Hero Craft: Which races?

[manikus]

Here is what I have so far:
PC:
Alien, Human, Meta
NPC:
Amazon, Android, Angel, Atlantean, Cyborg, Dark-Elf, Demon, God, Gorilla, Kryptonian, Martian, Monster, Rannian, Robot, Thanagarian


These are completely DC-centric. What Marvel races should be added? Image? Dark Horse? Other publishers?

[Dinonykos]

I am not a Marvel expert, but the Asgardians, the Skrulls and the Kree should probably be included...

[manikus]

All three of those will definitely have to be added.

[Nol Drek]

Marvel Races: Inhumans, Shi'ar, Sentinels, Mutants, and Lemurians
Image Races: Viltrumite (for example, Omni-Man) and  Kherubim (from Wildstorm)
Valiant Races: Spider Aliens (from X-O Manowar)

[manikus]

These are great, Nol. Upon seeing them, most stirke a chord of memory, except Lemurians. Somebbody to thwart Namor I am sure.

[steve_mcdee]

Lemurian = Madagascan? 

[Nol Drek]

The Lemurians are enemies of Namor and the Atlanteans. Naga, Karthon, and Llyra (half-Lemurian) are examples.

[Dinonykos]

Lat. "lemures" = Engl. "shades, ghosts, spectres"
 
(I had to look it up, it is unfortunately neither mentioned under Lemurians nor under lemurs in the English Wikipedia.)

EDIT: Oh, I underestimated the English Wikipedia, there is a special article on "Lemures"...

[hans]

"Lemuria, hypothetical former continent in the Indian ocean supposed to be now represented chiefly by Madagascar (from New Latin Lemur) + English -an"

--MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY

 

Alternately called "Mu," much like the similar legend of Atlantis, it was said to have been sunk during the Great Flood.   

[Dinonykos]

Cool - perhaps I should have known that (since it seems also to be related to biogeographical questions)! Thanks, Hans!

EDIT: To come back to the topic: Some of these "races" probably have a huge internal variability, like the mutants in Marvel - I wonder how you are going to handle that, Manikus...

[manikus]

Thanks for the info, everybody.

So.....Muans? Muites? Mu-mus?

Dinonykos, to answer your question, race (or class/baseclass) in DC is inclusive, not exclusive. If you look at the stats for Humans, dwarves and elves in the default race database, you can see a lot of overlap. It's really just a way so that you, as the designer, can get your character sheets, especially for NPCs, to look how you want it.

[Dinonykos]

Sorry, I should have been more precise. Dwarves, Elves and Humans, e.g., are quite close to each other concerning their abilities (well, except maximum age, perhaps). On the other hand, I think that e.g. Marvel Mutants have such a wide range of powers, abilities and size that if you want to allow the player to generate a mutant of her/his desire, it might be useful to divide them in kinds of subclasses...

[manikus]

Sorry, I should have been more precise. Dwarves, Elves and Humans, e.g., are quite close to each other concerning their abilities (well, except maximum age, perhaps). On the other hand, I think that e.g. Marvel Mutants have such a wide range of powers, abilities and size that if you want to allow the player to generate a mutant of her/his desire, it might be useful to divide them in kinds of subclasses...

Factor in Inhumans (Marvel), Meta Humans (DC) and aliens/indertdminesional travelers (all publishers) and you can literally have anything.

How am I planning on dealing with this? Simple really, I"m creating a "market" where a player can shop for all of the various bits. Through events and scripts, I can add any Skill and any Special Ability to any PC. The problem is that there are 8 abilities, 50+ skills 25+ Advantages (special abilities) and 75= Powers (special abilities) and scores of items, I am afraid it will far too overwhelming for the average player. Not to fear, based on discussion with Nol, I am also going to make a dozen or so full frameworks - a full set that you choose for our PC that will resemble various "archetypes" of comic book heros. I will also do several partial sets so that you can do a mostly made character that you can add just a few things to, think something like an elemental mutant (say control over fire) that you can pick and then have a few points left to tweak other things, like abilitities, skills, etc.

I am still trying to work out how to implement the Powers in a way that are easy for the player...maybe as "itmes" really is the best way, but then how do I deal with damage/range/duration/etc being variable related to rank spent on the Power? I.e. can I have one Optic Blast that does low damage for a rank of 1 and more damage for a rank of 5? Or do I have a whole bunch of different Optic Blasts? It's not really a sciripting issue as much as it is a logistics issue.

I am very close to the poiint where I will start coding the Powers, and I don't want to do it twice.

[Dinonykos]

That sounds really good! I think instead of asking you helping me with my Helmetland races, I should perhaps just wait until you have a Hero Craft template ready and modify it to my needs.

[manikus]

That sounds really good! I think instead of asking you helping me with my Helmetland races, I should perhaps just wait until you have a Hero Craft template ready and modify it to my needs.

Sure. I sent you a PM.