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Who Else likes the Cantina?
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<blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 5111701" data-attributes="member: 25619"><p>Ah. I take it you're a psychiatrist or other medical professional? And your basic view is: humans are a species. They are a certain set of organs and personality traits and so on, with diseases and variation therein. But basically, one set of creatures, with whom you are thoroughly conversant and don't have more questions to explore. Fair enough.</p><p></p><p>I come at it from a different place. I studied humans as my specialty too. But I studied history and political science -- SOCIETIES, not individuals -- and saw there's incredible variation over time and space in what human societies are like.</p><p></p><p>And now my career is about humans too -- but I'm in human resources working on global issues, with people around the world -- last week, I was working with an Italian to convince a Catalonian who lives in the UK and manages a team in France about a French issue. I know academically and from direct experience that people from different cultures can see things rather differently.</p><p></p><p>From that background, I haven't gotten bored coming up with human characters. My latest, just figuring him out for my first 4e campaign, is inspired by the Point of Light idea as I interpret it -- he's some sort of Roman (-ish) soldier, whose society has collapsed, and his goal is to protect what little is left of its cultural legacy. (In this campaign, I'm a player, with a DM who rarely has an interest in the setting, so I think I'm OK to just make that up and go with it.) That's not a background I've thought much about before, so it'll be interesting to walk a few miles in his hobnailed sandals.</p><p></p><p>Past ideas included a Spartan who was sent as a messenger from Thermoplyae and somehow teleported to a D&D campaign (speaking only Greek, which wasn't spoken in the campaign, and believing magic wasn't real).</p><p></p><p>You get the idea . . . humanity can come from very different places, literally and in the mind.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure this is directly related to pro- or con- on the cantina, but I think it is related to our view of the relative boringness (or not) of the traditional races. Heck, for me, human is easily the most interesting . . .</p><p></p><p>I'm thinking this topic almost needs a questionnaire or focus group: What does "cantina" mean to you? How much of it is fun? How much is too much? How much is not enough? Cantina in the party, or in the non-combat environment? And if the non-combat environment, almost everywhere should be weird, or only a few special places, so you can see a contrast?</p><p></p><p>To answer my own questionnaire:</p><p>-- I think of cantina as a "wahoo" atmosphere, where if there a 8 sentient beings in a room, they are likely to be from 6-7 different species.</p><p></p><p>-- How much is fun? Multiple human races + Tolkien races is good, plus a little more -- close to human and/or based in mythology and/or long-standing in D&D is good. Like the occasional lizardman, centaur, selkie, goblin, rakasha, werewolf, tiefling, or kobold in a "humanish" role in society is fine and fun. If somebody really wants something like that for a PC, OK, but one per party is enough.</p><p></p><p>I could even be sold on a really "out there" idea (the player who played a scout DOG in my RECON campaign) if someone is serious about it and willing to play it right (e.g., the player had to role-play as a dog -- no human knowledge usage, etc.).</p><p></p><p>And some races that just don't seem right to me -- dragonborn and half-anything that's not "human adjacent" -- are out, not just for PC's, but from appearing in the campaign at all, as just being too nonsensical and not the right campaign feel.</p><p> </p><p>-- Tolkien races can be pretty much everywhere, but should have homelands with their own culture by itself. And a special wahoo area -- like monsters visiting an underdark city or something -- is fine. It just should never be the normal routine to walk into a bar and see a beholder playing darts with fire elemental!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="haakon1, post: 5111701, member: 25619"] Ah. I take it you're a psychiatrist or other medical professional? And your basic view is: humans are a species. They are a certain set of organs and personality traits and so on, with diseases and variation therein. But basically, one set of creatures, with whom you are thoroughly conversant and don't have more questions to explore. Fair enough. I come at it from a different place. I studied humans as my specialty too. But I studied history and political science -- SOCIETIES, not individuals -- and saw there's incredible variation over time and space in what human societies are like. And now my career is about humans too -- but I'm in human resources working on global issues, with people around the world -- last week, I was working with an Italian to convince a Catalonian who lives in the UK and manages a team in France about a French issue. I know academically and from direct experience that people from different cultures can see things rather differently. From that background, I haven't gotten bored coming up with human characters. My latest, just figuring him out for my first 4e campaign, is inspired by the Point of Light idea as I interpret it -- he's some sort of Roman (-ish) soldier, whose society has collapsed, and his goal is to protect what little is left of its cultural legacy. (In this campaign, I'm a player, with a DM who rarely has an interest in the setting, so I think I'm OK to just make that up and go with it.) That's not a background I've thought much about before, so it'll be interesting to walk a few miles in his hobnailed sandals. Past ideas included a Spartan who was sent as a messenger from Thermoplyae and somehow teleported to a D&D campaign (speaking only Greek, which wasn't spoken in the campaign, and believing magic wasn't real). You get the idea . . . humanity can come from very different places, literally and in the mind. I'm not sure this is directly related to pro- or con- on the cantina, but I think it is related to our view of the relative boringness (or not) of the traditional races. Heck, for me, human is easily the most interesting . . . I'm thinking this topic almost needs a questionnaire or focus group: What does "cantina" mean to you? How much of it is fun? How much is too much? How much is not enough? Cantina in the party, or in the non-combat environment? And if the non-combat environment, almost everywhere should be weird, or only a few special places, so you can see a contrast? To answer my own questionnaire: -- I think of cantina as a "wahoo" atmosphere, where if there a 8 sentient beings in a room, they are likely to be from 6-7 different species. -- How much is fun? Multiple human races + Tolkien races is good, plus a little more -- close to human and/or based in mythology and/or long-standing in D&D is good. Like the occasional lizardman, centaur, selkie, goblin, rakasha, werewolf, tiefling, or kobold in a "humanish" role in society is fine and fun. If somebody really wants something like that for a PC, OK, but one per party is enough. I could even be sold on a really "out there" idea (the player who played a scout DOG in my RECON campaign) if someone is serious about it and willing to play it right (e.g., the player had to role-play as a dog -- no human knowledge usage, etc.). And some races that just don't seem right to me -- dragonborn and half-anything that's not "human adjacent" -- are out, not just for PC's, but from appearing in the campaign at all, as just being too nonsensical and not the right campaign feel. -- Tolkien races can be pretty much everywhere, but should have homelands with their own culture by itself. And a special wahoo area -- like monsters visiting an underdark city or something -- is fine. It just should never be the normal routine to walk into a bar and see a beholder playing darts with fire elemental! [/QUOTE]
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