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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7532023" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>As a response to the example of a player really wanting to play a tiefling in an upcoming game and then finding out the setting they would be using doesn't have them... and that the DM should really find a way to bring that tiefling idea into the game...</p><p></p><p>...I personally think that's a false argument. Because more often than not, I believe that player doesn't ACTUALLY want to play a tiefling. What they WANT is to play with a certain number of squiggly lines on a character sheet and roll a certain type of dice. They want to play the <em>mechanics</em> that they get from the tiefling but don't actually care about roleplaying the race itself.</p><p></p><p>Because if they DID want to play the race and all the roleplaying that comes along with playing a tiefling... they would have actually read the setting guide to see how the tieflings as a race fit within that setting so that they could get an idea of how they would go about roleplaying it. And had they done that... they would discover that there wasn't a place for tieflings, and they would actually care that what they hoped to roleplay about being a descendant from an infernal/human union would never be addressed because the pair just didn't exist. Being a "tiefling" would never actually come up, and the character would essential end up being played just like a human except the squiggly lines on the character sheet would be different-- the letters and numbers that make up the different abilities of the tiefling versus the human. If you want to play a tiefling that badly, I presume its because you wish to actually address what it means to BE a tiefling. And if that never actually comes up, why would you actually want to waste your time playing that character in that world at that point?</p><p></p><p>I'll be perfectly frank... I have seen very few players who have ever thought about, looked at, or <em>played</em> the actual racial differences that comes from being a non-human race. Like, no one who has ever played an elf has truly tried to get into the idea of being an extremely long-living race. What that means, the psychology behind it, how it affects them. Instead, you look around the table and an outside observer would have a very difficult time distinguishing any character as being non-human based upon the roleplaying, because everyone just essential roleplays character personality. Is that gruff-speaking character a dwarf, or just an irritated human? You can't tell. So the need of a player to HAVE to play this exotic race that doesn't fall within the world they are living in is unnecessary and really goes against what they are CLAIMING is important to them and the reason why they want to play it.</p><p></p><p>If you claim you want and need to play a certain race... but truth be told what you end up playing is no different than how you would play that character if they were human... then what tells me is that underneath everything all you <em>really</em> want is just to the different mechanics. The ability score boost. The racial feature. The squiggly lines and numbers that allow you to roll different dice. And if that's the case, then no, I have no problem in saying to the player they should choose the squiggly lines and the different dice that actually fit within the world I have set up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7532023, member: 7006"] As a response to the example of a player really wanting to play a tiefling in an upcoming game and then finding out the setting they would be using doesn't have them... and that the DM should really find a way to bring that tiefling idea into the game... ...I personally think that's a false argument. Because more often than not, I believe that player doesn't ACTUALLY want to play a tiefling. What they WANT is to play with a certain number of squiggly lines on a character sheet and roll a certain type of dice. They want to play the [I]mechanics[/I] that they get from the tiefling but don't actually care about roleplaying the race itself. Because if they DID want to play the race and all the roleplaying that comes along with playing a tiefling... they would have actually read the setting guide to see how the tieflings as a race fit within that setting so that they could get an idea of how they would go about roleplaying it. And had they done that... they would discover that there wasn't a place for tieflings, and they would actually care that what they hoped to roleplay about being a descendant from an infernal/human union would never be addressed because the pair just didn't exist. Being a "tiefling" would never actually come up, and the character would essential end up being played just like a human except the squiggly lines on the character sheet would be different-- the letters and numbers that make up the different abilities of the tiefling versus the human. If you want to play a tiefling that badly, I presume its because you wish to actually address what it means to BE a tiefling. And if that never actually comes up, why would you actually want to waste your time playing that character in that world at that point? I'll be perfectly frank... I have seen very few players who have ever thought about, looked at, or [I]played[/I] the actual racial differences that comes from being a non-human race. Like, no one who has ever played an elf has truly tried to get into the idea of being an extremely long-living race. What that means, the psychology behind it, how it affects them. Instead, you look around the table and an outside observer would have a very difficult time distinguishing any character as being non-human based upon the roleplaying, because everyone just essential roleplays character personality. Is that gruff-speaking character a dwarf, or just an irritated human? You can't tell. So the need of a player to HAVE to play this exotic race that doesn't fall within the world they are living in is unnecessary and really goes against what they are CLAIMING is important to them and the reason why they want to play it. If you claim you want and need to play a certain race... but truth be told what you end up playing is no different than how you would play that character if they were human... then what tells me is that underneath everything all you [I]really[/I] want is just to the different mechanics. The ability score boost. The racial feature. The squiggly lines and numbers that allow you to roll different dice. And if that's the case, then no, I have no problem in saying to the player they should choose the squiggly lines and the different dice that actually fit within the world I have set up. [/QUOTE]
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