New Playable Race Suggestion: The Skritt

[Erasculio.2914]

Honestly, I doubt ArenaNet is ever going to add a new race to GW2. It would be way too much work – given how each race has different voice actors, they would have to re-record everything already in the game, plus adapt the beginning of the personal storyline, plus adapt all existing armors, and so on. I remember ArenaNet saying, years ago, that the less human-like races were significantly less popular, and this was one of the reasons why they wouldn’t really try that hard to make armors look good on the Charr and the Asura. So the likehood of a new race being less humanoid than the Asura is next to none.

 

However, that doesn’t prevent us from dreaming. If we were to have a new race, I would like to have something completely different. Thus, enter the Skritt.

 

# The Skritt

 

We would play as Skritts. Yes, plural. A given Skritt is too, well, dumb and weak to be the Pact Commander. Instead of having a single person (rat?), the Skritt “character” would be composed of three different Skritts, moving together. So, some ground rules:

 

* The three Skritts are always together. They move in a triangle, with two in front and the third close behind. No splitting them up to control each Skritt individually.

* In battle, they climb over each other, making a small Skritt pile. This is mostly so the hit box makes sense and so it isn’t significantly different from that of other races. Considering how short the Skritt are, this still is shorter than a Norn.

* The three Skritts share a single equipment set. One Skritt wears the armor’s chest piece and feet, the other wears the legs and shoulder piece, and the third wears the helmet and the gloves. The two in front carry together the two-handed weapons, or one Skritt carries the main-hand weapon and the other carries the off-hand.

* Each Skritt has his/her own name. Each Skritt’s gender can be chosen by the player, with the caveat that those of the same gender share the same (high pitched) voice.

 

# The Skritt’s Storyline

Dialogue is rewritten for the Skritt. For example, in the “Temple of the Forgotten Gods”, the dialogue goes:

> @GW2 said:

> **NPC**: Tell me, Commander, can you fight? Is your oath made of steel? You'll need all your skills to travel with me.

> **Player character**: I have yet to meet anything I couldn't overcome.

> **NPC**: Intriguing. I look forward to this, Commander. Until then, may your steps be relentless.

With the Skritt, it would be altered to:

> @GW2 said:

> **NPC**: Tell me, Commander, can you fight? Is your oath made of steel? You'll need all your skills to travel with me.

> **Skritt PCs**: What what what? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

> **NPC**: Intriguing. I look forward to this, Commander. Until then, may your steps be relentless.

All PC dialogue would be replaced by variations of “what what what” or “ooooh, shiny”, with a few “go go go go go” here and there. No NPC dialogue would be altered. Amazingly, this would have little impact on the plot.

 

#Skritts’ Skills

Skritts would have three racial skills, all elite:

* Skritt Stampede: a small army of Skritts appear and run in a line, trampling enemies. Causes a bit of damage and knocks down.

* Skritt Barrier: a small army of Skritts appear and pile over the PCs, who become immobile but invulnerable for 3 seconds. They gain a small barrier afterwards.

* Skritt Brilliance: a large army of Skritts appear and solve Khabibullin's conjecture on integral inequalities. Nearby enemies are inflicted with daze and confusion.

 

What do you people think? Any ideas on how to improve our little rat PCs?

[takatsu.9416]

Sorry, I don't want to rain on your dream! This sounds super awesome, fun and hilarious

 

As much as I'd love to play quaggans too, but that's not going to happen.... not necessarily because of the popularity of humanoid races, but the three races (Skritt, Quaggan, Hylek), if you remember in our other race storylines, including the Orders actually study and support these races/species that are considered lower races, of lower intelligence. So it wouldn't happen no matter what for lore and the universe... :(

 

The more realistic race possibilities are the Tengu, Kodan and Largos who are advanced fully intelligent races who have built civilizations (for a long time). Also in terms of development, the animations/armor etc, they are the closest. Kodan is basically a Norn body lol

[Rauderi.8706]

I wouldn't mind Skritt being playable, but I think the "dumb as a box of shiny rocks" shtick would have to be jettisoned for playing "the one smart Skritt" as a PC.

And it'd probably be the result of an Asuran lab accident. Since we're already talking about unusual character paradigms, we could also be released/saved by the first/only ethical Asura!

And I always figured their racial elite would be "gain a random boom per ally/pet/minion around the character". :)

 

If we're talking more likely though, I still have my fingers crossed for Tengu.

[bart.3687]

> @Erasculio.2914 said:

> With the Skritt, it would be altered to:

> > @GW2 said:

> > **NPC**: Tell me, Commander, can you fight? Is your oath made of steel? You'll need all your skills to travel with me.

> > **Skritt PCs**: What what what? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

> > **NPC**: Intriguing. I look forward to this, Commander. Until then, may your steps be relentless.

> All PC dialogue would be replaced by variations of “what what what” or “ooooh, shiny”, with a few “go go go go go” here and there. No NPC dialogue would be altered. Amazingly, this would have little impact on the plot.

>

 

My goodness, this is amazing.

 

 

[Fat Disgrace.4275]

we already have asuras though, don;t need to kinds of rats.

[troops.8276]

Skrittle Rick!

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Fat Disgrace.4275" said:

> we already have asuras though, don;t need to kinds of rats.

 

Asura are talking mice with egos the size of Kanye's; skritt are hive-mentality talking rats.

[Sarge shot Grif.6450]

If we got skritt instead of Tengu (hell, even kodan) I would immediately quit.

[K THEN.5162]

I wouldn't mind there being a skritt battle tonic like the kodan one

[Snowywonders.1378]

Yeah of all the possible options for playable new races lets go with rats! Woo! Everyone will surely be so excited!

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

> @Snowywonders.1378 said:

> Yeah of all the possible options for playable new races lets go with rats! Woo! Everyone will surely be so excited!

 

They make Skritt, people plays Skritt. Eeeeverybody wins!

 

> @Erasculio.2914 said:

> I remember ArenaNet saying, years ago, that the less human-like races were significantly less popular, and this was one of the reasons why they wouldn’t really try that hard to make armors look good on the Charr and the Asura. So the likehood of a new race being less humanoid than the Asura is next to none.

 

I still think Asura (females at least) have one of the best armour looks compared to the other races.

That said, if the less human-like races were significantly less popular, then how about Largos? Can those work?

[Altair.8402]

You people have no sense of humor

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

> @Altair.8402 said:

> You people have no sense of humor

 

Oh I do. Just I saw this comment/post in one of the other "new playable race" topics.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

Brilliant!! I love it. :D

 

I was thinking about playable Skritt the other day and it came to me that if Skritt get smarter in numbers, maybe we could play as a lone skritt, but when we're alone we get only the #1 skill (auto-attack). As we approach other skritt players our other skills start to unlock. Would encourage grouping up!; ;)

[Torolan.5816]

I actually like this idea. I have the image of three skritt who are wearing lots of bling blings and grills, listen to hilarious music and ramble incoherently like rappers do. Then and when an NPC beats the s.it out of them where your screen turns black for a few seconds and the skritt have to pile up again. They can only use six baretta style pistols and take a little damage when they fire them because they hold them sideways to look cool. And they have skritt cheerleaders as minis because of booty shaking.

[Cronospere.8143]

On a more serious tone though.. if im right, the skritt doesn't have magic.

They can't become a necro, guardian, elementist, mesmer. Will the skritt have their own professions?

 

Forager (melee)

Burglar (melee)

Bottle Lobber (Ranged)

Pistolier (engi ranged)

 

I always liked the idea you could play the smaller races like Quaggan, Skritt, Ogre, etc.

But they have to make them somewhat limited in comparison to the 5 large races.

 

This would also save a lot of time since they don't have to recreate a lot of skills, armor and stuff.. since the skritt have a simplified system

 

[Tenrai Senshi.2017]

If we ever got a new race, for some reason I think the Largos would be the most likely candidate. They are the most "human" looking non-playable race, and so would be the easiest to transfer current armor sets and outfits to. They could even use some of the hairstyles from Humans and Norns along with race unique styles of course.

 

And to be honest, I wouldn't mind that. The Largos do appeal to me, and having a potential underwater city as a starting zone would be quite cool. Maybe when Bubbles enters the fray, oceanic races, including the Largos, will be more of a focus.

 

Aside from that, I'd say Tengu would be the next most likely candidate, but I can imagine the clipping nightmares with armor, and the resources it would require to make that work. I wouldn't mind them either, it would certainly be interesting, but I'm not sure if ANet would put the effort into developing a non-human race that not everyone will use and that would require significantly more work to implement.

[Urud.4925]

> @Erasculio.2914 said:

> All PC dialogue would be replaced by variations of “what what what” or “ooooh, shiny”, with a few “go go go go go” here and there. No NPC dialogue would be altered. Amazingly, this would have little impact on the plot.

 

You forgot the ending "yes". "Attack, yes!".

Also, we already have a potion to become Skritt for 15 minutes. Though we can't speak.

[Ardid.7203]

> @Erasculio.2914 said:

> Honestly, I doubt ArenaNet is ever going to add a new race to GW2. It would be way too much work – given how each race has different voice actors, they would have to re-record everything already in the game, plus adapt the beginning of the personal storyline, plus adapt all existing armors, and so on. I remember ArenaNet saying, years ago, that the less human-like races were significantly less popular, and this was one of the reasons why they wouldn’t really try that hard to make armors look good on the Charr and the Asura. So the likehood of a new race being less humanoid than the Asura is next to none.

>

> However, that doesn’t prevent us from dreaming. If we were to have a new race, I would like to have something completely different. Thus, enter the Skritt.

>

> # The Skritt

>

> We would play as Skritts. Yes, plural. A given Skritt is too, well, kitten and weak to be the Pact Commander. Instead of having a single person (rat?), the Skritt “character” would be composed of three different Skritts, moving together. So, some ground rules:

>

> * The three Skritts are always together. They move in a triangle, with two in front and the third close behind. No splitting them up to control each Skritt individually.

> * In battle, they climb over each other, making a small Skritt pile. This is mostly so the hit box makes sense and so it isn’t significantly different from that of other races. Considering how short the Skritt are, this still is shorter than a Norn.

> * The three Skritts share a single equipment set. One Skritt wears the armor’s chest piece and feet, the other wears the legs and shoulder piece, and the third wears the helmet and the gloves. The two in front carry together the two-handed weapons, or one Skritt carries the main-hand weapon and the other carries the off-hand.

> * Each Skritt has his/her own name. Each Skritt’s gender can be chosen by the player, with the caveat that those of the same gender share the same (high pitched) voice.

>

> # The Skritt’s Storyline

> Dialogue is rewritten for the Skritt. For example, in the “Temple of the Forgotten Gods”, the dialogue goes:

> > @GW2 said:

> > **NPC**: Tell me, Commander, can you fight? Is your oath made of steel? You'll need all your skills to travel with me.

> > **Player character**: I have yet to meet anything I couldn't overcome.

> > **NPC**: Intriguing. I look forward to this, Commander. Until then, may your steps be relentless.

> With the Skritt, it would be altered to:

> > @GW2 said:

> > **NPC**: Tell me, Commander, can you fight? Is your oath made of steel? You'll need all your skills to travel with me.

> > **Skritt PCs**: What what what? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

> > **NPC**: Intriguing. I look forward to this, Commander. Until then, may your steps be relentless.

> All PC dialogue would be replaced by variations of “what what what” or “ooooh, shiny”, with a few “go go go go go” here and there. No NPC dialogue would be altered. Amazingly, this would have little impact on the plot.

>

> #Skritts’ Skills

> Skritts would have three racial skills, all elite:

> * Skritt Stampede: a small army of Skritts appear and run in a line, trampling enemies. Causes a bit of damage and knocks down.

> * Skritt Barrier: a small army of Skritts appear and pile over the PCs, who become immobile but invulnerable for 3 seconds. They gain a small barrier afterwards.

> * Skritt Brilliance: a large army of Skritts appear and solve Khabibullin's conjecture on integral inequalities. Nearby enemies are inflicted with daze and confusion.

>

> What do you people think? Any ideas on how to improve our little rat PCs?

 

Best thread and post and idea and writing in the whole forum.

I totally support this, both as a fun parody and a serious(?!) game mechanic possibility.

 

> @Erasculio.2914 said:

> All PC dialogue would be replaced by variations of “what what what” or “ooooh, shiny”, with a few “go go go go go” here and there. No NPC dialogue would be altered. **Amazingly, this would have little impact on the plot.**

 

This is not pure gold. This is phlebotinium, adamantium, mithril, orichalcum and atium, all at once.

[FaboBabo.3581]

As i saw the Topic, first thing which came to my mind was Dialogues.

 

HOOOOLY MOLLY I'D LOVE THIS.

 

Npc : we need to kill the elder dragons.

Commander : Oh shiny? Attack yes , yes !

 

I seriously think this could be added as an after game possibilty.

U know some games you can play through, and afterwards they offer you some special things, like another Character to play the game with, or replay the story with Full Build etc.

 

If u have finished the Classic Story, u do unlock the "Skritt" - Version of it.

U don't get a new home instance, just the same Story etc as in ur first Run, but u have those lovely Skritt Dialogues.

And then here and there, we could add some Jokes, which refer to us beeing skritts.

 

Something like an enemy's last words ; NO ...NO...YOU'RE NOTHING BUT.... A DIRTY RAT !!

"this is a hairy Situation"

 

 

420 + This = God mode

 

Edit ; This would probably lead to "Race-Skins" - good or bad?

[Noa.7490]

The characters are already modeled. Their animations done. They already have an established context within Tyria. Their way of life is frankly are the opposite of every race in Tyria and they are genuinely original in their concept. I totally support this idea.

[FaboBabo.3581]

> @Noa.7490 said:

> The characters are already modeled. Their animations done. They already have an established context within Tyria. Their way of life is frankly are the opposite of every race in Tyria and they are genuinely original in their concept. I totally support this idea.

 

Support, yes yes !

[Aryan Arlande.6184]

Skritt aren't dumb.

 

The are supposed to discover next time the quantum-theory, indeed.

 

Not long ago i witnessed some Skritt-Chatter about schroedingers cat in a crate - of course they chatted about schroedingers shiny.

 

I was somewhat flabbergasted.

[Rauderi.8706]

While my usual refrain is "gimme burbs," I'll take playable Skritt as an option. :+1:

[Aryan Arlande.6184]

> @Rauderi.8706 said:

> While my usual refrain is "gimme burbs," I'll take playable Skritt as an option. :+1:

 

And last, but not least : fashion-wars will become very interesting