Equal race point totals

[RyanW]

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've played a non-human character.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Bruno

There's a basic divide between people who think "be something cool" can include (or must be) things that are not human, and people who think humans (possibly stretched to include "demi-humans") are cool. It doesn't mean much, it's just a personality thing.

I'm always torn if I even want to include humans in settings I make. On one hand, there can be some very cool settings without being 'chained' by requiring humans. On the other, those settings can be incredibly and bizarrely alien to even imagine your character (or yourself) in. I'm definitely fall on the "be something cool" side.

[The Colonel]

Whilst we're here ... is there any point value for a species in being unable to use magic or is that just fluff?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Whilst we're here ... is there any point value for a species in being unable to use magic or is that just fluff?

Seems setting-dependent.

If Magic is restricted to those with Magery, then that's basically Taboo Trait (Magery) and as such probably worth [0].

But in high mana being barred from a large and useful class of skills probably should be worth something.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Whilst we're here ... is there any point value for a species in being unable to use magic or is that just fluff?

Taboo traits are generally 0-point features, so I wouldn't give out points for not being able to buy Magery. However, if the setting includes truly ubiquitous magic, where no special traits are needed to pick up magical skills, I could see a limited version of Cannot Learn being appropriate.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Whilst we're here ... is there any point value for a species in being unable to use magic or is that just fluff?

Social Stigma may be appropriate for societies that consider nonmagical races to be inferior.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by scc

Giving humans however many points in luck based and other similar advantages might work, I've been wanting to re-tool DF along these lines for base-line player races.

That makes a lot of sense.

There's a long tradition in fantasy and science fiction, and games inspired by them, to give humans certain "edges" to make them competitive with other species which have spiffy built-in powers.

In GURPS, the human "edge" is that you get more room to customize your character as you see fit, which means potentially more skills and advantages.

Allowing only human characters to have access to certain traits, like Will 14+, Cultural Adaptability/Xenoadaptability, Luck, Talent (Business Acumen), or Versatile fits in nicely with some game conversions.

[Flyndaran]

For real world mammals, humans have an extreme potential for aerobic fitness. I tend to have it so that only humans have access to Very Fit.

[Railstar]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

I tend to agree, mostly because it's too many points in one narrow area.

And it just dawned on me every human NPC with Will around 18 would be virtually immune to influence skills... I can see that having massive effects on the game world. Or humans being all about psionics.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Railstar

And it just dawned on me every human NPC with Will around 18 would be virtually immune to influence skills... I can see that having massive effects on the game world. Or humans being all about psionics.

A handful of very nice skills are based on Will, like Intimidation. Humans were basically immune to Influence except other humans using fear... and the other races were not. That's a huge effect on the setting.

I've been working on my races and almost have the (supposed) most expensive one done in Titan being close to 400pts. Looking at another race, the easiest way to boost their total to 400 would be two more levels of ATR. I probably won't be pushing everyone to 400 because of that, but it's something to note.