The Minionless

These are some amazing pieces of artwork showing someone’s view of what each of the Mass Effect races would look like reaperized.

(via mimzemmy)

This weekend I finished my very first play-through of Diablo III and was lucky enough to participate in a Beta Weekend for Torchlight II. Promptly forgetting this I asked my friends what I should write about this past Monday, to which they replied, “well you could write about the game you just beat.” So here we go!

Diablo III

This is a spectacular game, it is well made in every aspect and is truly a joy to play especially if you are already a fan of the series. The third installment of Diablo throws out the rule-book on ARPGs, then goes outside gets it and dusts it off. They drastically changed one of the largest aspects in the Diablo series, character abilities and leveling. Instead of the normal left click-right click format for power use now you have the addition of number keys 1-4 this really broadens the play experience. The nature of power selection is different as well where you are more likely building an ability kit that works well together from set groups of powers for each key and mouse button. I personally greatly enjoyed this new style of progression and play, it felt faster and much less tedious having to stay up to date on your point distributions. The visuals of the game are what you would expect from a developer like Blizzard, amazing, also it’s plenty dark. The sound is well done throughout the game, and the voice acting is really a treat. I can’t really recommend this game enough, it is just a really solid well made game throughout.

Torchlight II

I am going to try and temper this review knowing that this was only a short Beta Weekend. Having said that Torchlight is an amazing game, it really captures an aesthetic that I greatly enjoy. Caught somewhere between Cartoony and Stylized the games art style immediately pops out for me because I find it so reminiscent of Halloween. The gameplay is a direct parallel to Diablo II with abilities having up to 15 points allocated to them and the 4 different attribute scores having 5 points distributed to them per level at the players distinction. However that isn’t to say that Torchlight doesn’t do anything new with the system, it allows the player use of number keys 1-0 to allocate spells in any order or desire. The other aspects of the gameplay that really do it for me are; The pets, every character starts with a pet of their own choice that assists in combat, can be taught spells, carry equipment, shapeshift by eating fish, run back to town to sell your items, and even bring back the necessities for you. The way the inventory mechanically works, as well as the layout of it now, with three tabs for spells, consumables, and items you won’t be wasting lots of inventory space carrying the necessary potions or holding onto spells you might think will be useful later. Lastly all of the amazing additions to  the world with varying chests special encounters and randomly generated maps. The sound is well done, it is good enough that it will blend into the play experience. I am super excited about the game having played it now, I even pre-ordered it. Oh did I mention that you can pre-order Torchlight II for a 1/3 of what Diablo costs and get a free copy of Torchlight on steam.

Conclusions

Both games I played were absolutely amazing, I laughed, I enjoyed playing them, and most of all I still want to go back for more! Diablo’s high price tag means that you are paying for a guarenteed great game from a great developer, well worth it. Torchlight will appease the old fans of the Diablo series perhaps not overly fond of the new mechanics as well as entertain new crowds of gamers with its fun art style, great gameplay, and small price tag. Two very different games from the same genre and based on the same template you might find yourself enjoying both or preferring one over the other either way you can’t lose.

Five worlds, two characters apiece. Let’s do it.

1. A underground world dominated by fungal empires each lorded over by a massiveamalgamated consciousness. These empires exist in a relative peace due to their constant war with a massive religiously fueled kingdom of amphibious fish-men.

 1a. A middle-aged above-worlder who on a massive cave exploration lost the caravan he was protecting and has been welcomed into a small village of under-dwellers and has taken up a half law enforcer half town defender.

 1b. A gnomish Wizard specializing in the use of earth magic on a trip down into the underground world in an endeavor to discover the secrets of a lost gnomish empire said to have been built deep in the water filled caverns of the fish-men kingdom.

2. In a world where land is a sparse and the great oceans dominate life, owning a boat means that you will be able to provide for your family and as such the forests of this world are heavily preserved. When two island-states diplomatic relations start to break down and war is on the horizon something unbelievable happens. An undiscovered empire of amphibious fish-men arise from the depths of the great oceans in ships made of bone and cities made of coral. Now all land dwelling life is at stake as these bloodthirsty fish-people attempt to slaughter them and take their dry land as a trophy.

 2a. A female fisher-woman celebrated across her entire island for her skills with the harpoon bears witness to the pillaging of her home village and swears bitter revenge on the fish-man general, Razormaw, responsible for this atrocity.

 2b. King of a cloud kingdom who watches on as the world beneath them burns at the hands of a great evil force, he must decide whether he and his army of the sky will descend upon winged beasts and lend their aid to the ground-walkers they have come to look on as brothers and sisters.

3. A world where during their massive industrial revolution whose steam powered might carried civilization across all lands and waters, now cities span the globe stretching further up into the sky on spires of metal creating wholes new islands in the atmosphere. Stirrings of uprising are born from a religious sect found in the under-tropolises heralded by sewer dwelling amphibious fish-men.

 3a. Right hand man to the queen of olannia is sent to the religious sect in an attempt to infiltrate and undermine their operations. He soon finds out that his family and closest allies have all been taken in by the sect and must find a way to liberate them.

 3b. The apprentice to a famed alchemist must track down her mentors assassin and recover the mysterious potion he had devoted the last decade to making in an attempt to cure his wife of a terrible illness.

4. The western kingdoms all believe feverously in the use of slaves as their own currency and their eastern neighbors a slave free coalition of countries believe that this should be abolished an a new age of freedom should be brought about.

 4a. A fish-man adventurer uses the artifacts found during his numerous adventures to purchase and set free his brethren held in servitude by the western kindoms.

 4b. A slave who at birth was sent to the gladiatorial arenas and after growing up being trained to fight is one day set free by his terminally ill master and must find his way in a world he has no way of understanding. Eventually he finds employ in a company of adventurers attempting to build an estate of their own.

5. In the far flung future thinking of any planet as a homeworld or even a place where people would gather and settle is a joke. Instead humanity has turned to colossal space stations each themselves much larger than most conventional planets providing all terrestrial benefits of a planet, but capable of stellar relocation to mineral rich areas of the galaxy.

 5a. A young fish-man engineer is called upon to help create a tera-station capable of replacing their ocean dominated planet as a new home to the amphibious fish-people he will need to assemble a massive force of scientists to begin the research and eventual construction of his peoples new world.

 5b. A megalomaniacal quintillionaire who after having his own personal tera-station build converts it into the galaxies single largest zoo decides on a life of galactic conquest and uses experimental worm hole technology to summon his beasts and destroy all who would stand in his path to glory.

Oof now I’m tired. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

For Historian Mordecai De-estar travelling the stars could not ever be a pleasant experience. At any given time his ship could be attacked or terrible misfortune could befall it’s passage and leave him trapped out in the vast and empty space. No no he couldn’t just willy-nillie jump on any spacecraft and fly off to the home world of some distant species and learn their wonderful histories. Only the most significant occasion could bring Mordecai out of Earth’s atmosphere, and this…was a very significant occasion. Still that could not stop his body from releasing nauseated gurgles, and so he did the only activity he knew would calm his stomach, reading about the beginnings of his favorite species, Humanity.

Early in the history of Earth man found magic and the arcane arts, those of a certain genetic disposition could absorb a substance called Mana, they could then manipulate it to create amazing results, entirely too many results for the time being thought Mordecai. As civilization was built these ancestors of Magisters called Wizards used their unique powers to help shape the world we live in today, the unification of earths many nations under one banner for the betterment of all humanity.

Then came the day that Mana was truly found, originally discovered by the Scientist, Dr. Albert Kurn, Dr. Kurn was surprised to find all of his testing equipment would not work once he arrived in his experimental new lab deep within the Earth, the closest structure to the core of the planet ever known. After searching through more primitive means Dr. Kurn was able to discover the new periodic element Mana. This was a pure form of the Mana we had taken as a mystical force the benign rediation of which is what our Magisters were absorbing. Proximity to this Mana seem to cause current power sources to fail.

Upon discovery Mana caused a complete technological revolution, its effect on technology was at first worrisome until we discovered its ability to power objects almost indefinitely with only a small amount of the element. Despite the very limited amount of Mana found in the Earth and with no artificial way of creating it Humanity quickly advanced what would normally have been hundreds of years technologically in mere decades. With technology boosted with Mana Magisters also found that if they use a certain method of harvesting they could enhance their powers significantly. Humanity finally had the means to accelerate to the speed of light and even managed to discover warp travel we reached for the stars…and before too long the stars reached back.

Dozens of new sapient species both more advanced and primitive were found within our corner of the galaxy. Friendly and hostile both alliances and wars were forged in the decades after our first steps into the wider galaxy. New sources of Mana were found and Humanity expanded greatly. For a short time it seemed everything had settled down, that is until the astounding discovery of KO 1056-18b a large asteroid located 768 lightyears from the Cassiopeia A nebula.

KO 1056-18b or Kurn’s Step was the single most Mana rich object in known space thought to be a relic from the time of the big bang. The Mana mined off Kurn’s step could be the fuel to Galactic unification a common prize for Humanity and its allies to use for scientific and arcane advancement. Humanity presented their findings to the rest of the galaxy and invited all species to a share of the resources. This agreement said that while Humanity always received a slightly larger amount of resources mined on Kurn’s Step all other races forged in the contract would receive  equal shares to each other and that if all species should agree to this then all species would receive the same amount even Humanity, encouraging as many Species to agree as possible. Of the dozens only a handful agreed powerful among them the Strax, a large reptilian race native to jungle dominated planet, the Erevians, a near Human race that evolved from birds of prey, and the Onyr, a race of diminuitive Humanoids far ahead of almost all species technologically.

It was official, the M-Initiative had begun and colonization of KO 1056-18b started immediately.

That brings Mordecai to today, the year 2384, and he is going to that distant rock in search of history. A brand new history of a new alien species not native to our neighborhood. This was potentially the single greatest discovery of the 24th century, and he was going to spearhead it.

People are freaking the fuck out about the ending to Mass Effect 3. As much as they are entitled to their own opinions about the game. Can’t they just shut the fuck up sit the fuck down and have fun? or does the world not turn if someone somewhere isn’t satisfied with how someone did something else?

As the cool shadowy fingers of night crawl over the land shielding it once more from the mighty sun something peculiar happens.

I feel the itch of imagination, the ever present nagging that pulls at my attention to try my had at creating something of worth. It is like a buzz always at the back of my mind, but always seeming to escape me when I try to turn to it. Something that you can only grasp when you are not trying to find it.

Every-night this sensation begins again, when I am fed, watered, and feeling the toils of the day take their toll when my mind becomes unoccupied it rears its head.

And so I find a track or album that suits my tastes perhaps even an entire artist and I try my damnedest to crank the gears and produce something of that raw energy vibrating in my mind’s eye.

Several nights ago I sat down and penned a small map of Saracene as I had come to see it of late. At the beginning and even in the middle I was confident with it, something easy to give to a player and have them easily understand. It was not until the very end that I felt it still wasn’t going to provoke anything amongst my players no sudden interest no pull towards the content.

This very night, when the buzz was particularly loud, I grew compulsive, and quickly drew another, larger, map with several modifications to the previous iteration. Again it began strong and slowly waned as I worked on it. Always though it seems that I am left with content I feel unfit for the light of day for it will not evoke the reaction that I want.

I know that I want much from my work and that I want perhaps even more from the players pitying enough to withstand my work, but I can see no other way.

How do you think I should proceed? Should I keep working trying to make the base of the idea stronger, and stronger or should I work to develop it more deeply?

If the latter in which area would you like to see more development?

**IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED MASS EFFECT 1 OR EVEN 2 AND DON’T WANT IT SPOILED YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE AND STILL WANT TO READ IT, BUT DON’T WANT 3 SPOILED KEEP READING AND I’LL PUT IN A SECOND WARNING**

**AGAIN THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS TO MASS EFFECT 1, 2, AND 3**

I find it so hard as a gaming enthusiast and an RPG maker to deal with other peoples opinions. It seems as though no matter how god you think something is no one else shares that belief with you except for the choice few you choose to stand by.

This happens almost any time a new game is announced or a new game comes out what feels like the majority cry out that it can never be good what they are telling you. It can never be what it was.

In this instance I am talking about Mass Effect. IN my personal opinion I have yet to discover a Science-Fiction game or even setting that enthralls me as much as the universe and games of the Mass Effect series.

I’ve played through the first two games time and time again, while yes I can see the faults in both games I cannot see them as BAD nothing could possibly be further from the truth. I think of Mass Effect 1 and it’s combat as being a stepping stone for a company who has never really even tried to make a shooter before. It was rudimentary, but it served its purpose.

The combat in Mass Effect 2 was easily twice as good if not more. YES people can denounce the cover system and how it shouldn’t exist in video games because all it does is turn it into a shooting gallery, but I bet if I go and ask my friend who served in our modern military if he spent most of his time standing out in the open firing on other targets standing out in the open or maybe hiding to protect himself and taking pot-shots when he could at his enemies as THEY too hid behind cover he’d probably say the latter (Although I could be entirely wrong). I have never had a problem with cover systems maybe because I only seem to use them when it gets so intense and I’m taking so much damage that I have to hide so I don’t die. ME2 played beautifully, and that’s that.

The Mass Effect 3 Demo that I have been pouring hours into despite the fact it’s a demo has shown me that there was still further room for improvement. It’s faster, harder, more fluid, and overall better than ME2. The only thing in regard to combat that worried me for 3 was that they wanted to add more Melee options and I am a huge proponent that Melee has no place in a universe where someone can CREATE BLACK HOLES WITH THEIR MIND. And yet even that feature has completely won me over. No I don’t run around using only melee, but when I’m trapped behind cover and 17 people are shooting at me and one of them runs in closer for the kill and I can reach over my cover and stab them…yeah that’s kinda awesome. Melee has a lot of risk with almost no reward other than “whoa that was cool” It doesn’t do more damage, it isn’t faster it feels like a last resort…as it should.

Now story, Mass Effect 1 had an awesome story it used really well written dialog coupled together with a great protagonist and supporting characters facing a pretty gnarly enemy. However I’m going to be honest with you for a second. It did NOT win me over the first time I played it, what won me over the first time I played it was the characters. I liked Garrus and Wrex, I liked that it was a Sci-fi RPG and that guns didn’t use ammo (boy did I regret that). No I thought it was good and I thought it was fun, but the reapers didn’t seem threatening, the husks seemed utterly stoppable and the Geth were giant walking flashlights with I’m sorry, but the absolute dumbest looking heavy weapons platforms ever. It wasn’t until I got to ME2 that a spark happened and I thought to myself, “Oh ho ho now I get it now I see why these guys are pretty mean and why they could be scary.” Looking at the first mission of ME1 you think they are really trying to push for intense story from the get go, but the problem is that it doesn’t really work in my opinion. Yes they show a planet getting burned to the fucking ground and it’s really cool, but you have no context that could happen every god damn day for all I know, and then blamo ancient artifact (that looks a lot like human tech) blasts you with visions and suddenly you matter. After this action packed mission where you shoot robuts learn tons of shit you didn’t know and then SEE the bad guy you are sent back to a city where you run around for the next 2 hours of game play (or more if you are a completionist) doing fucking fetch quests essentially having been turned into a detective. Totally stripping you of any of your epic scale feelingnessthings from the intro.

However Mass Effect 2 had something completely else within it. It had better visuals, the better to take it seriously, it had better gameplay, the better to communicate the situation, and it had way better story. Burn me on a giant Prothean artifact and call me a collector because I am an unthinking robot who only plays games cause they are mainstream! Oh wait There are all those characters from the first game….and they are more interesting? Wait who are these new guys and why are they so cool? Holy crap those dudes looks scary…I’M SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THEM?! FUCK! OH SHIT THEY ARE SHOOTING CRAZY BUG LASERS! Are you kidding me? that game rocked! Moment fuckin 1 of the game is you dying..how much more dark do you want it. It is as though Bioware looked at the first game and said, “You know what this is way too ninny, fuck this” and cranked it to fuckin 11. Next holy shit your back to life and shit. just. got. fuckin. real. Thrown back into a what the fuck is going on situation because YOU’VE BEEN DEAD FOR TWO YEARS AND THIS IS WHAT IT SHOULD FEEL LIKE. Then it’s a little bit of explanation and onto the real first story mission. You know the one after the tutorial/intro, and how it made you feel scared with its utterly mood setting atmosphere and use of characters. Colonists are disappearing and we have a lead IMMEDIATELY GO CHECK IT OUT. Get there and it actually fucking feels like some shit has gone down. Low music sets the mood stark light…..I’m not going to tell you what happens but holy shit that made me feel a lot more afraid of the collectors than I ever was of the Geth. Each of the character conversations you can have with your crew as you go through the game are phenomenal I COULD LISTEN TO THANE, TALI, GARRUS, and WREX TALK FOR HOURS and NOT GET BORED, NOT TO FUCKING MENTION A CERTAIN CHARACTER YOU NEED TO PLAY THE GAME FUCK YOU. When I met Thane I hung on his every word he was slick, he was badass, and his voice acting had me rock fucking hard. He was the first character that actually made me WANT to go into my little fucking codex and read about something they didn’t TALK to me about. Don’t even get me started on the paragon and renegade options in conversations cause nothing needs to be said, they make the game worth playing alone.

**WARNING I’M GONNA TALK ABOUT MASS EFFECT 3’S DEMO NOW**

Both of these games were good, but I can agree that they are not trying to convey the same atmosphere of darkness. However I can argue that they both should be trying to convey atmospheres of epic scale war with an unstoppable alien menace.

Mass Effect 1 uses it’s intro to throw the player to the dogs and show off the big enemy in the distance in the hopes that it conveys size and an epic scale. It discusses how a planet is destroyed hoping that people understand planets don’t just get wiped out in this universe. THEN it makes you do fetch quests in a super boring environment consisting of either ALL DARK BLUE SURFACES OR ALL WHITE SURFACES. The Citadel comes off like a giant embassy/hospital the quests it sends you on are DULL AS SPIT. And normally I can stand dull as spit if they reveal something interesting, BUT THEY DON’T you perform all these crappily splayed out quests just to prove to some fucks something YOU ALREADY KNOW TO BE TRUE. I’m sorry if you think detective work to prove something you know is right is fun really I am, but me personally that sucked. Well you got through it now you get your ship and you get to zip off and do cool things this is where the game kind of picks up. You feel more in charge and get to do some cool things.

Mass Effect 2 takes the intro sequence and assumes you know the basics, E.G. You are on the Normandy, You are working as a Spectre doing cool things, and your ship can stealth like no other ship. Then out of no where BIGGER SHIP that looks mega weird for a space ship blows you the fuck up AFTER detecting your stealthed ass. OK now I feel powerless. You save people then die. Intro 2 you wake up in a random facility with no idea what’s going on except that some dude who stares at a sun wants to rebuild you. You know no one and suddenly you’re being shot at. You find friends along the way one gets shot by a hot chick and you escape. OK now you have a bit of time to catch you breath and do some talkin learn some cool stuff and they want to send you after the people who killed you. OK I’m on board now your off in space and you are automatically put in charge of these two who you don’t know…you arrive at a place where NO ONE ELSE IS LEFT. Your only safety is two people who were introduced to you not 15 minutes ago. It then doesn’t slow down everything gets shown to you. YOU are in this instance the disbelieving one and by the end they show you the fucking evidence. Congratulations here is a ton of money a ship the first character you KNOW and the fuckin galaxy at your fingertips go recruit a team WE’LL CALL YOU WHEN WE WANT YOU TO SEE SOME SHIT. Now I’m going to go on here and keep talking about the next story mission because it’s awesome how they use almost the exact same elements from the intro to 1 but used it in a place where the mood was already set and how it actually lit a fire in your pants. First of all it’s almost the same set up as the mission from the beginning “We think we know where some shit went down or might be going down soon GO” you go and this time you find what is happening just a bit sooner the colony isn’t empty but it’s being emptied and you can still catch them red handed. You fight shooty shooty bad guys lasers bugs CRAZY. Then oh look at that shit it’s a giant space ship in the back ground and everyone is freakin out about it…and so are you because now you have context as to WHY it is scary.

**ONCE AGAIN MASS EFFECT 3 POTENTIAL SPOILERIFICATION IMMINENT**

*As you read this next portion I want you to understand I’m now taking on faith you’ve played the other games*

In the Mass Effect 3 Demo you are quickly sped into situations that feel familiar shit is going down somewhere else and everyone is freakin out about it and you as Shepard are forced to say, “I told you so” for the millionth time and say, “shit is gonna get real for you real soo-” THEN EVERYTHING FUCKING EXPLODES BECAUSE OH SHIT THE REAPERS ARE FUCKING HERE. Everything in the series has been talking about how badass and scary the reapers are then they are. And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. The scene is set and the mood is firmly in place deal with it.

P.S. I just spoke with my friend about cover he agrees with me, but he also brought up that the cover mechanic wasn’t the problem it was the fact when you wanted to do one thing you instead got put into cover. Context cover is a shitty idea get rid of it SPACE FOR COVER, SHIFT FOR SPRINT USE AND DIVE. It’s easy.

P.P.S. My friend also just blew my fucking mind. He brought up the fact of the little boy in the demo and how it is supposed to act as a metaphor for humanity and it’s naivete in terms of impending doom. I don’t want to spoil too much for your own mind blowing so keep it in mind and go play the demo. 

I find it so hard to talk to the people I care about the most. I feel like an alien trying to communicate through a weird combination of sign language and interpretive dance. I don’t want to talk to them on the phone, bother them with texts, or even just try to get them engaged in something I’m doing.

When I originally moved into the house I could not have been happier I was living with three people who ultimately were very close friends who all held the relative same interests as me. Now however I feel like all of them dislike me. I can’t get them to go a day without some form of berating (well my perception of telling off). I wish there was some way I could tell them to please stop and tell me WHY I don’t want to be the one that drives a stake in our friendships I don’t want to have this year I spent with them be a complete and utter mistake forgetting the financial aspect. I’m absolutely petrified that when it comes time to move out (only about a month now) that I’ll never see them again and two of the most cherished people in my life will fade from my life without anything I can do to prevent that. That they will move on from me, I wasn’t anything more than a novelty to them something easily utilized for limited entertainment until one too many slip ups caused a rift.

Yesterday I went to my local game store to post a flyer for forming a D&D 4th edition group, when I got there I was honestly a littler surprised to not see anyone there I expected to see. It was really only me, a couple customers, and one of the guys who works at the store. So I hung around for a bit cause I drove all the way out there and didn’t want to just turn around and head home.

After a little bit the guy, we’ll call him Bill, starting talking to me about different stuff so I introduced myself and we ran the gamut of two table-top/RPG/MTG gamers which is to give a run down on what you play, how you play, and what your opinions on games are. We got talking about a bunch of cool Magic stuff, and then some 40k and Warmachine, rounding it out with D&D.

As a side note I want to mention the newest MTG block coming out looks pretty excellent, I love the classic horror feel to it along with all the new mechanics.

So we got to talking about Gamma world and I mentioned I was really interested by the game cause I read about the mechanics it used and I wanted to give it a go, but never really had a chance. Well he sat down and helped me roll my first character and it was so much fun to just roll the character I bought the starter box then and there. I brought it home and told everyone we should play this tonight cause it will be tons of fun. They were a little apprehensive at first but they warmed up to it after I read the intro to the game/rolled their characters. It was some of the most fun I’ve had playing a pen and paper game with my roommates, and friends in such a long time. I can’t wait to see where we take it next.

Oh and just a taste of why Gamma World is awesome my roommates party; A Mind Controlling Giant Cockroach who uses a sharpened toothbrush as a weapon, a 10 ft tall bird mutant that throws rocks from the sky…as well as other monsters, a Yeti-Cat mutant using a shotgun and machete, a Mind Breaking bird mutant with a 3 iron, and to round it all off a rock elemental Yeti riding a mutant six legged horse mounted with a tank cannon. Oh and they were fighting mutant badgers with napoleon complexes.

Awhile back I was stuck on the idea I badly needed to apply uniqueness to my D&D campaign through the customization of races, classes, and the world. I am still whole heartily into the same ideal however I don’t think that I should be trying to rewrite the book on something, no instead I should focus more on adding a chapter or just a panache of my own.

To give an example a couple weeks ago I was thinking about the idea of elves and how in current 4th edition D&D the big players among the fae are Elves and Eladrin both essentially fall under the general high fantasy definition of Elf yet mechanically are pretty different. If you have read a good number of fantasy books or even just heard of several different instances of elves you know that they have two styles that are often (From my perspective) seen. One is that elves are the fortuitous forest dwellers, who hunt their food with bow and stealth. Expert hunters and have a level of finesse above that of the standard human, they tend to excel in martial focuses primarily. The second example of Elves is of course the mystical race of higher intelligence as well has superior spirituality almost weaving the two together. In 4th edition Eladrin embody the latter while Elves the former.

Now when I looked at them I didn’t feel like there really was a need to distinguish them so distantly even if they were cousins, in previous editions these differences in race were categorized as sub-races, the Eladrin representing High Elves and Elves being Wood Elves. So through my interpretation I felt if there was to be a racial distinction between the two why not make the gap wider while adding something of an interesting back story to go along with it.

I brainstormed with a friend of mine the Kiwi for awhile and came up with the idea of having Elves actually be a plant based life, and the backstory being that in the Feywild (the dimensional realm from which they both originate) there was a sentient and benevolent tree that was cared for by the Eladrin for many centuries until due to the cataclysmic dawn war Eladrin were forced to battle. The tree lamenting this loss sought a way to bring them back. It was not until the end of the war when Melora (Goddess of Nature) took pity and granted the tree life giving properties. So it gave birth to the Elves, and they were birthed in the image of the Eladrin. However their bodies were not made as the Eladrin’s were for the manipulation of arcana, while adept they did not have the raw finesse, they instead focused on becoming masters of their new physical forms thus their dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom bonuses.

I figured I had struck something that was pretty good, until later when in conference it was brought to my attention this was a rather shallow change to something that came with a lot of depth and back story, so I retrofitted the changes for the Elves into something new for the Wilden.

I still don’t know if I should pursue a level of uniqueness within the races themselves or focus instead more on their societies and culture. Feel free to chime in on your opinion of my example or what I should do.