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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5109344" data-attributes="member: 52734"><p>Ah, nice counterpoint. An all alien group, with one "token" human works in a manner similar to the all human one alien group.</p><p></p><p>Now, if a game were run in say, Planescape, I'd expect the characters to be a mix of aasimar, teiflings, modrons or even stranger characters. A game set in the Shadowfell would likely have a group consisting of various undead. A group adventuring in a lawless triangle between a goblinoid kingdom, elvin kingdom and a dwarven fortress-nation would probably have a pretty wild composition. </p><p></p><p>But if the campaign were something like Greyhawk set in the great city itself, or in the FR Dales, I'd expect a party composition that was, well, rather conservative. I suspect most games fall into this sort of human-dominated take. Certainly 1E through 3E encouraged this, and 4E does to a bit.</p><p></p><p>However, I think if you look closely at B5, the only real "wild" main character I can recall is J'car. Londo* (my favorite) and D'len*, while clearly not human might almost be considered dwarf & half-elf** if they were fantasy races; their appearance was fairly human and their alien traits overall subtle. The remaining primary characters of the series - Garibaldi, Franklin, Ivanova, Sheridan & Sinclair, were humans surrounded by alien cultures - though those cultures tended to be "off-stage" pieces.</p><p></p><p>Star Trek does this as well. There is a huge variety of races in the Star Trek universes, but among major characters, there tends to be only one or two really unusual characters in a given serial. Spock in TOS, Warf & Data in NextGen, Odo & Quark in DS9 (Dax could arguably be an "elf"), T'Pol and Phlox in Enterprise. (Sorry, don't know Voyager well enough to comment there, but I think you get the gist).</p><p></p><p>* In this case, I am counting Londo's "moon-faced assassin of joy" assistant, D'len's assistant and J'car's assistant as minor/follower characters instead of main characters.</p><p>** I guess the entire Minbari race would be "elves"?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 5109344, member: 52734"] Ah, nice counterpoint. An all alien group, with one "token" human works in a manner similar to the all human one alien group. Now, if a game were run in say, Planescape, I'd expect the characters to be a mix of aasimar, teiflings, modrons or even stranger characters. A game set in the Shadowfell would likely have a group consisting of various undead. A group adventuring in a lawless triangle between a goblinoid kingdom, elvin kingdom and a dwarven fortress-nation would probably have a pretty wild composition. But if the campaign were something like Greyhawk set in the great city itself, or in the FR Dales, I'd expect a party composition that was, well, rather conservative. I suspect most games fall into this sort of human-dominated take. Certainly 1E through 3E encouraged this, and 4E does to a bit. However, I think if you look closely at B5, the only real "wild" main character I can recall is J'car. Londo* (my favorite) and D'len*, while clearly not human might almost be considered dwarf & half-elf** if they were fantasy races; their appearance was fairly human and their alien traits overall subtle. The remaining primary characters of the series - Garibaldi, Franklin, Ivanova, Sheridan & Sinclair, were humans surrounded by alien cultures - though those cultures tended to be "off-stage" pieces. Star Trek does this as well. There is a huge variety of races in the Star Trek universes, but among major characters, there tends to be only one or two really unusual characters in a given serial. Spock in TOS, Warf & Data in NextGen, Odo & Quark in DS9 (Dax could arguably be an "elf"), T'Pol and Phlox in Enterprise. (Sorry, don't know Voyager well enough to comment there, but I think you get the gist). * In this case, I am counting Londo's "moon-faced assassin of joy" assistant, D'len's assistant and J'car's assistant as minor/follower characters instead of main characters. ** I guess the entire Minbari race would be "elves"? [/QUOTE]
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