Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Michael Crowley <mcrowley@******.LWC.EDU>
Subject: New Races again....
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 09:33:24 EST
Some good ideas... Pixie/Fairies, Goblins.... but think about it.
A Fairy Eagle Shaman. A Goblin Mage. That works. Even a Goblin
Tribesman.... create whole tribes of the little buggers.

Fairy gets tough, wants to become Street Samurai. Stop the
presses! Yeah, I can really see it now. A three foot tall winged
sucker flying about ten feet off the ground, firing a Vindicator
at about four ugly Corp Guards. Yeah, that works. Oh, and that
Cyberarm he always wanted. Would he be able to get it at all or
would you just raise the price if he didn't want a 3' tall body
and one 3' long cyberarm?

Just a thought.

Nightmare
Message no. 2
From: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>
Subject: Re: New Races again....
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 10:02:20 -0500
On Wed, 14 Jul 1993, Michael Crowley wrote:

> Some good ideas... Pixie/Fairies, Goblins.... but think about it.
> A Fairy Eagle Shaman. A Goblin Mage. That works. Even a Goblin
> Tribesman.... create whole tribes of the little buggers.

Once again, I believe that conceptually they work for the SR genre.
Points0wise they are a little more tough. Imagine your group somewhere in
middle-of-nowhere asia

Hot Lead (looking through binoculars): What do you make of them?
Sparky (a mage): I haven't the slightest idea. They're too short for
orks and frankly better looking
Gunga (an ork): Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sparky: Sorry
Short Stuff (a dwarf): Well, they certainly are too ugly to be a dwarf.
Hot Lead: I count at least fifty in that war party. There's some kind
of chieftian on that horse, all dressed in feathers and stuff.
Gunga: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sparky: But what the hell are they?
Everyone: *shrug*

> Fairy gets tough, wants to become Street Samurai. Stop the
> presses! Yeah, I can really see it now. A three foot tall winged
> sucker flying about ten feet off the ground, firing a Vindicator
> at about four ugly Corp Guards. Yeah, that works. Oh, and that
> Cyberarm he always wanted. Would he be able to get it at all or
> would you just raise the price if he didn't want a 3' tall body
> and one 3' long cyberarm?

First, these critters are about 5/6 the height of a dwarf. Second, their
fragile bodies (with strength and body averages being only 2) makes most
of them become mages or techy types (high int helps there also). Of
course, you might get a few Rambo-Fairies. To handle gunfire for them,
double recoil on the ground, and triple it in the air. The first due to
their small size and light weirgh, the second due to the instability of
hovering there.

As far as cyber goes, I can't see how they'd have any probems getting it.
They are about the size of young kids. Perhaps at 50% to all cyber that
has to be sized (such as arms and legs).


{[> Robert A. Hayden ____ hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu <]}
{[> \ /__ hayden@****.cs.mankato.msus.edu <]}
{[> \/ / aq650@****.INS.CWRU.Edu <]}
{[> #include <std_disclaimer.h> \/ <]}
-=-=-
(GEEK CODE 0.3): GSS d- p--/-p+ c++ l++ m+/* s-/++ g+ w++ t++ r++ x+

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Random Thought:

"I think trash is the most important manifestation of culture we have in my
lifetime."
-- Johnny Legend
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Message no. 3
From: Thom Watson <thom@******.DIGEX.NET>
Subject: Re: New Races again.... (fwd)
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:10:27 -0400
Once upon a time, thom said
From thom Wed Jul 14 14:09:57 1993
Subject: Re: New Races again....
To: hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:09:57 -0400 (EDT)
In-Reply-To: <199307141511.AA24345@*****.digex.net> from "Robert A.
Hayden" at Jul 14, 93 10:02:20 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Length: 2111

Once upon a time, Robert A. Hayden said

= First, these critters are about 5/6 the height of a dwarf. Second, their
= fragile bodies (with strength and body averages being only 2) makes most
= of them become mages or techy types (high int helps there also). Of
= course, you might get a few Rambo-Fairies. To handle gunfire for them,
= double recoil on the ground, and triple it in the air. The first due to
= their small size and light weirgh, the second due to the instability of
= hovering there.
=
= As far as cyber goes, I can't see how they'd have any probems getting it.
= They are about the size of young kids. Perhaps at 50% to all cyber that
= has to be sized (such as arms and legs).

Be sure to keep in mind the psychological and sociological effects,
too. People, after all, have had a number of years to get used to the
elves, dwarves, trolls and orcs among them, and even the occasional
minotaur and ogre phenotypes are at least similar enough to these
norms. But little guys with wings?!

Especially while they're relatively rare, a lot of folks are going to
be wary of them. I can imagine any number of cyberclinics and weapons
shops being more interested in collecting a specimen for science,
nuyen or just the trophy wall than in selling them weapons or fitting
them with cyberware. After all, if one just happens to die while under
anesthetic, well, gee, that happens all the time, you know?

If I were a sprite, and knew that there were those who considered me a
new and exotic pet, and I had a body of 2 and a strength of 1, I'd
sure as heck not make myself terribly visible.

I also just don't see many sprites having the mindset of becoming
sams. After all, it's only through high mana that they're able to
exist at all--I don't see them as goblinized humans, but as a separate
manifestation from the mana, much as dragons--so technology should be
less appealing to them, and essence loss should be a very, very bad
thing for them.

--
Thom Watson thom@*****.net
"What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?"
--Ursula K. LeGuin


--
Thom Watson thom@*****.net
"What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?"
--Ursula K. LeGuin

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about New Races again...., you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!