Tabula Rasa Interview and Video

MMORPG is offering an interview with an exclusive video on the topic of hybrid races in Tabula Rasa, with lead designer Paul Sage.
Can you explain how the concept of hybrids came about? What made you decide to put them in the game?

Community feedback had a lot to do with this. Richard felt strongly that the story of Tabula Rasa was a human story. Throughout the history of his games, it has been about the player actually being in the world. So it seemed natural that at launch we told the human story. The internal and external community feedback was that they wanted to play alien races as well. So now it is time to tell the story, still human, but with a twist, or a splice, if you prefer, of alien DNA.

How do you get a hybrid character and what do you see as the benefit to having one?

In order to be able to start a new character or clone a current character with alien DNA added, you must complete a mission chain. Each race, Forean, Brann and Thrax have their own chain that must be completed.

Once you have opened up the ability to create a hybrid, your hybrid will get more points in certain attributes like Body, Mind or Spirit, than the normal human. It varies from hybrid to hybrid. It is important to note that with the Hybrid publish, attributes play an even more substantive part in the game. Body, for instance, adds to not only health, but armor as well. So a Thrax-Human hybrid can have more total Body than a regular human which means they can absorb more total damage. Hybrids also have natural resistances to certain damage types, as well as vulnerabilities, that regular humans don't have.