Do You Prefer to Play a Human PC When RPGing?

[Hairfoot]

No, no, no. I didn't say that players get it all wrong. The point is that if demi-humans existed, their minds would be alien to us. Even at our best we can only portray them as humans with strange behaviours and outlooks on life.

In the same way, a LARPer can't make an adamantium sword, because the mineral simply doesn't exist. What they can do is use known materials in an unorthodox manner to give an impression of what it might be like, on the assumption that it's analogous to metals we already know and understand. Therefore we can say "I imagine adamantium would be similar to this", but not "this alloy is adamantium". It cannot be accurate, because a negative (something non-existent) cannot be proven.

If I meant that players running non-humans are crap RPers, I would have said so. But they're not.

Stop me now, before I start on free will and determinism.

 

[Kurotowa]

No, no, no. I didn't say that players get it all wrong. The point is that if demi-humans existed, their minds would be alien to us. Even at our best we can only portray them as humans with strange behaviours and outlooks on life.

There's an assumption jump there that a lot of people disagree with. I'm a white, male, agnostic, american, living in the 20th century. While roleplaying I take on the person of people of difference ethnicities, genders, religions, nationalities, and time periods. I've also roleplayed jocks, selfish SOBs, sadistic killers, superheroes, cyborgs, and war vets. Given all that, I don't think playing an elf or self-aware AI or alien energy being taken on human form is all that different. A bit more of a stretch, sure, but challanges are fun. I think the power of imagination is strong enough to deal with it.

 

[Airboy]

I would have to yes and no. It depends on the campaign and the character concept I'm working on. Of the last three it was Human, Elf, and Tiefling.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Agback
It Was Asked On The General RPG Discussion Board Of The Forum, And The OP Did Specify 'RPGing', Not 'Playing D&D'. I Think We Are Seeing A Selection Effect: ENWorld Members Are A Biased Sample Of RP Gamers, With A Higher Proportion Of Players Who Play Only D&D Than Is Found In The General Population Of RPGers. And Therefore More People Who Are Basically Ignorant Of The Wide Range Of RPGs.

An interesting post...oddly written. Hmmm. If I remove all of the lowercase letters, I get:

I W A O T G RPG D B O T F, A T OP D S 'RPG', N 'P D&D'. I T W A S A S E: ENW M A A B S O RP G, W A H P O P W P O D&D T I F I T G P O RPG. A T M P W A B I O T W R O RPG.

Could this be...The Agback Code?

 

[Aeolius]

In the south, everyone calls a soda a "Coke," even if they're ordering a Sprite. Same thing.

WAITRESS: "What'll you have, sug?"
SOUTHERNER: "Think I'll have a Coke."
WAITRESS: "What kind, babe?"
SOUTHERNER: "Mountain Dew, thanks."

I'll call bullcrap on this one... I live in North Carolina... when you want a Coke, you ask for a Coke. When you want a Sprite, you ask for a Sprite. Anyone who wants a 7-UP but asks for a Coke is either an idiot or looking to start a fight.

 

[Jdvn1]

I'll call bullcrap on this one... I live in North Carolina... when you want a Coke, you ask for a Coke. When you want a Sprite, you ask for a Sprite. Anyone who wants a 7-UP but asks for a Coke is either an idiot or looking to start a fight.

It's a regional thing. Though, coming from the south myself, if someone asks for a Coke, I'll give them a Coke. Some people down here are vague, and refer to all softdrinks as coke.

 

[Hairfoot]

There's an assumption jump there that a lot of people disagree with. I don't think playing an elf or self-aware AI or alien energy being taken on human form is all that different. A bit more of a stretch, sure, but challanges are fun. I think the power of imagination is strong enough to deal with it.

Can you expand on my assumption? I presumed that my original point was so obvious that the post was almost irrelevant, but I clearly misjudged. I suspect that a few readers have misunderstood me to be criticising the flexibility of imagination.

I'm trying to say that a real-world human playing an elf is like my dog trying to roleplay me as a superhero PC. Commonality of place, time, and genera (mammals: genera, yes?) would go a long way, but the scope and demands of being a thumbed, big-brained creature at the top of the food chain, with a tenfold life expectancy (and supernatural powers) are beyond the ken of a golden retriever.

Other dogs might find it a great representation, because it explores the limit of their comprehension, but I doubt a human would find it as convincing. Of course, in a canine RPG, all demi-canines would be modelled on dogs, because it was written by dogs. That's why game elves are human analogues and not the terrifyingly alien creatures they are in folklore.

 

[prosfilaes]

The point is that if demi-humans existed, their minds would be alien to us.

That's one hypothesis, but it's not the absolute truth. For all we know, the basic nature of sapience among bisexual humanoids is fairly invariant; we have no examples to disprove that conjecture. Humans vary in where they are on the food chain, from vegetarians to societies that have subsisted almost soley on fish, whale and polar bear. There's a huge difference in aging between primitive socities and modern society; the max age has gone up some, but the odds of people seeing that age has gone up incredibly. (And the largest difference in D&D is fivefold, not tenfold.)

I don't particularly think that most people accurately roleplay a character from a different society; for one example, modern ethics pervade discussions on character ethics on the forums. I think that people would probably play an Elvish scholar more realistically than a Maori warrior, since for all the biological differences, the player would have more cultural similarity to the first than the second.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And there have been some truly wonderful depictions of alien consciousnesses by writers like Larry Niven, CJ Cherryh and Stephen Donaldson over the years.

I'm not one of them, but with their (and others') examples as guideposts, I think most well read or experienced role-players can come up with a little something convincing...

Besides, as was spoken on a Twilight Zone epsisode in which the scientist Roddy McDowell, only survivor of his space-ship's crash landing winds up in a zoo (recently aired on Sci-Fi):

"Markeson! You were right! People ARE the same wherever you go..."

 

[prosfilaes]

I usually like to play smaller-than-life characters, like gnomes and halflings, with the occasional oversized crusher, like an ogre. I've played the occasional human, but it's not a preference.