Odd Species to be Princes

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Odd Species to be Princes

      Thinking about all the species that got a template in Magic and Martial Arts some very obscure (Sunbird, Turaco Glass Lizard) Some of familiar but less...Glamorous than species in the Basic Compendium (Examples of Animals that most Americans recognize Beaver, Moose Opossum, Turkey Jay, Robin, Pelican, Roadrunner, Tasmanian Devil, Small Parrots, Small Deer, Albatross, Stork Salamanders and Newts, Camels and Llamas, Koalas, Rats)

      Watching this RPG Channel How to be a Great Game Master in particular this video
      youtube.com/watch?v=fG7OaGtoEaU&t=780s

      Imagining the example character he gave as Cats I asked myself Why Cats? Why not imagine the daughter of the evil Duke as a Songbird or a Rodent or an Ungulate? Culture has given me the impression that the logical thing is that apex predators are the royalty of Animal Kingdom while Animals lower on the food chain are the peasants even though I know that literally isn't the case with Shard different countries have different ruling classes Bakari has Ungulates Dur-Purum has Rodents Rakibar has Tropical Birds...Actually just Birds as Griffen said did say a Blue Jay and Cardinal would be nobles in Rakibar and those are both famous temperate forest species.

      So just imaging playing maybe not royalty specifically but imagining a scenario like Guy describes where you are the relative of a Villainous Noble and your Jenu isn't a sexy Canine or Feline...Maybe not even a member of Order Carnivora at all like imagining some of the more comical Animals like a Turkey or Pelican being the Prince character

      And of course there is the obvious that Janah breed freely within their own type...Like the Evil Noble in question IS a menacing Feline but the PC (Perhaps an illegitimate child of an illicit affair) is a Prey Species like a Mouse
    • Playing various species "at odds" with our own expectations can provide fodder for a lot of exceptional story-telling and role-playing circumstances within games like Shard... It's always fun to see players really "find themselves" within the various animal archetypes, and I've seen it happen even when they didn't realize they may have had an affinity for that animal type while considering how they might play one of the limited number of jenu-types offered in our demos... Suddenly they begin realizing how fun it is to play a 4-foot tall mockingbird with attitudinal issues like "bullying nature". ^^

      It's also great watching potential players checking out our system, loving the idea of playing an animal person, and then specifically seeking out their favorite from within either book's Animal Template sections... Just the other day I met some wonderful folks at the recent convention, one of whom specifically wondered if we had the North American opossum represented... I eagerly showed her the listing for it, and she was delighted to read its description and discover that it described her own personality so well! She'd read several phrases aloud and say "Oh my gosh, that's ME!"

      This kind of stuff makes me so happy, because it cements in my mind the fact that, just as often as folks enjoy playing more "traditional" favorites. they ALSO enjoy playing atypical offerings and enjoyably "non-exotic" creatures they they enjoy cheering on more than the popular celebrity animals... This indicates to me they they enjoy seeing atypical animals as the stars of story and game fiction as well... Sometimes playing outside of the box is far more interesting, in the long term...
    • Teenage Mutant Sarpah wrote:

      Heroic Mice are actually a pretty common Trope themselves, so for a Paksin specific example the Evil Duke is a Menacing Raptor and his illegitimate daughter is turkey! Don't see a lot of turkey protagonists particularly female turkeys
      Ha ha! I love the humor of a turkey being the daughter of the protagonist especially because it conjures up that cartoon moment when she's finally introduced in a "Spongebob" kind of way at a climactic moment of the story, only to make the comedy-laden "gobble-gobble' noise...