The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ioskeha on March 06, 2007, 10:22:22 AM
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I was reading though someones character submission, and they want to play a race that as alignment restrictions. Now this PC wasn't raised by his race, so his PC may have no concept of what his race is really like growing up, which will lead this PC to view life differently. Well all know that people are a product of their environment, and lets say an Orc was raised by a Dwarven community (LOL) would this Orc really grow up like one that was raised in a tribe?
Now I'm all for alignment restrictions, but there has to be some type of leway for creativity.
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But what leads to the stereotypical alignment of a race in the first place? their nature, it's in the blood ;)
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Nature vs. Nurture...
Well, it's both. It's not just the environment in which someone is raised, nor is it solely the genetic predisposition toward a particular behavior. One can surely reinforce the other, but I don't think either is really a determining factor.
So, creativity is fine, but if your proposed character is going to significantly deviate from the racial predisposition for that race, then you'll have to be able to justify it very, very well in the bio.
These alignment rules are there to avoid the condition known as EWSS, or Elves With Suntans Syndrome...referring to the prevalence of goodly Drow among the PC population, which went beyond the threshold of a statistical anomaly and well into the realm of the absurd. This is also one of the main factors that caused subraces to be shut down for several months.
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No one is saying you can't have a LG Drow Paladin of Toran who becomes a Champion of Toran at level 10! They are just saying you can't have that at character creation, and you are going to have to work your butt off for it through RP, CDT, and CDQs. Do you realize there are more Drow Paladin's of Toran made than there are Drow clerics of Ca'duz? The changes needed to be done.
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Also think of it... if you really want a champion of toran whos Elven why does DROW have to be it? can't it be another type of elf? is there any reason other than the cool factor for the subrace?
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And yes if this was in regards to my submission it is why it was denied and has been re-written accordingly...
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Ioskeha - 3/6/2007 7:22 AM
Well all know that people are a product of their environment.
You will be surprised how many different opinions there is on that one.
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Ioskeha - 3/6/2007 1:22 PM
...but there has to be some type of leway for creativity.
While I'd be inclined to agree, it has to be REAL creativity. The idea has to have been developed, fleshed out, and a reader has to be convinced that it only makes sense that the character is how they are. I'd suggest that the bio expected from anyone who wanted to work outside of the normal alignment restrictions would be far more detailed and gripping than a normal bio... heck, I'd also suggest that people after subraces have some mandatory word-count as a baseline.
(While the word-count alone would not be the bar to pass, no more than just being level 10 to get a CN character, it would act as in the Grievances forum, or with cleric/druid/paladin submissions, in that it would reduce the load on character approvers by making only the determined produce character bios for subraces. Formatting rules, same argument.)