Race and traveling

[MissDragGunn]

Now lets say I get plot approval to be a dinosaur kin in one chapter but another chapter didnt approve the request. Will that prevent me from traveling? Can you even make someone's pc an Lco?

 

[Alavatar]

This is a prime example of chapter-specific decisions stipulated by the rulebook may not be supportive of a National game.

The long story short, a character is not LCO unless it is an NPC. But (and this is a big BUT), per ARB v1.2 page 47:

There are limitations: The racial skills must
be announced and placed in the character database
at the time the character is created, and
the skills must make sense based on the type of
wylderkin being played. For example, a monkey
wylderkin may wish to purchase a Racial
Dodge; a snake wylderkin a Resist Poison; an
owl wylderkin a Resist Command; a polar bear
wylderkin a Resist Element.

This choice can be vetoed by your game’s
Plot Committee if it is inappropriate, and other
Alliance games have the right to refuse your
character’s skills if they are not reasonable.

(Emphasis mine)

Unfortunately, ARC also commented on this line of query here.

The problem here is that purchased skills are part of your character, so if another Plot team refuses your character's skills they may, in effect, be refusing your character. I am not certain how Logistics handles this (i.e. I do not know if they just don't add the skills when receiving the character transfer or what).

Thanks,
Seth
SEA/ORE Marshal

 

[MissDragGunn]

I'm not worried about the skills but if I was traveling to say like out of my area as a dinosaur kin and they don't allow that race. Can i be denied from playing? Idk if being a certain kin counts as a "skill"

 

[norman b]

I would ask the plot committee that you will be transferring to. It can't hurt to just shoot off a quick email. It's your safest bet. This would be best so you know ahead of time. According to the ARC ruling, I would say that it is possible that you would be denied to play that character only. But again, it's all up to Plot discretion.

 

[Avaran]

The way I have handled it in the past as Oregon's head of plot was disallowing use of the questionable racial. A simple, "Please do not use this in the chapter." The player - who approached me about it - was very understanding about it and was quite nice/polite about it. Basically, their card stayed the same as it had always been for them, they just didn't use that Racial ability. I didn't see a need for it to be more complicated than that, and I didn't think we needed to change the card either. Just crossing out the abilities on the battle board or trusting the player not to use them should be enough, IMHO.

Note that the player knew going into their character's creation that it could be questionable, and knew going forward that if the character traveled it could quite possibly be an issue, and their attitude (which is the right one to have, I think) was that if it was refused, no big deal, they could still play and have fun.


So: My advice to you is that if your Racial abilities are approved locally, and you want to travel, contact the local plot team and let them know what the questionable skill or skills might be, and give them the ability to discuss it and come to a decision.

My advice for staff for racials that are not acceptable would be to simply have the player expend the racial abilities each day on their card preemptively and ask them to simply not use them for the weekend. It doesn't need to be a big issue as long as the player knows that it is possible their skill(s) might be disallowed should they travel (the local plot team that approves them should make that abundantly clear as well before locking them in for the player).

 

[MissDragGunn]

Wasn't talking racial abilities.

The link covered it. Basically if I got one chapt to approve my Dino and the others say no then it basically locks the char as an Lco. And it would bleed over into nationals.

There is a ton of grey area in this subject but I guess no room for dramatic variety.

 

[Avaran]

Wasn't talking racial abilities.

The link covered it. Basically if I got one chapt to approve my Dino and the others say no then it basically locks the char as an Lco. And it would bleed over into nationals.

There is a ton of grey area in this subject but I guess no room for dramatic variety.

Racial abilities are likely going to be your biggest hurdle during the creation of a Dinosaur-kin, which is why I focused on them. Like the ARC ruling said, there's no rule against you creating a Dino Kin, but the racials are going to be a potential gray area.

I can't speak for your local plot team, but in my experience plot teams are really open to fun, creative ideas for characters (we certainly try to be in OR), and as long as you have a good story/idea for your Dino Kyn, and can intelligently defend your racial choices with general-consensus type information on what that dinosaur may have been like, I can't see it being refused too overly much.

For example, I could see a Racial Prof and Racial Slay for a T-Rex, because we can generally tell physical ability through skeletal remains with a generally high degree of certainty. I'd be less likely to approve "Resist Element" because (imho) information available on T-Rex being, say, diverse across many types of climates, is mostly speculative in nature with no real way to prove one way or another. I'm talking scientific data, not Hollywood/movie portrayals of dinosaurs.

That make sense?

 

[MissDragGunn]

It makes sense. The hurdle I'm facing is the actual physical dinosaur before I can even pick racials. I don't even want to do it for racials as I do for a new breathe of fresh air role play and creation wise.

Nobody wants a dinosaur it seems like. And I don't want to make it then not be able to play it anywhere around my area

 

[jpariury]

There's not a particularly distinct reason your "lizardkin" can't walk around claiming to be a "dinosaurkin". From a makeup perspective, there are plenty of non-extinct variants that will cover most classic conceptions of dinosaurs (feathery killer chicken velociraptors notwithstanding), and from a strict rules perspective the race is "Wylderkin"... the assorted "dogkin/mousekin" etc is simply a matter of flavor. As Adam mentioned, you *might* run into issues getting your racials approved, but ime, that tends to be pretty rare.

 

[MissDragGunn]

Trust me. I debated it. But the way I phys rep there would be no grey area. It would obviously be a dinosaur. Even if I said I was a lizard kin it would be way too distinct. Even my coyote now has digi legs and custom shaped coyote muzzle.

When I rep, I rep. Which in this case would be my downfall

 

[norman b]

Well if you are really determined to play a dinosaur-kin, shoot a mass email to all the plots in your area asking if there would be a problem. Give them a rundown of a quick history (or not usually a little extra info doesnt hurt). See what their response is. I think you are counting your chickens before they hatch. I think you would get better response than you are feeling based on this post. It doesn't hurt to try, does it?

 

[Draven]

Ok, here's my interpretation of the ARB. Plot cannot block a kyn on it's race if the creature in question isn't mythological. A dinosaur is clearly of the animal kingdom, and I would say the following logic would apply:

1) Dinosaurs existed.

2) If you made a Passenger Pigeon kyn, I doubt anyone would make a fuss, yet it's no more or less extinct than a dinosaur.

So, using the ARB alone, and picking legitimate racials (and possibly showing your data to every Plot team that says "WTF?") should be reasonable. The ARB wouldn't prohibit you, and honestly? I don't really think a reasonable plot team would, either, especially if you've done your homework and can back it up.

 

[MaxIrons]

So, here's my take on it. Any time you make an unusual character, outside the norm, such as a super friendly dark elf, a masochistic stone elf who shows more emotion, or a dinosaur kin, speak with and work with the plot teams you plan to travel to. There's nothing in the rules to prevent these character concepts outright, but you're essentially asking to be special, to be different. The cost of that is having to work closer with a plot team so they know you're not going to upstage anyone and make the game less fun for other players due to your uniqueness.

All that said, I don't personally have an issue with dinosaur kin. I'd have to talk with the test of my plot team about it, but it could be a cool concept. Talking with our plot team in advance so we're know it's a cool concept goes a long long way though.

 

[Paladin of Time]

In essence, the rule here is: there is no rule related to the rulebook regarding any specific kind of Wylderkin that a Marshal can give an answer to. The only thing that is governed by the ARB is your character's racial skill suite.

Contact your local plot chapter and any chapter you wish to travel with the character to, to make sure that it is allowed based on species (Plot-governed) or skills (Rules-governed).

This thread is being closed, but please feel free to continue discussion in the appropriate forums!