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

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

It wasn't that long ago that "mongrels" were denied a lot of very basic rights in this country. Just because the word doesn't conjure up unfortunate connotations for you when it's applied to an intelligent species doesn't mean it's not reasonably conjuring up something very different when other people read it.

Other peoples' opinions and emotions aren't your call to make.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It's less of a blending, and more of a Frankenstienian hodge-podge from what I gather. One ear is pointy, the other is droopy and filled with fuzz; the nose might be turned-up and orc-like while the mouth is filled with sharks' teeth that keep biting your own tongue. The skin is a patchwork of shades and textures -- patches of scales, patches of fur. The head is a misshapen blob somewhere between scrambled eggs and a deflated beach ball. One eye is albino-pink, the other one is reptilian...

I remember the picture from the 1E Monster Manual II.

It wasn't this one, but it was similar.

-Hyp.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

It wasn't that long ago that "mongrels" were denied a lot of very basic rights in this country. Just because the word doesn't conjure up unfortunate connotations for you when it's applied to an intelligent species doesn't mean it's not reasonably conjuring up something very different when other people read it.

Other peoples' opinions and emotions aren't your call to make.

No, but they are open to criticism.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

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.

Perhaps while you are hanging around you could also teach me the finer points of victimology.

 

[Thotas]

I haven't checked this one out yet ... but I didn't like the mongrelmen in 1e or 2e. Looks like there still won't be any IMC.

 

[Particle_Man]

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.

Maybe that car crash is a subtle bit of metanarrative to show the mongrelization of the mechanics and logic to make an unlikeable game-race from a reader's point of view, to emphasize the unlikability of the race from the game characters' (pc and npc) point of view.

Nawwwww!

In a game world with so many "half-whatever" templates, it is rather weird to have mongrelmen exist as "failures". It seems that interbreeding only works well when you start with one of the pc races...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In a game world with so many "half-whatever" templates, it is rather weird to have mongrelmen exist as "failures". It seems that interbreeding only works well when you start with one of the pc races...

Well, a lot of people would argue that the 45,000 elf races are failures of a sort.

 

[S'mon]

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)

You're a dog of mixed breed?

 

[S'mon]

It wasn't that long ago that "mongrels" were denied a lot of very basic rights in this country...

Is this some kind of black/white thing? You Americans are crazy...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is this some kind of black/white thing? You Americans are crazy...

No argument. The good news is that it's probably going to seem as alien to our grandchildren as it does to you.

On the other hand, we'd never have a recipe for something called a spotted dick.