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Homogenized Races?
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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 7635684" data-attributes="member: 92511"><p>As others have said, part of the issues you raise are due to simple mechanical need. You need, barring interesting special scenarios/circumstances, for the characters to be able to communicate with most of the things they encounter...and "civilized" peoples/nations (presumably with hundreds of years of history) need to interact. So, "Common" trade tongue is an easy way to do that supplemented with PCs knowing multiple languages so, presumably, at least one or two characters in a group could understand/translate for others when you need to eavesdrop on the goblin guards or overhear demonic cult leader laying out schemes/directions, in Abyssal, to his demonic minions.</p><p></p><p>It just...moves the play along without turning into Translator the RPG [tm]. </p><p></p><p>As for the homogany of races, that has something to do with a couple of different issues.</p><p>#1: the simplest and most obvious being that the players are humans. They can only play/experience the game, different species, different cultures, different religions through their own experience/understanding. So, for most players, elves are going to "feel"/play/sound like humans are going to "feel"/play/sound like dwarves or halflings are going to "feel"play/sound...individual "character/personality" idiosyncratic stuff and fantasy world homebrewed creative/exotic culture stuff aside, because they are all being played by..human players.</p><p></p><p>#2: It goes to the origins of the game and its source material...predominantly Tlkien's work, when we're talking about Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling being the racial spread for heroic player characters. There is literary sourcing, as well as mythological and folkloric materials, as to the origins and "nature" of these various beings. </p><p></p><p>Simply put, Humans (harkening back to religion) were the ones "unique" in that they possessed "Free Will." They possess a "noble spirit/soul/what have you" that is special. Dwarves, essentially, are carved stone with a specific "spirit"/life breathe into them. [Not to mention the generally immutable nature of stone/rock.] Elves were, similarly, created by some special magical means that dictates -again for the most part- their nature- their love of twilight and stars and the cool woods and soft breezes -magic, love, beauty, and all that other "perfect world/goodly deity space before "Evil" and "Man" came around" stuff. That is "what" they are, as much as "how" they act. All elves are "elfy." All dwarves are "dwarfy." They cant help it.</p><p></p><p>Basically, initially in the game at least, the most "alien" thing about non-human characters is - There is only so far they can stretch/comprehend outside the "mold" of their creation. Whereas humans, curiously to other races, either by design or accident of their creation, dont seem to have a "mold." Humans can do whatever they want, adapt, effect change... where elves and dwarves (to an extent halflings, and all the other fantasy RPG races that have come since) are somewhat baffled or incapable once you get too far outside the mold of the nature in which they were generated. By extension, everything that is spawned by that creation -language, culture, [religion if there is one], etc... is similarly..."stunted"/limited to the bounds of that creation.</p><p></p><p>So, all that long wind to say, Yeah! The races get homogenized. Some consciously. Some not. </p><p></p><p>You can certainly work, consciously, to not play that way. Not to have a singular "surface elf" culture/language/religion or a single "dwarf" culture diaspora that managed to spread around any corner of the setting. </p><p></p><p>I do it in my setting. </p><p></p><p>There are [a known minimum of] 4 distinct language branches of "Elfin" spoken by no fewer than 6 distinct cultures of elves. The setting's "Wood [analogue]" elves follow a shamanic ancestral and nature spirit worship kind of religion and eschews arcane magical teaching/practice. The "High" elf culture is not particularly religious at all but the cerebral or spiritual among them "revere" some of the old deities of things elves have affinity (the moon, knowledge/magic, the forests/hunt, etc...) but there's not what we would call "organized religion." So called "Dark Elves [Drow]" were banished from the surface ages ago and have passed [for all but the eldest of "grey analogue" elves who will not speak of them] into the world of myth and legend, if they are heard of at all. </p><p></p><p>There are 6 distinct human ethnicities, spread across some 8 [established] "nations" with at least 10 various languages spoken among them...and theres a "Common" [which all PC's of every race know] in addition to at least one of their human "Homeland Tongue." </p><p></p><p>Halflings are, generally, similar...sequestered in secluded small enclaves, though there are two [known/for PC] sub-races. The majority traditionally, are a matriarchal polygamous culture. Linguistically, the western halflings have a distinct dialect and are prone to worship more elfin and human inspired divinities -melding and grafting like characters to their own traditional deities. While the eastern halflings worship "their" [halfling] gods by "their" [halfling] names and steadfastly unequivocably assert they are separate -halfling- gods (the first great halfling clan of heroes who defeated the demon-goblin deities who stalked the earth at the beginning of time and rose to celestial power). </p><p></p><p>All or most of these (or dwarven or gnomish or lizardman or goblin or) deities simply being the appropriate race's "aspects"/manifestations of the singular pantheon of divinities that supervises the known world (he third, give or take, such "generation" of entities to do so)...though even the gods' aspects themselves sometimes forget that. There are exceptions: elder ranks of gods, lost/dead gods, demons, devils, elemental lords, demigods/ascended mortals, etc...who have added to the mix and may have mortal followings from a single local region to multiple nations. But for the most part, the primary pantheon of [human] gods are just various faces/facets of the same divine entities worshiped by different names in different cultures.</p><p> </p><p>And so on, and so on...established dwarf kingdoms of feuding alignments, 5 classifications of gnomes each with distinct cultures and languages, shamanic centaur tribes being driven to extinction and/or cultural annihilation, immortal elves that speak [to humans] so slowly it'll make you tear your hair out. You can make language and culture [and Alignment plays in, a lot, to what a culture shapes into] as diverse and fantasized up as you want. </p><p></p><p>But in the end, you are a group of humans sitting around a table playing make believe. Humans, if nothing else, are creatures of habit. For the most part, people play what they "know"...and that's just...human.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 7635684, member: 92511"] As others have said, part of the issues you raise are due to simple mechanical need. You need, barring interesting special scenarios/circumstances, for the characters to be able to communicate with most of the things they encounter...and "civilized" peoples/nations (presumably with hundreds of years of history) need to interact. So, "Common" trade tongue is an easy way to do that supplemented with PCs knowing multiple languages so, presumably, at least one or two characters in a group could understand/translate for others when you need to eavesdrop on the goblin guards or overhear demonic cult leader laying out schemes/directions, in Abyssal, to his demonic minions. It just...moves the play along without turning into Translator the RPG [tm]. As for the homogany of races, that has something to do with a couple of different issues. #1: the simplest and most obvious being that the players are humans. They can only play/experience the game, different species, different cultures, different religions through their own experience/understanding. So, for most players, elves are going to "feel"/play/sound like humans are going to "feel"/play/sound like dwarves or halflings are going to "feel"play/sound...individual "character/personality" idiosyncratic stuff and fantasy world homebrewed creative/exotic culture stuff aside, because they are all being played by..human players. #2: It goes to the origins of the game and its source material...predominantly Tlkien's work, when we're talking about Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling being the racial spread for heroic player characters. There is literary sourcing, as well as mythological and folkloric materials, as to the origins and "nature" of these various beings. Simply put, Humans (harkening back to religion) were the ones "unique" in that they possessed "Free Will." They possess a "noble spirit/soul/what have you" that is special. Dwarves, essentially, are carved stone with a specific "spirit"/life breathe into them. [Not to mention the generally immutable nature of stone/rock.] Elves were, similarly, created by some special magical means that dictates -again for the most part- their nature- their love of twilight and stars and the cool woods and soft breezes -magic, love, beauty, and all that other "perfect world/goodly deity space before "Evil" and "Man" came around" stuff. That is "what" they are, as much as "how" they act. All elves are "elfy." All dwarves are "dwarfy." They cant help it. Basically, initially in the game at least, the most "alien" thing about non-human characters is - There is only so far they can stretch/comprehend outside the "mold" of their creation. Whereas humans, curiously to other races, either by design or accident of their creation, dont seem to have a "mold." Humans can do whatever they want, adapt, effect change... where elves and dwarves (to an extent halflings, and all the other fantasy RPG races that have come since) are somewhat baffled or incapable once you get too far outside the mold of the nature in which they were generated. By extension, everything that is spawned by that creation -language, culture, [religion if there is one], etc... is similarly..."stunted"/limited to the bounds of that creation. So, all that long wind to say, Yeah! The races get homogenized. Some consciously. Some not. You can certainly work, consciously, to not play that way. Not to have a singular "surface elf" culture/language/religion or a single "dwarf" culture diaspora that managed to spread around any corner of the setting. I do it in my setting. There are [a known minimum of] 4 distinct language branches of "Elfin" spoken by no fewer than 6 distinct cultures of elves. The setting's "Wood [analogue]" elves follow a shamanic ancestral and nature spirit worship kind of religion and eschews arcane magical teaching/practice. The "High" elf culture is not particularly religious at all but the cerebral or spiritual among them "revere" some of the old deities of things elves have affinity (the moon, knowledge/magic, the forests/hunt, etc...) but there's not what we would call "organized religion." So called "Dark Elves [Drow]" were banished from the surface ages ago and have passed [for all but the eldest of "grey analogue" elves who will not speak of them] into the world of myth and legend, if they are heard of at all. There are 6 distinct human ethnicities, spread across some 8 [established] "nations" with at least 10 various languages spoken among them...and theres a "Common" [which all PC's of every race know] in addition to at least one of their human "Homeland Tongue." Halflings are, generally, similar...sequestered in secluded small enclaves, though there are two [known/for PC] sub-races. The majority traditionally, are a matriarchal polygamous culture. Linguistically, the western halflings have a distinct dialect and are prone to worship more elfin and human inspired divinities -melding and grafting like characters to their own traditional deities. While the eastern halflings worship "their" [halfling] gods by "their" [halfling] names and steadfastly unequivocably assert they are separate -halfling- gods (the first great halfling clan of heroes who defeated the demon-goblin deities who stalked the earth at the beginning of time and rose to celestial power). All or most of these (or dwarven or gnomish or lizardman or goblin or) deities simply being the appropriate race's "aspects"/manifestations of the singular pantheon of divinities that supervises the known world (he third, give or take, such "generation" of entities to do so)...though even the gods' aspects themselves sometimes forget that. There are exceptions: elder ranks of gods, lost/dead gods, demons, devils, elemental lords, demigods/ascended mortals, etc...who have added to the mix and may have mortal followings from a single local region to multiple nations. But for the most part, the primary pantheon of [human] gods are just various faces/facets of the same divine entities worshiped by different names in different cultures. And so on, and so on...established dwarf kingdoms of feuding alignments, 5 classifications of gnomes each with distinct cultures and languages, shamanic centaur tribes being driven to extinction and/or cultural annihilation, immortal elves that speak [to humans] so slowly it'll make you tear your hair out. You can make language and culture [and Alignment plays in, a lot, to what a culture shapes into] as diverse and fantasized up as you want. But in the end, you are a group of humans sitting around a table playing make believe. Humans, if nothing else, are creatures of habit. For the most part, people play what they "know"...and that's just...human. [/QUOTE]
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