Thangorn wrote:“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step..” Lao Tzu
What in the hells are plane-touched?
Quite simply plane-touched are any being with the blood of an outsider somewhere in their bloodline. This can include deities, elementals, demons, devas, eladrins, genies, whatever. Lets make a clear distinction here between plane-touched and half-fiends. Plane-touched are not Cambions, Alu-fiends, Draegloths or any other race is that is a direct product of a union between a human/mortal race and an outsider. It just means somewhere way back in the past, great-great-great-great grandmammy/grandpappy got jiggy with an outsider.
Plane-touched in the Forgotten Realms
Most plane-touched bloodlines in the realms are ancient. From the genies of Calimshan, to the deities of Mulhorand, to the demons and devils summoned by powerful sorcerors, ancient plane-touched bloodlines run through many different regions of Faerun. Most of these bloodlines come from the Old Empires which are not due to be supported in the first initial ALFA servers that go live however trade centres like Waterdeep, Skullport and Zhentil Keep are certainly fertile ground for plane-touched characters.
How does this proposal address plane-touched implementation on ALFA?
In Forgotten Realms canon, there are literally hundreds of potential different types of plane-touched bloodlines.
Known Planetouched Races
• Aasimar (humans descended from celestial beings)
• Azerblood (Faerunian Planetouched descended from Shield Dwarves and Azers)
• Axani (descended from lawful beings)
• Cansin (descended from chaotic beings)
• Celadrin (Faerunian Planetouched descended from Elves and Eladrin (usually Firre))
• Chaond (descended from Slaad)
• D'hin'ni (Faerunian Planetouched descended from Lightfoot Halflings and D'jinn)
• Fey'ri (elves with fiendish blood)
• Genasi (descended from elementals)
• Glimmerfolk (descended from beings of radiant energy)
• Maeluth (dwarves with devilish blood)
• Mechanatrix (descended from clockwork creatures of Mechanus)
• Mephling (similar to genasi but descended from mephits)
• Para-genasi (dust, ice, magma, ooze, smoke, steam)
• Shadowswyft (descended from creatures from the Plane of Shadow)
• Shyft (descended from one of the native races of the Ethereal Plane)
• Tanarukk (Orcs descended from demons)
• Tiefling (humans descended from fiendish beings)
• Wispling (halflings descended from demons)
• Worghest (Faerunian Plantouched descended from Goblins and Barghests)
• Zenythri (descended from lawful beings)
In the interest of starting small and slow, this proposal only deals with less monstrous and/or weird and wonderful looking plane-touched. Initially this proposal, being a way map for a beta-test implementation will only deal with only the most popular plane-touched player race, tieflings.
Enough BS. Get to the point.
The focus of this proposal is a plane-touched test for the most popularly requested player race. Why do I believe it is the most popular? With 4th Edition D&D around the corner, races like gnomes have been dropped from the initial race offering in favour of tieflings. No other plane-touched races are in the initial offering. I have no intention of doing the market research myself and it is purely an educated guess, but that would seem to indicate a general trend toward tieflings over the other races.
Also from my own personal experience, I’ve been playing PnP and online DnD for nearly 20 years. The only plane-touched race any of my players have ever asked to play? You guessed it, tieflings.
The canon of my module region, The Moonsea, provides fertile possibilities for the existence of tiefling player characters. It is my view that it would be easiest to integrate necessary infrastructure for these races into the module and showcase what might be possible for other plane-touched races without giving them an advantage (aside from their canon abilities) or disadvantage (aside from LA) over .
The intention is to show that a gradual implementation, one race at a time, would be a far better option than trying to tackle all plane-touched at once. Let us deal with attendant issues on a race-by-race basis for all plane-touched LA races. Take small bites to make them easier to digest, rather than trying to eat the whole buffet so to speak.
What am I proposing exactly?
I’m proposing that rather than automatically deny plane-touched PCs because its all to hard or automatically accept plane-touched PCs just because players want them, that we take a more moderate approach. Actually run a test and thereby make an informed decision about plane-touched.
The structure of the proposed test would be as follows.
We start the test by only working with tieflings, to reduce the amount of time required to pull the scripting together. There is a sizeable amount of work involved of course but not nearly as much as one might think if we approach it intelligently, one race at a time.
Firstly I’d like to address some of the issues that have been raised by ALFA administrators and community members regarding the implementation of plane-touched PCs.
PC models
Some plane-touched can actually pass as relatively normal humans according to canon. It is for this reason that I believe that the available human models should be allowed for plane-touched characters. These could be packaged in a hak file however haks are not yet available in character creation at this time.
Tieflings have a range of different “mutations”, some of which can be cosmetically subtle. This from “Races of Faerun” -:
Tieflings look human except for one or two distinguishing features related to their unusual ancenstry. Some examples of these features (and the ancestor that causes them) are:
• Small horns on the head (demon, devil, night hag) – already in PC models
• Fangs or pointed teeth – already in PC models
• Forked tongue (demon, devil) – RP mutation only
• Glowing red eyes (demon, devil, night hag) – Scripted effect implementation
• Cat eyes (rakshasa) – already in PC models
• More or less than 5 fingers (demon, devil) – rare and not worth implementing, RP if the player really wants this mutation
• Goatlike legs (devil) – models exist, hakkable
• Hooves (devil) – models exists, hakkable
• Non-prehensile tail (demon, devil) – models exist, hakkable
• Furry, leathery or scaly skin (demon, devil, rakshasa) – Add colours via hak and RP it
• Red skin (demon, devil) – already in PC models
• Bruised blue skin (night hag) – already in PC models
For the beta test, if haks were not available at character creation, if a Tiefling was deemed to have a low WF Rating (see below) according to their bio, then they may be able to create their character using the human race template and be given a tiefling undroppable, usable ECL object by a DM similar to NWN1 implementation.
WF Rating
As discussed earlier, tieflings have a range of different “mutations”, some of which can be cosmetically subtle.
All plane-touched PCs need to have their bio scruntinised and accepted by the DMs before rolling them up, “mutations” need to be determined at this time. I believe it is best that when a plane-touched PC bio is submitted that a “Weirdness Factor” rating be agreed upon by the DM and the player.
This WF rating would describe how easy it would be to recognise the PC as plane-touched. For the purposes of this test, the WF rating would define how easy it would be to recognise the PCs fiendish heritage. The WF rating could be up to 20 and would be a modifier to add to/subtract from the DC ratings on reactions with NPCs. Charisma and Disguise would be mitigating factors.
This rating would underpin many of the scripted aspects of playing a Plane-touched PC including -: disguises, NPC conversation reactions, repulsion spawning scripts, KOS spawning scripts and PT haven scripts.
Initial implementation of the WF rating for the beta test would be through a DM wand or DM GUI widget. This would be a persistent integer set upon the PC and referred to by the PT NPC reaction scripts outlined below.
Disguise skill
A lot of the my Beta test of tiefling implementation would be underpinned by the ALFA custom skill disguise that AcadiusLost has been working on. I understand the implementation is not yet perfected, but I hope that this test also plays host to some possibilities for what we can do with the disguise skill on our modules. For some ECL races, Disguise skill or magics that can duplicate it will mean survival.
NPC scripts
The key scripts to implement here are involved in conversations when a PT PC talks to them. It’s a simple matter of deciding during module creation whether a specific NPC might react differently to plane-touched through an On-Perception event type script that would set a variable upon the NPC which would be accessed through their conversation. In a lot of cases, the body of work here would be variant conversations or extra conversation branches for tieflings. It would be something that all module builders would need to consider for every NPC conversation they write.
I have in mind to create simple, well commented on-perception event and conversation scripts that will work for tieflings and could be adapted for other plane-touched just by changing a variable on the NPC. The main tasks that would take time though would be writing the conversations.
KOS scripts
This is actually one of the easier scripts to implement. I am using KOS as a blanket description for guard approach scripts, detainment scripts and KOS scripts. Most plane-touched wouldn’t be KOS as drow might, but if recognised as PT in certain areas the script might fire like this -:
1. On-perception event detects PT
2. NPC guard approach fires
3. Conversation force fires leading to questioning
4. Conversation is broken or conversation thread leads to subdual combat
5. If subdual combat is a loss and detention scripts fire.
6. Character is detained until a DM is on. Yes that might suck but so does rerolling due to a kobold (or chicken) spawn. Tell me which is the lesser of two evils.
This test will give me the opportunity to work on these scripts for all my cities and in cases like Hillsfar, Zhentil Keep and Mulmaster, guards might just decide they don’t like the look of you even if you are human!
Whether I work the KOS scripts through the faction system or work another race-specific system I’m not sure yet and will involve discussion with the tech team as to the most workable ALFA-wide option.
Repulsion Scripts
Once again these can be based on WF, Cha and Disguise. Its really just an on-perception event for NPCs that are skittish. I can easily recycle and tweak Teric’s scripts from the OAS2 creatures here and just have them fire differently On-Perception.
Areas for plane-touched enclaves
I prefer to refer to them as “havens”, “enclave” seems to say that plane-touched require communities of plane-touched apart from others (examples of such might be Fey-Ri or Tannarukks which I have no intention of making available for PCs) where as I prefer to think that many live right under the noses of the general populace. I believe plane-touched need “havens” to retreat to but realistically whole societies of plane-touched PCs are not going to be implemented.
For the purposes of the test and future implementation, a tiefling with decent disguise and a low WF they can potentially mingle anywhere. If a PC really wants to play a high WF tiefling (it should be noted, I can’t think of many ALFAns who would want to play characters that can’t socialise) they are going to be quite restricted to havens and wilderness areas and places where they are taken for their own merits and not their race.
In terms of where we might find these on The Moonsea -:
• Zhentil Keep Ruins. There are thousands of strays in this area. High WF Tieflings may have been one of the few races left alone by the fiendish and monstrous invaders so we might expect some to survive in the Ruins.
• Humanoid Bar in Zhentil Keep. There is an entire canon pub full of goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, minotaurs, etc. Tieflings and drow might be the only LA races that might get left alone by the rest of the patrons for a time, at least once they killed someone who bothered them.
• Ruins and lonely farms on the edge of Cormanthor. I’m sure that some fiendish heritage in the bloodline could have been passed down from the days of Myth Drannor and kept secret by some human dales families.
• Almost anywhere in Zhentil Keep with a low WF tiefling and reasonable disguise. Some High-level Zhentarim in the know may still be jumpy about Lord Orgauth (the ex-lord who turned out to be a pit-fiend, now banished.. hopefully) and may have agents on the look out though. This might be an opportunity to bring a tiefling into the Zhentarim (or perhaps slavery if they refuse ).
The Beta-test Schedule
This is an outline of the schedule I would work to. I expect full implementation to take around 3 months but I would be able to start work on this the moment I have a new monitor.
• Meet with tech team to discuss proposal and current systems that can be adapted.
While I am certain that I could do the whole thing on my own given time, I have a module to build and run and I want to make sure anything I do is ALFA compliant, supports tech goals and can be applied to other areas of ALFA including the possibilities for future race implementation.
The complete scripting design may take a few sessions and I am keen that only decisions to be ratified by admin and definite clear plans for implementation come from these meetings. I estimate these meetings and drawing out minuted decisions to be ratified and actions will take approximately 6-8 hours in total.
o Key agenda items -:
- For the beta test it is unlikely that human PC features will be available for the the tiefling. Discuss implementation strategy and -:
• undroppable LA tokens which hold their special abilities,
• skin colouration,
• undroppable model “masks”.
- Current tech projects: Disguise skill implementation and submission implementation and how I can assist to get these working.
- WF Rating implementation
- Systems I can scavenge and implementation for NPC conversation scripts, KOS scripts and repulsion scripts.
- Future game updates that might break things and how I/we handle it
Hours to complete: approx. 8 hours for meetings and minuted decisions to be ratified, plans to implement and actions to be carried out.
Final result: A complete technical plan that is 100% ALFA compliant and workable (at least on paper, we’ll see what happens once we start testing).
• Scripting and hakking human NPC features.
This depends on what solution we decide on technically and for me this seems to be the toughest since it involves haks and new models. I put my hand up to do this but I will be needing an hour of technical support from the tech team per week. I understand this is a big commitment but I would suggest that once a week if the tech team is open to it, I meet with one of the tech staff at an agreed upon time to discuss what I am doing. The hours required for me to script/hak things up should be as follows -:
- Undroppable LA Token scripting – I intend to scavenge and refit so it wont take too long. (8 hours)
- Skin colouration – I have no idea how to do this yet. That has never stopped me before and I am sure there is a way. This is more research than scripting, once I know which way I am going to do this, it should be a lot easier. (20 hours at a guess)
- Model “masks” – This involves either taking the provided human head models or tiefling head models and turning them into helmet items that cover the head. Its not going to be perfect but it will do for the beta-test. These helmet items will displace when a helmet or hood is put on and replace when the helmet or hood is removed. Since tieflings tend to be rogues and sorcerors I hope we wont see too many problems with helmets screwing up immersion. I actually think that going forward we’ll be able to add human heads into tiefling character creation so this wont be a problem going forward. (20 hours or so to test and make it work)
Total hours to complete: 50 hours
Final result: A workable model system for tieflings that aren’t that crazy looking.
• PTWF (Plane-touched Weirdness Factor) framework scripting
This is an agreed upon number, expressed as a persistent integer set by a DM object script or GUI application on the PC on their first log-in. It is a penalty that will apply to NPC reactions depending on the tolerance of the society.
So not only is the WF integer stored on a PC it must be applied to each member of the society they enter. My suggestion is that a tolerance modifier is a persistently stored integer on any given area that is built and is accessed by the rest of the scripts. We assume maximum tolerance if the area does not have a tolerance modifier to save builders time. A DM should be able to modify tolerance on an area through the same widget that changes WF.
This doesn’t sound too tough to me so I’ll allow 8 hours to script it. To me this isn’t “extra” work as I wanted a strong faction system on the server so if this works I’ll be able to use parts of it to fashion the faction reactions system.
Total hours: 8 hours
Final result: A workable WF system that will mean that NPCs treat plane-touched appropriately to their society.
• Disguise skill scripting
This system will be based on the disguise skill that Acadius has been working on so I will need to discuss with him how this will play out fully. I envisage creating a basic disguise kit item, to conceal the features that will be consumed on the use of the disguise skill and will keep the PC disguised until they next log in, although each combat should rightly have a chance of dislodging parts of the disguise.
On a successful disguise check, the PC will gain an increase in the tolerance factor of an area which means that he/she might not get locked up, beaten up or avoided for a period of time. Even an unsuccessful check should allow a PTPC (plane-touched PC) to conceal their appearance somewhat depending on how badly they fail.
Obviously we can implement illusion spells that will serve the same purpose down the track. But for the purposes of testing, I believe this will suffice.
Total hours: 12 hours
Final result: A workable disguise system that allows plane-touched (and certain other LA races) to hide their features.
• Submission scripting
This was already undertaken by Ronan and I intend to take it apart and put it back together again unless someone else is already doing it. In which case it will save me time spent on this.
My thought on this is that PCs can choose submission damage or choose to remove it with a key stroke. If a PC and an NPC are in submission combat it will stay that way unless a PC chooses to go lethal again in which case, the NPCs damage will change aswell.
Total hours: 12 hours
Final result: A workable submission system that allows NPCs and PCs to do submission damage.
• NPC conversation branches and associated scripts
These will be scripts that will check for the “distance” between the perceived WF and the tolerance of the society. For intolerant areas a number of talk strings will be prepared “Get out of my Inn foul demon! CALL THE GUARDS!!” which will then kick off either a repulsion, a delayed guard spawn at the door or outside or KOS script or all of the above. This part of the plan is difficult to quantify since in Beta 2 it will just be a matter of me attaching these scripts to the NPCs I need to which will pretty much be every merchant.
If the NPC reaction roll is “failed” a completely different conversation other than the default conversation might be chosen. The main part of this is in testing but since I want drow in Zhentil Keep, I really want to ensure this works. So I am not just working on it for plane-touched.
Total hours: 12 to lay down the basics for testing. Ongoing maintenance and testing is however required to finish this.
Final result: A “realistic” (and I use the term loosely) responsive environment for plane-touched which can be applied to other races and factions.
• KOS scripts
These are straight forward. I’ve written them before and I want them on my module anyway. The component parts again -:
1. On-perception event detects PT
2. NPC guard approach fires
3. Conversation force fires leading to questioning
4. Conversation is broken or conversation thread leads to subdual combat
5. If subdual combat is a loss and detention scripts fire.
6. Character is detained until a DM is on or some other condition is met (time elapses, character escapes, etc.).
7. For future reference if the PC escapes. This will affect their faction reputation with guards’ faction perhaps leading to lethal combat on recognition.
Total hours: 12 hours for refit and implementation
Final result: Guards that question people, beat them up and lock them away for an appropriate reason.
• Repulsion scripts
These already exist on the OAS and all I have to do is refit them to the task. Seems simple enough.
Total hours: 6 hours
Final result: Skittish people who perceive a PTPC will run away quickly and despawn somewhere.
• Build and script haven areas
Involves building 4 areas which I will be building anyway. My planned havens are -:
o Ruined house basement
o Zhentil Keep sewer haven
o Abandoned Farm
o The Burst Boil Tavern
There are other places where a tiefling’s race wont matter if they are member of the faction these include -: The Black Star Coven (warlock cult), ZK Thieves Guild, ZK Mages guild, ZK Warriors guild, any of the churches, the Zhentarim, the Lolthian drow, etc. In some cases this will mean that the tolerance factor of some areas will increase for a member of some factions. I don’t plan to implement this functionality until after the PT Beta test has begun.
I have to script havens for drow and any race that is not human in Hillsfar anyway so this works out fine.
Total hours: 20 hours
Final result: 4 fully scripted interiors with spawns that tieflings can retreat to with out fear of getting pwned.
• Assess static content for tieflings is balanced against other races
During the beta 2 test it will be required that I assess whether PT can access as much static content as other races and are thereby not advantaged or disadvantaged more than they are already.
• Script required static content
Unless I identify there is a need for this. I’m not going to do it but I will apply any work I do on this to other LA races as well.
• 3 month Beta 2 test
This will be a review of logs, player “interviews” and how smoothly we find plane-touched run on the server. In the beta test I want as many testers as I can get to run PT characters, I’m thinking if I can get 3 testers through 1/week for 3 months. During this time I’ll DM them and any others (since I need to see how mixed parties will work) at least every two weeks and see how it plays out and collect all my data in a report which I will deliver to admin covering the key concerns discussed by the community and admin and how well the test covered them. The report will also address any considerations admin want me to look/test for.
Scripting Labour Hours
At least 132 hours in total with my scripting ability. That will take me roughly 12 weeks to complete with my schedule but it is not much work I wasn’t going to be doing anyway. Heaps of the systems except the 50 hours on PC models, I was going to build for Beta 3 anyway.
I can make a start on this as soon as I have a monitor for my build rig which will be in the next month or so.
DM perception that plane-touched are a problem to deal with?
I don’t know until I do the test but I can tell you I’ve already DMed pariah-type characters in ALFA, they were hard-work and they weren’t even plane-touched! I don’t see how plane-touched can make things any harder than rampant, highly imaginative roleplayers of any type .
DM strain will be one of the key criteria in my report and I’d like to see whether the perception has any merit.
ZOMG plane-touched are overrunning my servar!!!
My take on this is to set an ALFA-wide limit of a minimum 1 per 8-10 active players on the server, but I think this one should be left up to the HDMs as to whether they allow more on their server or what WF is acceptable for their campaigns. The more active players, the more plane-touched should rightly be allowed.
All plane-touched would need to go through a bio approval process before rolling and may be asked to tone down certain aspects of their character to meet a WF that the HDM and DM team deem as acceptable.
That’s just my opinion and its not really something you can test but I’d advocate setting stringent limits and allowing HDMs the leeway to accept more.
I think under the circumstances it is important that PT who want to travel contact the HDMs of any server they are travelling to much as you would do if you wanted your human character to go to Menzoberranzan. I do believe that the HDM of the server they are travelling to should have the power to deny access to PT characters for appropriate reasons. I’m not sure what those reasons might be but I think “our PT limit is exceeded so no thank you” is an acceptable reason.
Conclusion
In short I feel that beta-testing a contentious issue such as PT is the way forward. It increases the workload more than just saying no but it can also inspire those who are passionate about an issue to get onboard and direct their enthusiasm.
I feel that the time frames stated here are realistic and I believe the information gathered by such a test will allow us to know the best way forward on PT. Perhaps we will decide that they really do require too much work to implement properly in the short term and look at a longer term approach. At any rate, I am an advocate of player choice as long as they back up their choices. If I don’t get enough testers out of this, I’d say we pull the pin.
Considering I am thin on builders too, I am hoping that at least one of these vocal proponents of plane-touched PCs steps up to the plate and offers to give me a hand with the Moonsea. In this way we can advance the test so much more quickly.
I hope this proposal has not been too much of a heavy read and that you are happy with the content. Please feel free to ask me for any further clarifications or offer me criticisms.
