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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 2842666" data-attributes="member: 18280">But, still, not your POV character.In fact, especially where the philosophical discussions go, I would hazard that the nonhuman character is specifically designed to throw the more human characters into sharp relief.  This is similar to what occurs in the best Star Trek episodes:  interaction with something that isn't human is used to illuminate the "human problem" and explore what it means to be human.This could be wonderful, in the right hands.  If a player plays elves and dwarves as something other than tricked-out humans, I would be all for letting her run that tiefling (or whatever), but that player is as rare as a tame lion, IME.As I said earlier, the norm in my experience of over 25 years of gaming is that people who want to play weird characters do so for the following reasons most frequently (not necessarily in this order):(1) K3wl powerz.(2) Expectation that the character will play a central role in the campaign.(3) The DM kept throwing weird NPCs out there, so why let her have all the fun?(4) Modules/Dragon/D&D novels kept throwing weird NPCs out there, and they kept doing it for the "Woah!" factor, so why let them have all the fun?(5) Inability to think of an imaginative way to play a human.(6) Unwillingness to immerse in the world as presented/desire to change the world to fit a different vision.(7) It wasn't as though the elf was anything other than a human with k3wl powerz and pointy ears anyway, and that dwarf is just a short surly Scotsman.(8) Recreation of a character from a movie/novel/video game.(9) I had a neat idea for an encounter, but I don't want to DM.These aren't the only reasons, and I am sure that there are many cases that intersect between them. Most of the people I've run into who wanted to pick an unusual species because they wanted to "role play something different" ended up playing a character that, apart from game mechanics and appearance, couldn't be picked out from a lineup of humans.DM and Player:  These are very, very different situations.RCBTW:  I believe completely in changing the rules to help players play nonhumans differently.  I gave a couple of examples in an earlier post in this thread.</blockquote>

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