Welcome Guest
[Log In]
[Register]
| Homebrew Race - Unicorn; May God have mercy on my soul. | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 26 2015, 10:20 PM (2,048 Views) | |
| weredrago2 | Jul 26 2015, 10:20 PM Post #1 |
|
He Who Posts Too Much
|
Credit goes to Zed for statting out the original, and other users here and there for brainstorming the rest. I had a Pony version of this race, but I removed it. Go to the link above for Ponies. Unicorns Created by the Syrne as collectible pets, the Unicorns of the Equestrian Crystal Sphere have been isolated from the rest of the Great Wheel since the War in Heaven. Separated from their masters, the Holy Unicorn Diarchy (ruled by the immortal Lurue and Selene) took charge and founded a civilization of their own for Unicornkind. For over forty thousand years, the Unicorns had known a mostly uninterrupted era of peace. This peace was shattered when an Ork warship crashed into their Sphere, revealing the presence of the Unicorns to the Wheel at large. With the opportunity of a lifetime right outside their Sphere, many Unicorns left right away in search of adventure, companionship, and boatloads of money. Your average Unicorn is both friendly and adorable, which means it takes a special kind of Unicorn to leave their homes and boldly face the horrors right outside their sheltered borders. It takes a really special kind of Unicorn to do this successfully, which means you won’t see many of them outside of their Crystal Sphere. A new and divisive player in the grand stage, the Council hasn’t had this much trouble on their hands since the Humans showed up. Physical Characteristics Average Height: 1.00-1.42 m Average Weight: 100-150 kg Languages: Trade, Equestrian Common Personality Traits: Friendly, sweet, sheltered, easily startled, community-oriented. Common Physical Traits: Hooved quadruped, large eyes, bright and varying coloration, expressive face. Example Names: Chromatic Charger, Scarcity, Tendersky, Puce Pastry, Dazzling Solstice, Jack Daniels Racial Statistics Characteristic Bonus: +1 Fellowship or Intelligence Skill Bonus: +1 Arcana and Charm Power: My Little Quadruped: Unicorns have the Quadruped Trait. Their tactile telekinesis allows them to 'grip' things with their hooves, but they automatically fail any test that requires the use of fine manipulators. You can wield a melee weapon this way, but not fire a gun. Alternatively, you can hold a weapon in your mouth at a -1k1 penalty to hit. Size: 3 Physical Qualities Though Unicorns are strikingly similar to the domesticated ponies that inhabit humanity's homeworld, they exhibit much more expressive faces and a larger range of coat and mane colors. In fact, you can find a Unicorn in just about any color of the rainbow. While Unicorns are just as massive as many other inhabitants of The Wheel, their slight frames and quadrupedal structure gives them a lower profile. Most adult Unicorns have a Talent Glyph, a magic icon on their flanks that represents their special talent. The exact nature of this phenomenon is unknown, but it is studied thoroughly by the scientific community. Most people throw their arms in the air and blame the Syrne. All that is really known about them is that they manifest when a Unicorn finds their purpose in life, and will aspire to become masters of their talent however they can. Unicorns that are unable to make their Talent Glyph work for them are known to slip into deep depressions or insanity. Male Unicorns grow long beards, especially as they grow in age and power. Female Unicorns express their beauty with styled manes and tails. Unicorns of royal blood (such as the Diarchs) are easy to spot in a crowd, being notable taller and more majestic than their peers. There are other breeds of Unicorn, such as the Unicorn equivalent of a draft horse or Unicorns that explode into fire. Playing a Unicorn Unicorns are very restricted in what they can do, given that they lack hands. They can use their hooves for simple manipulation, but they are still left at a significant disadvantage. There are Unicorn specific tools available, but they are much rarer than their normal counterparts. You should think long and hard before choosing to play as a race that can't fire a gun under most circumstances. Unicorns also make for very good specialists, doing what they are good at with the expectation that their teammates will cover their backs. Though Unicorns are naturally pacifistic, they can get violent like anything else in the Wheel when threatened. Being a naturally harmonious lot, Unicorns generally worship the Blessed Pantheon. Some do, however, prefer the freedom of Chaos to the security of Order. Due to the Diarchy's association with the sun and moon, worship of Pelor and Luna are incredibly popular. Oh, and your group will probably hate you if you play as a Unicorn. You’ve been warned. Unicorn Heroes Long ago, a little Unicorn filly found herself lost in a magnificent garden, deep in the frightening forest right outside her family’s farm. There were hundreds of beautiful fruit, but only the golden apple caught her eye. There were dozens of signs warning her of the cost, but she took the risk and ate the apple to taste it’s temptation. The forbidden fruit granted the filly terrible power, branding her flank with a Golden Apple Talent Glyph. It’s been years since she broke the taboo and ate the apple, but the arrogance that came with Golden Apple’s sin has only made the sorcerous mare thirst for even more power. The top of her class in the Equestrian Military Academy, the Unicorn Starlight had a bright future ahead of her. Her future seemed so bright, that nobody expected her life to be cut short by a reckless driver splattering her across a Sigil highway. With the medical talents of the enigmatic Dr. Madaraki, Starlight's crippled body was fitted into a horse shaped mechanical shell. The Unicorn was successfully revived, but not unchanged by the harrowing experience. Any ambitions or goals Starlight had before her death were wiped away by her harrowing accident, the robot Unicorn's new purpose only to forever move forward. Valve Turner is your average, nondescript Unicorn plumber trying to make ends meet on the hellish hive he lives in. At least, Valve Turner was your average, nondescript Unicorn plumber. That all changed when he made contact with the abused machine spirits of his planet while snaking a drain, bonding with them so that he could better bring justice to his lawless home. By day, he is Valve Turner. By night, he is an engine of destruction. From his porcelain throne at the center of his Panzer, Valve Turner fights for what's right... with all of the grace and poise you would expect out of a machine made from shit and plasteel. Racial Feats Beast of Burden [Unicorn] You're a lot bigger and stronger than a Unicorn has any right to be. Increase your Size by 1, and treat your Strength as 1 higher for the purposes of pulling, lifting, or carrying things. You can carry multiple allies on your back, as long as their combined Sizes do not exceed yours by 2. Celestial Charger [Unicorn] You have been blessed by the Goddess-Diarch Lurue, and her power flows through your blood. Your horn is long and sharp, granting you a natural attack with the following profile (2k1 R, Pen 4). You can also use your horn as a Torch. Nyxian Courser [Unicorn] You have been blessed by the Goddess-Diarch Selene, and her power flows through your blood. Gain the Dark Sight trait. You can envelop yourself or your friends in protective darkness. This functions as the Armouring Aura spell, using your Level + Composure instead of the normal magic test. Psi-Pony [Unicorn, Paragon] After countless horse-hours of practice and training, you have honed your natural telekinesis above and beyond its original parameters. You can now telekinetically manipulate objects at a range of (Wisdom*5) meters and use Willpower and Wisdom in the place of Strength and Dexterity. Along with lifting or moving objects, your telekinesis can be used to perform attack actions. Rapidash [Unicorn] Some Unicorns have a burning passion for running under an open sky. In some cases, literally. No Unicorn knows how or why the ability manifests, but some foals are born with a mane of flame and a need for speed. Your Run actions are x8 Speed instead of x6. In addition, you can burst into flames as part of a Run action, dealing (Willpower)k3 E Incendiary damage to everything within melee range of your path. This can be done once per level per scene. Talent Glyph [Unicorn] At some point in their lives, a Unicorn can develop a mark on their flanks that represents their special talent. Choose one skill. A Unicorn can go up to 6 dots in that particular skill and gains a free specialty. This Glyph is critically important to its owner, as it represents their purpose in life. If a Unicorn character fails a test using this skill by more than 15, they must succeed a TN 20 Willpower test or gain 1d10 Insanity Points. Edited by weredrago2, Mar 29 2016, 10:39 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Replies: | |
|---|---|
| Kwak | Feb 18 2016, 04:08 AM Post #61 |
![]()
Sous Chef
|
Here's an attempt at moving some Pony-focused discussion to the actual Pony thread. Let me preface this by saying that I think Zed and weredrago have done a good job with this, and I think that a large portion of the backlash is schoolboy treehouse bullshit. But that's caused me to overlook a lot of the issues with Unicorns, which Reviewanon and others have recently articulated much better. Below is a "mental checklist" that Doc posted last year explaining the process for determining if something should go in the PDF. I think a very good case can be made it not going in there, but that myself and others have been dismissing that case as nothing but prejudice. Is it complete? Yes...although the fact that nobody's managed to get an Equestria blurb out there would suggest that they aren't fully integrated into the setting and need more conceptual fleshing-out. Does it work? Reviewanon makes a good argument for "no" mechanically:
Unicorns don't have hands, and if this crippling flaw is negated via Telekinesis then the race's defining Quadruped trait is largely negated. From a fluff/reference perspective, most of it comes from My Little Pony, which doesn't seem applicable to an RPG crossover at first glance. Hence the D&D influences, which I feel are similar to my Thunderscape refluff on the Mobian - an after-the fact justification for what remains largely a port (although a good port) of one thing. Is it balanced compared to other stuff? As above, no. Telekinesis is too strong, and acts as a feat tax just to negate their inability to do things like use a bathroom, get in a car or wear clothing. Do people like it? This depends on what you mean by people. Here on the forum? Yeah, we do. We did in 2011, we did in 2015, and we do now. The novelty of Quadruped is nice, and it makes for fun Hero ideas like Valve Turner. But on /tg/? It's perhaps the most disliked thing in the entire book, except for perhaps the Font. Some of that is knee-jerk show hate (which some of them argue is just as valid as our users' knee-jerk show like), but some is just legitimate issues with playable Quadrupeds, too many benefits, and tonal dissonance with the rest of the setting. Would I have to make a new section for it? If so, is there enough other stuff to fill out that section? Quite possibly. In fact, it may require a new PDF. But the issue with that is that to get "enough other stuff", some content would have to be put in what tg's calling the "Unicorn Ghetto", where it would be doomed and dismissed as joke options. But if that's true, then wouldn't the same be true for the book as a whole? Overall, I'm putting this out as the case for Unicorns not being in the next PDF, and perhaps being strictly a forum-only thing (After all, it's much more popular here). At the very least, it needs serious modification on both crunch and fluff in order to meet the above standards. |
![]() |
|
| Username | Feb 18 2016, 08:15 AM Post #62 |
|
I'm not a big fan either to be honest. |
![]() |
|
| weredrago2 | Feb 18 2016, 08:27 AM Post #63 |
|
He Who Posts Too Much
|
You know, I was waiting for a long time for somebody on /tg/ to bring up their complaints on here instead of whining about them where I can't properly respond without prefacing every post with "Creator of Unicorns here". I'm not surprised to see that it didn't happen.
I didn't start working on an Equestrian Sphere yet because 1. Been busy and 2. I have very little material to work with. I'd agree that because they don't have well integrated fluff that they need to be fleshed out more conceptually.
With God as my witness, I tried to make this as unrelated to My Little Pony as possible. Of course, I'd have an easier time of splitting an atom with a toothpick than doing that. I'll be the first to admit that the light D&D influences just don't cut it here, and that they need a stronger base to count as 'fully mixed' and acceptably tabletop related.
I agree that taking away their basic utility and replacing it with a spell is redundant, but I haven't thought of anything better. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anything better from the faceless masses who keep shitting on it either. No really, I'll take anything that improves upon what I already have. They're just not offering any good ideas to fix it besides burning it to the ground and working on something else.
I still have no fucking clue how "I hate the show so this race sucks" is a valid criticism. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that? I'm not shoving it down anybody's throats and telling them to play it. You don't like Unicorns? Ban them as playable races in your games and have Space Marines drop bombs on their world or something. As for the people with actual complaints, I agree that Unicorns have many issues that need to be addressed before they can be included in the book again.
This is the reason I didn't want to put Unicorns in a book separate from the BBOB. Those little shits will dismiss the rest of the book for being gay/retarded/broke/etc and ignore it because it includes Unicorns. I really don't want to damn the good 'joke' homebrews everyone made because of fucking Unicorns, but at the same time I don't think it can be included in the BBOB due to their incompatibility with everything else. I suppose if we're going to put them in something, we might as well put them somewhere else. I'm also considering putting Durulz in the joke book as well. People in universe think that Ducks are jokes, so I see no reason not to put them there.
I agree with all points. I'll PM Doc to ask him to remove Unicorns from the PDF. You heard it here, folks; Unicorns are no longer going to be in Book 3. For those of you who have been bitching about Unicorns for months, break out the wine and celebrate, because you've managed to convince me that the Unicorn as it is now does not belong in the Homebrew Races book. EDIT: While I'm here...
That is absolutely fine. I don't see any reason to force people to accept a (for lack of better terms) horseshit homebrew just because I put a lot of effort into making it decent and failed. You're free to your own opinion on it. Edited by weredrago2, Feb 18 2016, 08:29 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| Kwak | Feb 18 2016, 12:09 PM Post #64 |
![]()
Sous Chef
|
The irritating thing is that a lot of their criticism really is homophobic hand-wringing, which I don't respect at all - especially compared to the work you've put in to make it viable. Believe it or not, I was pro-Unicorn up until yesterday, and I think it's telling that everybody else on the forum is regardless of their opinions on the show. I think the mechanics are still worth fixing, too.
Fucking yep. You've done a great job at what I think was an impossible task to begin with. The concept of playable horses just doesn't exist without MLP, which is what LawfulNice picked (despite liking MLP) as the example of Not!DtD. And looking back on our earlier discussion in Zed's thread, people saw the backlash coming, but said it would go over with people Ok because they'd see it as "A joke option, even for a joke game". We now know that "joke option" has the opposite effect. But anyway, you know all that; that's why you're pulling it from the book. But it's still worth working on and it's still worth playing. So here's an actual productive idea: What if they start with point-blank Telekinesis, which lets them do things with hands, but they have no effective Strength so they fail any tests, but can still go about daily life? Edited by Kwak, Feb 18 2016, 01:25 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| weredrago2 | Feb 18 2016, 12:32 PM Post #65 |
|
He Who Posts Too Much
|
Bands? You mean like rings for their horns? You'd have to elaborate. You know, I just now considered something I really should have considered ages ago: Tactile telekinesis. As in, they can 'grip' things with their hooves using magic/psionics naturally, but otherwise can't manipulate them. That would be an absurdly simple solution to the TK problem. Edited by weredrago2, Feb 18 2016, 12:32 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Kwak | Feb 18 2016, 01:25 PM Post #66 |
![]()
Sous Chef
|
Typo. I meant "hands". Your tactile TK thing works OK too, though |
![]() |
|
| Divergent Reality | Feb 18 2016, 01:44 PM Post #67 |
|
Quality Not Guaranteed!
|
![]() Pinkie Pie approve of this addition. |
![]() |
|
| weredrago2 | Feb 18 2016, 03:11 PM Post #68 |
|
He Who Posts Too Much
|
Altered the racial power and the Psi-Pony feat. Thoughts? |
![]() |
|
| Kwak | Feb 18 2016, 03:21 PM Post #69 |
![]()
Sous Chef
|
Psi-Pony strikes me as more of a Paragon Feat than Unisus, looking strictly at benefits. |
![]() |
|
| weredrago2 | Feb 18 2016, 03:27 PM Post #70 |
|
He Who Posts Too Much
|
It would be a lot easier to claim a divergence from MLP by removing Alicorns. That, and I can turn Psi-Pony into legit TK instead of needing to cast a spell first. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Archive · Next Topic » |
| Theme: Zeta Original | Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
1:54 PM Jul 11
|









1:54 PM Jul 11