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<blockquote data-quote="ptolemy18" data-source="post: 2270073" data-attributes="member: 24970">In my own opinion....Yes, it's obviously an offensive term in real life, and I'd understand being reluctant to use &quot;mongrelmen&quot; in a campaign. However, it's virtually impossible for a fantasy world not to be politically incorrect one way or another... the very idea of some races being innately evil, or innately stupid... unless you're either intentionally blanding the fantasy down to be inoffensive, or you're intentionally doing an &quot;explosion of fantasy stereotypes&quot; like, say, Samuel Delany's DHALGREN (starring two gay barbarians, a female fighter with a vulva-shaped double-sword, etc. etc.) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />For my part... in case this shows where I'm coming from... I really liked in LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS when they went ahead and had the &quot;evil men from the east&quot; with their turbans and elephants. Very gutsy not to water down Tolkein's original text with its &quot;evil foreigners&quot; vibe.And, on the other hand, I *also* really liked the moment in LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING when they showed the orc with long blonde hair. It was a very good way to defuse the potential racism in the idea of something like orcs. That's how I would have done it. 'Cause it's important to show you can be a degenerate, barbaric, inherently evil, filthy subhuman AND have long, straight blonde hair. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Personally, I wouldn't have mongrelmen in my campaign, but only 'cause I'm trying to cut down the number of demi-humans. In fact, in my campaign, which is set in a pseudo-Europe, I'm assuming that all Anglo-Saxons and Germans and other northern tribes are orcs and half-orcs.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Aww, no, I got involved in a pseudo-political argument...! MUST... STOP... POSTING!!! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Jason</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ptolemy18, post: 2270073, member: 24970"] In my own opinion.... Yes, it's obviously an offensive term in real life, and I'd understand being reluctant to use "mongrelmen" in a campaign. However, it's virtually impossible for a fantasy world not to be politically incorrect one way or another... the very idea of some races being innately evil, or innately stupid... unless you're either intentionally blanding the fantasy down to be inoffensive, or you're intentionally doing an "explosion of fantasy stereotypes" like, say, Samuel Delany's DHALGREN (starring two gay barbarians, a female fighter with a vulva-shaped double-sword, etc. etc.) ;) For my part... in case this shows where I'm coming from... I really liked in LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS when they went ahead and had the "evil men from the east" with their turbans and elephants. Very gutsy not to water down Tolkein's original text with its "evil foreigners" vibe. And, on the other hand, I *also* really liked the moment in LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING when they showed the orc with long blonde hair. It was a very good way to defuse the potential racism in the idea of something like orcs. That's how I would have done it. 'Cause it's important to show you can be a degenerate, barbaric, inherently evil, filthy subhuman AND have long, straight blonde hair. ;) Personally, I wouldn't have mongrelmen in my campaign, but only 'cause I'm trying to cut down the number of demi-humans. In fact, in my campaign, which is set in a pseudo-Europe, I'm assuming that all Anglo-Saxons and Germans and other northern tribes are orcs and half-orcs.... ;) Aww, no, I got involved in a pseudo-political argument...! MUST... STOP... POSTING!!! :) Jason [/QUOTE]

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