Which race is the hardest to play and why?

[Aruven]

I found Bahamet hard to play. All that roving and grazing. And then you have to insta-trample anything that enters your room, I have to type it all out, I don't use prompts.

...Alright. I found dwarves quite akward for me. For many reasons stated above. My own unique one is that I see their focus in a completely different perspective from most.

[5 day lifespan]

Half elves are pretty easy for me.  I usually play up either a desire for acceptance or a self reliance bordering on the paranoid.  My own mind set is a hard nosed ability to soldier on, even if there is a lack of acceptance, so it is no problem.

Dwarves are amoungst my favorites, despite only having played a very few of them.  A focus is an excellent guide for roleplay and code improvement.  Having ADD, one of my very obvious symptoms is Hyper Focus, where I zoom in on one particular detail to the exclusion sometimes of all other stimuli, to the point of irritation if someone talks to me (Or my own body when I have to pause a project to eat or use the restroom.)

City Elves just represent constriction to me.  Despite your focus being very narrow for a dwarf, two dwarves with the same focus will go about it in different ways.  This means dwarves, though driven, still have alot of individualized freedom.  City Elves can't go outside, can't join nearly any clan in the game, and don't trust outsiders, so finding a place to be an insider given the afore mentioned restrictions is very tough.  Even a half elf gets a chance to try and do anything if they can be self reliant enough to soldier on despite a little racism holding them back temporarily.

Half Giants have a wealth of opportunity to them, but I haven't yet garnered the Karma to play one so i can only say from observation that they seem like an easy enough race for me to play.  The idea of being a rather sadistic half giant appeals to me, as does one who was often manipulated by elves and taught to say a few key phrases that would throw off those who might try to manipulate him and still leave him vulnerable to abuse by his "sponsors."

Muls do sound very rough to play, as acceptance and meaningful interaction is just about nil.

[askaran]

I will say, Breeds are exceptionally fun to play.

[BadSkeelz]

From what little I know about the various races and how they're expected and/or coded to role/play, half-giants definitely sound like they'd be the hardest for me personally. The low intelligence would be a hard standard for me to keep to or at least do justice. I'd probably wind up speaking in exaggerated hulk-speak or else risk coming off as too smart.

[askaran]

From what little I know about the various races and how they're expected and/or coded to role/play, half-giants definitely sound like they'd be the hardest for me personally. The low intelligence would be a hard standard for me to keep to or at least do justice. I'd probably wind up speaking in exaggerated hulk-speak or else risk coming off as too smart.

That's perfect.

[MeTekillot]

The hulk speak is actually not. Half-giants aren't retarded. They're just exceptionally dim. They copy the people around them that they deem their friends. This does not mean that they are life-long, loyal friends. They are flip-floppy and whimsical.

[Spoon]

What Characterizes Half-Giant Stupidity?

It is easier to start off with what DOESN'T characterize a half-giant's stupidity. A common trend in the past has been to portray half-giants as speaking like Tarzan does in popular movies. While this is a player's prerogative, it is not particularly accurate. A half-giant is very observant to the habits of others, and prone to imitating them. There is no place where a half-giant would have picked up such bizarre speaking patterns, so it doesn't make much sense to have them.

http://www.armageddon.org/rp/racial/halfgiantsocial.html

Great information for anyone wanting to play a half-giant.

[Patuk]

That.. Really does look cool. If only they weren't such high karma 

[Nyr]

That.. Really does look cool. If only they weren't such high karma 

Even if you have no karma, you may put in a special app for something within 3 karma points of your position.  0 + 3 = 3, so you could special app a half-giant.  There's no guarantee it would be approved, but if you have a good app and a good grasp of the mindset of the role and the gameworld, that would be in your favor.

[Twilight]

I need to play another HG.

I have more years of having kids to now draw upon for inspiration.

[Morrolan]

I need to play another HG.

I have more years of having kids to now draw upon for inspiration.

Except HG's probably never ask, "Why?". 

[Twilight]

Actually, I think my HG will repeatedly ask why.  Even when you just told him why.

And then squish you when you become so frustrated with him you attack him.

[Akaramu]

Actually, I think my HG will repeatedly ask why.  Even when you just told him why.

And then squish you when you become so frustrated with him you attack him.

That makes me want to make a HG version of that really annoying NPC in Baldur's Gate... following around, impossible to get rid of, always asking stupid questions.

[BleakOne]

That makes me want to make a HG version of that really annoying NPC in Baldur's Gate... following around, impossible to get rid of, always asking stupid questions.

Norbet, I think his name was?

[spicemustflow]

Norbet, I think his name was?

Noober.

[BleakOne]

Norbet, I think his name was?

Noober.

That's it! Good memory. Spice.

[BleakOne]

Click on him enough and you get +5 sling stones.

[Harmless]

I voted dwarf.

The restricted style of playing them is nicely compensated with strong statistics. Dwarves are hardy and survive well, but not to the same degree as muls or half giants, so I don't feel the guilt of "easy mode" in terms of survival. However, they are locked in to set goals and thinking patterns by the rules, which feels stifling to me. It just doesn't fit my natural personality, which is far more half-elven or elven.

So even though dwarves are tough and make the survival experience more gratifying in a way, roleplaying is the focus of my arma experience and I struggle with them when I do decide to roll one up.

[Dakota]

dwarf, half-giant and elf are all pretty difficult. they're all easily abused (meaning I've seen more than a few who tend to skirt or skate over the docs).

I'm tempted to actually make a list of PC's who I've run into in the 2 years I've played arm that were -really- well RP'd. Kind of like as examples of those (in my opinion) that are watermarks for RP and those races. Some were in the last year or so, so maybe I'll wait a bit longer and post it. But for as many awful HG's I've seen, I've found a few that were amazing. Same with dwarves, d-elves and half-elves. Mul's are hard to gauge as they're so rare. Some I've seen have been flat. Others have been really O_o amazing.

[Jingo]

It's stupid easy to become an invincible desert templar as a tribal elf.

[Dakota]

It's stupid easy to become an invincible desert templar as a tribal elf.

i'd beg to differ.

[Nyr]

It's stupid easy to become an invincible desert templar as a tribal elf.

Go give it a shot, let me know how easy it is.

[maxid]

Go give it a shot, let me know how easy it is.

Some part of me wants to do this, just so I can see how Nyr punishes hubris.

[AmandaGreathouse]

It's stupid easy to become an invincible desert templar as a tribal elf.

I've seen this too many times to even pretend it's not true.

While other races might be more difficult to play at times, desert elves are the most abused of the races, it feels like. Especially when you get the one badass who gets too big for their sandbox and suddenly turns the desert to crap for many people. It seems like there's often as not at least one of these.

[Nyr]

It's stupid easy to become an invincible desert templar as a tribal elf.

I've seen this too many times to even pretend it's not true.

The examples of one PC actually doing this are actually few and far between, and if it is done unrealistically or ridiculously, there are consequences that are met.  We're talking about projection of power to the extent that the PC may as well be a templar, yes?  That is what I thought, at least.  An occurrence (or even a few occurrences) of a desert elf PKing or raiding your PC doesn't make this particular snippet true (it does make your PC dead or raided, though).

While other races might be more difficult to play at times, desert elves are the most abused of the races, it feels like.

When I think of "most abused of the races," I do think of a race that starts with a "d," but the next letter is a "w."

Especially when you get the one badass who gets too big for their sandbox and suddenly turns the desert to crap for many people. It seems like there's often as not at least one of these.

It may seem like this, but there usually isn't.  See above on the PKing and raiding.