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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 7252530" data-attributes="member: 6683613"><p>I'm not sure whether you're saying it is or it isn't, but I believe this is System Working As Intended. Neal Stephenson has observed in a couple of his books that there are two types of humans: elves and dwarves. Most fantasy (and, as you say, even a lot of SF) isn't really trying to explore the alien -- it's trying to explore the human. The Tolkien-legacy menagerie of elves, dwarves, and halflings ain't exactly Mi-go or Heptapods, and I don't think that's a failure of imagination on Tolkien's part. (It might be a <em>slight</em> failure of imagination on the part of all those aping him, but one of a different sort.) So I hardly think there's anything wrong with leaning into that. If anything, I think trying to roleplay a being as an alien when they look exactly like a human except for the pointy ears and can even interbreed with humans is the more ridiculous endeavor.</p><p></p><p>It would be interesting to see data on the <em>cultures</em> of the human and nonhuman PCs people play. I suspect we'd find that human characters tend to be representatives of a fantasy version of a culture the player finds familiar -- medieval Western Europe, for most of us on these boards -- and nonhumans are used as a sort of surrogate for alternative cultures. But maybe I'm wrong, and lots of people are exploring other cultures with human PCs. I know anecdotally that I'm wrong for at least one player -- one of my guys has a fondness for doing this (most recently with well-researched fantasy-Sami and fantasy-Yoruba characters).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 7252530, member: 6683613"] I'm not sure whether you're saying it is or it isn't, but I believe this is System Working As Intended. Neal Stephenson has observed in a couple of his books that there are two types of humans: elves and dwarves. Most fantasy (and, as you say, even a lot of SF) isn't really trying to explore the alien -- it's trying to explore the human. The Tolkien-legacy menagerie of elves, dwarves, and halflings ain't exactly Mi-go or Heptapods, and I don't think that's a failure of imagination on Tolkien's part. (It might be a [I]slight[/I] failure of imagination on the part of all those aping him, but one of a different sort.) So I hardly think there's anything wrong with leaning into that. If anything, I think trying to roleplay a being as an alien when they look exactly like a human except for the pointy ears and can even interbreed with humans is the more ridiculous endeavor. It would be interesting to see data on the [I]cultures[/I] of the human and nonhuman PCs people play. I suspect we'd find that human characters tend to be representatives of a fantasy version of a culture the player finds familiar -- medieval Western Europe, for most of us on these boards -- and nonhumans are used as a sort of surrogate for alternative cultures. But maybe I'm wrong, and lots of people are exploring other cultures with human PCs. I know anecdotally that I'm wrong for at least one player -- one of my guys has a fondness for doing this (most recently with well-researched fantasy-Sami and fantasy-Yoruba characters). [/QUOTE]
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