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

[Psychic Warrior]

I have no real hatred for the dog/cat/lizard people of D&D (heck i even liked some elements of the Aslan and Vargr in Traveller) and at least once race of 'cat people' have appeared in my Scarred Lands game. They were a xenophobic (for the most part) and warlike and thirsted for vengenance against their ancient enemy - a race of snakemen called the Assathi. the Assathi , on the other hand, while a proud race, wished only to left in peace and allied with the PCs to stop the cat people's attacks.

I thought it was a nice twist especially when the snakemen sent the PCs back to the cat people with a peace offer and the cat people's leader exclaimed "There can be no peace!" Nice little moment of drama in my game.

I guess it comes down to how the races are used. Even those with sterotypical tendancies can still come off as three dimensional.

 

[Tetsubo]

*growl*

Well, Kesh I for one do not hate Furries. I'm not a member of the subculture myself but a major fan of the artwork that has grown out of it. I have never, ever, understood why people don't like Furries. Especially coming from members of the SF or Gaming community. People who routinely dress up as Elves, Klingons and Stormtroopers... Who cares what consenting adults want to do with their freetime?

On topic: I love anthro races in games. I've purchased games just because they have cool anthro races in them. All of my favorite races are roughly in the anthro category, thri-kreen, minotaur, centaur, wemic, lizardmen, etc.

Has anyone used the Manimal Template from the Advanced Bestiary to creat any races? I'm curious how the CR balance out.

 

[Henry]

I wanted to drop in and say two things:

1) Gez, your story rocks.

2) IMO Man-imals can be well-done, but it's rare. I (and it seems like most of the other posters here, even the ones who protest them) don't mind half-man-critters in concept, but it's also easy to whip up a man-critter, call it a fancy name, and create an uninspired creature. As Gez shows us, ANY tale or concept can be retold in an original and entertaining manner.

 

[Desdichado]

Especially coming from members of the SF or Gaming community. People who routinely dress up as Elves, Klingons and Stormtroopers... Who cares what consenting adults want to do with their freetime?

You're painting with a pretty broad brush there. I'd say very few of the SF or Gaming community *ever* dress up as elves, klingons or stormtroopers, much less routinely.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I'm not a member of the subculture myself but a major fan of the artwork that has grown out of it.
On topic: I love anthro races in games. I've purchased games just because they have cool anthro races in them. All of my favorite races are roughly in the anthro category, thri-kreen, minotaur, centaur, wemic, lizardmen, etc.

I'm with you on both of these. Some (most, actually) of my friends are into anime/furry type artwork. One of 'em has a "furvert" ID card...hilarious, IMO.

Gnolls are far and away my favorite beast-race. Vicious bastichs? Noble savages? Evil demon-cultists? Twin-scimitar wielding CG outcasts? I don't care, I love 'em all.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

You're painting with a pretty broad brush there. I'd say very few of the SF or Gaming community *ever* dress up as elves, klingons or stormtroopers, much less routinely.

Go to MegaCon in Orlando, comic and fantasy artists galore, and costumed people everywhere.

edit: I'll add GAMERS don't usually dress up, but going to cons w/ SF and comic and anime geeks, we SHOULD be accepting of it.

 

[diaglo]

Go to MegaCon in Orlando, comic and fantasy artists galore, and costumed people everywhere.

edit: I'll add GAMERS don't usually dress up, but going to cons w/ SF and comic and anime geeks, we SHOULD be accepting of it.

DragonCon has the biggest costume ball of them all.

 

[demiurge1138]

Very nice retelling, Gez. Very nice.

Demiurge out.

 

[Verequus]

I'm not much interested in animal hybrids as major races. I don't see any reason to hate them, but they don't greatly appeal to me.

I do think that having them exist in the world is one thing and having them be routine is another. I find the idea of a nation of cat people completely uninteresting. A former campaign I ran included a dreaded race of cat-men that were stealthy and very deadly. They were so rare that they were talked about frequently as a plot point, but never actually appeard on screen before that game ended up folding.

In my last campaign before the current one, my wife's character ended up re-incarnated into a centaur. And tribes of centaurs were known to exist out in remote areas. But again, there were no great communties of centaurs.

I also wrote (and was published) a paladin PClass that essentially becomes a were-lion.

But in all these cases the animal men are exotic and special. Elves and dwarves and halfings are all human enough that nations of them work well and they make the backbone that defines the culture of a setting. Animal-men, among many other things, are the spices that add to the adventure. Making them be the culture undercuts everything that makes them interesting to me.

....

IMHO
YMMV

Interesting. I know of a webcomic (http://www.cyantian.net/, actually a bunch a webcomics in this universe), where animal-people rule over an entire planet. An old and extinct species created those wolf-, cat-, horse-, ram-, etc. along with the humans and the stroy works very well. There is even a RPG being created, just to able to play in this universe. Okay, it may be science-fiction and not fantasy, but it seems, that a good part of believablity is simple good elaboration - the rest is a matter of taste.

 

[fredramsey]

What about those stupid monkey-people?

Oh, wait...