[New Race]Kobolds

[Harroghty]

His experiences are his own and it appears that he was stopping himself. No reason to start an argument.

I do advocate everyone with interest learning to build for themselves. Working in tandem is, at best, not ideal. Additionally, working individually is the most suited to really developing an idea.

[Beskytter]

So, after reading through this and one other suggestion for additional races I thought I might add some ideas to chew on.

In Forgotten Realms, on which FK is based, Elves are on their way out the door. They're almost literally shipping out of Faerun for a better place just for elvenkind. Orcs are being hunted by the horde and slaughtered simply because. Kobolds and goblins are your rabbits that provide untrained, unskilled folk terror and the simplest adventurer something to hunt.

Humans are the future. They're the ones who're continuing to populate and thrive all over the continent and beyond. This same theme is actually abound in most DnD game worlds: the big, magical, and awesome dissipate as a function of time.

Via application, I could see a fairly established player earning the right to play a single kobold character for story purposes but as an actual PC there isn't much to establish kobold as a truly RP viable race. Their culture and so on was fleshed out in order to give them more random quest gen options for DMs, not to make them playable races. /IF/ Besky was to meet a PC Kobold in the game, the first thing would be an ooc PK pop warning because the next thing would be him drawing his greatsword and preparing for battle. Almost all the other mainline races are leveled up in their first hundred hours in game through slaughtering kobolds by the dozens upon dozens. You cannot expect a trained fighter to just suddenly be okay with having a pleasant greet meeting with a kobold after having spent a month culling kobold, goblin, and wererat numbers in some forest or cave.

To continue my non linear 3am stream of thoughts:
If you'd like to play a particular race that isn't offered already, consider working towards becoming part of the story council. Write events and host them, write out story arcs and try to get them approved, have patience because not everything out of any of our heads is absolutely golden (I should know, I used to spam this forum with all sorts of ideas about what to add to the game.) and when we think about it further we might see that what we're wanting isn't what we're asking for, and finally focus on having good RP with the characters you have now.

The playerbase isn't expansive at the moment, at most I've only ever seen maybe forty people online at the same time and apparently that isn't considered a lot of people compared to the heyday of MUDing. We don't need a lot of various races flooding us with outlandish roleplays that sparkle one moment and fizzle the next. We need astounding roleplays with standard races, like humans which is the only race to date that I have made across 7 current toons and over 10 toons lifetime of my account, that enrich the environment and bring something more to the game as a whole. Save the unique races and character for stories that build our FK lore.

[Ungtar]

I disagree with that last part.

I remember strongly all of my interactions with non-standard races. The first time you meet a mountain orc. The first time you see a drow. A rare sighting of a svirfneblin or forest gnome. Or your first meeting with Rut?

These are exciting things for a new player to run into and it highlights the gameplay and roleplay environment here like nothing else, in my opinion.

I'd advocate putting the race in and making it an extremely high kismet cost to play. A worthy goal for someone to aspire to and a point of pride when they'd made it.

[Maetha]

So, after reading through this and one other suggestion for additional races I thought I might add some ideas to chew on.

In Forgotten Realms, on which FK is based, Elves are on their way out the door. They're almost literally shipping out of Faerun for a better place just for elvenkind. Orcs are being hunted by the horde and slaughtered simply because. Kobolds and goblins are your rabbits that provide untrained, unskilled folk terror and the simplest adventurer something to hunt.

Humans are the future. They're the ones who're continuing to populate and thrive all over the continent and beyond. This same theme is actually abound in most DnD game worlds: the big, magical, and awesome dissipate as a function of time.

I would love to talk shop with you about Faerun- but FK is so loosely based on it that even if I knew the setting in and out, it'd be pointless- because the story council could very well change the whole thing in one fell swoop. And that theme may exist in FR, Dark Sun, etc- but Eberron and other settings are on the upswing.

Via application, I could see a fairly established player earning the right to play a single kobold character for story purposes but as an actual PC there isn't much to establish kobold as a truly RP viable race. Their culture and so on was fleshed out in order to give them more random quest gen options for DMs, not to make them playable races. /IF/ Besky was to meet a PC Kobold in the game, the first thing would be an ooc PK pop warning because the next thing would be him drawing his greatsword and preparing for battle. Almost all the other mainline races are leveled up in their first hundred hours in game through slaughtering kobolds by the dozens upon dozens. You cannot expect a trained fighter to just suddenly be okay with having a pleasant greet meeting with a kobold after having spent a month culling kobold, goblin, and wererat numbers in some forest or cave.

That same fighter has also slaughtered several armies worth of humans- and yet ironically, is never punished for his culling of a tenth of his race- nor strangely does he grow increasingly paranoid and PTSD-riddled over a life spent fighting and murdering. Gameplay and story segregation are interesting, aren't they?

To continue my non linear 3am stream of thoughts:
If you'd like to play a particular race that isn't offered already, consider working towards becoming part of the story council. Write events and host them, write out story arcs and try to get them approved, have patience because not everything out of any of our heads is absolutely golden (I should know, I used to spam this forum with all sorts of ideas about what to add to the game.) and when we think about it further we might see that what we're wanting isn't what we're asking for, and finally focus on having good RP with the characters you have now.

So, I should -force an established community, of whom I already have grievances with- to accept my own "special snowflake"-ness, and for that matter- ignore the trouble I've caused in the past? And then you also in the same breath say that I should be satisfied with what I have.

The playerbase isn't expansive at the moment, at most I've only ever seen maybe forty people online at the same time and apparently that isn't considered a lot of people compared to the heyday of MUDing. We don't need a lot of various races flooding us with outlandish roleplays that sparkle one moment and fizzle the next. We need astounding roleplays with standard races, like humans which is the only race to date that I have made across 7 current toons and over 10 toons lifetime of my account, that enrich the environment and bring something more to the game as a whole. Save the unique races and character for stories that build our FK lore.

That is your own preference. I don't like humans. I play a human every day- I walk and talk and act human. Being human is boring. And you even go on to insist that "we need astounding roleplays with standard races" despite insisting that everyone save humans are on the way out? "Save the unique races and character for stories that build our lore"?

Alright, you've engaged my rant mode- first, though,

I disagree with that last part.

I remember strongly all of my interactions with non-standard races. The first time you meet a mountain orc. The first time you see a drow. A rare sighting of a svirfneblin or forest gnome. Or your first meeting with Rut?

These are exciting things for a new player to run into and it highlights the gameplay and roleplay environment here like nothing else, in my opinion.

I'd advocate putting the race in and making it an extremely high kismet cost to play. A worthy goal for someone to aspire to and a point of pride when they'd made it.

I, too, remember the first time I met Ungtar- Zuldorrn and That Other Half-Drow We Won't Talk About. I remember braving the Underdark and running into a Drow for the first time as a half-elf. Seeing a svirfneblin in the acid pits. I remember meeting The Butcher for the first time, the Truescar- and other notable standard races as well. I'd be fine putting kismet reqs on the race- though of course I'd be upset if they made them as costly as Planetouched considering their weaknesses in comparison. I'd be willing to drop 300/400 on one easy, however.

Now...

For every Silverstar, for every Forestarm, etc- there are 10 other Joe Schmoes who never do anything of worth- because they either are not allowed to, don't want to, or because they aren't "in". I want to make the community -less- insular, not more. I love kobolds- this is a point of passion for me- it's true. For every action I accomplish as a standard race- I push for my non-standard- I've been in that game before- begging to be allowed to do one little special thing. I've been the DM before- judging and weighing versus my player.

And every time, I've punished the Human player when they started cheekily powergaming- ruining the fun for others. Never the half-ogre sorcerer, the tiefling warlock. It takes talent to take something not-standard- alien almost- and make it interesting. I've seen Aasimars and Tieflings here who are abhorrent roleplayers- questioned how they were even allowed, or dedicated, enough to stay around.

The "lore" you insist on so proudly- I've not encountered a bit of it yet in my time playing. I've learned -less- about the setting as I have played along. Every time there's a big event- I'm at work- or it happens during the morning hours when I can sleep. As has been stated before- and it's perfectly fine and valid- the staff will care more about their "common players" than new blood. It makes sense- it's sad, but true. Not everyone wants to sit around in Waterdeep's square prattling on and waiting for the next Imm-ran event. At that point, why even bother playing the game?

But I'm passing rant and into vile territory, people are welcome to do as they like here- that's the beauty of games like these. They let you immerse yourself in fantasy worlds alongside others. The same way that people refuse to attend an event- or they get excluded- is the same way those people can be allowed to attend another- to play with friends.

So good day, sir. Your opinion is noted.

[Vaemar]

I have been thinking about this topic for a long while.

Personally I think kobolds could already be playable. I have tried a goblin and yes, there are some difficulties, but in the end it is not so difficult to find people to play with or places to go. Since most places where a goblin can go would be okay also for kobolds (Orc Camp, Zhentil Keep, Skullport and some others) I don't think the race would face much problems.

In general I am in favour of adding new races to the game, this keeps the game interesting for old players and gives the possibility to explore a new kind of rp. And since most people here have more than one character, I don't see too much the risk of a player dispersion. Also, I don't see the kobolds as a race really separate from others. Even if spitefully or in condition of submission kobolds could very easily interact with humans, drow or orcs.

The main issues I would see with them is that at present there is not a single race who has the optimal support for training and leveling, or even for guilds. I think that before adding a new race the races who badly need help (say deep gnomes, orcs) should be addressed. In some cases this would be beneficial also for new races like the kobolds. On top of that, the kobolds' favourite class, the sorcerer, is sadly not in game yet. So maybe that too should be addressedd before implementing, or while implementing, kobolds.

Other than that, however, I think they would be a nice addition, with their link to dragons and their reptilian tendencies. I would really love to try a kobold.

I believe some directions where to expand races availability should be these:
-Underdark: with the expansion of the Underdark I would really like to see stock underdark races made playable, which means duergar, orogs, deep imaskari and maybe even the gloaming as an extra planetouched race.
-Scaly folk: add the reptilian bite to the game, kobolds, dragonborn (a stock race in D&d 5th edition), yuan-ti and maybe lizardmen.