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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9361038" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Sure, monocultures are boring and baselines are a thing for individual communities. It still holds though, that this tends to be a one-way street. No one ever says that "Be careful playing an Elf, the dwarves might kidnap and hold you for ransom due to ancient grudges against the elves" or "Be careful playing a dwarf, the humans might hold you at crossbow point and demand your secret stash of gold and gemstones" These are things that could happen, they make sense for different communities, but they are NEVER mentioned in casual discussion. However, I had a conversation with someone about how I felt I could create a more interesting story for a character by pulling on the thematics in Kobolds. Their response was that the Kobold merchant I was talking about would be shot on sight like a dog, because Kobolds are known thieves on the King's Highway, and that wasn't fair to the rest of the party. Now, to make this clear, the discussion was "why do people want non-human characters". I wasn't planning on playing a game with this person, there was no established world or group. The very CONCEPT of playing a Kobold was met with "killed on sight because evil/different". Which is what happens when people mention goblins. Or orcs. or Tieflings. Or Tabaxi. Or Warforged. The stereotypes that could be problematic for someone playing a Tolkien-esque race are generally ignored, while they are the default assumption for anything that has previously been depicted as an antagonist or even just too different from the norm. Without a world, without a context, the default is just "they would be attacked on sight, because they aren't human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfing" But, if you want to treat this seriously, as actually part of the way the world functions, and not just a "this isn't what I like, therefore kill" then the problem is a two-way street. Maybe a Tiefling is attacked by a town in the Shieldlands, because they know that the Tiefling likely has connections to Iuz's Kingdom and they are enemies with that kingdom. But a human Knight might also be attack by a town in the border region of Iuz's territory, because they think he is from the Shieldlands and they are enemies with that kingdom. If you want to make that sort of thing happen, then it can happen both ways. It can also happen that while the more zealous folk might be "kill the enemies of the state" the rest might be like "eh, the merchant who supplies my Bronzewood is a Tiefling, he passes through while going back home to visit his family. He owes me six silver from the last time we played cards. Do you know 'em? Cause I think he avoided me last time he came through." But having complexity and nuance isn't generally the point.</blockquote>

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