ATLANTISv2 atl-design-digest #66 From: csd@microplex.com (Christian Daudt) Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 00:00:00 +0000 Errors to csd@microplex.com For more information on Atlantis, visit the Web site http://www.rahul.net/atlantis, or email the gamemaster at atlantis@rahul.net. If you want previous digests, they are available via WWW at http://www.microplex.com/~csd/atlantisv2/ ---------------------------------------------------------- From: vjg@cbnea.att.com Original-From: v.guinto Date: 24 Dec 1995 14:11 EST Subject: Races and Specializations I have studied the draft of the A3 rules on the web site, and want to make some comments on the race specializations. Before I make my comments, I found it interesting to compile a list of race specializations by skill instead of by race. This is based on the CURRENT list in the A3 rules, which I understand is subject to revision: SKILL #RACES RACES -------------------------------------------------------------------- Combat 14 vik, bar, pla, esk, nom, drk, sel, hel, tel idw, hdw, udw, ddw, orc Longbow 3 bar, trm, wel Crossbow 0 <none> Lumberjack 3 vik, bar, wel Shipbuilding 2 vik, sel Carpenter 3 bar, pla, wel Horse Training 2 pla, nom Building 3 pla, hdw, ddw Hunting 3 esk, trm, tel Herb Lore 4 esk, trm, tel, idw Fishing 2 esk, sel Mining 3 drk, hdw, udw Weaponsmith 4 drk, hel, idw, udw Armorer 3 drk, hel, idw Quarrying 3 hdw, udw, ddw Sailing 2 vik, sel Entertainment 2 nom, wel Healing 3 nom, trm, hel, tel -------------------------------------------------------------------- Now for my comments: 1. The new trade good production skills (farming, ranching) were not included. I would suggest the following races to specialize in these skills: Farming: trm, tel or hel, hdw, bar Ranching: nom, pla, maybe vik or ddw It's unlikely that races specialized in BOTH these skills will be found in the same general area, so it would be inappropriate for trm to specialize in ranching and tel specialize in farming, for example (both races common in swamps). 2. Crossbow skill is totally ignored. I would suggest the following races as candidates, but would also suggest that only two or three races specialize in crossbow (to keep it pretty valuable): either ice dwarves or eskimos (no sense for both tundra races to be combat specialists) hill dwarves sea elves darkmen (my personal #1 choice) And, if another person has his wish, the "halfling" race would make a lot of sense with this specialization. (But isn't halfling a trademark of some unnamed game company? Maybe "hairfeet" or some such made-up name would be better.) 3. Combat specialization is WAY too commonly available. How to fix this? Take a few races and give them Crossbow specialization instead! (See above.) There's always the option of taking one or two races and just not giving them a combat-related specialization. You could make, say, high elves and hill dwarves pure trade races, with 6 or 7 trade specializations. I think these races would be REALLY valuable to trade factions. And, finally, adding one or even two more longbow-specialized races wouldn't be unbalancing (I think); Nomads (think of the bow-skilled Mongol hordes) or Eskimos might be candidates. 4. (Minor) Desert Dwarves have only three specialized skills, when all the others have four. A way to view skill distribution might be to classify the skills into groups, and then give each race one or two skills from each groups. The groups I can think of are: Combat-related (easy picks): Combat Longbow Crossbow General (selected because everyone can use these skills, regardless of faction type): Healing Entertainment Sailing Skills for producing trade goods (goods only valuable when sold to a village/town/city): Hunting* Fishing Farming Ranching *There's not much secret that high-level hunting skill will yield a more useful item than furs, so this might be mis-classified. Or you could simply arrange for high levels of all of these skills to produce something more valuable. (I have some ideas...) Skills for producing raw materials: Lumberjack Mining Quarrying Horse Training Herb Lore Skills for producing refined goods: Carpenter Building Shipbuilding Weaponsmith Armorer Following this would give each race 5 specialized skills, and each race would get a pretty good mix of abilities. -Vince Up