D&D as humanocetric ... or not?

[Harzel]

Which has...interesting corollaries that can be used to tell stories that speak to many of us, but with a level of removal, that would only be possible for playing a human if human (and it’s very near cousins) were the only sentient bipeds in the game world. But once I can negotiate with a bugbear and play into their laziness and indifference, a different kind of human simply, for many of us, cannot represent “the other”.

the fact that these other peoples exist, but are treated as secondary to the “default” human, makes the fairly objectively more “the other” than any sort of human can ever be.

Oh, that's an interesting perspective. I understand your point now (even though I'm not sure I'm totally convinced).

 

[PsyzhranV2]

If someone tried to pull something in my game, I'd show him/her the door. I don't want to play Freude. I want to play D&D. I expect my players to keep their personal problems to themselves where they belong. Or maybe I should start calling my gaming group "The Stoics."

So you don't think people engaging in vicarious escapism against issues they might face in real life - classism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and many other dark, horrid things, that modern society perpetuates - is a worthy pursuit? That D&D should just be hard men making hard decisions, and grave robbers and emrcenaries looking to make a quick buck?

 

[Zardnaar]

So you don't think people engaging in vicarious escapism against issues they might face in real life - classism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and many other dark, horrid things, that modern society perpetuates - is a worthy pursuit? That D&D should just be hard men making hard decisions, and grave robbers and emrcenaries looking to make a quick buck?

Not if it's to hard. I'm a DM not a therapist.

I'm here to have fun myself. I have a shortlist if around 39 races you can play that are tied to the setting.

I like spotlighting so if I'm playing in that setting or area I like designing for it.

I'm not here to deal with your issues, I've got a few of my own. If we get along beer and kebab.

Preferred races atm.

Nurian human
Tamasheq human
Nurian Dwarf
Ravenfolk
Catfolk (Tabaxi, Werelion etc)
Dragonkin/born
Minotaur
Anything anthromophic
Aasimar

There's a few more, ideally nothing Elf related. The above are the races in the area and the political situation.

Also I bought Midgard with my mother's inheritence money. This is the first time I've got to run it so I want to do that not run whatever you want.

I was very upfront with the players. This is what I'm running. Don't like it don't play simple.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

So you don't think people engaging in vicarious escapism against issues they might face in real life - classism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and many other dark, horrid things, that modern society perpetuates - is a worthy pursuit? That D&D should just be hard men making hard decisions, and grave robbers and emrcenaries looking to make a quick buck?

To question one: Not with my group, but you can do what you want with yours. I have no interest becoming anyone's shrink or anyone's mom. Either my players can find their mom to talk about their problems with, hire a shrink, or actually (you know) fix their problems so no one has to listen to their b****ing.

To questions two: Not only, but it's a common theme. Others include the discovery of ancient knowledge, the quest for glory, the thirst for power, and the thrill of creation (building magic plans by binding elementals).

 

[Helldritch]

A DM is not a therapist. If you role play to heal some psychological wound(s), please, go see a therapist asap. You will hurt yourself more than you will heal. Yes, you might forget your problems a wee bit the time you're playing but it won't help you to heal in the long run.

DM in an RPG is for entertainement only. Anything else is plain nonsense. You're there to have fun and not to have a free therapy. Role Playing Therapy are not related to RPG at all. They might look similar from the outside but they're not related. Using RPG as a therapy is simply a no go. A DM is not a therapist.

 

[reelo]

To question one: Not with my group, but you can do what you want with yours. I have no interest becoming anyone's shrink or anyone's mom. Either my players can find their mom to talk about their problems with, hire a shrink, or actually (you know) fix their problems so no one has to listen to their b****ing.

To questions two: Not only, but it's a common theme. Others include the discovery of ancient knowledge, the quest for glory, the thirst for power, and the thrill of creation (building magic plans by binding elementals).

We're in the same boat.

My game of choice is B/X, which is decidedly humanocentric. My games aren't about escapism and deep psychodrama, they're pulp fantasy.

 

[Lanefan]

It's a mostly-Human world, you're likely to be adventuring in mostly-Human areas a lot of the time, so if you're not playng either a Human or a race that gets along well with Humans you're probably setting yourself up for a bad time.

 

[Harzel]

I picked #4 because that's what I did for my current campaign. In the future, I think it's most likely I would do something between #6 and #7:
6.5: Any choice from a limited selection of curated races. Other races are possible, but DM approval is required, and you'll probably need to help with the work of integrating the race into the setting.

On the subject of humanocentrism more generally, I think Tolkien gave us dwarves, elves, and halflings as reskinned humans, or humans with a twist, or humans stylized by focus on certain aspects of the human psyche which were also reflected in their physicality/race. So, to me, playing a (Tolkienesque) elf, dwarf, or halfling is only a superficial departure from humanocentrism; and you can throw half-elves into the bucket as well since Tolkien certainly allowed for humans with elven ancestry, though AFAIK he never called them "half-elves".

Half-orcs seem to me to have started as an imitation of the Tolkienesque reskinned-human-using-racial-features-to-explore-via-exaggeration-aspects-of-the-human-condition technique to represent the dumb brute or the outsider who everyone assumes is a dumb brute. So I would also generally give them a pass as not much of a departure from humanocentrism.

Gnomes are known to be reskinned footballs, suitable, therefore, only for punting. 'Nuff said.

For other races, I have a variety of somewhat contradictory thoughts, but I guess in the end it comes down to player motivation and willingness to put some skin in the game (so to speak). If the player wants to choose a more exotic race because moar powerz, or as an excuse to act wacky, well, cut that out or find a different table. If they want it simply in order to stand out as extra special, I would also discourage that.

If they are following in the tradition of using race as an external, visible representation of the condition of an essentially human interior, well, that's where I'm not sure what I think about it. On one hand, it's certainly a grand D&D tradition, and if the player is willing to help make it an interesting part of the setting, maybe that works. OTOH, it's weird to look around your setting and see a lot of races of creatures turning into reskinned humans, and I don't really like that happening. And that goes double, or triple, or 10x for "monstrous races" - yeah, it's going to be really hard to convince me you need to play a gnoll.

Finally, I guess a player might seriously want to play an individual of a truly alien species. I'm not sure I've ever seen a real example of that, and I think it would take a pretty impressive amount of work and skill to pull it off, and I'm really dubious how you would fit into a group of humans and reskinned humans. To be fair, I guess DMs fancy themselves able to do this, but, at least for myself, I find myself generally falling back to a human or "traditional" reskinned human (elf, dwarf, etc.) for any character that has an extended or extensive story line. That at least limits the scope/depth of the RP that I have to do for genuinely alien beings.

 

[Harzel]

If someone tried to pull something in my game, I'd show him/her the door. I don't want to play Freude. I want to play D&D. I expect my players to keep their personal problems to themselves where they belong. Or maybe I should start calling my gaming group "The Stoics."

It's unclear to me what you mean by "pull something"; that's pretty vague phrase. I don't see how what @doctorbadwolf is suggesting differs from playing a PC with flaws or other personality traits connected to their background/backstory. How can you tell if a player is "pulling something" (whatever that means)?

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

It's unclear to me what you mean by "pull something"; that's pretty vague phrase. I don't see how what @doctorbadwolf is suggesting differs from playing a PC with flaws or other personality traits connected to their background/backstory. How can you tell if a player is "pulling something" (whatever that means)?

Pull something = turning my game into a soap opera. We explore dungeons, not characters. I expect characters not to have backstories. A characters' story is what happens in the game, not before it.

BTW, character goals are fine (invent the first item capable of ending the universe, taming a dragon, etc.), but no backstories.