[Tywyll]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Balancing races isn't really a problem.

I don't agree.

Characteristics are individual to particular species, so trolls are going to be bigger than dwarves, dwarves are stronger than elves, elves are cleverer than trolls and so on. That's a fact and shouldn't be an issue.

Sure it should, if there is no reason to play humans, then no one will.

Inherent powers aren't a problem either. Some species can do things naturally, some can't. Glorantha trolls use Darksense, other creature can see in the dark, others can swim or breathe underwater, others can fly. This isn't a problem either. Don't even try and balance these out otherwise you cripple the original concept of the species.

If a race has all sorts of advantages, and few to no disadvantages, then why shouldn't you try to balance things out?

If you say that PCs are rolled up at a certain level then you can work out the skills but then have the problem of justifying the skill level. You are going to get the player who asks why his 200 year old Melnibonean is the same skill level as a 30 year old human. So, you have to be realistic about things and perhaps give longer-lived PCs a higher starting level. Or say that longer-lived species take longer to learn things as they don't have the same focus as shorter-lived species.

That's possible, the question becomes: what is a reasonable cost/balance?

So, all in all, I wouldn't bother too much about balancing species. If players complain then tell them that some races are better than others. If everyone become an elf then show them that elves have weaknesses.

What are those weaknesses? Back in the day, playing d&d and ad&d, almost no one played humans, because there was nothing interesting or compensating for them to compare to the abilities/cool factor of the non-human races.

Power gamers will always pick the most advantaged species, other roleplayers may well choose interesting species.

Luckily, I only have one power gamer in my group. However, he's also a good roleplayer. That's not my concern, I don't want players feeling cheated later on in play when they want to play a concept but someone who's simialr non-human concept simply always outshines them (like a Melnibonean in just about any SB game, etc, etc).