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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 6915502">But that's kind of what they are.  That's kind of what they've always been.  I wrote a rather long blog about this a while ago but there's a reason that elves are arrogant hippie tree-huggers and a dwarves are dirty greedy gods of crafting.  It's because these things are relatable.  If you go too far out of the box to make an entity "alien" then you will be unable to relate to it, even Cthulhu has relatable human traits, even a relatable humanoid form!  Things that people can't relate to, they don't like, so yeah it's fine if you want to make the unrelatable, inhuman alien the bad guy.  But you can't make them a race that people are expected to play or to understand or even hold a casual conversation with.  We know how being long lived, being in tune with nature, and all those "elvish" things look on a human, so we stick some pointy ears on those ideas and call it an elf.  We know how being greedy, dirty, drunk and a good craftman looks, so we stick a bear on that and call it a dwarf.I think some people (not you persay) have unrealistic expectations for demi-humans being too "demi" and less human.  The demi-human races really can't be too inhuman, not even from a writing standpoint but from a biological one.  They all have a more-or-less human form, two arms, two legs, two ears, two eyes, one head, one heart, etc...  They all have more-or-less the same sensory perceptions, sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing, some are better or worse at some of those things.  Living in trees or underground aren't concepts that humans are unfamiliar with.  So at best demi-humans really can't be anything more than "humans with a twist" because they all experience reality in the same way, they all utilize their limbs and sensory organs in the same fashion, dwarves don't walk on their hands and elves don't smell with the ears.  Frankly I would probably find it worse role-playing if someone were to play their elf or dwarf up in too existential of a manner.  I think playing a "human with a twist" is really just giving that player a little bit easier time in creating their character concept.  Sure, you can play "humans with a twist" and still be human, but you have to invent that twist on your own.  If you're going to say the MountainMen from Mountlandia are "tough warriors with big beards who like to drink a lot" and codify MountainMen as a race, I think that does a disservice to the idea of humanity being so impressively flexible.</blockquote>

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