Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
No More "Humans in Funny Hats": Racial Mechanics Should Determine Racial Cultures
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8443432" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>You know, nobody is actually <em>offended </em>by alignments. Annoyed that alignments are used primarily as a shortcut to saying what monsters can be killed while not having any true justification for it, and bothered that sometimes, the terms used to describe the evil races has disturbing similarities to real world racism (such as the "domesticated" orcs in Volo's). But <em>offended</em>? No. </p><p></p><p>And the next question is, why do you need to know what the "typical" whatever is prone to attacking or not? If you have an adventure in the snowy mountains and you want to have some monsters attack, and you like the idea of the yeti's paralyzing gaze and fear of fire, use them! You don't need the book's permission to have them attack. You just need to know that this one particular yeti or group of yeti will attack. You don't even need to make a reason for the attack, if you don't want to. This one group of yeti just attacked.</p><p></p><p>But when you decide that the typical whatever will attack, then yes, you need to have a very good reason for that.</p><p></p><p></p><p>So... what are humans typically like? </p><p></p><p></p><p>You may want to read up on this sort of stuff. It's pretty fascinating. Humans are controlled a <em>lot </em>more by their biology than many people want to think.</p><p></p><p>Heck, you don't even have to look at humans. Look at cats and dogs. Purebred animals have so many behavioral traits that are linked to their breed, which yes, can include general disposition. We had a cat that we found as an young adult stray, a big fluffy gray cat with furry pantaloons, who always used to follow us around when we went from room to room. We liked to joke that she was using us to check for land mines. Purely by luck, we discovered that she had all the traits of a non-show quality nebelung, which at that point was a very new breed (coincidentally, we had named her Nebula, because she was a cloud of dust). One of the breed's traits is following their favorite humans around from room to room. We think that she had been thrown out for not being show quality--either that, or it's because she ate furniture.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure. But an adult halfling with adult musculature and an adult skeletal system--<em>which is going to be different than that of a human because they are different species</em>--could also, potentially, lift quite a lot as well.</p><p></p><p>(And yes, that poor kid.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>No, because (a) racial ASI isn't being used anymore, especially since there are far more flavorful ways to indicate racial traits than a dull stat bonus, and (b) still would indicate "the norm", so a creature could be radically different from that.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure. Now you just have to ignore 40+ years of canon lore to rewrite it in a way that you prefer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8443432, member: 6915329"] You know, nobody is actually [I]offended [/I]by alignments. Annoyed that alignments are used primarily as a shortcut to saying what monsters can be killed while not having any true justification for it, and bothered that sometimes, the terms used to describe the evil races has disturbing similarities to real world racism (such as the "domesticated" orcs in Volo's). But [I]offended[/I]? No. And the next question is, why do you need to know what the "typical" whatever is prone to attacking or not? If you have an adventure in the snowy mountains and you want to have some monsters attack, and you like the idea of the yeti's paralyzing gaze and fear of fire, use them! You don't need the book's permission to have them attack. You just need to know that this one particular yeti or group of yeti will attack. You don't even need to make a reason for the attack, if you don't want to. This one group of yeti just attacked. But when you decide that the typical whatever will attack, then yes, you need to have a very good reason for that. So... what are humans typically like? You may want to read up on this sort of stuff. It's pretty fascinating. Humans are controlled a [I]lot [/I]more by their biology than many people want to think. Heck, you don't even have to look at humans. Look at cats and dogs. Purebred animals have so many behavioral traits that are linked to their breed, which yes, can include general disposition. We had a cat that we found as an young adult stray, a big fluffy gray cat with furry pantaloons, who always used to follow us around when we went from room to room. We liked to joke that she was using us to check for land mines. Purely by luck, we discovered that she had all the traits of a non-show quality nebelung, which at that point was a very new breed (coincidentally, we had named her Nebula, because she was a cloud of dust). One of the breed's traits is following their favorite humans around from room to room. We think that she had been thrown out for not being show quality--either that, or it's because she ate furniture. Sure. But an adult halfling with adult musculature and an adult skeletal system--[I]which is going to be different than that of a human because they are different species[/I]--could also, potentially, lift quite a lot as well. (And yes, that poor kid.) No, because (a) racial ASI isn't being used anymore, especially since there are far more flavorful ways to indicate racial traits than a dull stat bonus, and (b) still would indicate "the norm", so a creature could be radically different from that. Sure. Now you just have to ignore 40+ years of canon lore to rewrite it in a way that you prefer. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
No More "Humans in Funny Hats": Racial Mechanics Should Determine Racial Cultures
Top