I hate cat-people, dog-people, lion-people, etc

[woodelf]

Dralisites, they were reprinted in D20 future, need better art.

And, BTW, why have a couple people in this thread referred to dralisites as "rock people"? There's nothing rocky about them--they're soft and amoeba-like or maybe gelatin-like, and they're not silicon-based, so where'd that idea even come from? It never would've occurred to me to liken them in any way to rocks.

 

[Kesh]

Add me in to the "I hate furries" camp... ugh.

Gee, thank you. I needed to be told I'm the object of hate for yet another part of my life.

 

[woodelf]

Why has everyone forgotten about the yak folk? Frankly, they're the best of the random anthro-races in my book. Why? Because they've got an interesting story behind them, with an interesting culture, connections to the rest of the world (their racial pact with the genies) and a wierd, alien psychology.

Almost like they're drawn from (or at least inspired by) real-world mythologies.

Because that's what a lot of anthro-races are missing. Culture. Random cat-people that are just humans with pointy ears and whiskers I hate, but give them a good culture and a place in the world (even if it's in the far reaches, unseen by human eyes) and I'm fine with them.

Seriously, you're absolutely right. The problem is shallowness and two-dimensionality. And it can afflict races based on any source--it certainly seems to have afflicted the D&D3E races moreso than most of the anthropomorphic races i'm familiar with (but then, i wasn't aware before this thread, that they were that common. Other than Furry Pirates and Furry Outlaws, i only knew about them from the various D&D settings (Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Al Qadim, Kara-Tur) and Arcana Unearthed).

 

[woodelf]

Humanoid animals are a boring, lazy choice that RPG developers seem to be making more and more often, these days. And that's all I've really got to say about that.

Can you give an example on a non-lazy choice, one that doesn't rely on well-established tropes, or twists them significantly? 'Cause if it ain't mythology-inspiried humanoid animals, and it sure isn't the blandified Tolkien-derived races of D&D3E, what else do we see showing up in fantasy RPGs, especially D20 System RPGs?

 

[demiurge1138]

Wait, wait... yak folk are drawn from and/or inspired by real world mythology? Because that is officially the next mythology on my list to explore.

Demiurge out.

 

[Razz0putin]

Sounds like what you really hate is the man in the rubber mask (person in the furry mask?) syndrome where someone says here look at this alien and it does the same thing any person would do. This is where star trek realy messed up with the bajorans ooh you've got a ridge on your nose and your religious :\ ~real alien~
that's why I liked the old gazeteers they explained the elves as not just humans with funny ears and a good bowshot. they described them as a people that live for centuries and what that meant for the individual and the culture.

 

[Goblyn]

Can you give an example on a non-lazy choice, one that doesn't rely on well-established tropes, or twists them significantly? 'Cause if it ain't mythology-inspiried humanoid animals, and it sure isn't the blandified Tolkien-derived races of D&D3E, what else do we see showing up in fantasy RPGs, especially D20 System RPGs?

uhh ... robots? ... j/k

Actually, I kind of agree with you here; because something is similar to something that has been done before, even 1000 times, doesn't make it lazy. True, many different versions of 'furries' have been done in various systems, they don't lack flavour any more than the wayyyy overdone dwarf-elf-halfling-gnome stuff that pervades so much. Anthropomorphs simply stand out more as such because one expects them to be really interesting when they aren't, while d-e-h-g's are allowed, even expected to be, boring. The reasoning behind this is so that people can 'inject their own flavour' and not feel restricted by fluff.

To sum up: Furries are hated for being what the d-e-h-g's are excused for being.

 

[tarchon]

Wait, wait... yak folk are drawn from and/or inspired by real world mythology? Because that is officially the next mythology on my list to explore.

Demiurge out.

Well, I'm a Yaktologist, and we do not consider our sacred texts to be "mythology," I'll have you know.

 

[Gez]

Don't have too much of a problem with them. They're usually in the background enough to be overlooked most of the time.

In my homebrew, regions have associated totems -- the massan plains are the land of the lion, while the Ralarka is the City of the Snakes, for example. These spirits are more or less strong, but all exert an influence on people living there. So you'll have snake-worshippers in Ralarka (and eventually yuan-ti), and harming a cat in Massania is a worse crime than harming a man. Most totems are strong enough to create their own servants -- that's why you can meet Couatls in Ralarka or Sphinxes in Massania. And sometimes they create or transform whole races of independant peoples, the most successful of them growing enough in number to start settling in other regions. That's why you have gnolls and lizardfolk about everywhere.

 

[Dirigible]

Well, I'm a Yaktologist, and we do not consider our sacred texts to be "mythology," I'll have you know.

Your religion intrigues me, and I wish to suscribe to your newsletter.