At last: Races...

[Pirotess]

This morning Kendrick posted a complete list of races. Looks like we'll have quite a few choices.

Kojan
Barbarian
Goblin
Half-Elf
Human (Kojan)
Orc
Raki (Fox based)
Wood Elf

Qalia
Barbarian
Dark Elf
Gnome
Human (Aghramun and Mordebi)
Kurashasa (Cat based)

Thestra
Barbarian
Dwarf
Half-Giant
Halfling
High Elf
Human (Thestran)
Vulmane (Wolf based)

[Zeex]

Great variety there. If the class list is half as large the world willl be very diverse indeed.

[Korelin]

Aye, interesting list... Will Korelin go back to his roots as a Barbarian or stick to the WoW version as a dwarf? Or will he branch out to another, unique race?

Stay tuned!

[Aazenius]

Sweet we can play orcs and goblins! Half-giants!! The more I read the more I like.

[Pirotess]

I'll probably be a Dark Elf again but given the importance of the Diplomacy Sphere, I might be forced to play a more charismatic race to be successful.

[Aazenius]

Seems like there are a lot of monster races... fox like, cat like wolf like, orc, goblin... I wonder which races would be considered charismatic. Humans? High Elves? Kurashasa?

[Aazenius]

Maybe your race won't matter that much... saw this at the safehouse.

About the races and the differences between them. I asked during our demo if they were interested in things like racial abilities and stat differences between races. The reply was that, while they were doing stat caps differently between the races (i.e. a goblin might have intelligence capped higher than everyone else at every level, and in the end caps out at 1200 where most normal people cap out at 1000). But they were not so hot on lots of racial abilities to distinguish the races from each other. Their thinking was, abilities really set people apart. They are specific, utility abilities that are highly desirable. Remember ultra vision from EQ? and how eventually they made ultra vision widely available to everyone, because humans were so sick of seeing so poorly? They want to avoid the situation where racial abilities are so cool, that people either want it standard, or end up playing races for the abilities.

In the end though, the reason for races in Vanguard is the lore. The lore is what makes the races dramatically different, and through quests, and diplomacies, you will learn why the races dislike or like each other, what they are about, what really makes the Vulmane different from the Raki, and different from the Kurshasha(sp?). Flavor, feel, appearance, and themes arguably play as much of a part in the construction of races as different stats, or super cool abilities.