Going beyond humans in funny clothes?

[Wik]

I third the recommendation for "Enemy Mine". I also highly recommend all of Barry Longyear's works, particulary "Elephant Song" and "Infinity Hold" (my favourite book, ever).

Now, on to the question at hand:

Really, I think the "humans in funny clothes" approach is the way to go. I remember hearing once that Gene Roddenberry (the guy who made Star Trek, although I ain't much of a trekkie myself) said "even though our aliens have a lot of make-up, the idea was always to make them fundamentally human. The nature of science-fiction, after all, is to explore humanity. If you aren't exploring humanity, what's the point?"

Now, I'm paraphrasing here, but I really like the approach. You don't see Sci-fi through the eyes of the alien or computer, unless that character is suitably humanlike (or close enough to a human that you can explore the differences, in which case, you're still essentially telling a story about humanity, just from the other side).

Since RPGs share a lot of ground with storytelling, I think the rule still applies. Main characters almost *have* to be human-like, or close enough that you can explore the differences (and, in that case, exploring those differences are part of the fun of the character). But playing a computer that runs on binary code, or an alien that perceives reality completely differently than a human, is a waste of time and effort.

Just my two cents.

 

[Ry]

Really, I think the "humans in funny clothes" approach is the way to go. I remember hearing once that Gene Roddenberry (the guy who made Star Trek, although I ain't much of a trekkie myself) said "even though our aliens have a lot of make-up, the idea was always to make them fundamentally human. The nature of science-fiction, after all, is to explore humanity. If you aren't exploring humanity, what's the point?"
[...]
Since RPGs share a lot of ground with storytelling, I think the rule still applies. Main characters almost *have* to be human-like, or close enough that you can explore the differences (and, in that case, exploring those differences are part of the fun of the character). But playing a computer that runs on binary code, or an alien that perceives reality completely differently than a human, is a waste of time and effort.

Thanks Wik. Too long to say sigged.

Blogged.

 

[Yair]

I was wondering if anyone had had success in making fantasy races that weren't just "humans in funny clothes" I'm talking about both the player side (portraying something as very different) and from the DM side (communicating that to players).

Because I'm stumped.

Although I've yet to try it in practice, I like the approach Atlas Games took in describing demons in their recent (Ars Magica) book, The Infernal. They essentially took the seven virtues (mirror images, if you'd like, of the seven deadly sins) and contemplated what a being lacking them will be like. So, for example, demons lack Prudence. Although they can think rationally and remember their past, they tend not to be careful, learn from mistakes, and so on - e.g., they will not run-off when faced with a puny human, even though a human might realize this shiny artifact he holds in his hands might be a tad dangerous... Having combed through the list of seven virtues and commented at some length on all, they present a list of bullet-points for easy DMing ("Demons never... * Fight bravely when outgunned * Are careful when facing weaker opponents...."). Combined, I think they make for a good approach.

This won't do for Elves, but I think contemplating fundamental changes in psyche along these lines might be helpful.

Although I must agree that, ultimately, other intelligences are going to be basically human. We're human, we can't really roleplay something very far away from that. (Although I remember one Star Trek episdoe focusing on this idea - the aliens lacked the category of the Object. Instead, they talked and thought in terms of Events. Thus they spoke of "Where the Concord of Peace was Signed", not of "Karnac, the Great Rock"). That's another direction, I suppose - pick out on Kantian Category or one primary psychological principle, and tweak it.

 

[roguerouge]

Having said that - given the huge breadth of human culture, inuit to aborigine, new yorker to bangaldeshi farmer etc etc, why should non-human races have to be truly alien? Perhaps the most disturbing thing is that they're so similar to humans, but with only one truly alien traits......

I couldn't agree more. There's an astonishing human diversity to consider. The New Yorker ran a piece this year about a tribe in the Amazon that has a language that consists of just a few syllables. Everything is communicated through tone and expression; some conversations are entirely hummed. Their language reflects an astonishingly isolationist world-view, which would be fascinating to roleplay in a Stranger in a Strange Land kind of way.

In short, are you tired of humans in funny clothes or are you tired of humans in funny clothes with Western values and culture? If it's the latter, learn from that guy with the Polynesian-influenced campaign and started finding the alien (to Western eyes) right here at home!

 

[Ry]

In short, are you tired of humans in funny clothes or are you tired of humans in funny clothes with Western values and culture?

Following on your earlier point: I'm tired of humans in funny clothes whose existence doesn't explore anything about humanity in the game. They might as well be humans in the same clothes.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Following on your earlier point: I'm tired of humans in funny clothes whose existence doesn't explore anything about humanity in the game. They might as well be humans in the same clothes.

I've fallen into this slump, too. What I found helped was to take the standard demi-humans and try to give them each a significant twist. For example, I chose to have two races of Elves in my game: moon and sun. I took a cue from Eberron for the moon elves and did the good-aligned undeath-type folks, and a cue from Moorcock and made the sun elves the decadent, imperialistic, Melnibonean racists. For dwarves, since I was running a world that was only just recovering from a post-Lovecraftian horror invasion, I had most of their mountain vaults destroyed or engulfed in insanity; the few dwarves one encountered were lost wayfarers and often had to battle inner madness.

I didn't change any statistics; I just wanted to use the archetypes for players to explore or interact with:

* What does death and the possibility of "coming back" really mean to us?
* If given several lifetimes to explore sensation, would we really be anything but contemptuous of other life forms?
* When we are outcasts and misfits, what defines "home"?

I dunno. Hope something here helps!

 

[el-remmen]

The way I run things in Aquerra, there is much less cultural diversity among non-human races. That is, while humans come a made variety of looks and cultural outlooks, dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc. . . have a narrower variety.

The fact that humans all wildly disagree on the individual level from each other so often is what makes them human in the eyes of the other races.

I had one player who I locked horns with a few times because of the way his played his dwarf. I tried to explain to him the general dwarven outlook and let him know that the further he drifted from that the more other dwarves would think of him as strange, and even disdain him as "humanized". It was not that I was telling him how to play his character, I was just explaining the consequences in-game of playing a character a certain way, but 'the player' would get annoyed when NPC dwarves balked at his ideas and way of presenting himself. He just did not have the ability to think of 'dwarven culture' as anything other some abstract thing that shouldn't have an effect on him, and sometimes would complain that the reactions to his ideas were irrational, and I would reply, "What does rationality have to do with culture attitudes?"

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I was wondering if anyone had had success in making fantasy races that weren't just "humans in funny clothes" I'm talking about both the player side (portraying something as very different) and from the DM side (communicating that to players).

Because I'm stumped.

The vast majority of non-humans in fantasy literature, RPGs, etc. ARE just humans in funny clothes. D&D is a game. It's not a graded term paper on xenopsychology, nor a Method acting exercise for Lee Strasberg.

All I'm saying is that sometimes people go a little overboard thinking that non-humans NEED to be realistic and accurate. They don't NEED to be anything of the kind. Most of the time just having them be humans in funny skins is sufficient.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

When it comes to this subject, there are two books I always recommend: The Science of Aliens by Clifford Pickover, and Aliens and Alien Societies by Stanley Schmidt. You should be able to find or order both fairly easily. The latter is a writer's guide to the subject, but the former is very thought-provoking.

When it comes to "alien" aliens (which are easier to find than "alien" fantasy races), Robert L. Forward went out of his way to devise some of the most truly alien races seen in books.

Vernor Vinge is another author who really comes up with interesting takes on aliens. "A Fire Upon The Deep" has quite a few examples, from the Tines, a kind of dog-like creature that is sentient in packs of 4-6 (fairly human in personality, but Vinge explores how different a sentient being can be who is made up of multiple parts) to the Skroderiders, which are kinda like a sea plant/sea anemone that has achieved sentience.

The Moties of "The Mote In God's Eye" have some human characteristics, but their race is stratified into a number of different sub-species who all perform different functions in society, and don't perform well outside those functions.

Larry Niven devised a number of interesting alien races for his Known Space books like Ringworld. An example are Pierson's Puppeteers, a race descended from herd animals, for whom paranoia and xenophobia are survival traits. Only insane individuals can be used as ambassadors, as sane Puppeteers never leave their planet or deal with alien races. The Ringworld itself is inhabited by uncountable races descended from a common ancestor (which is also an ancestor of humans), all of which have evolved to fill various ecological niches.

James Hogan's "Giants" series presents an interesting race, They are large and humanoid, but their biology makes them strictly pacifistic in a physical sense, and they are extremely risk-averse. This is because even fairly minor cuts and bruises can prove fatal to them. That doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.

2300 is a RPG that has some really different aliens. Best example - the Kafers, or Vah, a vaguely humanoid-shaped critter with some insectoid features. They only become truly sentient when in pain or danger.

 

[Brazeku]

Designing new cultures/races is one of my great loves, to the extent that a lot of the plots I run are based around culture clash.

When you're dealing with an entire species, if you want it to be credible (it doesn't have to be, but if you want it to be), you should start by establishing the geography, populating it with critters, and then molding their intellect to match their bodies and to effectively serve as survival strategies.

Usually if you do this, you'll have enough material to build a few cultures from (with an application of logic). At the same time you can construct a history (tying culture and behavior to history is also a good way to make history relevant as opposed to just boring old background).

You can go as hogwild as you want, but I've found there are some things players are not interested in playing or even interacting with. Usually I follow these restrictions:

-generally human sized (give or take a few feet)
-generally humanoid
-has sight as a secondary sense at least
-capable of communicating with the other races either naturally or through artifice
-has physical restrictions similar to those of a human
-has a connection to and impact in the world (intertwining histories, multiple countries, etc)
-has comprehensible motivations
-psychology accounts for a degree (either wide or limited depending on the race) of individual variation

This still gives you a lot of leeway. I'll tell you it's quite rewarding to have players adopt favorite races and really get into their roles.