Supressing Racial Identities

K

Kevar

Fighter
Marshal
Simple question really, is it possible to suppress a races identity by having a back story that would do so? Such as a panther scavenger believing that he is a Sarr due to the culture that he grew up in? Or a human thinking that he is a Gypsy, because he was taken in by them when he was young?

Obviously you would not change your racial abilities or anything such as that. It is simply a question of RP possibilities. I have a feeling that this may be something that is up to the local plot and rules team due to certain restrictions within their chapters. Just looking for answers and thoughts if you have them.

Take it easy,
Brent Woodward (Kevar Byrne, MN/Chicago)
 
Kevar said:
Simple question really, is it possible to suppress a races identity by having a back story that would do so? Such as a panther scavenger believing that he is a Sarr due to the culture that he grew up in? Or a human thinking that he is a Gypsy, because he was taken in by them when he was young?

Obviously you would not change your racial abilities or anything such as that. It is simply a question of RP possibilities. I have a feeling that this may be something that is up to the local plot and rules team due to certain restrictions within their chapters. Just looking for answers and thoughts if you have them.

Take it easy,
Brent Woodward (Kevar Byrne, MN/Chicago)
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A panther scavenger IS a sarr, silly! :D
 
:p you know what I mean...
 
An old friend of mine played a human with Rom influences pretty well. He didn't feel the physical bond between all Romani, but more picked up on the outward things like wearing some bright, flashy colors over darker ones and using an accent on some words before correcting himself.

I think the behavior of some races is inherent. There is an instinct telling Sarr that they like peppermint and despise gnolls even if they were raised by badger scavvies and had never seen peppermint or a gnoll before. Same with other races, I think it's supposed to be played.
 
Marcena said:
There is an instinct telling Sarr that they like peppermint and despise gnolls even if they were raised by badger scavvies and had never seen peppermint or a gnoll before.
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Sarr are all affected by mint because they are Sarr. Whether they like it or not is up to the player. My Sarr despises mint because it takes away free will, much like the MWE hatred of Command effects.
 
For my Sarr mint makes him violent and catnip makes him playful. Either way they take away his ability to think clearly and he doesn't like that. I've pulled my sword on people just for mentioning mint/nip to me. If I catch the smell I immediately move away until I can collect myself. Frequently I'll beat on a table or a wall until the feeling subsides.

It should be noted that he comes from a very strict culture.
 
But back to suppressing racial identities, I think the pertinant question at hand is nature v. nurture in the Alliance world. How much of a race's identity is from being that race and how much is from the culture?
 
Well here is the thing, a person MUST be able to tell what race you are playing pretty much immediately. Therefore you should use your best judgment when fiddling with racial traits and costume requirements. A human raised by orcs who wants to talk like orcs and act like orcs is fine, because humans are pink and orcs are green. A human who wants to talk and act like gypsies however, that can get a little hairy, only because the costume and roleplaying requirements are the only things that seperate them. Same thing for humans/barbarians. So basically just keep in mind that you need to be identifiable as your race, other than that as long as you don't go against the hard set racial roleplay (i.e. mwe-slavery) you have some wiggle room.

Sean
NH HOR
 
i wasn't aware that that was a rule. i know lots of humans who have accents. hell, you do that and we start turning away players from abroad who actually have accents.
 
But it does bring up a good point...

A human that wants to have both an accent and a flashy costume but wanted to act nothing like a Gypsie... Is sort of in a though spot.


Sean said it pretty much spot on though.
 
Telokh_Amdo said:
Sarr are all affected by mint because they are Sarr. Whether they like it or not is up to the player. My Sarr despises mint because it takes away free will, much like the MWE hatred of Command effects.
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Is this in the alliance book officially yet? I can't remember and lent mine out for a friend.
 
deadlandsrules said:
Well here is the thing, a person MUST be able to tell what race you are playing pretty much immediately. Therefore you should use your best judgment when fiddling with racial traits and costume requirements. A human raised by orcs who wants to talk like orcs and act like orcs is fine, because humans are pink and orcs are green. A human who wants to talk and act like gypsies however, that can get a little hairy, only because the costume and roleplaying requirements are the only things that seperate them. Same thing for humans/barbarians. So basically just keep in mind that you need to be identifiable as your race, other than that as long as you don't go against the hard set racial roleplay (i.e. mwe-slavery) you have some wiggle room.

Sean
NH HOR
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I agree with this.

Players should always remember that races are NOT what we may consider "races" in the real world. Races in the Alliance are distinct species with distinct characteristics.
 
markusdark said:
Telokh_Amdo said:
Sarr are all affected by mint because they are Sarr. Whether they like it or not is up to the player. My Sarr despises mint because it takes away free will, much like the MWE hatred of Command effects.
Click to expand...

Is this in the alliance book officially yet? I can't remember and lent mine out for a friend.
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I don't think it's in the current one, although it is in the official race packet. The new Book's racial descriptions section is about 3 times as large as the previous books, and does contain this (along with many other things that used to be only in race packets, like biata feather colors and barbarian Honor thingies...
 
However it is in the rule book that "a orc raised by humans will still act like an orc". It is in the book that regardles of backstory, you are your race. There are no Drizzt's out there who have completly cast aside their racial heritage in favor of other things.

So a human raised by gypsies might have a great fondnes for them, be considered family, etc, but they wouldn't have the RP accent (ie the forced accents we normaly use) nor would they feel compelled to dress in loud clashing colors.
--bill
 
Ditto.

In a similar vein, I'm very glad that Dryads weren't "new flavor elf". Having four variants of "Elf" is silly, IMO.

Mike,

How much additional information will be packed into the new rulebook for races, so that players don't get hosed by picking race X and calling themselves that at their first event, or similar "but the rulebook says" vs "secret race packet says" issues?
 
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