"You're a half elf? Really?" From the P.A. Podcasts

[Mercule]

I don't understand why people play non-humans and then don't bother to play it up.

Agreed. IMO, if non-humans races are just going to be played a big, dumb humans or skinny humans with bows or short, tough humans, then just make them humans. Of course, I prefer a human-centric game, so I generally figure the first question for a non-human character is "Why not a human?"

I've got a level 14 character that got there the hard way. And I still get that wrong.

We've got two players that don't read rules (seriously -- my wife loves to game and has played from 1e, but I don't think she's ever read even a paragraph of any PHB), one that hates random terminology changes, and one that forgets terms all the time. I gave up.

 

[SkidAce]

It's Omin that's a half elf.

 

[Jack99]

Also during the podcast one player (I can’t remember who) says they are taking an Attack of Opportunity instead of an Opportunity Attack which means not only do they not know each other’s character but they don’t know which rules they are playing either.

In my country, we would call that fly-fecking. As in dealing with very small and unimportant things.

It does not say anything about the players. Other than the fact that they might have more important things to do than memorizing RPG rules.

 

[Asmor]

We had an elf in my last campaign. It was never forgotten, as we made fun of him (in- and out-of-game) constantly.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

In my country, we would call that fly-fecking. As in dealing with very small and unimportant things.

It does not say anything about the players. Other than the fact that they might have more important things to do than memorizing RPG rules.

In the States we call it nit-picking and I completely agree.

He's only half an elf, and he quite easily could have been raised by humans. Omin probably doesn't look like an elf in the comics, because the guy drawing it did not know he was a half-elf.

More importantly D&D is about having fun. Mike, Jerry, Scott, and Will are obviously doing that. They're not going to come into your house and tell you how to play your half-elf, let Jerry play the way he wants.

 

[Rechan]

Agreed. IMO, if non-humans races are just going to be played a big, dumb humans or skinny humans with bows or short, tough humans, then just make them humans.

Because they want the mechanics of the non-human?

I'm of the opinion that the more non-human, the better. I like me some alien characters (Thri-keen wanting to eat the fallen? Yay!)

The problem though is that 90% of your non-humans can be PLAYED as a human. Big dumb aggressive half-orc? Big dumb aggressive human. Heavy drinking Scottish-accented dwarf? Heavy drinking scottish-accented human. Kender klepto? Most thieves I've ran into are klepto or annoying, so it's not race dependent. So what's the difference?

Ultimately, it comes down to this: the fantasy racial stereotypes are just subcategories of Human culture/behavior. Prime example are Dwarves, who are just Scottish/Norse. But that's also been a peeve of mine - that each non-human race has ONE culture, one stereotype, while Humans have an endless variety of them.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

That made my morning.

Mine too. Because gamers making stupid stereotyping jokes about the players of other game systems will never be something i understand.

 

[Rechan]

Mine too. Because gamers making stupid stereotyping jokes about the players of other game systems will never be something i understand.

Come on now.

The joke isn't at the expense of the players. It's a comment about vampires.

Because vampires ARE, by and large, presented as "extrahuman, aloof, arrogant, mysterious, immortal (and pretentious)" beings.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If you think that is bad listen to my lattest DCU (d6) superhero game.

We are running an alt earth with bits of our fav heros from all sources. The PCs threw togather a team. 1 Player described his character as based on static shock but older. The character is in his late 60's.

he described himself as bald, a few rinkles but still in good shape, then his coustume. then in game 5 another PC made an off color joke about...well color. Everyone stared at the charcter based o 'static' and he didn't know why anyone thought he would care he was brought up in a more racest time...so when I (the DM) said "We just figured since you were black..." ande he interupoted "WHAT!?!?!? I never said that"

5 games with everyon pictureing the old man static from JLA cartoons and him pitcureing some guy named Cole from a video game just older...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Come on now.

The joke isn't at the expense of the players.

Aww, sure it was.

Well... when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that squeals is usually the one you hit.

But what do I know? I'm just a grumpy drunk.