Purchase height

[Andruid]

Having played a Lithmorran male of average height for a year, I am now under the impression (possibly mistaken, as I don't have access to the actual numbers) that we have a disproportionate amount of tall people in the game, particularly dudes. Most of the males I encountered, and a good number of females, were taller than my character -- even when accounting for racial "norms."

While I don't believe that people ought to be limited to thematic averages, I do think being taller or shorter than average ought to come with an XP price tag in the same way that being attractive or beautiful does. (Though, perhaps at much lower cost per level of difference.)

[Puciek]

Yup, we even have had 6ft+ hillmen out of all things. And when I raised it icly was told that the whole clan is big like that. I think it's mostly not paying much attention to the help files in terms of height, so small XP price should help.

[AlwaysShunny]

I'd be in favor of this. I think there is an exaggerated sense of height IRL that may carry over in the game, despite the racial helpfiles, which leads to 5'7 women being described as petite and over 75% of male characters being 6'2. It's low medieval fantasy, not modern day Netherlands lol.

Edit: Just realized that characters with an inch or two more difference will still seem to be the same height, since it's judged by hands. That might cause some characters to appear way taller than they actually are. Like if you're a Tubori man at 5'8 and see a Vandagan at 5'6, he will see you in a similar range as he is, but a Lithmorran at 5'10 will see the Vandagan as distinctly shorter.

Edit #2: While we're on the subject, could Andruid's suggestion exclude adolescent characters? Having played a couple of kids and teens in the past, once you reach a certain age, the character will have an extreme growth spurt that places them at max height. If the purchase will cost XP, perhaps only make it for adult characters, so adolescents can purchase down to a more reasonable height?

[-+[-__-]+-]

It's a good point about how the height descriptors are misleading. I've been under the impression someone was a lot taller or shorter only to realize they were within a hand of me. I should also note that I'm the sort of player who adjusts my character's height if they're wearing heeled shoes.

Does height give any combat advantage or anything like that? If not, I would rather not see it cost, on the argument that PCs tend to be the more "unique" members of society and I'd stick height into the same category as eye or hair color. Just another way of making your character stand out from the crowd, so to speak.

I still prefer leaving it to player discretion, especially as I think a lot of people play characters with mixed backgrounds. But if it's decided this is a beneficial change, maybe an alternative would be allowing to purchase only 5 up or down from the standard height (instead of 10) to add some variance? Then some minimal XP and/or a request to be set taller or shorter than that?

[Puciek]

APP also doesn't give combat advantage but the fact that we had an almost entire population at app4-5 was wrong and was fixed years ago. The problem with everyone being ridiculously tall is that, as a result, no one really is tall and it kills the whole idea behind it, just like everyone being app4+ was doing. So putting a price to it may just bring back some value to being tall.

[The_Last_Good_Dragon]

Does this mean we get EXTRA xp for being short? Emma, come, our time is here!!

[Pixie]

Does this mean we get EXTRA xp for being short? Emma, come, our time is here!!

THIS IS OUR MOMENT. Brb XP millionaire.

[Temi]

This used to be the case in an older version of TI. Height and weight had xp cost associated with purchasing them higher, and a bonus for purchasing them lower. That's actually why this was removed, I believe - you got min-maxed fighters like Cei who were super small, precisely because it was extra xp, rather than because it made a ton of sense. I would suggest if this were added that average heights should be free and then it would cost more to to deviate further to either extreme.

[Puciek]

This used to be the case in an older version of TI. Height and weight had xp cost associated with purchasing them higher, and a bonus for purchasing them lower. That's actually why this was removed, I believe - you got min-maxed fighters like Cei who were super small, precisely because it was extra xp, rather than because it made a ton of sense. I would suggest if this were added that average heights should be free and then it would cost more to to deviate further to either extreme.

Yea, I agree with that approach. The whole idea is not to be tiny (just like we don't get XP fro being app 1 and less) just to gravitate people closer to average in terms of size. Hoestly I wouldn't make it expensive, just enough to reconsider that "maybe average as in the helpfile is not a bad idea".

[chronodbu]

I'm not really in favor of it costing XP for height. At that point it just starts feeling like we're being micromanaged on an XP level for this stuff when there's already plenty of things to spend it on.

As a player, it's easier for me to identify and play characters of above average height because I personally am. It's more difficult otherwise, if doable. I don't feel I should have to pay extra experience just to play what I enjoy because you feel I'm wrong for it.

Nor do I feel what players are choosing to play for their characters is necessarily indicative of the entire thematic world. Sure, if folks wanna play exaggeratedly larger characters or even the direct opposite with smaller, that doesn't mean the population in the city as a whole has suddenly grown or shrunk. It just means these particularly public faces happen to be.