The Three Things I Don't Like About Blue Rose

[FickleGM]

I always sort of like the Diaboli from Mystara. Purple skinned, horned, cloven-hooved, etc. Good aligned.

I didn't like the cartwheeling thing they did, but other than that, they also seemed like the perfect "misunderstood" race.

[Stareyes]

Technically low Charisma just means 'not very skilled at social skills'. A low-Charisma character could be rude, or he could be shy (for example). Someone with stage fright and a nervous stutter would have problems with most of the Charisma-based skills unless he trained in them, no matter how polite he behaves. Or, species-wise, it could reflect a species with a more solitary society (a tiger, as opposed to a lion).

From that perspective, the Sorcerer Kings giving any low-level servants Charisma penalties would make sense -- they want to avoid natural leaders in a low-level servant (the people who do the jobs that require too much thought to be done by unliving, but not enough to be done by someone important), since they don't want a revolt of the laborers. On the other hand, being able to work in groups well could be a desired trait in a laborer. (Intelligence and Wisdom seem to be the same way -- both high and low stats have benefits to prospective Sorcerer Kings, while the physical stats don't have as much of a downside of boosting them in of themselves.)

Actually, coming up with species created by Sorcery would be kinda fun -- just put yourself in the role of a power-hungry paranoid ruler with crazy amounts of arcane power and ask yourself, 'Okay, what do I need to run my Evil Overlordship, what raw materials do I have, and what do I want to do with all this power that I sold my soul for?'

[Ghola]

I always sort of like the Diaboli from Mystara. Purple skinned, horned, cloven-hooved, etc. Good aligned.

I didn't like the cartwheeling thing they did, but other than that, they also seemed like the perfect "misunderstood" race.

I miss those folks.


As for building a "new servitor race" I don't see how it could end up looking much different from the Night People. They were designed for manual labor, working after dark (when humans are impaired), and hobbled in a way to make them less likely to rise up against Jarek (although the success of that is debatable).

[Jonathan Moyer]

Even the passages you quote state that despite the "good works" of Aldin Night People, they are still disdained by some of their compatriots.

The passages I quoted indicate that their compatriots disdain night people not so much because they're "stupid" and "unlikeable," but because most people (even some Aldins) unfairly stereotype night people as evil shadowspawn hell bent on killing them. It doesn't help that they tend to be menacing in appearance, but the book clearly states that their reputation is undeserved.

[UtilikiltManiac]

They're discriminated against for reasons that are...totally accurate. They really are stupid, uncivilized savages, their stat modifiers say so. A Night People bard is going to sound awful, a Night People scholar is going to be measurably inferior to a scholar of any other race...they're a walking, talking (or grunting, rather) argument in favor of racism. Why would PCs really want to stick up for them, except for out of pity for a lesser being?

We are talking about stat averages, right? Just because the average Night People scholar or bard is going to be inferior to another, doesn't mean that all Night People are inferior lessing beings that need the pity of the Aldeans to be worth sticking up for.

Actually, it kinda does. Right there in the book it says that Night People are stupid and unpleasant in comparison to everyone else...hence the stat modifiers. Even the smartest Night People person will never reach the same potential as a human. And going by the flavor text, they don't have much going for them either. They haven't reached any positions of power or influence, they don't contribute anything to Aldin Society, and the only place where they're considered useful (Kern) uses them as overseers for human slaves.

It would be one thing if we had this race of ugly, good-natured, intelligent people in a society that considers itself flawless and accepting. That's a real challenge to Aldis' claims of enlightenment. But what we have are a race of ugly, dumb, rude people.

What this looks like is pretty straightforward. The people of Aldis are wonderful people, beautiful people, and inherently bigoted against anyone less beautiful, intelligent, or otherwise not like them. They are the spoiled rich kids living off Rodeo Drive, who all wear Prada and carry Louis Vitton bags, and they're all gorgeous, but they really fear anything that isn't bright and shining like them.

I think my main problem with Blue Rose is that while it remade D&D in a way that made it much more social in nature, the society is really rather sickening. It doesn't feel real, in the sense that it's like a faerie tale with all of the ugliness taken out. The elves aren't elven enough. They too Tolkeinesque, when it would have been better to go in and look at older faerie tales to get some idea of what real elves could be like rather than just converting them over.

You're right in that the races are the weak point. I would also throw the awakened animals in there, but that's a matter of personal taste, and they are very true to certain authors of the genre. They just don't work for me. People tend to play awakened animals as people in cute, furry bodies, and that's just not animal enough for me. I played a cat once in a Blue Rose game, and spent much of the game sleeping, some schmoozing around, and killed a few birds. Why? Because that's what cats do. Eat, sleep, hunt, make more cats. I'm not certain that more intelligence would change that at all.

[nephandi]

Ah, D&D leftovers. I got rid of that pesky -1 to Int. for the Night People. Got one night person PC in my game. I have this PC encounter racism with some frequency. I think he enjoys being perceived as a bit of a goblin.

I hardly have any vata'an show up in game. I don't have much of a big problem with them in the setting, though; they're just extra-shiny people. The 'true vata' are dead and gone, so that makes them more mysterious and awesome than the rather pedestrian D&D elves. Those dark vata though... a bit too drow for my tastes.

Spirit Dancers... yeah. I like to think of them as Sufi or Yoga/Hindu, rather than Buddhist or Daoist. Just seems to fit better, with the polytheism and the diverse society and the dancing and there not being a western priest role (except in Jarzon).