What is the most interesting race to play dialogue/story wise?

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

I don't know what race to pick.

[Ragnaman]

Originally posted by ThilocMoths:

I don't know what race to pick.

start as charlatan protege half-elf female, take beauty boosting water spell (stacks twice with 8 INT, thrice with 12 INT), you can have any NPC love you at all times (beauty stat is pointless to level as this buff spell will max it out), pump charisma, haggle, persuasion, and pretty much play RTS not RPG and cast buffs on your minion army lol.

Turn based is recommended unless your mini army becomes a powerhouse.

Or pick male elf and amass a harem.

[lazarusblack]

This was early gaming folks. They hadn't got to the point that, every race had unique and branching dialogue, with unique quests or special gameplay features that impacted narrative.

What you'll get here, is the very beginnings of that kind of system, in a similar vein to how you would find it, in Fallout 1 & 2. roleplay came directly from stats rather than from race or gender or any of that.

[Daedalus]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Originally posted by ThilocMoths:

I don't know what race to pick.

start as charlatan protege half-elf female, take beauty boosting water spell (stacks twice with 8 INT, thrice with 12 INT), you can have any NPC love you at all times (beauty stat is pointless to level as this buff spell will max it out), pump charisma, haggle, persuasion, and pretty much play RTS not RPG and cast buffs on your minion army lol.

Turn based is recommended unless your mini army becomes a powerhouse.

Or pick male elf and amass a harem.

Does this make NPCs follow you around beyond your party limit? This would be a very interesting way to play - talk your way to success, just like the original Fallout 1 & 2 (as mentioned above).

[Crystal Sharrd]

The most interesting thing that's happened to me so far as a female half-elf that involved my race was a character deriding my character as a "half-breed".

[SmellofNapalm]

Originally posted by lazarusblack:

This was early gaming folks. They hadn't got to the point that, every race had unique and branching dialogue, with unique quests or special gameplay features that impacted narrative.

What you'll get here, is the very beginnings of that kind of system, in a similar vein to how you would find it, in Fallout 1 & 2. roleplay came directly from stats rather than from race or gender or any of that.

Not sure what you are talking about to be honest. Which games actually do this?

As far as I am aware Arcanum is still one of the best, if not the best in terms of dialogue reactivity. It just doesn't display what is being checked.

[Sunday Driver]

Originally posted by SmellofNapalm:

Not sure what you are talking about to be honest. Which games actually do this?

As far as I am aware Arcanum is still one of the best, if not the best in terms of dialogue reactivity. It just doesn't display what is being checked.

True. Most later games brought in the common trend for BS fake dialogue trees. The kind where you can do stuff like:

A: "I will do this thing you ask"
B: "Eat my starfish you ugly cur"

Choose A and it goes to response X (continues dialogue).
Choose B and it goes to response Y (OMG SHOCK)....then to reponse X and continues the same. Fake choices that do nothing.

So much of RPG dialogue became this and it's easily tested. You can often detect it without testing due to the way they have to write the dialogue itself (especially in the age when it's frequently voice acted) as so open and vague as it must be to funnel all the possible fake choices or paths into one single bland response and railroad result that tries to not look out of place no matter what you've said before. It rarely matters much at all, only the most thin and cosmetic of mentions might be included by dropping in some strings to check and add [player class] and [player race] to a line to make you think it cares. "I'm so glad a [WIZARD/KNIGHT/PLUMBER] has come to help our village. We don't see many of your kind here, [DWARF/ELF/HAMBURGLER]". Or they do the small paper thin quest for each one (plz replay to add hours to this game because that ten minutes quest is totally worth playing it all again). You can count on one hand how many would actually weave through the game these things in some meaningful way. Most games don't do dialogue (or even story) well at all and don't like to do branching content or let the player truly off the leash (which Arcanum really does allow for a highly unusual degree).

I find the idea that "modern" games were somehow the age of responsiveness and good dialogue very funny.

Sad thing is even more action RPGs like the first couple of Gothic games, especially 2, had more reactiveness and depth than most the modern "classic" style and supposedly dialogue heavy games.

[Shgon Dunstan]

About the only "major" difference story-wise(and it's got little practical effect), is that the only real "romance" plot is only for male humans, half-elves, and elves with maxed out beauty... what can you say, while she doesn't really come off as it in your interactions in game, mechanically she's kind shallow. lol

Hell, even THEN it's got a little bit of a gloomy cloud hanging over it unless you're an elf. Due to the whole "she'll outlive you by centuries" thing.

[minisith]

Half-Ogre. Stupid and gets offensive easily. Kills everyone for insulting him. Massacres the first town and becomes overpowered. He kills the main quest giver and breaks the game.