I hate cat-people, dog-people, lion-people, etc

Gundark · Mar 2, 2005

A bit of a rant.....

One thing that uber-annoys me is when I flip thru a d20 book (or any game system for that matter). Is in the list of playable races there are cat-people, or lion people (that one seems popular). Or insect-people, or bird people.....or whatever. I think that this has got to be the most uncreative thing that you could do when designing a race. What makes it even worse is when the authors give attributes to these races that are stereotypical. What I mean is cat-people are dexterious, dog-people are loyal, lion people are proud and honourable. I want something new....IMO using animal-people are lame.

A few exceptions......Minotaurs, yeah I know they're cow people but I like the monster
Rakashas (yes I know I spelled it wrong).
Dog Boys from Rifts (hate the rules/company/owner)

I think why they're exceptions is that that in the case of the first two is that they have nothing to do with the real life animals that they look like. In the case of the dog boy they were genetically engineered to be dog-people....and for some strange reason it worked for me.

Anyhow anybody agree? Disagree? What bugs you about RPGs?

Doug McCrae · Mar 2, 2005

Damn Furry conspiracy!

fafhrd · Mar 2, 2005

Hear hear!

Humanimals are the height of lazy design.

Crothian · Mar 2, 2005

They are too rare and too easy to ignore for me to hate them. In fact if done well those races can be really cool.

diaglo · Mar 2, 2005

not had a problem with them. as they are very rare.

and mostly hunted to extinction.

Desdichado · Mar 2, 2005

I don't really care too much one way or another, although I'm slightly leaning towards "no thanks" to animal-people. Including gnolls, for that matter.

I'd rather have something that's more apparently human-like, but more subtlely alien, although that's a bit of a tall order for a designer, I guess.

tarchon · Mar 2, 2005

I've always figured they should just be a general class of monster, like Warhammer's "beastmen." Some kind of template.

the Jester · Mar 2, 2005

Well, I use tabaxi as a playable 'monster' race, but they are few and far between. 2 racial HD +2 LA = ECL 4; my games almost always start at 1st level (though pcs begin to start off higher as the group advances, of course).

francisca · Mar 2, 2005

Gundark said:
A bit of a rant.....

One thing that uber-annoys me is when I flip thru a d20 book (or any game system for that matter). Is in the list of playable races there are cat-people, or lion people (that one seems popular). Or insect-people, or bird people.....or whatever. I think that this has got to be the most uncreative thing that you could do when designing a race. What makes it even worse is when the authors give attributes to these races that are stereotypical. What I mean is cat-people are dexterious, dog-people are loyal, lion people are proud and honourable. I want something new....IMO using animal-people are lame.

A few exceptions......Minotaurs, yeah I know they're cow people but I like the monster
Rakashas (yes I know I spelled it wrong).
Dog Boys from Rifts (hate the rules/company/owner)

I think why they're exceptions is that that in the case of the first two is that they have nothing to do with the real life animals that they look like. In the case of the dog boy they were genetically engineered to be dog-people....and for some strange reason it worked for me.

Anyhow anybody agree? Disagree? What bugs you about RPGs?

I give this rant a 5.6 out of 10.

You get bonus points for getting straight to the point, but get a bit incoherent in the middle there.

Your rage is so blinding that you left out the Pig-People Orcs from the 1e MM and those turtle-dudes from the savage coast. Actually I think you are really overeacting. But that doens't mean that I think less of you as a human being and fellow gamer, or even disagree with you

But yeah. I see where you are coming from. It is pretty bland to come up with cat people who are lithe and aloof. I really don't think I've ever used any of this stuff you mentioned, except for the odd Minotaur or 10. Do you include Gnolls as Hyena people, or are they OK?

What I really hate, though, are people people. I dated this cheerleader in high school. She was a "people person", loved small, cute, furry animals, and thought Bruce Willis was cuter than me.

:heh: