"Mongrelfolk" -- what the?!...

[Brennin Magalus]

Upon perusing "Races of Destiny," I finally noticed one of the supplemental race options, the Mongrelfolk. Just gotta say, "What the heck were they thinking?!"

Let's set aside first the questionable choice of referring to these people as "mongrels," which, depending on your source material (and personal experience, so sayeth a person of mixed heritage), is a bad thing. We'll let that go. No problem.

I am glad you "let that go" because anyone who takes offense at the "mongrel" in "mongrelfolk" is actively seeking to be offended.

 

[Richards]

Personally, I prefer it when the 3e updates attempt to stay faithful.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Johnathan

 

[Driddle]

The writers and editors who OK'ed that particular section of text should have cycled it through a few more brain cells before publication.

 

[Mokona]

I love the 3rd edition Mongrelfolk. I've been wanting to play one for a while now.

 

[TroyXavier]

I do too. I think they're quite the fun race. I plan on playing one at least as an NPC soon.

 

[WayneLigon]

I think you're stumped for words because you haven't read the text closely enough. Mongrelfolk like and get along with everyone. Almost no-one gets along with them once they know what they are, and even when they are mistaken for another race they're going to be viewed as a freakish example of that race. Thus, the charisma hit.

 

[Tonguez]

An elf marrying a human is not really to be thought of as an interracial couple, it's to be thought of as more the difference between a chimpanzee and a human, or a horse and a donkey, or breeds of dog...enough difference to make them work quite drastically different, to make them different species in some cases, but not always enough to make them infertile. So when you think of mongrelfolk, the real-world analouge would not be a mixed racial heritage, it would be more like two breeds of dog mixing....mongrelfolk are analgous to mutts, not to mixed-race humans.

Actually all Breeds of Dog are a single species and human ethnic groups should in fact be considered more 'breed' than race (except for the negative contations of being considered a breed). The Mongrel folk are more analogous to Mules (horse/donkey mix) maybe even dog/bear mix than dog/dog

 

[DMH]

I believe in 2e they were a wizardly experiment.
They had an extreme mix of features, and not all the features were humanoid.
They were also originally a slave race.
They also had very little sense of self, and their unusual features put off other races.
I think they even had a chart for random features in one of the books.

You are probably thinking of Broken Ones- the mongrelmen of Ravenloft that are human/animal hybrids.

 

[Driddle]

(A)nyone who takes offense at the "mongrel" in "mongrelfolk" is actively seeking to be offended.

I do so wish I were around the next time someone said something that you found offensive, just so I could remind, "Oh, calm down. You're probably just looking to be offended."

<-- This smiley means you have no reason to be offended at this response, either. The author's intent always takes precedence. Always.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They were originally in I1, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, actually, not A1. They were always a bit dopey (especially since the same module gave us the yuan-ti and the tasloi, two vastly superior races), but the current write-up of them seems like a first draft, at best. It seems the mechanics were worked out seperately from the logic and, yeah, combining the two is a car crash.