Staffing Restricting the type of playable characters

[Icewolf 258]

This is a fandom related question, so I will understand if people don't get what I'm talking about, but this has been something that's bothered me for a while now. In the Tolkien fandom some races (Hobbits, elves, Men and dwarves) are more playable than others. There is a lot you can do with the characters. You can roleplay their family life, they can go on adventures, Men in particular can be on the side of the Free Peoples, or be Corrupt, or be neither.

 

The problem arises when it comes to other types of characters, such as orcs, wargs, goblins, trolls and spiders. Although I would like to have these characters in the rp, I am uncertain about how playable they really are. A Men character, even if he/she is a servant of Sauron, would have more freedom of movement to go into the places of the Free Peoples and not get immediately attacked or exiled - they could even 'make friends' or interact with ordinary people so they are 'approachable' by characters that other players have.

 

From my experience on twitter and other places, orcs, wargs, goblins, etc, don't really seem to last long because players are restricted in how they can play them. A lot of the time, they can only really interact with others of their kind (unless there is a storyline that involves conflict with travelers or some such.) and usually, there aren't any other players with those types of characters to rp with. I don't want a player creating a character like that and then have nothing to do with it.

 

The other issue is that there are some character types - dragons, balrogs, 'good Maia', 'bad Maia', Valar and Melkor who are very powerful which could be used to make things difficult for people who play ordinary characters by god-moding and such. (The wizards, Gandalf, Radagast and Saruman are 'good Maia' but I don't have any issues with people playing those because they can interact freely and we know that they are restricted in using their powers.)

[Death Kitten 200]

In my star trek game, I out and out ban players from making certain races, and strongly limit others, and all for the reasons you mention above: some are too powerful, some don't make sense in our game setting, and some aren't likely to be used more than once or twice before they get retired because no one wants to write with them.

 

Players are always going to come up with crazy ideas, they're going to want to act on them... and if your game isn't the place for them to do it, then you just have to lay it out in the rules. You have to make sure that the game is going to be enjoyable for everyone, so if someone rolling through with a very over powered character has the strong potential to ruin it for others, then you should ban that character type.

 

If someone really wants to write an unusual or overpowered character type, well, they can make their own game and see if there are enough other like minded people to populate it.

 

Back to the same thing that comes up with so many of these threads: you can't please everyone, so set up the game you're going to enjoy.

[Icewolf 258]

In a Star Trek game if you didn't want to limit the character races to those in the Federation, I can see how a Deep Space Nine type setting could work. (I'd find that to be more interesting than one which was just based on a starship, for instance.) But a player having Q, a Borg (unless it's Seven of Nine), or one of the more unusual/less common races would be pushing it.

 

I can see how some of the more powerful races in Tolkien could be rped if the setting is the Silmarillion, (and even Sauron, if the setting is the Second Age when he forges the Ring,) but I can't see how they could be rped in the Third Age without ruining it, but I'm thinking that a blanket no on the characters would make things less confusing for new comers to the site.

 

I have considered letting players have one of the less playable characters if they already have a dwarf, Man, Hobbit, or elf in play, but with the understanding that the character is unlikely to get out much. They could be played as NPCs like what occurs in Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, etc (without the complicated D20 system.)

[Kit the Human 759]

I restrict races based on limited RP opportunity/OPness as well. 

 

But it also gives you a chance to set up a forum event that leads to a restricted race becoming playable for whatever reason.

 

Assuming that you want to see some of these other races see good use, maybe you can put some love into a group of orcs (for example). Give them sympathetic elements without altering their nature. Make a plot and wanted ads. Make your own character. It'll take effort but I think it's doable.

 

If you're just uncomfortable with restricting races purely due to limited RP opportunity, then yeah, make them available and let people mark accounts as NPC ones. 

 

All that said, it's ok to put restrictions on character types! Maybe you lose a handful of players, but if they're deadset on only playing a restricted race you'll lose them anyway.... Because there's little for them to RP. 

[Claire 18]

For powerful races/characters we have them staff played and only for plot points/events. Restricting roles is a thing at my site too, since these roles can have a heavy influence on an area/plot so we need to keep an eye on the players and what they are doing - just for fairness and consistency and continuity.

[VirusZero 176]

I don't know much about Tolkien's universe specifically but in regards to fandoms of any sort I think it's perfectly fine to put limits or even restrict outright whatever the admin desires to fit their game. 

 

I mean there are some types of characters that are supposed to be rare. (Like the Protheans from Mass Effect... they're mostly extinct by the time the series picks up.) So it makes sense for that race not to be allowed playable.  Otherwise it could have some catastrophic effects for the lore of the franchise. (Suppose the Protheans survived... they basically had a working anti-Reaper weapon. It'd mean they'd have stopped the Reapers and likely destroyed the mass relays. They would have had to spend a lot of time rebuilding them and thus it'd take quite a while before most non-Prothean species found and could use them. )

 

Others may need to be restricted because they're too powerful or too easily abused. (Like Kryptonians on Earth.)

 

I do also think that having limits on types can be important if allowing those types would make things harder to play. I mean like if players chose all these races that would ordinarily never interact. (For example if people picked a mix of Vampires, Demons and Angels... Demons might be confined to Hell, Angels could possibly get to Earth but might have no reason to be there, and Vampires might be locked to basically one city due to travel times. )

 

I also think having limits forces people to get creative, to play within set boundaries. I think it's why people like playing canon characters. (To see if they can match that mindset. Along with the goal of just getting more of their favourite character.) 

Don't get me wrong I like the idea of unlimited creative freedom... but it only rarely happens. Most times I've seen claims to needing creative freedom it's been because someone wanted either to be special (and circumvent some lore) or they were trying to use it to justify some obnoxious behaviour like godmodding. (Like when someone wants a witch/wizard in a game that doesn't allow magic.)

 

[Uaithne 543]

I have no problems restricting races that are super powered or that won't get much play opportunity. But be aware that there will always be people who request them, and you should have a solid answer as to why you don't allow them. If you decide to open up the position, be consistent and fair when allowing people to play them.

 

In your case, I would require people to play one of the easier races first, and the more challenging ones later if they're interested. I'd also expect them to not be as active with those more challenging races, either, so adjust your activity rules if needed. It might be cool to have an event to build up these races in number and plot opportunities, but only once your standard or common races are solid and there is no risk of damaging these core groups if you focus elsewhere.

 

And I'd also ban the super powerful characters.