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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8182643" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Easily? I’m not really sure how to answer this. I think you and I must have such fundamentally different understandings of what a fantasy race is that we’re going to have a hard time communicating here, because I don’t see how what I said would in any way prevent the inclusion of fantasy races in a fictional setting.Even in a very small setting, I find the idea that no dwarf ever has been or could be born outside of a particular ethnically homogenous community to strain suspension of disbelief, to the point I might not be able to take such a setting seriously. I mean, we have an example in Dragon Age of a setting where there is only one dwarf city. There are certainly things you can say about the culture of the city. But not all dwarves are born there, and not all dwarves who are born there conform to the dominant culture. Yes, Orzammar is very traditionalist and has a caste system, and what have you. But dwarves are not Orzammar. I disagree that cultural stereotypes are what attract most players to races, and I can’t get behind the notion that races are made up only of appearance and cultural stereotypes. Again looking to the dragon age example, dwarves have inherent traits that distinguish them from humans other than just their appearance. They have different bone structure, different muscle structure, they don’t dream, and consequently can’t use magic (because of the way magic works in the setting). They are naturally immune to the toxicity of the magical mineral lyrium. They have an inherent sense of direction underground called stone sense (although admittedly surface dwarves lose this sense). These things are not cultural, they are, for lack of a better word in a fantasy context, biological.I mean, I would call that a flaw in the writing of Star Trek. An alien species that is only biologically different from humans in that their ears are pointed? Talk about uninspired. Though, if you really care to get into the reeds here, that isn’t actually the only biological difference between Vulcans and Humans. Vulcans also experience emotions far more intensely than humans do, and they have some low-level psychic ability in the mind meld.Again, I’m not really even sure how to explain to you that fantasy can be different from each other in ways that aren’t cultural.Also, like, having distinct cultures in your fantasy settings is fine. In fact, it’s a good thing. The more culturally diverse a setting, the better! The problem comes when you tie that culture inextricably to a race.Well, that’s not what I’m suggesting, so I don’t know what to tell you.I don’t know what to say, other than “no.”</blockquote>

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