Ambiguous Race

[Halfie]

So, What should one do in the long and short descriptions if you intend to play a half-elf who can truly pass for both human and elf? I assume it's kosher to have an sdesc with the final word being "male" rather than man or half-elf. but should you definately say half-elf in the long description? or say outright that his or her race is undeterminble? or simply describe all the features- ears, eyes, height, etc, and let people have their own assumptions?

What do you think?


I suppose it would be best to just say "half-elf" outright and trust people to roleplay the ambiguity appropriately.

[ale six]

I played a breed who had "girl" as her sdesc, and even though I wasn't always intending to be taken as human, sometimes people did that anyway.

IMO, if you want to be racially ambiguous, DON'T use "half-elf" in your sdesc... but describe yourself with ambiguous features and let people come to their own conclusion. I think if you use "half-elf", you're saying "My character is easily recognizeable as a breed", whereas if you don't use it, you're less so.

[Boggis]

I'm not sure how you could truly pass for both an elf and a human. I would think that you could only pass for one or the other given the physical differences between the two races i.e. ears, etc. To be able to pass for both would mean having physical characteristics of both races and would then be pretty easily identifiable as a half-breed in my opinion. Ambiguous terms such as "male" are fine though and I've seen plenty do this before but they're generally used where the half-elf is actually a lot closer in appearance to either a human or an elf and they let the long description give clues.

[halfie]

I suppose you are correct that they could probably typically only pass for one of the two. I misread the follwing line from a helpfile:

"half-elves can virtually always pass for either humans or elves"

which implies: not for both.

[Attana]

If your trying to come off as passing for human, refrain from mentioning half-elf.  Just go into full description in your main descript, and yes I would suggest putting 'male' 'female' 'girl' 'teen' in your sdesc, though I have seen half-elves with woman or man at the end.  And don't be mad when people neglect that you totally look human to the eyes, and ass -v your breed butt and automatically label you a half-elf.  I can't tell you how many times I've seen this happen (not to me, I've never played a half-elf), but to me it's just twinky, ESPECIALLY when all the features that point to the half-elf being indeed a half-elf are covered up.

[John]

And don't be mad when people neglect that you totally look human to the eyes, and ass -v your breed butt and automatically label you a half-elf.  I can't tell you how many times I've seen this happen (not to me, I've never played a half-elf), but to me it's just twinky, ESPECIALLY when all the features that point to the half-elf being indeed a half-elf are covered up.

And don't assume someone did the ass -v just because they know/think you're a half-elf Also, I'll quite often assume a coded human is a half-elf. Perhaps the player just thought your features did indicate half-elf. Perhaps they found out somehow ICly.

[Marauder Moe]

It's not just in the ears, you know.  You can tell through eyes, build, and facial bone structure too.  Assess -v just gives an indication of those subtle features that people may not mention in their mdesc.  The staff has said that information gained through assess -v is fair game to use ICly.  (I personally wish it wasn't sometimes, though)

[Cuusardo]

Half elves tend to be taller on average than humans are, so that can be something lets the cat out of the bag.

[MorganChaos]

Half elves tend to be taller on average than humans are, so that can be something lets the cat out of the bag.

Yeah, if they're taller than it's possible for a human to be. Which generally my half-elves aren't. I think the upper level for humans is 78 or something. The lower limit for elves is 70, I believe. So that's eight inches to work within that a half-elf could be and still be the same height as a human.

[Halfie]

My concern is not so much that a character's half-elf-ness can be made invisible, but rather, how one would make the characters description to allow for the possibility that a half-elf character could be mistaken for a human, or an elf for that matter. given the discussion, I'm fairly satisfied that a slightly ambiguous long and short description and the fact that ass -v "gives it away" allows for both scenarios.

[Malifaxis]

Passing as *BOTH* human and elf?  Come on...

That's like saying your car can pass as either a fourdoor hatchback or a rear engine two person sports coupe.  I honestly don't understand how you're trying to do this... or why.

A half-elf's psychology would virtually *make* them pick a side and run with it.

[Halfie]

http://www.motordesktop.com/wallpaper/sportscars/Mazda%20RX8%20Yellow%20-%201024x768.jpg

but yeah, i get your point. I gave up the notion that a half-elf could pass for both pretty early. I simply misread the helpfile that said that they could pas for either human or elf. Instead I was just concerned with what a description would look like that would allow for the possibility for a half-elf to pass as one of the two upon sight, and whether or not it would be kosher to specifically not refer to the race outright in the description. Meaning using "male" instead of "half-elf" and describing characteristics rather blatantly saying "half-elf" in the full desc.[/b]

[Bebop]

You know this topic comes up alot.

Just use your imagination - what do you think an amigious half elf would like like?  They can pass for human pretty easily, maybe there wouldn't be any hints at all.

As far as codewise, I've found the new rule is, if you are trying to pass and could pass as human, look human etc.  Then you must choose human race.  Only those who are playing full half elves can choose half elf race.  From my experience. You don't have to pick half elf race to play a good half elf anyway.  The character I got my first point of karma on was a half elf human race.  I really liked that character to

[spawnloser]

Just so we're clear, as long as you don't say 'human' in the sdesc of a half-elf or just 'elf' you should be fine.  I have seen half-elves with 'man' in their sdesc, or 'girl,' or what have you.  You just can't say a race that you're not.