This may be purely coincidental, but this debate only evolved to the point of usefulness after I said something about his intelligence. :P

I agree, and most of all people only make a standard wild elf, no moon elfs, sea elfs, or gold elfs. I like dwarves though, they are pretty cool. Also, just because your a human doesn't mean humans are superior and all other races are inferior. I bet a dwarf can win any arm wrestle match, and any elf could outrun and beat any human at hide and seek (just examples). But still, there are good rpgs, take this one I played:
Animals have basicly evolved to a state where they can stand, talk, ect. but there is a company (forgot the name) basicly killing them to make some kind of food. I was a evolved snapping turtle who used a lazer pistol, another was a evolved doplhin who used a specail helmet to do a psychic attack, another was a wold that used the gloves that has claws coming out of the top. It was great, there were about 6 people and we really did I good job.

Guess you haven't entered the world of, "Kemet" have you?
Thats something totally different from anything else going on here.

LJR

- Some Original code concepts being used
- Original Graphics
- Original sound FXs/MIDI tunes

Your typical humans/elves/dwarves game is a genre unto itself... we'll call it Tolkienesque. Sure, people do it because they like the races and know others do too. I had to make a conscious decision about whether to include any precedented races in Cerulea, and in fact I did have a friend ask me, "Why include elves and dwarves at all? Why not just make up all your own races?"

My answer was that I myself was turned off by games that have all unique races. When I roleplay I'm more comfortable building on something that has a foundation in the real world, and worlds of dwarves and elves, with their long and broad precedent in fantasy literature, fit the bill. When something strays too far into uncharted territory it can tend to get what I'll call, uh, "Star Trek syndrome"... where how the technology functions is determined by what the plot needs, not the other way around. It's not a basis for terribly compelling stories.

While we're at it, I don't think races have to be drastically different to justify putting them in a game. I think of real life... compared to most games, there's zilch difference between real-life races... yet those tiny differences have spawned huge bodies of art, literature and argument. And even in a game, sometimes subtle differences are more interesting.

Z