Different playable races in TMW? (Elf, Dwarf, etc.)

[yanom]

Did anyone think about adding different races, like elves or dwaves*?

They could be added as genders, so the gender sellection on the charachter creation would not be just Male or Female, but somewhat like this

()Male human
()Female human
()Male dwarf*
()Female dwarf*
()Male elf
()Female elf

And we could add other races also. I have some ideas for some really new and innovative races like sentient mushroom** if anyone wants them.

*Dwarves would be just human sprites with shorter torosos, so they could wear human equipment but the shirts would be longer looking. They would be mabye 15-20 pixels shorter.
** Just kidding! But I do have some ideas for races I'm serious about.

Anyone think this

[Crush]

The standard tolkien race setup? How cliché...

We already came up with our own races: http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Races

[Dave]

Regardless, I think it would be cool to someday see a TMW, Tolkien / Gygax-clone.. just not the default server.. as clichéd as it might be, people can still enjoy it. I honestly feel that our current game's setting is more a dedication to the many games we've all been inspired by, rather than a completely original formula; in a way, it's just a different cliché.

[Rotonen]

Yes, that is within the realm of possibility.

It does not mean this development team in particular should spend any effort towards that direction.

[Dave]

Well no, but I absolutely think more people should make an effort to document their ideas for completely separate TMW servers.. but I agree, about the most we should ever hear about separate projects, on this message board, should be in the off-topic forum, along the lines of "Hey, check out my Mana World" ..with a link to a separate site.

[5t3v3]

The standard tolkien race setup? How cliché...

We already came up with our own races: http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Races

I thought it was decided that these element-based races weren't going to be used afterall? Anyway, I agree that it would be nice to break from the classical cliché races. But human + element doesn't seem all that special either. There's other mythological figures besides from the one Tolkien used. how about halfbreed like fauns (half goat/man), minotaurs (half bull/man) and centaurs (half horse/man). Or how about faeries, shapeshifters, djinns?

[Dave]

Originally, each non-human race of Man was described with some sort of animal-like quality or trait. This is the most obvious with the Tritan and their fishiness. There were some developers that didn't like the animal references, so at some point, they were toned-down. The four prime races went something like this.

Race [element] animal
Tritan [water] fish
Talpan [earth] mole
Sparron [air] bird
Ifriton [fire] probably scorpion

I'm not sure that anyone has ever claimed that the elementally-themed races were astoundingly original or groundbreaking.. just that it's a welcome diversion from the typical choice of Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc.. and as you can see, animal traits are part of the idea. Even considering that, I don't see how anamorphic humanoids are any more original, than any other theme of races.

Think about the game "Breath of Fire", or to some extent, the cartoon, "Dragonball". Most folks are clearly humanoid, but quite a few are some sort of anamorphic human/animal person.. but there's virtually no attention ever paid to specific races. (everyone is just generally "people".. whether you're a dog-person, a gorilla-man, or even the notorious Boss Rabbit)


In the end, I'm pretty sure we're going to stick pretty close to the set of races we currently have. It seems to me that the current theme and your suggested use animal traits are already fairly similar concepts.