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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6519816" data-attributes="member: 4937">Have fun!I think you misunderstand my objection here though.  First, nothing about your description in any way separates the character from a human.  There is no particular dwarf perspective on the events and no emotional reactions to the events which would be odd, surprising, or out of character for a human.  No can we expect from the description that there is any further reaction that will be particularly odd, surprising or out of character for a human.  As best as I can tell, the character's dwarfness adds nothing particular to his characterization that merely belonging to a particular human ethnic group couldn't add.So, assuming that we have a character with this particular history, how do we go about giving him a particular dwarfness in a way that doesn't make him a caricature?  One of my problems with non-human races is that they tend to be humans with bumps on their forehead and only manage to add mechanical variety to the setting without actually adding philosophical or social variety.  Or to put it another way, if you didn't tell me your character was a dwarf and didn't attach to your character trivial cultural signifiers of being a dwarf like, "lives underground" and "has a beard", how would I know from his behavior that this was indeed a dwarf.  How do you go about showing instead of telling that this is a dwarf? This is at least doubly challenging.  First, you must find a way to stop thinking like a human.  Secondly, you must convince people who have never met a dwarf that this is quintessentially a dwarf even where he departs from expectations.  When I'm trying to play a non-human race, I spend a lot of time thinking about how their biology inherently would make them think differently than humans and what it actually is about them that makes them have stereotypes.  I also try to separate what is merely cultural about the race from what is biological, and what is an unfair stereotype from a fair generalization.For example, would a dwarf ever say the "he is a man"?  Would a dwarf set out to find non-dwarf allies to settle an affair between dwarfs?  What would a dwarf think of a dwarf that grew up without clan, and what would a dwarf think of himself in such a situation?  Would a dwarf normally be fiercely protective of people he doesn't trust?  What's going on in your character's head that is so basic, he doesn't even think about it unless challenged on it?  What's going on in your character's head that would have to be explained to a human?</blockquote>

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