DwarfLovin

Dwarves. I like them. Fantasy authors sometimes like them. It appears our player base do not (judging from lack of them being played).

As has been discussed many times, I believe the lack of lovin' comes down to the racial phys rep. Having a beard is bad enough. That it has to be a fake beard, potentially on top of a real one, is even worse. The biggest problem with them in my opinion is that they are uncomfortable and make communication awkward- the cornerstone of role playing. As a side issue, fake beards rarely look stylish and I would hazard that many people prefer to wear costumes they feel think look cool.

So, my suggestion is that we steal the idea from Insurrection that I loved so much and change the racial phys rep to 'must have horns'. I have two different pairs of horns in the house which I am happy to bring along to an interactive or general meeting to demonstrate how they look and different ways they may be attached.

For reference, here is a group photo from Insurrection, with various dwarves (and human slave): http://www.flickr.com/photos/bayard_chevalier/2980758833/

Can I get some feedback on this idea, as I'd like to bring a motion to the next AGM whenever it is, if there seems like we'd have sufficient support.

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I agree with the above comments about the difficulties with beards, but also have some thoughts on playing other races in general:

From my very limited amount of time playing last year, I felt that the population of the bar was almost entirely human, with the odd kender, and the only commonly seen elf that immediately springs to mind was Lucie Rivers. This year we seem to be having a mini explosion of elves.

I think one of the main problems is that people default to human characters, unless they have a specific reason to play another race. For elemental elves this is easy enough to come by with the colleges of magic, but Dwarves and Orcs, (especially because there is not much known about these communities, and they seem to be rarely seen in play,) are not really at the forefront of people's minds. I think that for any non-human race there is always going to be a barrier due to phys-rep.

How about Skaven? They're clearly sentient, and under the protection of the law; are they going to become a new playable race? --Chevron

I don't see the majority of the bar being human as a problem - I think a human city with non-humans living in it gives a very different feel to a genuine multi-species city, and I think the former is probably preferable. --Jacob

I agree; Grantabrugge is defined to be about 10% elf with the vast majority of the rest being human. This seems to be borne out in the racial mix in the bar, and I'd like it to stay that way. --Pufferfish

Oh I wasn't saying the majority of the bar being human was a problem; I was referring to the above point that there are currently no dwarves (or orcs) in system. --Chevron

If we want to change the physrep for dwarves, we should probably change the name as well. The reason TT has races called "elves", "dwarves" etc rather than sproggits and globbans is that those terms are part of the shared cultural heritage of a large number of roleplayers, so that when we use them lots of people immediately know what we are talking about - even if you're new to TT and haven't read the setting document in detail, if you have experience in "the subculture", you will be able to guess that elves are long-lived and magical and tend to be haughty and refined (with certain noteable exceptions...) and have pointy ears while dwarves are non-magical, tend to be skilled smiths, and are often gruff and drink a lot, and tend to have large beards which they are extremely proud of. If we have a race called dwarves that conforms to some of that stereotype but not all of it, we'll cause headaches. Also, I'm slightly sceptical about the superiority of larp-physrep horns to larp-physrep beards, although I don't have much experience of either. --Jacob

There is nothing *stopping* dwarves having beards with Tim's suggestion, and if the rest of the stereotype is there (which it is), I don't have a problem with it. Also, beardless dwarves have been allowed into play under several ref teams, which appears to suggest that the society can cope with the concept... --Pufferfish

There's quite a gap between 'you can play a dwarf who's shaved their beard off and looks like a slightly odd human' and 'all dwarves grow horns and start shaving'. I'd note that you are allowed to paint your chin brown and call yourself a dwarf, and several people have. (Incidentally, horns is a really cool racial physrep; I'm just not sure it's a good idea to use it on an existing race). --Requiem

What dwarves have we actually had in play, ooi? As in, ever, in total. I can think only of the pair of female (awesome!) Dwarves that we had in Year Two, one of whom gradually 'regrew' her beard in play after starting out without one. --Zebbie

I played a dwarf who died on the very first linear ever, once. --Jacob

Brunhilde! (also Rakdos' army character was apparently a dwarf, not that I noticed for several months of play). Dwarf is definitely something I'd like to do, beard, horns or neither, but as my figure matches the dwarven stereotype I wanted to play an elf first :P --Pufferfish

Also the Maelstromguy who turned up on PVP day was playing a dwarf with beard

I played a dwarf once - created because I wanted a more powerful combat character to play later on in the evening, because my paladin wasn't cutting it in any kind of fight. I committed murder and was executed, screaming a curse on the Wessex Arms. --Requiem

To clarify, Rakdos' army character ("Shorty") wasn't actually a dwarf, he just had legal papers declaring that he was one due to a cock-up when he enrolled in the army. I think that's the case, anyway. --Valtiel

I just want to say that I think horns are a super-fantastic racial physrep, and I'd love to see them in play. I'd get a pair of lovely twisty ones from goblinart... --ahdok

It's been suggested that we start using horns as a physrep for all demons, and I support this idea. Black demons are currently the most indistinct monsters in setting. Demon physrep should either be facepaint + horns or a mask. Dwarven racial physrep can be a band of colour across the eyes or a small amount of metallic facepaint on cheekbones, chin and/or forehead. --Valtiel

I am very reluctant to have another phys rep where the central element is snazz around the eyes- especially for a PC race. I seem to be developing some kind of adverse reaction to snazz in that area, as it makes my eyes sting over a not-too-long period (based on the Vipers event, where by then end of the first afternoon it was becoming uncomfortable and by day two was unbearable). [Unsigned post, by "Tim" according to edit history --V]

Good point. I personally prefer snaz to prosthetics, but that's just me. We can always experiment with a few different make-up effects to see what looks good while avoiding the eye area. Horns for dwarves has been suggested but might get confused with demons, and would require either strange plot or a retcon to introduce to Dwarves. Beards would still be an option for people who want them, of course. --Valtiel

Snaz around the chin area might be a good approach? --Jacob

Surely requiring snaz on the chin returns us neatly to the problem of people having OOC beards on their chins..... --Zebbie

TT's standard snaz around the eyes pattern does involve scrunching up the eyes first, which I find is generally less likely to cause eye irritation than trying to colour over the eyes any other way. But you might have been wearing beastkin snaz at Vipers, in which case ignore me :). --ChessyPig

Certainly when we brought them in, the uruk scrunched eyes/starburst pattern was supposed to be a racial physrep in itself. I'm not aware that any other races use the starburst, but I may have been not paying attention. -- Bryony

I think we used the "double-layer" scrunch for Kobolds last 3YGB because people felt like being fancy, and we've been doing the scrunch pattern for goblins I've monstered recently.

Yup, those are the minor uruk races