IE games: PC race and gender

[Gabrielle]

Elf, half-elf

female

[Shaitan]

Elf, Half elf, dwarf

Male

 

[berelinde]

Hey, it's all good. If people want to talk about their JE, NWN, NWN2, ME, ME2, etc. race/gender preferences in addition to talking about their IE preferences, I'm not going to complain. As long as we dont' start debating whether it's better to play KotOR as a Sith or a Jedi (forgetting to even mention gender preferences), it's still on topic. After all, I never asked about class or alignment, but many players have hepfully supplied them anyway. It just adds more detail to the picture.

[nandusso]

off topic (sorry)

@gabrielle

I don't know if you did it on purpose, anyway the last line of Dante's citation in your signature should be:

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate (=leave every hope, you who enter), wrote as you did it means: "leave every lost hope who enter".

 

in topic

Usually I play with female characters that use magic (I'm male) because this helps me not to be involved too much in the game . The drawback is that my PC tends to be a bit surly with male NPCs that try to romance her...

 

bye

[BelgarathMTH]

As far as romanceable character mods, I think there should be as few restrictions as possible. That will please the maximum number of people who might like the character's personality and other aspects.

 

The writer can suggest that his/her written dialogues either do or do not include race-specific content, or that they have written the dialogues to include discussions about race that will not make sense unless the PC is of the same race (Xan comes to mind), but why not leave it up to the player as much as possible as to what will make them happy with your brainchild?

 

Many players are going to ignore and not download any character mod that seems to exclude their favorite race and playstyle.

 

The only exception I can see is the good-evil divide, but even there, sentient beings fall in love with sentient beings who aren't good for them and who argue with them and abuse them all the time in real life. And even bigots and zealots have been know to have the forbidden attraction (cross-racial or same-gender).

[berelinde]

Good points, BelgarathMTH, I'm never a big fan of racial restrictions on romances and have never written one that had any.

 

The specific reason I asked, though, wasn't because I want to restrict a romance to a certain race, but rather because I was curious about how meticulous I had to be about tailoring dialogues to account for player race. In BG1 Gavin, half-orcs and elves got special race-dependent talks. I meant to do one for every race, but then I got to human and I hit a wall.

 

Gavin: So... you're human.

PC: Yup. So are you.

Gavin: Apparently.

PC: (yawn)

 

All of his talks and flirts were tailored to account for the possible height and/or bulk differences between the PC race and a tall human male. He would kneel to kiss halflings, would not attempt to pick up half-orcs, etc. This took an insane amount of time and contributed to the TRA-file bloat considerably.

 

By the time I did BG2 Gavin, I'd learned to streamline a bit. I tried to write in a way where the height and bulk of the PC didn't matter as much, although there are still places where I had to include race checks and alter the dialogue if the PC was of a shorter race.

 

At the time I posted this, I was working on a flirt where the player's body mass would matter and I wondered if I really had to code the same flirt four times to account for different player races.

 

But there's more! I like to throw little insignificant things into my mods. Maybe I'll add a merchant who's selling joke items (or one who's selling gifts). Maybe there will be a storyteller in an inn somewhere who will tell a different story based on the race of the PC. If everybody is running humans, elves, and half-elves, there isn't much point to getting too carried away with it.

 

And I admit it. I wondered if most players do play PCs who are the same gender as they are.

[lroumen]

I think it is marvelous when a mod tries to incorporate some sort of differentiation between races, genders, alignments. Of course, I wouldn't exactly put in hard limitations (as in no gnomes will be romanced), but rather in a unique way (as in gnomes will be romanced with a different subplot).

 

In the same manner do I like it when a mod introduces a mage-only quest but at the same time offers also thief-only, fighter-only, etc-only quests.

 

It does seem to complicate matters a lot in the banterflow, but no doubt a smart modder will have tricks to accomplish this.

[berelinde]

For one thing, there are seven races available in the IE games. Race-specific subplots or dialogues mean that you have to write (and code) the same thing 7 times. Multiply that by the number of available classes....

 

But yes, where the difference is only one line or a few words, it's probably worth it.

[Guest Luri]

All of his talks and flirts were tailored to account for the possible height and/or bulk differences between the PC race and a tall human male. He would kneel to kiss halflings, would not attempt to pick up half-orcs, etc. This took an insane amount of time and contributed to the TRA-file bloat considerably.

 

This is one of the things I most appreciate in mods (and in games, period). It bothers me when this isn't present, but as I don't expect it to be taken it into account by default, it always cheers me up when it's there.

 

That said, I've played a fair amount of halflings in NWN/NWN2, but tend towards humans/elves/half-elves in the BG series because I like the sprites better and there tend to be more romance mods geared towards those three.

 

I primarily play female characters, but will play male characters to see romances made for male characters or content specifically available to male characters, or once in a while just if I feel like it.

[Herr Krautz]

I can't remember the last time I played anything that wasn't a dwarf or a gnome!

 

I played through BG2 at least ten times before encountering mods and the like - as you might be able to deduce, this means that I romanced Aerie a lot.

[Adia]

Like a lot of players (it seems) I lean towards humans/half-elves/elves depending on class restrictions and my role-playing depending on alignment and party composition etc. The only other race I've dabbled with is a halfling.

 

The reason I've never really tried the other characters is because of the restrictions on romances - the preference for a lot of romance options towards humans/half-elves and elves. Actually, if there was mention of specific race options for new characters that may encourage me to give the other races a whirl.

[Gabrielle]

@ nandusso

 

I believe I got it from a book. Translations get lost depending on how someone translates another language.

[Beetle]

My experience seems to be pretty standard. I usually play human/half-elf/elf depending on the class I'm playing (and what armor the character will be wearing, there are some combos I can't look at for hours on end). Most of my games have had male PCs - I started playing female PCs primarily because of the number the mods geared for them. It's the new content that keeps the game interesting after all this time.

 

I didn't realize that Gavin BG1 noticed Charname's height. I'll have to replay the mod with a halfling now.

[Runescarred]

Human females, mostly. Though I did play a male half - orc going by the name of Thyrm, a priest of Ilmater to boot...

 

Also, is that Jorah Mormont?

[Domi]

I find that race/class dependant options are great when they really give you a really cool interaction. For example, if I have a character say "Darn, you have as much tact as a drunken dwarf!" I am going to put a dwarf-specific reply for a dwarven character, but what's the point of giving a halfling a special treatment there? Doing the talks that cover the whole spectrum is too much work for little gain imho. So, I think you are right about streamlining.

 

Oh, and I played elves and humans in BG, while in NWN2 I play elves and outsiders. I play males only when tetsing male-specific content in modules.