... now with 35% more arrogance!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Outsider Races

I've actually been editing more heavily on the Liber Zero summary file the last couple days, which is why I happened to be working on the treasure tables. But the side effect is that I haven't had much else to write about. But I thought I'd break the silence with a light post about my experience as a "dark loner" PC.

I've never read the Forgotten Realms books*, so I know very little about Drizzt. Nor have I seen anyone playing a Drizzt-clone in any game I was in... except, sort of, me. Before Drizzt even existed.

*OK, I started one once, although I don't think it was a Drizzt book. Don't remember the name or the plot, only that I disliked the writing so early on that I couldn't bear to finish it.


Or at least my character was superficially like Drizzt, from what little I know about him. A couple times, for a couple different systems, I created an Atlantean prince, not long after the fall of Atlantis. I had a sketchy background for Atlantis, since Atlantis wasn't officially a part of the campaigns I was playing in: the nobles were all dual-class Fighter/Magic-Users, and Atlanteans were naturally ambidextrous, so they fought with two weapons, typically short swords. So yeah, dual-wielding, cultural outsider, able to fight and cast spells, unable to return to his homeland... sort of a Drizzt clone, despite my lack of knowledge.

Except that the angst and the conflicted evil-good stuff wasn't there, and I didn't load down the Atlantean race with a bunch of racial goodies in some crude attempt to bolster my character's power. The Atlanteans were basically elves, but with ambidexterity and dual-wielding instead of heightened senses, immunity to sleep and paralysis, and other elven goodies. Culturally, they were a doomed race, but not cruel and evil; in other words, toned-down Melnibonéans.

So, hopefully, I may be forgiven.

2 comments:

  1. At least you were honest about the Elric influence...

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  2. Yep, although it's actually the other way around. Melniboné -- and Tolkien's Numénor -- were influenced by Atlantis. I'd heard of Atlantis way before I read Moorcock or Tolkien, through my grandmother talking about Edgar Cayce and Richard Shaver. There was also an Andre Norton book about someone being sent back in time to Atlantis, a movie called Atlantis: the Lost Continent, a TV series called Fantastic Journey that included high-tech Atlanteans, Prince Namor, and various cartoons. I had a really strong Atlantis obsession before I ever read about Elric.

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