of humans, but I tend to play the Elves much more. Elves in Middle-earth hands down.

In Warcraft I mostly played a Human Paladin. I messed around with some Night Elves and Blood Elves here and there and I even played a Draenei for a while, but when I return to the game occasionally I default to my Human Paladin (and her personal pocket healer played by my husband, best pair ever).

In GW2 I play Norns, Humans and one Sylvari. Norns are basically just big, beautiful (the women, anyway, the men... ugh) humans so they're cool. And my Sylvari is pretty human looking too in a flowery sort of way.

I guess as much as I say I hate humanity there's a part of me that thinks it's pretty cool too. ;)
 
All your suggestions have been very helpful. I plan on starting a new thread to ask a new question that is more focused towards some of the ideas I've been working on, but I'll still be checking in on this thread.
 
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