[Rant] The Noble Wild
Jul. 20th, 2012 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
citrakayahThe Noble Wild is an excellent sourcebook for statistics. However, it is an awful universe sourcebook for anyone wanting to play a sentient animal without having them either having their lives revolve around serving humanoids or making their lives miserable. The book opens by stating that the gods gave the noble animals (a term which I hate) a question, would they serve humanoids or challenge them?
Beyond the blatant speciesism apparent in such a statement (the noble animal’s world revolves around humanoids), such a question ends up being meaningless. An individual that chooses to attempt to check the humanoids will end up helping them—either by preventing them from overexploiting their environment or by forcing them to develop technologically. The other main option is genocide or war. In otherwords, the only real option a good or neutral individual has is to serve humanoids, if indirectly. The book gives credence to this view when it states that the gods intended for the noble gazelles to provide art subjects for humanoids by deciding to ‘challenge’ them by resisting being eaten. Deer, on the other hand, chose to be eaten.
Which is one of the more mind-numbingly stupid decisions in the book. It is apparently the noble deer’s greatest ambition to be eaten. It is not that they don’t hate humans for eating them, it is not that they don’t even overly mind being eaten, they see it as their duty to be eaten. Imagine, for a second, a sourcebook having a bunch of elves decide that it is their duty to be eaten by a species such as orcs. They would be skewered. People would be outraged. Having a bunch of sentient deer decide that it is their duty to be eaten by humans is, apparently, acceptable. This is mind-bendingly stupid.
Then there’s how noble animal magic is invisible to humanoid magic. Again, this is mind-bendingly stupid. Detect spells cast by humanoids will not detect noble animals, and vice versa. Firstly, detect evil doesn’t care if you’re magical or not. It detects evil. It doesn’t matter if that evil is practicing some bizarre form of magic, it’s still evil. Secondly, some of the spells listed are ‘invisible’ for noble animals if cast by humanoids and vice versa, but still function normally, which makes no sense. If your flame blade is capable of burning a human, why the hell can’t that human see the light from it, which is not magically produced by instead caused by the excitation of electrons in the surrounding gas due to the heat? Thirdly, arcane magic and divine magic are radically different, given that one is the direct interference of transcendent agents in mortal affairs and the other is manipulating reality through understanding or inspiration. Given that those aren’t invisible to each other, the idea that humanoid magic and noble animal magic shouldn’t be able to see each other, especially given that noble animals can use divine spells granted to them by humanoid deities (the creators of the book thoughtfully did not provide any noble animal deities, which I suppose isn’t terribly surprising).
Just as bad is magic item creation itself. They have things called ‘spellthralls’. Basically they are living creatures made into mind-drained servants that exist only to carry the properties of a rod or staff. Oh, and to make a magic item? You have to give up ability points. This is a hell of a lot weaker than humanoids, who simply have to pay large amounts of money, because they can only be recovered one moon later by using restoration, greater restoration, or wish (Why not miracle? Presumably because the gods hate noble animals, that’s why.). This is because ‘noble animals do not place much value on material things’. Well, maybe they don’t, but neither do elves. Let’s be honest, it’s because they can’t carry around vast amounts of gold, a situation that could be easily rectified by hiring some guy to help carry stuff around, or having some sort of permanent unseen servant spell or something.
There are also such wonderful animal stereotypes, which are encouraged instead of the player actually doing some basic research into animal behavior and doing quality roleplay. The writers didn't even do basic research.
The only upside? The stats are decent enough.
Beyond the blatant speciesism apparent in such a statement (the noble animal’s world revolves around humanoids), such a question ends up being meaningless. An individual that chooses to attempt to check the humanoids will end up helping them—either by preventing them from overexploiting their environment or by forcing them to develop technologically. The other main option is genocide or war. In otherwords, the only real option a good or neutral individual has is to serve humanoids, if indirectly. The book gives credence to this view when it states that the gods intended for the noble gazelles to provide art subjects for humanoids by deciding to ‘challenge’ them by resisting being eaten. Deer, on the other hand, chose to be eaten.
Which is one of the more mind-numbingly stupid decisions in the book. It is apparently the noble deer’s greatest ambition to be eaten. It is not that they don’t hate humans for eating them, it is not that they don’t even overly mind being eaten, they see it as their duty to be eaten. Imagine, for a second, a sourcebook having a bunch of elves decide that it is their duty to be eaten by a species such as orcs. They would be skewered. People would be outraged. Having a bunch of sentient deer decide that it is their duty to be eaten by humans is, apparently, acceptable. This is mind-bendingly stupid.
Then there’s how noble animal magic is invisible to humanoid magic. Again, this is mind-bendingly stupid. Detect spells cast by humanoids will not detect noble animals, and vice versa. Firstly, detect evil doesn’t care if you’re magical or not. It detects evil. It doesn’t matter if that evil is practicing some bizarre form of magic, it’s still evil. Secondly, some of the spells listed are ‘invisible’ for noble animals if cast by humanoids and vice versa, but still function normally, which makes no sense. If your flame blade is capable of burning a human, why the hell can’t that human see the light from it, which is not magically produced by instead caused by the excitation of electrons in the surrounding gas due to the heat? Thirdly, arcane magic and divine magic are radically different, given that one is the direct interference of transcendent agents in mortal affairs and the other is manipulating reality through understanding or inspiration. Given that those aren’t invisible to each other, the idea that humanoid magic and noble animal magic shouldn’t be able to see each other, especially given that noble animals can use divine spells granted to them by humanoid deities (the creators of the book thoughtfully did not provide any noble animal deities, which I suppose isn’t terribly surprising).
Just as bad is magic item creation itself. They have things called ‘spellthralls’. Basically they are living creatures made into mind-drained servants that exist only to carry the properties of a rod or staff. Oh, and to make a magic item? You have to give up ability points. This is a hell of a lot weaker than humanoids, who simply have to pay large amounts of money, because they can only be recovered one moon later by using restoration, greater restoration, or wish (Why not miracle? Presumably because the gods hate noble animals, that’s why.). This is because ‘noble animals do not place much value on material things’. Well, maybe they don’t, but neither do elves. Let’s be honest, it’s because they can’t carry around vast amounts of gold, a situation that could be easily rectified by hiring some guy to help carry stuff around, or having some sort of permanent unseen servant spell or something.
There are also such wonderful animal stereotypes, which are encouraged instead of the player actually doing some basic research into animal behavior and doing quality roleplay. The writers didn't even do basic research.
The only upside? The stats are decent enough.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 01:04 am (UTC)A speciesist attitude generally comes as standard in this world, but you'd expect playable characters to all have some vague attempt at equality. That's just ridiculous.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-21 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 05:28 pm (UTC)Is it just a general companion book, or does it fit alongside some RPG?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 06:20 pm (UTC)It's a general companion book for anything using OGL content.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 07:30 pm (UTC)Ah, I see. I've only played one game that was a derivative of DnD, and it was themed in the universe of "The Wheel of Time" series. If there were some therian RPGers here, I might have been willing to join up for an animal-themed game or something. Sadly, I don't even know any normal RPGers, and with my social skills, I'll probably never find them.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:01 pm (UTC)Problem is, I moved, and now I don't know anyone who would want to do it.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 09:02 pm (UTC)