Race Shown in Right-Click -> Examine?

[Ambaryerno]

I was thinking about this in the Good vs. Evil RP thread, when someone mentioned Tieflings walking around unmasked risk an on-sight attack, but how even if in disguise they have an aura which should cause people around them discomfort when RP'ing.

The problem I have is given the graphical limitations of the game, (characters are REALLY tiny unless you zoom way in) I have a VERY hard time telling some of the races apart (not to mention the dozens of subraces of Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, etc., particularly since I don't have the Lore on the variations in appearance memorized. Or even handy when I'm in-game).

Would it be possible to have the description that appears when you Examine a PC or NPC list their Race? I realize this could risk some metagaming, but would it really be worse than what already happens?

It would be nice to sit down next to Bob* the Tiefling and be able to see what he is OOC when he has his identity disguised, so I can properly RP that my character feels inexplicably uncomfortable around the strange guy in the mask because of the aura of "wrongness" that Bob* gives off.

This would especially be beneficial to players who don't ALREADY know OOC what each individual character's Race is.

[raetin]

I can just about guarantee this will not happen for a few reasons.

• The metagaming issues are far worse than you would think.
• Not all tieflings should be easy to spot, some look like normal humans (though nwn2 doesn't give that option when choosing a head).
• The aura is a "vague sense of discomfort" not "this is a tiefling" and should generally not be used to discover whether or not someone is a tiefling. It is more like a "I don't trust that person" than anything else. Detect evil would be more accurate, but is not present on this server in any form. (A DM can override me on this point, but that is my understanding of the teifling's aura.)
• Such a change would have far-reaching (metagaming-related) consequences for a slew of situations (UD on surface, surface in UD, half-orcs, gray-orcs, etc.).

[Ambaryerno]

I'll admit I've not been around the servers very long to see just how far the Metagaming spreads, but I do understand this is a concern.

As far as the Tiefling aura of "wrongness." I don't mean the aura would specifically tell PCs the person IS a Tiefling, but that by knowing OOC that they are I can more easily RP IC like there's something about them that gets the hairs on the back of my neck up, even if I don't know what it is.

[raetin]

I getcha, and it is a valid want.

Unfortunately, the bad RP'ers will ruin it for everyone. You'll take it as the hairs standing up on the back of your neck. Many others will take it as a license to either just start chopping, or interrogate someone endlessly until they have some shred of evidence with which they can declare the teifling as such, and then start chopping.

I have been on the receiving end of such metagaming before.

I've actually seen players go so far as just demanding characters remove their hood, and taking refusal as "Oh, you are a teifling, chop chop".

[Ambaryerno]

True, I guess. Which is too bad, because it CAN work with the right people. Last night I was RPing off another PC--who was hiding in a bush and whom I know is a Tiefling--that I felt uncomfortable, but not why, since I failed every Spot Check we rolled (not to actually SEE them, just to determine if I could pinpoint from where that feeling of unease was coming). Finally the other PCs /T'ed me to ask if they should feel uncomfortable, too, and when I explained the situation on PM I had EVERYONE at the fire looking around uneasily without knowing why. A LOT of fun to be had by all, especially when the Tiefling occasionally laughed at us and we failed our Listen checks.



But yeah, there's griefers everywhere. Which sucks because of how much fun it can be with a group of GOOD RPers like in the situation above. I guess that's what happens on an open server like this.

Maybe someday if the player base is big enough BGTSSC can be expanded to include a second, passworded server that could be used for hard RP and meta-gaming griefers can be more easily managed...

[vetinari]

There is already a solution to this.

If you are not sure of somebody's race, all you need to do is kill them. Then, when you click on the body, a dialog window will open that says "You have come across the body of a dead [[Human, dwarf, Tiefling, . . whatever]]"

Is it a perfect solution? No. But I think that's what I like about it.

[Randall]

There is already a solution to this.

If you are not sure of somebody's race, all you need to do is kill them. Then, when you click on the body, a dialog window will open that says "You have come across the body of a dead [[Human, dwarf, Tiefling, . . whatever]]"

Is it a perfect solution? No. But I think that's what I like about it.

I don't see what's wrong in that solution, personally.

*Nods*