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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8023067" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Pardon my french, but WTF? Right above me, literally the post before you this you just saidSo, how is it impossible to make them not-people if you are saying they literally by definition cannot be people? They've been people for decades Max, playable character with a culture, language, history and religion. As we said, that ship left a long time ago. You seem to be clinging to a version of them that hasn't been around for decades. That might be your problem.Yes, but...The issue here is partially that these portrayals are offensive to some people, that they smack of racism and problematic language from out past. So, I imagine the scenario of doing what Max suggests, of turning to these people who are saying "hey, this group of humanoids you have here, love them, but a lot of the language you are using to describe them is a little uncomfortable for us" and WoTC going "Okay, we'll make them worse, we won't remove the problematic parts, we'll emphasize them, take away the good stuff, really make these things wretched and inhuman. Better?" Somehow, I don't think that will be better. Even if it is meant as something completely different I imagine it wouldn't get taken that way. And then, we are right back to the problems with Half-orcs. In fact, Half-Orcs are really where this whole thing started, aren't they? People wanted to play orc characters, but the game designers wanted to keep orcs as enemies so they made Half-Orcs, or maybe half-orcs existed as some NPCs first. Problem is, everyone knows the situation Half-Orcs are born under in older editions of DnD. And that is a huge problem for some people. I had a friend who was deeply uncomfortable when another player wanted to play a half-orc, because he read the 4e description of them and made the obvious connection very quickly. He came to me, as the DM, and asked me what could be done. The guy playing the half-orc? He wanted the mechanics, he didn't care about his parentage or any of that. He just wanted the abilities. So, I changed him. Said, "hey man, this is the implied backstory, it is making people uncomfortable, you mind just being a full orc with the same mechanics?" He loved the idea, and my other friend thanked me. And, that solution was so elegant, and the problem was so potentially persistent, that it was one of my first house rules as a DM. There are no half-orcs, they are just orcs. And the few half-orcs I personally played? I gave them loving, happily married families. And, I imagine I'm not the only one who has dealt with this, reading the half-orc lore from 3.5 to 4e to 5e, Orcs and Humans are becoming more and more likely to have settlements where they intermingle, because no one wants to cut half-orcs from the game, but they are a problem as they used to be presented. And, as orcs and humans have to be able to interact more and more, the orc has to get more focus on them, to be people more often than they are whatever you want to call them before. So, I don't think going backwards here is really a workable solution.</blockquote>

Verification