A good reason not to have dragons, trolls, fairies, etc.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by TheMinority
It would be very difficult to maintain a RP \"What on earth is that?\" when i\'m staring at a winged 40-foot fire breathing lizard.

I don\'t think something as powerful as a 40-foot fire breathing lizard would remain unknown to the common folk, so I don\'t see why someone would role-play \"What on earth is that?\" o.O

[Keyaz]

Originally posted by Draklar

Originally posted by TheMinority
It would be very difficult to maintain a RP \"What on earth is that?\" when i\'m staring at a winged 40-foot fire breathing lizard.

I don\'t think something as powerful as a 40-foot fire breathing lizard would remain unknown to the common folk, so I don\'t see why someone would role-play \"What on earth is that?\" o.O

if i presume right, in roleplay common folk would scream like a child and run to the nearest house hoping it ignores them.

and at this point, using mentioned creature, the player behind character would sigh \"not another frickin dragon\"

hmm, giant winged lizard....originality.... hmm... ooh i know, has anyone tried using a giant winged fire breathing single cell amoeba?! ooh! how about a white blood cell?! pwnage!

ok ok, that was sarcasm and this has no point...

[Draklar]

Oh right, I recalled something. Many people seem to consider using mythology creatures as overdone and believe that one cannot come up with interesting and completely original creatures by using it. I\'ll be trying to oppose that belief in the book I hope to finish one day, and I shall ask here:

How many of you heard of such creatures as:
Drekavac, Likho, Kikimora, Nocnitsa, Ovinnik, Woodwose, Gagana, Tikbalang, or Kelpie?

[Wired_Crawler]

Originally posted by Draklar
How many of you heard of such creatures as:
Drekavac, Likho, Kikimora, Nocnitsa, Ovinnik, Woodwose, Gagana, Tikbalang, or Kelpie?

You have got one .

[Kythag]

I have heard of Woodwoses as the naked barbarian Nords in Morrowind!  

The large Bigfoot from the Bugs Bunny cartoons looks mean.  He don\'t act it though!  

What I was saying about creatures wasn\'t focused \"names only\".  I am saying that with a similar looking creature with a different name, you never know if the designer added features to make a creature more or less dangerous, despite its size or looks.  The Bull Netch from Morrowind is extremely large and aggressive(if attacked), but the much smaller Betty Netch is much more dangerous.  The look similar except for size.  There is no way to know that the Betty Netch is more dangerous until you have fought both creatures.  

Now replace the images of Betty and Bull netches with Dragon images.  Your first instinct would be Big Dragon, little dragon.  Accepted mythos of the dragons is the larger they are, the meaner they are(usually).  So judging solely by size or weapon implements(bulls have horns and, while normally docile, they can kill.  If you don\'t know what a cow is, you might assume that the horns equate to non-docile.), might not be always accurate.

So what I originally said(apparently very poorly) is that something similar looking, renamed, might have different abilities, and they might not be as apparent as claws or horns(the Betty Netch has a very nasty magical attack).  If you judged a Betty Netch by its looks, you might think it comes close, grabs you,  and squeezes with tentacles.  Instead you find you are ranged attacking a ranged attacker and die for your mistake.

So I am saying that prejudging a creature by similarities you have seen before or its implements or lack thereof might be inaccurate and have no or devastating consequences.

[Draklar]

Well I did say non-magical creatures, so not sure if that example works. Noteworthy if some creature is more dangerous than it looks, it would be very likely you\'d hear it from some travellers in your life before the adventuring phase.

Unless like in case of Morrowind, where you come from another land. Heh, that actually comes well with the fact that many of the creatures there are new concepts and unknown to the player.


And, erm... Thinking of observing a cow gnawing on some grass and a wolf exposing its teeth, I believe the cow wouldn\'t really seem too dangerous, no matter what.

[Kythag]

I was raised around cattle.  A bull with horns seems not very dangerous, even when you are told they aren\'t.  That is until you are in a field with one and have to jump a barbed wire fence(losing half your pants in the process) to keep from getting skewered by one.

You are right, you said non-magical.  Can you really have this discussion about ingame animals and not include them though?

I do agree that if you have lived in a land, you would be aware of a creatures capablities.  The only solution there would be to post a Creature Compendium of sorts.  It would take away from the suspense factor, however.

Also, I stated that looking at a Bull or Betty Netch, you might conclude that they are melee creatures.  We could take the magical attack away and make it a spitting attack so that we can take the magical aspect away from the example.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Kythag
I was raised around cattle.  A bull with horns seems not very dangerous, even when you are told they aren\'t.  That is until you are in a field with one and have to jump a barbed wire fence(losing half your pants in the process) to keep from getting skewered by one.

Ah well, can\'t argue with that. I stand corrected then :]
But I assume when you didn\'t listen to warnings, you were a child? That might be the case as well.

You\'re also right in your further point. Certain special creatures like the ones which have spitting attack would go outside of the rule.
Then again in the end it doesn\'t cover all possibilities. I suppose there\'s no real best solution for this :P

[Trinx]

Creature names have nothing to do with a player sizing them up.

You size things up by fighting them.  I mean if you called a dragon a Fluffy Bunny people wouldn\'t see it and look at the name and go...Oh it\'s just a Fluffy Bunny thats no problem.

Likewise dragons and their powers are depicted differently in just about every movie/game out there.  Aside from your typical fire breathing dragon.  Which is only one type of dragon.  Kind of like how a Black Widow is only one kind of spider.

So as I said suspense is created the first time a creature is fought.  Not it\'s name or how it looks.
Thus you get suspense when playing either Pokemon or Neverwinter Nights.

[Draklar]

Actually in pokemon it was all about the levels and power types, whereas first was displayed and second easy to guess by appearance... So there was not much suspense. But, umm >_>

[Trinx]

Well do with it what they will.  It\'s their game not mine.

However saying \"We\'re not gonna have dragons because they\'re overdone in mythical fantasy games.\"  is really silly when you have Dwarves, and such in game.

Even if the Dwarves aren\'t native to the world.  Well there\'s your excuse to suck content from any mythos or fantasy you want.

Dwarves can get there but not dragons?

Not that I care if Dragons are in game or not.  Just making a point.

As well I haven\'t seen many mobs in PS yet other than whats in the sewers under the starting city.

However creating a creature similar to a typical mythological fantasy creature and calling it by a weird name does not = original content.

If it did I could buy a copy of Realm Crafter rename it MMORPG Maker Deluxe and not get sue\'d for selling it.

Now the opposite is completely different.  You can call a elf an elf but have him look and act differently than typical fantasy elves do.  Because then you\'ve created an all new kind of elf.  Not just renamed a typical type of elf.

[Kythag]

When they say \"overdone\", I believe they are actually saying that they are ovedone as a creature that redefines the game.  Dwarves, elves, humans, who cares, right?  But say that you have a Dragon or you have a creature that looks like a dragon and the selling point becomes, \"They have Dragons!\"

I can guarantee that no one(or very few, if I\'m wrong) are going around saying,\"Let\'s play PlaneShift, they have dwarves!\"  What they are saying is,\"Hey, this game wants players to actually roleplay, let\'s check it out.\"  Add a dragon, some of those same people will be,\"Hey they have dragons\" or they will say \"Oh, another game with dragons.\"  That is why the PS staff is against it.  At least that is what I think from what I have heard them say.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Kythag
I can guarantee that no one(or very few, if I\'m wrong) are going around saying,\"Let\'s play PlaneShift, they have dwarves!\"

Wow, that sounds like something I would do :P

[zanzibar]

Ah, proof that it doesn\'t take my direct involvement for one of my threads to derail and go off topic.  I\'m vindicated at last!

[Draklar]

Ah right, Kythag: It might be just my personal belief, but I think elves are much more overdone than the dragons. I think elves and dwarves are representing the fantasy more than the dragons.

Originally posted by zanzibar
Ah, proof that it doesn\'t take my direct involvement for one of my threads to derail and go off topic. :)  I\'m vindicated at last!

Ironically that\'s the first off-topic post ^^