Award Rotation Frustrations

[Kythana]

In this recent award rotation, we have the following added by tier:

Major:

• Durzagon
• Gith(2 variants)
• Half-Giants(5 variants)

Greater:

• Reworked Planetouched options(10 variants)
• Reworked Genasi options(4 variants)
• Kenku
• Arctic Dwarf

Normal:

• Fey Touched

---

I'm personally a little disappointed that not only did nothing substantial get added to the normal award tier, but we have even more added to the higher tiers.

The reality is that due to the nature of RNG, some people will never get a chance to see anything above a normal. Since it's looking like even more wild options are being added, it feels very strange to continue locking so much behind these higher tiered rewards.

This update has really highlighted some of the major flaws with the award system, and makes any sort of excitement about it disappointing.

Many of these things would be fun to play, and I know some great players who would love to play something in the lineup, but they are unfortunately denied because they rolled badly. Or because they didn't constantly churn out rollbait characters to gamble whenever possible.

A few ideas come to mind on mitigating it, since the award rework/point-buy system doesn't appear to be coming anytime soon.

1. Grant free awards when bumping up to certain RPR levels. A free greater when getting 30, free major when getting 40, ect.
2. Free awards every X months or Y years. Giving every RPR 20 player a single free major after playing 2-3 years, for example.
3. Exchange awards for higher tiers, with DM request. Turn 10 normals into a major, for example.

These are just a few ideas that come to mind, I am sure there are more elegant or refined options.

[silverpheonix]

I don't even know what an Arelith feytouched is. There is ZERO information on them. It seems really strange to release what looks to be (because there's nothing on forgotten realms wiki) a new homebrew race and not tell anyone anything about it. Like, what?

[TheDoctor]

In this recent award rotation, we have the following added by tier:

Major:

• Durzagon
• Gith(2 variants)
• Half-Giants(5 variants)

Greater:

• Reworked Planetouched options(10 variants)
• Reworked Genasi options(4 variants)
• Kenku
• Arctic Dwarf

Normal:

• Fey Touched

---

I'm personally a little disappointed that not only did nothing substantial get added to the normal award tier, but we have even more added to the higher tiers.

The reality is that due to the nature of RNG, some people will never get a chance to see anything above a normal. Since it's looking like even more wild options are being added, it feels very strange to continue locking so much behind these higher tiered rewards.

This update has really highlighted some of the major flaws with the award system, and makes any sort of excitement about it disappointing.

Many of these things would be fun to play, and I know some great players who would love to play something in the lineup, but they are unfortunately denied because they rolled badly. Or because they didn't constantly churn out rollbait characters to gamble whenever possible.

A few ideas come to mind on mitigating it, since the award rework/point-buy system doesn't appear to be coming anytime soon.

1. Grant free awards when bumping up to certain RPR levels. A free greater when getting 30, free major when getting 40, ect.
2. Free awards every X months or Y years. Giving every RPR 20 player a single free major after playing 2-3 years, for example.
3. Exchange awards for higher tiers, with DM request. Turn 10 normals into a major, for example.

These are just a few ideas that come to mind, I am sure there are more elegant or refined options.

I am very dissapointed. If you are going to add an update and an award race... At least have the details of said class or race hashed out and ready to post BEFORE you announce the new thing/toy/whatever. not weeks and weeks after. I mean its not like you didnt know for a good long while you were adding fey-touched. MASSIVE flaws in the system as it is if this is the norm.

[TheDoctor]

I don't even know what an Arelith feytouched is. There is ZERO information on them. It seems really strange to release what looks to be (because there's nothing on forgotten realms wiki) a new homebrew race and not tell anyone anything about it. Like, what?

Its called lack of communication and laziness.

[Inordinate]

In the defense of the wiki's state of affairs (since I'm the one who made the pages at least): we were given some snippets here and there from source books but the material not being committed is mostly on me for not following through on opening the source books we were referenced to look at. HOWEVER:

I have publicly admitted my own disappointment in not having been given anything in advance nor was there anything prepared before the update for the new races being added went live. None of the non-dev wiki team had any idea this was coming. We have generally been advised to not commit lore-related content to the wiki, rather sternly, unless it was approved by the writing team so that content is consistent (WHICH I AGREE WITH). At least with the wiki people I've spoken to we've at least commiserated we don't want to tread unknown waters and paste in something that isn't kosher, so hesitance here is understandable.

I'll work to put something up today from what direction we WERE given (faetouched, durzagon, arctic dwarves), but beyond that the lack of information lies in a lack of communication (including expectations) from the top.

[Yensent]

Let's cool it with any meaner comments, please. The devs and DMs work for free and owe us nothing. Feedback is fine but let's not say anyone is lazy or anything of the like.

I take the lack of comment on fey touched to a WYSIWYG situation. It's under the plane touched background...so like the other races in it, we can garner that fey-touched on Arelith are similar, and can be used to cover sitautions like:

Children of hags
Children born of a fey promise or deal
Half-fey child
A descendent of a fey expressing the magic of the fey after it laid dormant in their blood line

If they're not providing, perhaps they intend to watch and see what players come up with and only offer a hand of guidance if needed.

But I've gotten a major before so maybe I'm just part of the privileged elite

[find me in the future]

Hello.

Feytouched are not hagspawn or half-fey. Hagspawn are the direct children of hags, and are their own race. Half-fey are also the direct children of fey, and are their own race.

They are in the same boat as aasimar, tieflings, and genasi: another planar-touched humanoid with a teensy bit of blood/blessing/curse from that particular creature.

If we take it directly from the source (Fiend Folio, 3.5): feytouched are the children of a half-fey and a nonfey humanoid/giant. Half-fey are the children of a fey and a nonfey humanoid/giant.

With a little more creativity, we can extend feytouched to blessings/curses from the fey. There are fey-associated hags (green, bog, sea?, bheur, silat) who could have blessed or cursed their bloodline, if you wanted to lean into the hag side of things. Spending too much time in fey-rich areas can twist and warp an individual, a la the stolen child trope. There are dozens and dozens of cool and interesting fey species, and plenty of ways to play around it.

I agree that this should have been clarified a little better on release to help set the tone and get creativity/interest flowing.

On the topic itself: some of this award rotation do seem a little odd. I like that kenku are a greater now. It does feel extremely stifling for all minor and normal awards at this time. Your choices tend to boil down to "monster" or "interesting rollbait".

[TheDoctor]

Let's cool it with any meaner comments, please. The devs and DMs work for free and owe us nothing. Feedback is fine but let's not say anyone is lazy or anything of the like.

I take the lack of comment on fey touched to a WYSIWYG situation. It's under the plane touched background...so like the other races in it, we can garner that fey-touched on Arelith are similar, and can be used to cover sitautions like:

Children of hags
Children born of a fey promise or deal
Half-fey child
A descendent of a fey expressing the magic of the fey after it laid dormant in their blood line

If they're not providing, perhaps they intend to watch and see what players come up with and only offer a hand of guidance if needed.

But I've gotten a major before so maybe I'm just part of the privileged elite

The teams should have been in communication and waited for the wiki write-up to be complete before submitting a new award race. I stand by that.

The fact that they are volunteers is fine... I was a volunteer also for many years including being under an NDA until I was offered a position. (Yeah, gaming company to boot). That still does not excuse it. The team should have waited, and communicated better. This isnt a barb at them but more a teaching moment. This way obviously did not work putting the race in before the write-up. Lets try to do better next time.

[TheDoctor]

Snipped from someplace else that uses NWN

---

The fey are known for their curiosity (some would say obsession) with humanoids, and sometimes a fey falls in love with one of these creatures. The creatures known as feytouched have a half-fey and a humanoid ancestor.

Feytouched are a widely varied group of beings -- some are wispy and beautiful, while others are ugly and brutish. Some resemble elves, with pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes. Others look more like trolls, with warty skin and disproportionate limbs. Regardless, all feytouched have at least one feature or characteristic that is out of the norm -- vibrantly colored hair, feathered eyebrows, or a propensity for speaking in rhyme, for example. Despite their actual appearance, all feytouched are highly charismatic beings that draw attention wherever they go.

Feytouched have no cohesive culture; either they become isolated loners, or they immerse themselves in cosmopolitan society, sampling everything life has to offer. They are also drawn to the same natural settings that other fey called home. Most fey respond favorably to feytouched and consider them distant cousins.

Feytouched tend toward the alignment of their fey ancestry.

---

[find me in the future]

Snipped from someplace else that uses NWN

---

The fey are known for their curiosity (some would say obsession) with humanoids, and sometimes a fey falls in love with one of these creatures. The creatures known as feytouched have a half-fey and a humanoid ancestor.

Feytouched are a widely varied group of beings -- some are wispy and beautiful, while others are ugly and brutish. Some resemble elves, with pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes. Others look more like trolls, with warty skin and disproportionate limbs. Regardless, all feytouched have at least one feature or characteristic that is out of the norm -- vibrantly colored hair, feathered eyebrows, or a propensity for speaking in rhyme, for example. Despite their actual appearance, all feytouched are highly charismatic beings that draw attention wherever they go.

Feytouched have no cohesive culture; either they become isolated loners, or they immerse themselves in cosmopolitan society, sampling everything life has to offer. They are also drawn to the same natural settings that other fey called home. Most fey respond favorably to feytouched and consider them distant cousins.

Feytouched tend toward the alignment of their fey ancestry.

---

Correct. That is a direct rip from Fiend Folio that can be paraphrased for the Arelith Wiki.

[Yensent]

The teams should have been in communication and waited for the wiki write-up to be complete before submitting a new award race. I stand by that.

The fact that they are volunteers is fine... I was a volunteer also for many years including being under an NDA until I was offered a position. (Yeah, gaming company to boot). That still does not excuse it. The team should have waited, and communicated better. This isnt a barb at them but more a teaching moment. This way obviously did not work putting the race in before the write-up. Lets try to do better next time.

If someone wants to critique the DM/devs/contributors, that's fine. But I think it very wrong to approach it calling them lazy. They are not lazy. Saying so is rude.

Hello.

Feytouched are not hagspawn or half-fey. Hagspawn are the direct children of hags, and are their own race. Half-fey are also the direct children of fey, and are their own race.

They are in the same boat as aasimar, tieflings, and genasi: another planar-touched humanoid with a teensy bit of blood/blessing/curse from that particular creature.

If we take it directly from the source (Fiend Folio, 3.5): feytouched are the children of a half-fey and a nonfey humanoid/giant. Half-fey are the children of a fey and a nonfey humanoid/giant.

With a little more creativity, we can extend feytouched to blessings/curses from the fey. There are fey-associated hags (green, bog, sea?, bheur, silat) who could have blessed or cursed their bloodline, if you wanted to lean into the hag side of things. Spending too much time in fey-rich areas can twist and warp an individual, a la the stolen child trope. There are dozens and dozens of cool and interesting fey species, and plenty of ways to play around it.

I agree that this should have been clarified a little better on release to help set the tone and get creativity/interest flowing.

And thanks for the clarification. I did not mean my suggestions as good rule of thumb, but just some ideas to be able to mold into fun character concepts for a fey-touched. While I wasn't spot on with my suggestions, they could all be easily twisted to match what is in the source materials for us. Even if made a character yesterday that was the "son of a hag". He could just incorrect that he is related by blood, and it was the case that she stole the boy when he was young, and he was twisted and warped by the fey-rich areas.

In the end though, I'll just be happy if no one insults anyone, especially not the DM/Devs/contributors. From a purely selfish POV, you should want them to feel great about what they do so they make more content for us too!

[Twohand]

I can sympathize with the lack of options for minor and normal awards. Going forward, rest assured that we will prioritize them.

Also, as has been said, the Arelith Feytouched is indeed inspired by the race template from the Fiend Folio sourcebook. While the wiki page is not ready yet, you can log in-game and you'll see on character creation that Feytouched have a paragraph explaining what they are and where they come from. This is a thing for all other races introduced in this update.

Now, calling the lack of a wiki page "laziness" is extremely rude when a staggering amount of work had to be put into this update, especially considering how the developer responsible for the coding was already very busy with university assignments. Please, share your feedback, share your thoughts, but spare us your insults. It only discourages the dev team from engaging in conversation with the community.

[Xerah]

Instead of being “omg what lazy garbage the dev team is.” you could have just said, “hey guys, looking forward to the feytouched! Can we get some lore info? Or is there a source book you can point me to? Thanks!”

And suddenly you’re not a big jerk. A simple google could have helped you along too (though it’s a very popular 5e feat so you’d need a 3.5 in there).

There’s no reason to assume ill intent here. That’s generally a good lesson for life.

[PowerWord Rage]

Instead of being “omg what lazy garbage the dev team is.” you could have just said, “hey guys, looking forward to the feytouched! Can we get some lore info? Or is there a source book you can point me to? Thanks!”

And suddenly you’re not a big jerk. A simple google could have helped you along too (though it’s a very popular 5e feat so you’d need a 3.5 in there).

There’s no reason to assume ill intent here. That’s generally a good lesson for life.

Fake.

[IncorrigibleNev]

I can sympathize with the lack of options for minor and normal awards. Going forward, rest assured that we will prioritize them.

Personally, I feel like bringing back human-based genasi as a normal would do a lot for that tier honestly.

[Good Character]

Personally, I feel like bringing back human-based genasi as a normal would do a lot for that tier honestly.

I think the issue with this is that we would see a massive influx of genasi which would see Arelith shifting closer and closer to a high-magic setting; if that's the direction for Arelith, though, more the merrier. Before I feel people were hesitant to pick it up due to most having pretty important stat maluses. With the recent change there doesn't seem to be a reason not to go genasi beyond anxiety about how to play one. Earth especially is just a brilliant pick all-around when considering only mechanics.

Personally I would like to see the change but with a stark reduction in commonly sourced magic items to keep a balance.

[Kythana]

I can sympathize with the lack of options for minor and normal awards. Going forward, rest assured that we will prioritize them.

Personally, I feel like bringing back human-based genasi as a normal would do a lot for that tier honestly.

It would be nice if it was actually a proper rotation. There are some things that might exist as a greater/major forever, which I am okay with.

But even aasimar/tieflings could be bumped down from time to time, especially since they have been given such a variety of options now.

[Sincra]

Race awards are boring and I have been trying to get alternative awards as a focus for minor and normal done since I joined.
I have been consistently busy since joining and others never seemed interested in working on them so it never seems to happen. Add on top that races are always easier to add than entirely new systems and we have a slice of why they keep getting added vs interesting side utility awards.

As for the rotation, best not to expect anything on awards being moved.
Best not to expect anything get added.

Also best not to expect the wiki gets updated instantly or have anything ready when something is trying to be kept quiet pre-release.

[Rubricae]

so should players not expect much of anything being added or should they expect that normal and minor will have additions in the future

[Eyeliner]

Normal and minor awards that give a little more customization would be nice (like offering +1 to an ability or +3-6 to a skill with some tradeoff involved) and would encourage playing "normal" races.

Or if you don't want dozens and dozens of earth genasi around why couldn't there be a normal award that gives the mining boon and nothing else, if that's what people would have taken it for anyway. There could be a lot of little things that make a standard race character feel a little unique but don't bog the server down with more special race characters that we have this very weird love/hate codependent relationship with.

[silverpheonix]

Also best not to expect the wiki gets updated instantly or have anything ready when something is trying to be kept quiet pre-release.

I mean, is it the end of the world if something goes around the lore team or a few select wiki editors a week or two early? If it's going to be added, a done deal, so what?

[Iceborn]

Also best not to expect the wiki gets updated instantly or have anything ready when something is trying to be kept quiet pre-release.

I mean, is it the end of the world if something goes around the lore team or a few select wiki editors a week or two early? If it's going to be added, a done deal, so what?

It's a matter of coordination. Sometimes things slip through the cracks - we juggle components of the updates here and there, test this, modify that, update internal documentation, discuss lore, test, discuss mechanics, discuss implementation, test, and test again for good measure, did we ever get an answer from lore? Who knows. Test again, implement if it doesn't delete reality.

Things could be better, but we are usually working in our own downtime, sneaking time between real jobs and other responsibilities. Some details may be chalked as casualties, as long as we get to actually finish an update within a mortal lifetime.

[The GrumpyCat]

Things could be better, but we are usually working in our own downtime, sneaking time between real jobs and other responsibilities. Some details may be chalked as casualties, as long as we get to actually finish an update within a mortal lifetime.

In addition - keep in mind that this update came in just a few scant days before Christmas, a very busy time for a lot of people.

The Dev team gave you all a lovery Christmas gift of a new award. Maybe it wasn't wrapped as well as it could be, but is that really reason to insult them?

[silverpheonix]

Things could be better, but we are usually working in our own downtime, sneaking time between real jobs and other responsibilities. Some details may be chalked as casualties, as long as we get to actually finish an update within a mortal lifetime.

In addition - keep in mind that this update came in just a few scant days before Christmas, a very busy time for a lot of people.

The Dev team gave you all a lovery Christmas gift of a new award. Maybe it wasn't wrapped as well as it could be, but is that really reason to insult them?

I don't mean to be rude, I just thought it odd implementation with the one race I mentioned. Feytoyched sounds cool, I wanted to know more about them. What if I wanted to play one? How do I know my concept is accurate, or if I'll need to retcon later?

[DM Herald]

Things could be better, but we are usually working in our own downtime, sneaking time between real jobs and other responsibilities. Some details may be chalked as casualties, as long as we get to actually finish an update within a mortal lifetime.

In addition - keep in mind that this update came in just a few scant days before Christmas, a very busy time for a lot of people.

The Dev team gave you all a lovery Christmas gift of a new award. Maybe it wasn't wrapped as well as it could be, but is that really reason to insult them?

I don't mean to be rude, I just thought it odd implementation with the one race I mentioned. Feytoyched sounds cool, I wanted to know more about them. What if I wanted to play one? How do I know my concept is accurate, or if I'll need to retcon later?

This is where waiting for more information to be available before making a choice would be pertinent.