Zalanthas vs. Athas - then a rant

[Delirium]

Belgoi were very cool.

What are they?

[jhunter]

Yeah, I never played in Athas...I want to know what Belgoi are too...

[RunningMountain]

Belgoi
Belgoi are a race of savage humanoids that live in the most desolate of
places, since no other race will tolerate them nearby.  When seen from
a distance, a belgoi appears human, but their blue skin, clawed hands,
and webbed, three-toed feet soon give them away.  They have no teeth,
no visible ears, and their hair is always black and stringy.  Belgoi
seem to revel in destruction, and are considered to be second only to the
defilers in the damage they can do to the world around them.

Belgoi Society
 Belgoi form large nomadic tribes that move into an area, strip it of
all resources, and then move on.  These tribes send out raiding parties
that attack caravans and small villages, hoping to obtain food and loot.
They will eat anything but prefer the taste of the flesh of intelligent
races.  Belgoi speak their own language, and the common tongue.

[Delirium]

Gee. Sounds a lot like Gith.

[RunningMountain]

The kank system was cool too, this is taken from the darksun3 manual which I was using for my mud.

Kank Domestic
Many kanks roam wild across the the Tablelands, as well are herded.
These large, docile insects have black chitinous exoskeletons, and are
divided into three sections, head, thorax, and abdomen.
There are three known kank types in Athas, Brood Queen, Worker, and
Soldier.  Brood queens can weigh as much as five hundred stones, are
five arms tall and around nine arms in length.  Workers can weigh as
much as two hundred to three hundred stones, are three arms tall, and
hundred stones, are around four arms in height, and eight arms in
length.
 They can carry objects with their multi-jointed pincers, or use them
in combat.
 Soldier kanks are often used as caravan mounts, as they can travel
for a full day at top speed, while carrying a tremendous amount of
weight for their size.  They are also used as herd animals by elves
and others, since they can thrive in any type of environment.  Plus
they need little attention, as instinct drives them into organization.

Related help files:
Kank_Ecology, Kank_Society


Kank_Ecology
Workers are the only ones that produce kank honey.  Kank honey is a
very sweet and fetches a high price.  It can sustain the food (but not
water) requirements for a medium-sized creature for days.
Kank exoskeleton can be used as armor, but it is very brittle and has
to be treated properly to toughen it up some.  Exoskeletons are
sometimes used for construction of chitin structures.

400/400hp 100m 100mvhelp kank_society
Kank_Society
Kank organize themselves into hives.  Worker kank secrete large
globules of green honey, which is used to feed the young of the hive.  
 Brood queens lay the eggs, usually twenty to fifty at a time.  The
soldiers then fiercely defend the area until the eggs hatch.
 Kank choose an area for egg laying which is near an abundant amounts
 of vegetation for food.

 A brood queen will avoid combat at all costs, unless all her
soldiers and food producers are dead, and/or she is backed into a
corner.
 A worker only goes into combat when all the soldiers are dead and/or
 they are backed into a corner.  
 A soldier is the first line of defense for the hive.  It is a well
known fact in Athas that soldier bites are poisonous.

[RunningMountain]

Yeah the gith weren't nearly as popular in Athas campaigns as they are here, actually they were rarely used.

[Dre(@school)san]

I doubt people would kill off their characters to get a good random skill, just because if people thought this way, we would have people killing themselves to get uber stats (Come on we've all dream at least once of having warriors or rangers with all AI stats, don't lie  :twisted: ).  Takes about a day to come up with a character concept with long term goals that i am happy to play with, even my crappiest concept took me an hour or two to come up with.


          I like the idea of random skill, after a few <+random amount of> days, based on karma to prevent abuse.

ex.  no karma, 15 day, warrior/hunter logs on and finds out he branched calvish or maybe haggle, or possibly boost in skinning cap.

lvl2 karma, 24 day assassin/hunter logs on and finds out he branched out sword skill and later on finds out he is better at two handed (at the ranger level, maybe slightly higher or lower)

lvl 5 karma 40 day, ranger/crafter logs on and finds out he has SAP or (moderately capped level) fireball

Anyways you get the point.  This would make every character we play unique in their own way.  It would be cool to make a warrior character, who becomes Tuluki milita Sergent that hates magikers, only to find out later that he has some magik abilities of his own.

[Lazloth]

lvl 5 karma 40 day, ranger/crafter logs on and finds out he has SAP or (moderately capped level) fireball

Cute.

[Larrath]

How, exactly, does this make sense?

A ranger/crafter is someone who walks around in the desert, hunting and gathering and then crafting and selling.

Now, as I understand it, there are two ways to learn a given spell (this is all assumption based on help_guild_sorcerer and the magicker helpfiles); either you are born with an affinity, like a regular magicker, or you learn it through Means X, gather your energy from a given source, and then cast the spell...in other words, sorcerers.

I doubt a Zalanthan goth who started playing around with true magick would suddenly wake up with the required process to create a fireball, let alone someone who has no affinity or knowledge of magick.  Same with sap...why would a hunter/gatherer learn how to sneak up on people and knock them out?

Especially after 40 days, which translate to an IC year in the worst cases, why would people suddenly learn something they had nothing to do with previously?


Sure, it would be cool to be a Tuluki magicker-hunter guy who is a magicker himself...but isn't it better to just special app as one?

Maybe a wild talent could be hidden on the skill list, and only show after a few tries...but, really...do we need this?  Warriors who can backstab and pickpockets that can make instruments and merchants who know how to find water in the desert?

All in all, I'm still not in favor of this idea.  Not unless it ends up being a minor addition to a character, instead of a sooperpower.

[Miee]

The only problem I can think of is people killing PCs over and over to get a 'wild talent', but things like that can be picked up on.

Yes, they could be picked up on...but do we, the staff want to deal with people doing this...or getting upset that that other character's wild talent is so much cooler than their wild talent?

Just where I stand on the latter point there:

Given the realistic view that sometimes people talk about their PCs, present, past, and planned:

If say my Amos got <sense kankfleas> as a wild talent and I found out someone else's Amos got <fireball-throwing butt cheeks>, I would go "Aw Man!"  If my luck on wild talents never improved and I always got things like <ale empathy>, I would probably get annoyed.  Would I throw a hissy fit?

No.  I might make cracks about needing to service a few Imms so I can throw lightning from my breasts, but if my sniveling sycophant to Lord Pigtails-and-Ribbons Borsail suddenly develops the ability to telekinetically lift up templar robes, that's along the same lines as "OK, BobRintherGroup has declared kanly against House Borsail because Lady Hooty McBoobs Borsail didn't finish off their boss."  It's a plot element.  It's the same as being in the right game place at the right game time and lucking out.

And Imm service, of course.

[jhunter]

Xamminy wrote:
CRW wrote:
The only problem I can think of is people killing PCs over and over to get a 'wild talent', but things like that can be picked up on.
Yes, they could be picked up on...but do we, the staff want to deal with people doing this...or getting upset that that other character's wild talent is so much cooler than their wild talent?


Just where I stand on the latter point there:

Given the realistic view that sometimes people talk about their PCs, present, past, and planned:

If say my Amos got <sense kankfleas> as a wild talent and I found out someone else's Amos got <fireball-throwing butt cheeks>, I would go "Aw Man!" If my luck on wild talents never improved and I always got things like <ale empathy>, I would probably get annoyed. Would I throw a hissy fit?

No. I might make cracks about needing to service a few Imms so I can throw lightning from my breasts, but if my sniveling sycophant to Lord Pigtails-and-Ribbons Borsail suddenly develops the ability to telekinetically lift up templar robes, that's along the same lines as "OK, BobRintherGroup has declared kanly against House Borsail because Lady Hooty McBoobs Borsail didn't finish off their boss." It's a plot element. It's the same as being in the right game place at the right game time and lucking out.

Yeah, it'd be the same as someone whining about someone else's pc getting better stats. I doubt such whining would be given any time, I know I wouldn't.

[Miee]

Yeah, it'd be the same as someone whining about someone else's pc getting better stats. I doubt such whining would be given any time, I know I wouldn't.

Hey!  That was my post ya jerk!

Anyway, I did have a whole stat analogy that I dropped.  You're right though, it really is just like saying, "WAH  mansa got an EG agility and I only got an average.  WAH."  The only difference is that story-wise, it's easier to work in the wild talent.

[Agent_137]

I think wild talents should be less related to established ingame skills and more  . . . wild.

[Avril]

I wouldn't like seeing wild psionic talents on everyone, but having a one in a thousand (or, for playability, one in a hundred) chance to receive that talent, and actually getting it only after you've been playing for 10 real-life days, would lead to some very interesting role-play that ordinary classes are deprived of right now. It would also provide a greater incentive for players to not kill off their characters, at least not until the ten-day mark, but by that time, they'll have grown quite attached to their characters.

One problem remains: staff members don't read the GDB, and even when they do it, they don't do it thoroughly enough to notice obvious solutions to the problems they bring up. Still...

getting upset that that other character's wild talent is so much cooler than their wild talent?

If we're talking psionic talents here, there's absolutely no threat, since by the time enough people figure out someone's got any kind of power, he'll either be gone from the city or dead. If we're talking crafting talents and things like that, I can't see anyone getting upset because some fellow got  a neat skill in addition to his subclass. So what if he can make both cups and jewels out of stone? So what if he has a knack for spotting tracks in the desert? Personally, I don't use skills that my character isn't supposed to have, even if they are on his list... If they turned out to be, and he was interested in knowing them, I'd practice/study them. Not otherwise. There wouldn't be so much of an OOC envy as IC feelings (of any kind) towards my multi-talented character.