How to avoid Furry Fandom?

[Crothian]

My friends and I all think it is weird, so stay within that constraint please.

My advice is just get over it. You are role playing, which is a little wierd iteself.

 

[BroccoliRage]

Yeah, I don't blame you for being wary. Whenever a new player comes to play with my group, someone always speaks out, "No sex roleplaying. We aren't running a 1-900 number here".

 

[Heathansson]

You could have them mutated by pure chaos, like TMNT replacing the radioactive isotope with chaos from chaositech.
Then don't get into the reproductive stuff. Who cares anyway? Leaving it purposely questionable gives you power as dm to alter the scenario later to fit your needs.
I used to play TMNT, and I'm not into furry whatever.

 

[jcfiala]

Uh, judging from posts previous to mine, "Furry Fandom" most be anthropomorphic erotica?

Well, not originally. But the internet must redefine words as it can. Personally, it sounds like the OP is saying "I want to have antropomorphic characters, but my players are going to start making uneasy jokes about all the worst stuff they've seen of Furry Fandom online. How do I stop this?" And I agree - the answer is to desexualize the critters as much as possible. Either remove their ability to have sex - perhaps the mage that's creating them is gelding them to moderate their impulses?

Or another option is to make them totally unsexy/alien - describe them as unhuman, possibly dirty, and with minimal mention of their sexual characteristics. Most mammals, IIRC, don't have much in the way of external breasts like humans do unless they're feeding babies that they've birthed - it should be difficult to tell male and female cross-breeds apart, unless you *are* one, in which case you tell by subtle cues such as fur patterns and smell.

Make them wierd, too - if the PCs are generally scared of the crossovers because they're not sure what they're going to do next, then they won't even begin to think of them sexually.

 

[molonel]

It's too late. You're doomed. Go ahead and grab up a copy of the Book of Erotic Fantasy, and admit your true self.

 

[WayneLigon]

Well, there's two bases you're looking at.

Anthopomorphic fandom, the same type of people that like Furry Pirates, Ironclaw, Lace and Steel and a couple others games, are perfectly fine and normal folks.

Unfortunately, a comparatively very small but very vocal and out-there base has pretty much succeeded in redefining 'furry' as meaning 'very hardcore anthropomorphic porn' in the minds of a lot of gamers and other folk. 'Furry' by itself used to not have that conotation and was a lot easier to say and write than 'Anthopomorphic'.

So, make your players aware of that distinction.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why do you care what people think about a homebrew game they're never going to hear about?

 

[interwyrm]

Why do you care what people think about a homebrew game they're never going to hear about?

Um... I care what the players think about it, and before I expose the idea to them, I want to make sure it doesn't fall flat.

Either remove their ability to have sex - perhaps the mage that's creating them is gelding them to moderate their impulses?

I wanted the creatures to have arisen from natural causes, or some cataclysm that wiped out normal humans. In any case, they need to be able to be self perpetuating, but unless the players ask, I don't think I will explain it.

Unfortunately cats and foxes (fennec) are African animals

Yeah, and zebras are like horses, and there are ethiopian wolves.
The only one out of those I will probably make a playable race will be lions, just because I want to see how a racial ability to make a full attack after a jump will play out.

 

[LoneWolf23]

If this token "furry" may be allowed to put in his 2 cents...

Those of us who are in the Furry Fandom can tell the difference between Clean and Adult art and Roleplaying. And not all of us are raging perverts who will jump at any occasion to perv up a game just because there happens to be anthro animals in it. If anything, the existance of RPGs like Ironclaw shows there are quite many "furries" who just like roleplaying anthropomorphic animals just for it's own sake.

That having been said, your idea is rather contradictory in itself.. Why have anthropomorphic animals at all if you're afraid your players will think it's too "weird"? Just emphasize that they're treated like any other race, or just make them into new, original races without animalistic traits...

 

[BlackMoria]

I wanted the creatures to have arisen from natural causes, or some cataclysm that wiped out normal humans. In any case, they need to be able to be self perpetuating, but unless the players ask, I don't think I will explain it.

The easiest way is to have the early history of the world such that the primate -> various stages of hominids -> modern human evolution didn't occur.

The history is that certain mammals -> various stages of mammal hominid--> mammal humanoid is the evolution.

And just like tigers can't mate with zebras and vice versa, enforce a species barrier and eliminate the whole notion of dozens and dozens of hybrid abominations running around.