Thirdly, when we have some good guidelines, I'd like to put together an actual photo gallery of people made-up as all these different types of creatures, so people can actually see them.
List begins:
- True elves
- Minimum: Pointy ears.
- Recommended: That's about it, actually. Elves shouldn't have facial hair, but I think this is more of a guideline than a rule.
- ...they shouldn't? I'm not convinced by this even as a guideline, on the grounds that it's not something players can put on/take off.--Jacob
- It's been defined for a while that elves hardly ever have facial hair. I don't know if this is a current thing, and we could probably get rid of it. --V
Good picture at: http://tiny.cc/bNLVz
- Elemental elves (High elves, Drow, Tomten, Aerokin, Hydrokin, Pyrokin)
- Minimum: Full-face makeup of appropriate colour (white, black, brown, blue, green, and red respectively)
- Recommended: Full skin coverage of same colour, pointy ears.
Good picture at: http://tiny.cc/sBXSh (hydrokin)
- Kender
- Minimum: Varies.
- Recommended: Bright-coloured and clashing clothing, pointy ears, topknot, myriad of shiny accessories.
Here is a photo of an instantly recognisable kender without a topknot, pointy ears or lots of shineys, plus bonus facepaint... http://tiny.cc/LdJBX
- Comments: This sucks ass, frankly. The kender physrep stops any other characters wearing clashing clothing or having a topknot without being mistaken for one.
- I try to make my kender very obviously a kender but there is still confusion. They are related to elves but are non-magical so I would be all for some kind of face paint. All races (except possible elemental elves) should be allowed to dress brightly like a Kender if they want to. A bright coloured nose would be quite distinctive. Perhaps metalic effect paint because it's shiney. To my imagination they probably could have claws as well but that might be a pain OOC. --Richard
- To me, the only thing that clearly says "kender" rather than just "annoying person/fae with brightly-coloured clothes" is a topknot; I would suggest making that the minimum physrep. I don't think banning non-kender from wearing topknots will cause problems. People with short hair may have some difficulty, but I think most people should be able to manage something vaguely topknotesque. --Jacob
- I really don't think it's possible to put short hair into a topknot. It's also the sort of thing that people may not want to do in the middle of an interactive. And it also requires (as opposed to encourages, which is fine) kender to look silly, which I object to. --Pufferfish
- A coloured nose sounds simple, unique, distinctive and vaguely in character as a race. I'm not sure where the claws would come from though! --Chevron
- Um. Please no? This fails the "requires kender to look silly" thing as well as being a bit broad. Mostly, I object to anyone forcing my characters to look sillier than I want them to. I would also suggest we add pointy ears to the Kender minimum too (It is already in the guidelines, but is routinely ignored - including by me) as a standard "This is elven" minimum. They are faffy, yes, but some kind of visual relationship between the elven races is desirable, if only from an IC perspective. [Unsigned comment, from Aquarion according to the edit history --V]
- A coloured nose sounds simple, unique, distinctive and vaguely in character as a race. I'm not sure where the claws would come from though! --Chevron
- I really don't think it's possible to put short hair into a topknot. It's also the sort of thing that people may not want to do in the middle of an interactive. And it also requires (as opposed to encourages, which is fine) kender to look silly, which I object to. --Pufferfish
- I don't think painted noses look any more silly than the Orc physrep. Topknots prevent a whole load of people from playing kender because they have short hair and they do look very silly. Pointy ears are a very good idea. My kender wears a turban that covers his ears but I will gladly put his pointy ears on show to save confusion. Even so this still leaves confusion between some true elves who dress very colourfully and some older kender who dress much less so. --Richard
- I don't think that kender wearing clashing clothing actually prevents other characters from doing so at all - it is possible that on first meeting them people might assume they are a kender (esp if they are also bouncing, carrying lots of shineys and so on) but that can be an ic-thing too - given that kender and true elves are supposed to look quite like each other and to humans, were they all naked. I think that kender should always have pointy ears, I'm not really sure why it was decided that they shouldn't. I note that top-knots are actually quite an easy, quick and distinctive physrep if you go to Claire's Accessories or one of the several other fine purveyors of fake ponytails in Cambridge, even if they need to be attached to some kind of clothing to stay in place (esp given that people sometimes seem to wear wigs/fake hair/hairpieces and so on anyway). I don't think that a kender with a top-knot would necessarily be undignified as a character - 'silliness' is much more a feature of roleplay and the confidence of the character that they look appropriate. I'm really not convinced about painted noses - I've always assumed the orc physrep is actually physrepping something (wrinkles, dark skin etc) that would be hard to do without latex prosthetics and an airbrush, whereas kender with coloured noses would just be a bit...bizarre. --Zebbie
- Perhaps a tail? Easy to get hold of or make. --Porange
- I like Kender not having pointy ears because: a) I like playing Kender and I hate pointy ears, b) it suddenly becomes impossible to send NPC kender in to the bar because the society never manages to keep a supply of pointy ears and a reliable quick way of attaching and detatching them. This isn't so much of a problem with True Elves because they're meant to be rare so not having many NPC ones works fine, but there are lots of Kender and it would be a shame not to have them as NPCs because the minimum physrep was out of reach for the armoury. --ChessyPig
- I'd never noticed that some of our kender don't have pointy ears until now, but they've usually been distinctive enough that it's unnecessary! Lack of ear phys-reps for NPCs can be compensated by a bandana or headscarf. --Chevron
- Very often, it's fairly obvious that the ears under a bandana or headscarf aren't pointy, and not clear whether we're meant to assume they are. I think kender having to have pointy is a good thing - it makes it more obvious they're not human. --Jacob
- I'd never noticed that some of our kender don't have pointy ears until now, but they've usually been distinctive enough that it's unnecessary! Lack of ear phys-reps for NPCs can be compensated by a bandana or headscarf. --Chevron
- To me, the only thing that clearly says "kender" rather than just "annoying person/fae with brightly-coloured clothes" is a topknot; I would suggest making that the minimum physrep. I don't think banning non-kender from wearing topknots will cause problems. People with short hair may have some difficulty, but I think most people should be able to manage something vaguely topknotesque. --Jacob
- Dwarves
- Minimum: Beard.
- Recommended: I don't know, apart from the beard.
- Comments: Not too bad, but this makes life hard for anyone who has an actual OOC beard and wants to play a dwarf. Also, fake beards are itchy.
- I've heard that some LARP systems use horns instead of beards. Certainly less irritating --Richard
- See entire page on DwarfLovin which discusses this --Zebbie
- Orcs
- Minimum: Black starburst-pattern around eyes, achieved by applying black snaz when eyes are screwed up tight.
- Recommended: Add tribal warpaint-markings, and apply starburst pattern over white. Orcish accents are harsh and guttural, somewhere between Russian and Klingon.
- Comments: It hasn't actually been stated whether Orcs are lesser or greater Uruk, or somewhere in between.
That's it for PC races, I believe. On to NPC-only races:
- Lesser Uruk (goblins, kobolds)
- Minimum: Appropriate coloured starburst around eyes.
- Recommended: Add accent and appropriate mannerisms.
- Greater Uruk (Trolls, possibly others as yet unknown)
- Minimum: Appropriate coloured starburst around eyes.
- Recommended: Apply starburst over a lighter shade, apply warpaint markings to cheeks and/or forehead, add appropriate mannerisms
- Comment: Minimum physrep is identical to that of lesser uruk, but this can be worked around with obvious mannerisms.
- Elemental Human
- Minimum: Vein or jagged-line patterns of the appropriate colour across face.
- Recommended: Extend patterns across all exposed skin.
- Comment: Not very common. Sometimes half-elves have similar vein-like markings, but they're not a standard race and don't have a standard physrep.
- Skaven (rat-people)
- Minimum: Appropriate makeup. Alternatively, we have some felt rat-hats.
- Recommended: No real recommendations here. We were promised some latex skaven masks at some point but they never showed up.
- I'm really unconvinced by this as skaven makeup, to be honest. I much preferred Tithis' makeup as that had whiskers so was rather more recognisably rat-like. --Pufferfish
- Swogs
- Minimum: Swog headband, swog mannerisms.
- Recommended: Add swog jacket and claws.
- Vani
- Minimum: Scale pattern on cheeks (usually base-coat of yellow, then apply green through some fishnet fabric to give a scale pattern), green point-down triangle in middle of forehead.
- Recommended: Extend scale pattern over all visible skin.
- Nightmare
- Minimum: Black facepaint in strange patterns on the face, or a shroud covering as much of the face as possible. Entirely black kit.
- Recommended: Claws in most cases. Some nightmares have proper weapons, others appear to go unarmed.
- Red demon
- Minimum: No standard other than entirely red kit.
- Recommended: We seem to be using demon masks or some kind of facepaint.
- Black demon
- Minimum: No standard, other than entirely black kit.
- Recommended: I recommend that we come up with a good physrepping standard for these. Black facepaint is a bad idea because Nightmares use it.
- Comments: Horns have been suggested as a physrep for these. We might extend this to red and white demons as well if we can get/make enough horns.
- Seconded - I would love to be able to tell nightmares from black demons on sight.--Jacob
- It could be argued that this difficulty in telling the two apart is a feature. They're both black, stabby, supernatural, and probably a bit nebulous - I can well believe that even an expert on demonology (or nightmares) would have difficulty distinguishing between the two. --NT
- White demon
- Minimum: No standard, other than entirely white kit.
- Recommended: We have these cool half-face phantom of the opera masks which seem a lot more popular than the awful latex things.
- Blue-and-yellow demon
- Minimum: Blue and yellow facepaint, or one of the latex blue-and-yellow demon masks.
- Recommended: Often wear big, enshrouding robes. Sometimes have claws.
- We used to have, and possibly still do have, some cool-looking but a bit unpleasant to wear masks for these. I *think* that whether they have claws or weapons is significant (ones with claws could possess, ones with weapons couldn't), but that may have been plotline-specific and/or retconned and/or misremembered.--Jacob
- Entry updated. Your point about claws and weapons is true as far as I know, but isn't common knowledge. --V
- Undisguised Grey Man
- Minimum: These have only been encountered once or twice, and had grey snaz stripes down from the eyes.
- Comment: To be honest, these things are seen so rarely that a consistent physrep isn't that important.
- Angel
- Minimum: Symbol of appropriate deity on forehead and backs of hands.
- Recommended: Should be impressive.
- Divine avatar
- Minimum: Symbol of appropriate deity on forehead.
- Recommended: Should be even more impressive.
- Elemental
- Minimum: Appropriately coloured kit, appropriately-coloured headband.
- Recommended: No additional recommendations, but we have some really nice elemental tabards and headbands for this kind of thing.
- Comment: Occasionally gets confused if someone wears a lot of same-coloured kit and a headband - Crimson got mistaken for a fire elemental the first time he showed up in the bar.
- Elemental Lord or Lady
- Minimum: Dressed in colour of that element.
- Recommended. Should be impressive and exhibit appropriate behaviour. A case could be made for having the person playing them be the conventional gender for the role, although not a very strong case because lol, *Elementals*.
- Erm, not all elemental lords *have* a conventional gender- for example Ariel was only ever referred to as "he" until played by Bryony, at which point it became only "she". With the possible exception of Umbra-manifesting-to-Drow I am unhappy about assigning gender to anything that doesn't already have to have it, as then as many people as possible are available to play a given role. Also, women get a raw deal when playing gods, let us have some fun :P --Pufferfish
- This doesn't need a separate entry. The elemental lord physrep is identical to the standard elemental physrep. Also, they're genderless. --Valtiel
- I'd love to see the gods manifesting with very variable forms (if they manifest at all), including gender. That way they can appear in a manner appropriate to their mood, circumstances and whims- played by the most appropriate people available. Heck, the only thing delaying me as I type this is the huge variety of possible manifestations for the various gods that keep coming to mind. --TimB
- Animated statue or construct
- Comments: Things fitting into this category have been encountered several times, but there's no consistent physrep for them. Statues in the Sinking Tower linear last year had stone-effect makeup (I think), statues in the Pyramid linear didn't have any particular kit, and the Clanks on the Teutonia 3ygb had full-plate armour and either metallic facepaint or face-covering shrouds.
- Incorporeal entity
- Comments: Since the "no effect" call often goes unsaid or unheard in the confusion of a fight (I am especially guilty of forgetting to tell people they're not damaging me because I'm too busy damaging them), it would be nice if there were some consistent way to indicate when something is incorporeal and therefore immune to physical damage. We have a couple of shroudy robe type things, but not really enough for a large group of ghosts or whatever.
- Having incorporeal ghosts being able to come into the bar and people not realise they are incorporeal unless/until they touch them is something I consider very desirable, especially when running Midwife Moon and other undead plot. --Jacob
- I thought there was incorporeal kit, but it would require someone to have undeath lore to recognise this fact without touching it. It is importanta that incorporeal monsters say "your weapon goes through me" at least once, rather than just "negate" to normal damage so people realise this is what happens. --Chevron
- Fae
- Comments: The absence of a Fae racial physrep is intentional. They can masquerade as humans very convincingly.
- On the other hand, not all Fae bother or wish to masquerade, and so they can also include really quite unusual features, like exotic hair, extra faces/skin patterns, dramatically unconventional or bizarre clothing and so on, if they feel like it. "What's that, it's weird, it must be a Fae" being a perfectly reasonable IC response. --Zebbie
For example: http://tiny.cc/OWpFg (Titania, Summer Queen of the Seelie Court)
- That's Titania, not Ariel. --Jacob
- Yep. Link moved to the "Fae" section.
Undead physreps are detailed in the undeath lore guide and will not be repeated here as they are to some extent IC secrets.
General points of discussion should go down here, discussion on specific races should go under the entry in question above.
- I'm afraid I've put some comments on specific races under them rather than down here - I hope that's OK; feel free to move them if not. But one discussion per race seems more natural than having them all at the bottom. --Jacob
- Good point, discussion section changed. --V
I think that when deciding upon defining features of a race, OC features should be avoided. Noone seems to have a huge problem with some of the tallest people in system playing kender, I think we should avoid the requirements "you have a beard, and therefore cannot play an elf"/can't put your hair in a topknot, so you can't play a kender (although it would probably be quite difficult to accept someone with a beard as a non-dwarven female!!!) IMO, people should be free (and encouraged!) to phys-rep their characters above and beyond the minimum, but the minimum phys-reps for each race should be accessible to everyone. --Chevron
- I concur. --Locksmith