Consequences of playing "EVIL" races

[Eltab]

I have too much lore around goblins to steal it, but now I want to have a sentient raccoon race in my setting.

You can do that in Gamma World too. Dabbers have been around since GWv2.

 

[aco175]

My players tend to just pick the races in the PHB, so I do not run into having anyone play a orc or lizardman. There is generally a problem in my campaign if with playing an evil race. Similar to when a ranger wants to bring a bear into town and the folk are scared.

I want to say yes to the players but I also want everyone to have a good time at the table. If one player wants to play something like this I tend to think that they may be disrupting the table. Now if everyone wants to play orcs and hobgoblins then that can be another campaign I can make.

 

[Celebrim]

You can do that in Gamma World too. Dabbers have been around since GWv2.

I forgot about Dabbers!

I played the first 4 modules for GW 3e as they came out. But it's been a long time.

I saw "Alpha Factor" in a second hand book store just a while ago. Flipping through it made me realize how much more I demand of an adventure now compared to what I thought was amazing as someone in junior high.

 

[Lylandra]

There are no "evil races" in my settings. Nuff said.

 

[Longspeak]

I just went through this Sunday. Running a game where Yuan-Ti have been an issue. Players wants Yuan-Ti Pureblood PC. I told her, "I won't make an issue of the PC race... until I do. But when I do, you'll feel it." She said "Okay!"

So, a pureblood Yuan-Ti working in a city post-Yuan-Ti invasion...

I hope she has a backup character...

 

[uzirath]

So, a pureblood Yuan-Ti working in a city post-Yuan-Ti invasion...

I hope she has a backup character...

There's lots of real-world history that could be mined for inspiration about this sort of story. In the US, for example, there was the anti-German hysteria during WWI, the Japanese internment during WWII, and the Red Scare, to name a few obvious examples. Reactions might depend on the character's social class along with her own political leanings. If she's opposed to the expansionist aims of the Yuan-Ti, then she might be tapped as a source of information or recruited as a spy. If she supports the Yuan-Ti, then maybe she is a spy for them (whether informally or formally, à la The Americans). There may be a network of other Yuan-Ti attempting to lay low until the xenophobia settles down. They might have safe houses and sympathetic NPCs who will do business with them without asking too many questions.

Plenty of adventure can come out of a character background like this. It need not lead to the character's demise.

 

[Celebrim]

There's lots of real-world history that could be mined for inspiration about this sort of story. In the US, for example, there was the anti-German hysteria during WWI, the Japanese internment during WWII, and the Red Scare, to name a few obvious examples...

Are you actually comparing Japanese people to inhuman snake-eyed monsters, and don't think that is problematic?

 

[uzirath]

Are you actually comparing Japanese people to inhuman snake-eyed monsters, and don't think that is problematic?

Huh. I'm chagrined that my post might have come across that way.

My presupposition was that any DM-approved PC would be a character, not a "snake-eyed monster." As a character, they would have moral agency (sapience, free will, etc.). There would be a chance, no matter how great the stereotypes of the reference culture, that they would be treated as not a monster if they proved themselves to be capable of independent thought and agency. Then I thought of a handful of real-world examples of how people have been treated when civilizations clash and people have faced negative stereotypes about their perceived ethnic or cultural group.

 

[Panda-s1]

I just went through this Sunday. Running a game where Yuan-Ti have been an issue. Players wants Yuan-Ti Pureblood PC. I told her, "I won't make an issue of the PC race... until I do. But when I do, you'll feel it." She said "Okay!"

So, a pureblood Yuan-Ti working in a city post-Yuan-Ti invasion...

I hope she has a backup character...

There's lots of real-world history that could be mined for inspiration about this sort of story. In the US, for example, there was the anti-German hysteria during WWI, the Japanese internment during WWII, and the Red Scare, to name a few obvious examples. Reactions might depend on the character's social class along with her own political leanings. If she's opposed to the expansionist aims of the Yuan-Ti, then she might be tapped as a source of information or recruited as a spy. If she supports the Yuan-Ti, then maybe she is a spy for them (whether informally or formally, à la The Americans). There may be a network of other Yuan-Ti attempting to lay low until the xenophobia settles down. They might have safe houses and sympathetic NPCs who will do business with them without asking too many questions.

Plenty of adventure can come out of a character background like this. It need not lead to the character's demise.

1) I seriously question why you didn't bring this up at all before she made her character.
2) straight up murdering her character seems narratively unnecessary. and boring. these points are all very good and I strongly consider using something like this.

 

[Lanefan]

Plenty of adventure can come out of a character background like this. It need not lead to the character's demise.

Though it need not lead to the character's demise, its expected lifespan will largely be determined by how the other PCs react to its presence in and around the party, and how willing they are to defend the Yuan-Ti PC then and later.

Were it me playing it, I'd have a plan B on standby.