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- April 29, 2014 at 4:01 pm #151192AnonymousInactive
Hello gentlemen,
There is a race called the Ibon that is introduced in the Blessed Lands book – a sort of very large man/small giant sized being – think half giants from Dark Sun.
Now the question is: Should they be allowed as a Player Race?
I figure that this race is tall: 7′ to 8′ in height and muscular; looking like miniature titans. They don’t have a particularly inherent flaw, such as deficient mental faculties or a physical deformity (as the gnomes do).
They do suffer from an inherent inferiority complex based upon their parent race being beaten by another tribe tribe and forced to mate with “lesser beings”, producing the Ibon. In the Ibon culture, submission to others is their way of life and do not take a name until they do something the Ibonnese community feel is noteworthy, whereupon they are given a name denoting that great feat.
So, any thoughts on whether to include them as a Player Race? I’m on the fence on this and would appreciate your thoughts.
April 29, 2014 at 7:31 pm #261906AnonymousInactiveYou mention that the Ibon are descended from a Tribe (of Giants?) who interbred with ‘lesser beings’ (humans?) to produce the Ibon in their current state. Because they are a single tribe, are there enough of them (a few hundred? Thousand? Ten thousand?) to warrant a playable race ?
Dark-kin and Gnomes are rare in the Known Lands, but they are well spread out. The Ibon (assuming they are the same race as the Bandit Leader from “Into the Blessed Lands”) are thus far only located in the Blessed Lands, and if they are only a single tribe with only a few thousand members, it might be better to keep them as non-playable or save them for future Kickstarters. If they only STARTED as a single tribe, and have since spread more widely (possibly more towards Khitan, representing why they aren’t seen in the Known Lands), then I am more comfortable having them as a Playable Race. Rare races should not be an open player option, but prolific or fairly common ones should be.
I have no real issue with the very quick Ibon culture listed (I REALLY like the “Milk Names” idea and having to earn a “True Name”), though the idea of the Inferiority Complex may pose some issues with Heroes as if they are known for submission it is not exactly the spark for a good Hero. Not impossible, but it could be an issue.
That aside, this does bring up the same issues as before with Large Playable Characters. While having Small-sized Playable characters like the Sama doesn’t significantly (IMHO) unbalance the game, Large ones could unless they have something to balance out the bonus’ they would get in what is still a predominantly combat-oriented game. I’m sure we can, with many of the compromises that we discussed in the Sama-thread, but it still does open a fairly major can of worms whatever the final decision is.
April 29, 2014 at 8:24 pm #261908AnonymousInactiveHenry,
I could see the Parent Race being the large creatures. If the Ibon are the product of lower breeding with humans, perhaps we can just automatically give them the Huge Talent at character creation. Thoughts?
Joe
April 29, 2014 at 8:31 pm #261909AnonymousInactiveThat is my preference, especially if they are only 7′ or so tall.
April 30, 2014 at 1:22 am #261912AnonymousInactiveI agree with Cody that if there are only a very small number of Ibon, then maybe making a PC race out of them might not work. Additionally, the submissive culture does seem at odds with *most* PC concepts. But that’s a burden that should fall on players of Ibon, if they become a PC race.
But in addition to this. When we were discussing the Agamasi as a PC-playable race, I made the suggestion that we should strongly consider some sort of “level adjustment” system that balances out “powerful” races. It was decided that simplicity should win out, and the agamasi were given some drawbacks to make them a little more balanced. So, before anything gets published and is more difficult to change, I’d like to suggest one more time that we should consider some type of level adjustment system that allows players to play powerful races on the same playing field as the base races. Even if that system is as simple as saying that, “this race begins play at tier 1.3” At some point, even if it’s not now, PCI is likely to release a PC-playable race (even if it’s just for a home game) that is definitely not balanced with the standard humans, vals, elorii, etc. And rather than have rules for the Agamasi (and possibly the Ibon) that are different than for those future races, I think that this is a good time to develop a single, cohesive set of rules for these more powerful races.
My suggestions for how to accomplish this were more complicated than simply saying that “this race begins play at…” and were generally not much liked. But I believe that the concept was sound and that something should be put in place. But I’ll defer to the general consensus if people still think that a level adjustment system is either unnecessary or unworkable.
Scott
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