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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yair" data-source="post: 3680811" data-attributes="member: 10913">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.</blockquote>

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