Tshaharks

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Delia
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Tshaharks

#1 Post by Delia » Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:34 am

Every once in a while someone asks more about tshaharks, what do they look like, details about physiology in general and so on. I've had little trouble with this as most players have given nice details for the imagination to work on. Hence, I imagine there is no distinct single lizard-breed of tshaharks. Rather, the mages of old must have experimented on various lizards and managed to create a hybrid where all kinds of attributes have the potential of manifesting. Thus a player trying to come up with a cool look for his/her lizzie has quite free hands. Still, with the newbie in mind players/wizzes could insert their thoughts and views about the controversial boar gulping skull bashers.
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#2 Post by isengoo » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:11 pm

The thing that mostly bothers me about tshaharks is how they somehow gain the ability to read and write perfectly and surprisingly coherently, work out large monetary transactions, understand group politics, etc etc, whenever the po wants or the need arises.

The physiology as you described is fine as far as I'm concerned - everyone has their different ideas about how all the races look, and they all generally fit. But when the race with massive str/con and tiny int/wis starts roleplaying outside those bounds, it kind of irks me.

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#3 Post by Delia » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:21 pm

For the most parts the tshaharks mental limitations have been played quite nicely, atleast what I've seen. Most of the "intelligent" tshaharks Delia has seen are the old and venerable veterans, but then again, everyone acquires perfect literacy when the public boards are concerned, so that is quite funny at times, but guess it just makes things that much easier for newbies. *shrug*
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#4 Post by Malys » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:17 pm

Sometimes it's hard to play that stupid tshahark when everyone relies on you, though. But I at least try to make a logical excuse: Malys assigned one of the NPC Crusaders as a Lady Marshall's Aide. Perfect for figuring out how to spell her name, write those long decrees, or determine the difference between "much" and "lots".

Politics are easy enough, however. Good = friend. Not good = ignore. Evil = introduce to spear.

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#5 Post by anglachel » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:24 am

There is big difference between 'not clever' and 'be stupid'. Tshahark are warriors and stupid warriors will die quick. Tshahark must have a specialized intelligence for combat otherwise they would be poor fighter.
They have problems to count coins because they have problems with the concept of the different values, but have no problems to recognise the count of their enemies and estimimate their strength and weakness.
Tshahark have some social and intellectual intellectual because their are specialized on combat and they are no genies, but i would not call them stupid.
I imagine tshahark as very big humans without hair, but with a short tail and many small scales on skin. But i agree because they are created my magic, their can by many diffrent types of them.

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#6 Post by ramandu » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:00 pm

Good points. Having low int and wis needs to be RP'ed, but simple does not mean foolish. I try to keep Ram monosylabic as much as possible and the more complex the concept or longer the word will be balanced with its frequency of use. For example concepts of Love and Passion and Lust are all clumped into mushy stuff and quickly shrugged off. Honor, loyalty, friendship, honesty are simply "good" and concepts that "should be." While Ram has close friendships and tight loyalty, the actual concepts and drives are lost on him (doing something for honor's sake makes no sense). Politics is far too complex and Ram is trying to understand that politcs is a concept and not nasty little devious bugs called Poll Ticks. But playing a simplton is somewhat hard, Ram will stay loyal to a friend long after I know there are not a friend. I feel I must allow him to get easily duped if the character I am interacting with is skillful at subterfuge. The limitaion of counting and laungauge are as fun as they are annoying. It is fun to break a complex word into several simpler words that sound similar. But when a mate needs a unicorn and tells you he needs X hundred coins, the number has no meaning. If I have lots and lots, may as well give some to a friend!

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Re: Tshaharks

#7 Post by Skragna » Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:39 am

I've decided to play Skragna (tshahark, of course) as an ex-scholar who volunteered for the service (unless there's some reason IC I can't do that.) After his transformation, he was left with a shattered husk of a memory, but his old speech patterns stuck, ending in him using sort of big words, but words that not too many people would catch onto at first. (thee's, thou's, aught, anon, etc.) I also think that playing like this allows me to help blur the line between "stupid" and "not too bright" If the Skald songs are anything to go by, people expect tshahark to speak in monosyllabic responses emphasived by a grin, growl, wave, or weapon in the head. I think that if more players realized that the tshahark may not have much INTELLIGENCE, their CUNNING is something else entirely. A warrior doesn't have to be smart, just cunning enough to outfox his enemy. And again, the tshahark are just that, cunning, but not the brightest bulb. Like wolves, foxes, or even some birds, tshahark know how to fight not for lack of mental acuity, but because they don't tend to develop the sort of "higher cognitive functions" most other people do. (sorry for the ranting, and I picture Skragna as a lizard-spiked and scaled human with nictating membranes. And a fairly long tail he usually tucks in close to himself, like a scholar's robes would be)

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Re: Tshaharks

#8 Post by caelia » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:31 am

Skragna wrote:I've decided to play Skragna (tshahark, of course) as an ex-scholar who volunteered for the service (unless there's some reason IC I can't do that.)
I don't think this is too far outside the realm of possibility, and I think it's a fun and refreshing approach to playing a tshahark.

When we were talking the other day, at first I wasn't sure what you knew about tshaharks, but then I saw your post, and thought that your interpretation was actually really clever, and that you knew exactly what you were doing. Plus, seeing the archaic words you like to use, rendered as a tshahark would say them ("wouldzsst," "sou," and "sine" :) ), is something I found very amusing.

So, keep up the good work. :) I'm really interested to see where your character goes.

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Re: Tshaharks

#9 Post by Skragna » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:24 am

Does he really mangle them THAT bad? I knew it'd be mangled, but I didn't expect it to be "southern accent + russian accent + mexican accent + lisp" bad.

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Re: Tshaharks

#10 Post by luminier » Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:28 pm

tshaharks have long tongues and they talk snake like.
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Re: Tshaharks

#11 Post by shannon » Thu Jun 10, 2010 4:55 pm

Hmm... looks like the Tshaharks are considered more or less to be plain stupid in these days... :shock: :|

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Re: Tshaharks

#12 Post by Zehren » Thu Jun 10, 2010 6:07 pm

shannon wrote:Hmm... looks like the Tshaharks are considered more or less to be plain stupid in these days... :shock: :|
*votes for a 'tshahark cunning, but no abst... think-thought thinking master is'*
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Re: Tshaharks

#13 Post by lanyara » Sat Jun 12, 2010 3:56 pm

looks like the Tshaharks are considered more or less to be plain stupid in these days
They can do less than others. Sure, they are the best fighters, but other than that ...

... but it would be nice to see tshahark scribes and tshahark clerics!
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Re: Tshaharks

#14 Post by Olrane » Sat Jun 12, 2010 4:21 pm

lanyara wrote:
looks like the Tshaharks are considered more or less to be plain stupid in these days
They can do less than others. Sure, they are the best fighters, but other than that ...

... but it would be nice to see tshahark scribes and tshahark clerics!
I'm of the opinion that it would not be nice to see tshahark scribes. I've seen an Asral cleric tshahark or two, but that's about as far scholarly as any tshahark should go.

A tshahark is a made fighter. Going against that is almost as silly as seeing halflings try to be heavy armour tanks.

It's not cute or novel. It's just dumb.

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Re: Tshaharks

#15 Post by lanyara » Sat Jun 12, 2010 5:17 pm

Yay for stereotypes ... ;)

But let me ask back - precisely why would anyone think that it would be dumb to play exactly such a role? The whole scribe system is primarily skill based, secondarily based on actual roleplay (or vice versa if you so will), and even if tshaharks may find it more difficult to do exactly that (play the smart scribe role), why should it not be possible?
Going against that is almost as silly as seeing halflings try to be heavy armour tanks.
Arxthas!!! You need more armour!!!! An unbeliever!

Platelings must come to rule this place!

Humans and elves are probably much better off here - less disadvantages altogether.

Noone would question them if they were to wear heavy armours or be scribes. I'd really find it a shame though - more and more polarization, less and less options ...

We need to turn a few established human scribes into tshaharks.
Rafael the tshahark... Lachtli the tshahark... how about that?
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Re: Tshaharks

#16 Post by Skragna » Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:04 pm

Tshahark don't have to be "dumb", they could quite easily be very intelligent, merely not have a very good learning curve in anything but fighting, due to their sheer physical prowess.

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Re: Tshaharks

#17 Post by hsparks » Sat Jul 17, 2010 5:00 pm

Skragna wrote:Tshahark don't have to be "dumb", they could quite easily be very intelligent, merely not have a very good learning curve in anything but fighting, due to their sheer physical prowess.

They can't really be very intelligent. Even that race info says it:

Their saurian blood gives them strength and endurance while their human blood makes them somewhat (but not very) intelligent.

Tshaharks have extremely low int, the point is they're fighters through and through. That's what they do. Tshaharks should never write a book other than a picture book, and they shouldn't be writing legislature or be a judge because they're simply not intelligent enough.
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Re: Tshaharks

#18 Post by ganandorf » Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:03 pm

I'm in the same boat as hsparks and Olrane. If you want an intelligent character, don't make a tshahark. Saying a tshahark can be a scribe is like saying you can teach a dog to read and write.

If you're going to make a tshahark as a scribe or cleric. Don't whine about the low intelligence, coding supports the known fact that tshaharks are stupid, live with it.
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Re: Tshaharks

#19 Post by lanyara » Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:20 am

I just noticed something from the background:

http://www.geas.de/?page_id=53#tshaharks
Now that their population is growing again and the human kind has forgotten their hatred of the tshahark, they are roaming the world again and can be found nearly everywhere.
Apparently Arborea didn't forget yet as they still hate on tshaharks.
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Re: Tshaharks

#20 Post by Mogwai » Fri Aug 27, 2010 12:28 am

ganandorf wrote:I'm in the same boat as hsparks and Olrane. If you want an intelligent character, don't make a tshahark. Saying a tshahark can be a scribe is like saying you can teach a dog to read and write.

If you're going to make a tshahark as a scribe or cleric. Don't whine about the low intelligence, coding supports the known fact that tshaharks are stupid, live with it.
okay first of all tshaharks can speak. I guess you could teach a dog to read and write if it had opposable thumbs and could speak...

anyways, why even have tshaharks that can speak. IF they are THAT stupid, speaking should be replaced by grunting and growling.

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