Why all the fiendish love?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Cunningly hidden under those enticing black panties.

Though, as Nifft pointed out, it might not be canon... but with all the allusions of anime influence in 4E, whose to say a little hentai isn't soon to follow.

Thread starter from 2012:

Man, D&D 5th edition is so hentai. What ever happened to good, old fashioned Western-style pornographic roleplaying games?

 

[Celebrim]

You're just saying you don't like it. That's "not to my taste", not "in poor taste".

Could you define "in poor taste" for me?

 

[shilsen]

As a heroic PC race, it's tacky, crass, lowlife, "in poor taste". I find monster PC races to be non-appropriate for PCs. It's fine as a monster race.

Isn't it up to the DM and player to decide what makes a heroic PC? And why assume that everyone is interested in playing heroic PCs? Since we're talking issues of taste here, for me it's ludicrous to assume that an entire race can be defined as heroic, as you do here. It's just as possible to play an evil human PC as an evil tiefling PC. And considering this is a game which has always let people play bearded midgets who live underground, it's arguable that people have always been monster PC races.

Evil PC races in a "points of light" setting seems lame and trashy to me and forces that repetitive concept of "angst racial hero going against typecasting". Yawn.

As opposed to the repetitive concept of heroic PCs going out there and fighting evil? Double yawn.

 

[blargney the second]

As a heroic PC race, it's tacky, crass, lowlife, "in poor taste". I find monster PC races to be non-appropriate for PCs.

You're making a couple of assumptions:
1) That tieflings in 4e are going to be the same as in previous editions.
2) That your dislike defines poor taste.

That's a hell of a lot of room for error.
-blarg

 

[Celebrim]

2) That your dislike defines poor taste.

Well, let us in on the secret. What does define poor taste?

 

[Klaus]

I find it amusing, in a sad sort of way, that some people--not necessarily speaking of the OP here, for the record--insist on trying to find an agenda behind this sort of thing.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because the designers think that fiendish aspects make for a good game, or provide interesting plot hooks, or are fun characters. Or maybe it's because market research suggests that lots of players feel that way.

I think trying to look for any other motivation is, to call a spade a spade, silly.

Indeed.

I think that the fiendish-focus reflects the tastes of the designers more than any sort of agenda.

 

[Piratecat]

Maybe you don't think Planescape was D&D, either, but that just makes you a sad individual.

Let's have this conversation without the personal attacks, please.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Thread starter from 2012:

Man, D&D 5th edition is so hentai. What ever happened to good, old fashioned Western-style pornographic roleplaying games?

[2012] F.A.T.A.L. is the one true game, all others are just pale imitations. [/2012]

 

[KarinsDad]

You're making a couple of assumptions:
1) That tieflings in 4e are going to be the same as in previous editions.

True. They turned a celestial into a type of elf for 4E, so maybe a tiefling is really a mountain dwarf, not to be confused with a normal dwarf.

Or, maybe they should call those pesky mountain dwarves trolls instead. Who cares if the race had a totally different concept in 3E?

Let's play Bestial DND! Dwarves get replaced with Hobgoblins, Elves with Orcs, Humans with Demons, and Gnomes with Tieflings. And let's get rid of heroic fantasy and replace it with Totally Evil Fantasy. After all, the entire historical root of DND has always been breaking and entering, murder, followed by theft. We might as well make the races correspond to that.

 

[Patlin]

I find it amusing, in a sad sort of way, that some people--not necessarily speaking of the OP here, for the record--insist on trying to find an agenda behind this sort of thing.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because the designers think that fiendish aspects make for a good game, or provide interesting plot hooks, or are fun characters. Or maybe it's because market research suggests that lots of players feel that way.

I think trying to look for any other motivation is, to call a spade a spade, silly.

Hey, I reserve the right to be silly when I feel like it!

To explain my position further, which I don't think is "sad," let me explain:

Tieflings might be a great player race. They might even make the best cover for the new players handbook. I questioned the wisdom of making prominent something that could draw controversy to the hobby, since I assumed controversy was bad. The flip side of controversy, which could be good for the hobby, had not occurred to me. I hate it when I assume things without realizing I'm doing so.

Lest you think I'm taking this too seriously, no percieved 'agenda' is going to effect whether I play 4e or enjoy it. My concern has more to do with growing, or at least maintaining, the hobby. A marketing failure at WoTC could effect my ability to buy products from them in the future, and even theoretically the availability of other gamers to play D&D with.

I therefore have a vested interest in seeing them succeed.

It's not that I think they are "selling out" or engaging in some machiavelian plan to make money off the game, it's that if they fail to make money off the game it hurts all of us.