Shakespeare Folk

If there was a race of sentient creatures that all acted as if they belonged in a kind of shared shakespeare universe, what traits might they posses mechanically? I play pathfinder but anything is fine.

They are also dragonfly people.

I may be really drunk right now.

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It really depends on which play you are basing on.

For example, if we are going for Macbeth, people would be very prone to backstabbing each other but they would not be mindless murderhobos at the same time or we can go the Hamlet route so we would have rather passive but intelligent and melancholic beings.

Source; I have a useless degree and life full of regrets.

I love you.

What if it's both simultaneously?

Things would get out of hand really fast. We are going to have really high functioning sociopaths ala Othella but we are also going to have very powerful wizards ala Tempest.

Emotions would be really important for these beings. Love, hatred, lust, fear, anger etc. those will be the main motivators for them.

Also, there is going to be a shit ton of death.

So a species of dragonfly people who are very highly strung, very intelligent and sociopathic with good magician potential, rife with politics?

They would be also very into lengthy monologues with themselves. Occasionally they would make deals with witches and such.

However, they would be the best lovers of the universe. I suppose no other race could feel the sensation of love so burningly other than these dragonflies.

What sort of mechanical benefit and downside would being a highly strung sociopath give you?

These are very helpful, thank you!

As far as roleplaying them, broad strokes and devious schemes. Shakespearean characters are always plotting something. Hamlet is plotting vengeance against his Uncle. His Uncle is plotting against him. Cassius is plotting to get Brutus in on a plot.
Make them seem over the top and dramatic. Look at a Midsummer Night's Dream, the Faeries in particular, Oberons court is a great way to look at these dragonfly people.
Mechanically this could be them flitting about, dancing around their problems before finally actually enacting them. This also makes them very quickly rush into things without thinking as well, broad strokes for every little thing. Every thing is some life changing and important new experience that will remain with them forever.
Romeo and Juliet being an example.

Essentislly theyrr over dramatic and scheming little fucks

I am also a bit drunk

So, in terms of game mechanics, how would you represent them being schemers?

Additionally, what about them being emotional?

This guy gets it but as I say there are 37, depends on where you look, plays Shakespeare wrote so I don't know how to incorporate them all.

A high charisma and positive modifiers in deception could be a good start.

no mention, at least I feel like my degree worth something.

Okay, so this is what I got so far.

docs.google.com/document/d/1z2BpE033ecKvNMjn_AE7b7aiInp2ZveWxDxTgDiZ7TE/edit#

Holy shit, that does look good. However, I don't know how we would add more flavour to it without getting it bloated.

Yeah I know what you mean. I wanted to pick just a +2 to int or cha, but I think in the end the only way to do the flavour justice was let the player choose whichever would be appropriate.

The best way to add flavour at this stage would be alternate racial traits, but you can only really replace Intense Lover or Highly Strung Schemer because the rest are all purely biological.

Thanks for the compliment on it by the way, how rude of me.

Additionally I made the race's name from the old english 'hatheort' which means passionate, fiery, furious

There is quite a lot of deus ex machina and chance factor going on in Shakespeare's plays. Maybe we could have one with lucky or something but I am not really sure it would suit the general theme of the species.

I was pretty sure the name comes from hot-hearted but I am pretty sure hatheort also derives from hot-hearted so that is pretty cool.

God damn, I love literature.

So, in terms of the tempest, which I have not read yet, what sort of magic could they specialise in?

Lucky may not suit it too well, and I have other races in the setting with luck as a focus here and there, so I think I'll have to leave that.

And yeah, I love making literature relevant in my setting if I can. I did english literature and language for my A levels.

It would probably fit better as a druid as Prospero uses the magic of nature such as creating storms and natural sounds.

Okay so let me expand on this. Prospero is what we call a renaissance man. He devotes much of his life to books and study. All of his powers come from books and knowledge.

In terms of actual spells, I am going to oversimplify this, he creates a powerful storm, binds a lesser demon to his will, creates some petty magic for wedding entertainment and generally manipulates his enemies with the help of magic.

Brilliant. Thank you. I am also writing a novel for nanowrimo, so I wanted to flesh out these dragonfly people prior to writing a scene with them. Thank everyone in this thread so much, this has really helped!