Unequal Treatment
PCs are, by and large, a bunch of freaking weirdos. You’ve got monsters with character levels, monstrous humanoids, awakened animals, bizarro mounts, and the default weirdness of the unpopular races. It’s this last group that I’d like to talk about today.
Half-orcs, drow, and tieflings all have to deal with the bad PR of their respective races. However, given all the weird crap that the average NPC encounters on a daily basis, it strikes me as more than a little weird that the guy with the dental problem is the one who’s getting hassled. I mean, if you’re an NPC and you’ve got the misfortune to be within 100 yards of the party, chances are you’ve seen some shit. There are necromantic servants walking around in broad daylight, tyrannosaurs getting stabled at the inn, foul fiends being summoned left and right, and dudes casting horror show spells like it ain’t no thang. If you stop and think about it for a second, how the crap is it Drizzt that’s causing a hubbub?
Despite their suspect nature, those preconceptions become ingrained over time. If you choose certain races, you expect a bit of friction when you’re hanging out in town. This came up in one of my recent games when the party went to visit a local armorsmith. I was a half-elf. The armorer was a dwarf. I was expecting a little animosity and a lot of hard bargaining. When we showed up on his doorstep however, I wasn’t the one getting the stink eye.
“What’s all that blue shit on you?” asked the dwarf. The android arched an eyebrow.
“And what the hell are you supposed to be? Some kind of fancy house plant?” The seedling took offense.
“And how may I be of assistance to you, kind Sir?” he said to me. I guess he didn’t notice my pointy ears.
It was a bizarre experience, and I was actually a little put out with the exchange. I was supposed to be the one getting surly-dwarf’d! Why were the other PCs stealing my outsider status? I signed up for the standard-issue persecution backstory, gods dammit!
Upon reflection, it occurs to me that fantasy games need increasingly outlandish races and creatures to maintain their gee-whiz factor. That leaves the aforementioned unpopular races in a bit of a tight spot, forcing them into a weirdness arms race with the new freaks on the block.
Am I the only one that’s encountered this? Have you guys noticed your PCs becoming weirder over time? Let’s hear it in the comments!
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For an upcoming one-shot, I’m gonna be a gelatinous cube wizard!
That’s just for the funny factor, though. Typically, I don’t play the weirder races, not for any dislike of them, and more because of character ideas I’ve had. One of these days, however, I’m sure at get around to playing that githyanki or drow
Here’s a question. How do you imagine your gelatinous cube wizard being treated at the local inn? Are expecting torches and pitchforks or nothing harsher than raised eyebrows?
i’d expect a lot of “on the rocks” jokes
I’m playing a Ghoran cleric right now! I am Groot, except that I’m a sunflower and my personal goodberries are sunflower seeds. However, I named him after Dobri Dobrev and his persona is that of Fantasy Mr. Rogers, so thus far he’s been among the best received of the party. Admittedly we’re not very far in the campaign, but I suspect that this’ll hold true.
If you go back a looong ways, I put down a story about Shinta the Samurai and the cursed ring that shone bright pink like a torch. That kept compounding, especially against the otherwise straight-man persona that Shinta had, so that was a fun one.
Adverse to the ‘growing into weirdness,’ sadly, sometimes the DMs just want you to roll your dice and don’t get your personal touches in the way. I had a tengu that collected ears from things he personally killed, but that got kibosh’d by the 5th ear or so. It was unfortunate.
And finally, Inquisitor was even polite enough to take her hat off indoors to come in! Ignoring that gesture is like spitting in her eye. The unamused look on her face informs me that she, too, is considering the pros and cons of arson rationalized by ‘suspicion of heresy.’
For some reason the phrase “hibiki stone” sticks in my memory…
But straight up, Alchemist better keep his combustible reagents in fireproof containers. Mess is all kinds of ugly in my head canon.
I believe that righteous rage at injustice, discrimination or exceptionally vile criminality makes the saving throw DC for the spell Blistering Invective increase by 3.
…Then again, she might decide to deliver Mercy instead. Spell slots are limited, after all.
The Hibiki Stone was the natural evolution, Shinta’s thing was its progenitor. But yes! We coined that term here!
I’m so proud right now for all the wrong reasons.
Honestly no, that’s probably in large part due to me playing 5e though, as it just recently started getting some pretty strange and cool racial options. Honestly, my weirdest campaign in terms of player character races was still my second one which was a high level game where everyone could choose any sentient creature from the monster manual with dm permission. Even then we still had just a plain elf druid and human gunslinger, and later on when my aranea sorcerer got kicked out and later killed, I made a plain magus tie fling. The only weird characters that stayed were the sky dragon monk and extra giant giant who used psionic to get more giant. Rather, in my group, it tends to be the personalities that makes our group weirdos and freaks. My favorites being trogzor, the naked spider climbing barbarian, who wore nothing but belts and spider climbing slippers, and who destroyed all who dared face him, and Alex Jones, the 6 int water genesi conspiracy theorist sorcerer, who ended up joining the water cult.
I gather that you’ve got a firm grasp on what I meant by, “If you’re an NPC and you’ve got the misfortune to be within 100 yards of the party, chances are you’ve seen some shit.” Inverted naked muscle men tend to turn heads.
Oh i defintely understand that well.
I’m gonna be honest here, I’m so used to half-orcs being PCs that I was confused about why alchemist was referring to barbarian as a monstrous folk
I personally just assumed the creature’s race in the picture to be a skinwalker (if Pathfinder) or shifter (if D&D 3.5). Half-orc is so common a race now that denying entrance to a public location because of his orc heritage is the equivalent of saying ‘We don’t allow dem darkies to use our drinking fountains’ in modern society. Like seriously, even though racism still exists, that shit has been abolished for a while now.
I mean sure. You can play it as subtle or as harsh as you want. But check out the Pathfinder “Society” entry for half-orcs:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/half-orc/
Lines like “many cultures view them as little more than monsters,” “unable even to get normal work,” and “hiding their nature whenever possible” paint a pretty bleak picture.
(1) That’s Ranger. Barbarian is human: https://www.handbookofheroes.com/role-call
(2) Alchemist is a dwarf. There isn’t a great history of interracial harmony there.
(3) I think that you’re spot-on for the default player mindset. I’ve never seen the full-on Star Wars “we don’t serve your kind” in a game, but I think it’s there if you want it. The setting info for half-orc generally puts that sort of thing front and center. It’s just that we tend to gloss over it as long-time gamers.
Well Half Orcs are the iconic Barbarian, so the confusion is understandable. Wood Elves are the iconic ranger. Which is the only thing Elves are good for.
I think the bad rep thing is generally less about being perceived as odd and more about being perceived as evil. An android will certainly get some looks, but odds are noone will think about beating them up to avenge a relative they’ve lost to the Darklands or the Worldwound. It’s the difference between “I will treat you badly because I don’t know what you are or how to deal with you” and “I will treat you badly because I think your evil and deserve this”.
It depends on the setting of course, but I agree. YOU might be playing the most selfless, honest, upstanding goblin in the entire world, but if your race has a reputation as thieves, expect people to put their hands over wallets whenever you walk past.
One of the few times I saw a GM actually tried to portray this in-game though, the player playing the “outsider” race actually seemed upset that they had to deal with their race’s racial baggage, so that swiftly put an end to that. I guess things can run both ways.
I guess I’m a bit of a drama wizard:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/drama
If you just want some interesting racial abilities and to punch monsters, I can understand rolling your eyes and getting frustrated about being “punished” for your racial choices. As always, communicating with your GM is a good idea.
Good insight!
For me, I want race to matter in terms of my in-character interactions. There are cultures and preconceptions that go along with writing “goblin” on your character sheet. Same deal with being a human in elven lands. It’s part of the immersion experience when you can feel like your character, and watching the world react to your alter-ego is part of that fun.
To quote Terry Pratchett’s Discwold…
“Black and white lived in harmony and teamed up on green.”
You may always feel free to quote Sir. Terry.
Here’s the thing aboot anti-Drow/Half Orc/Tiefling xenophobia:
Imagine if you will, that you’re a South Korean, and North Koreans were bright purple. You were taught that North Korea is a oppressive state where they constantly plot the downfall of the south. They’re always sending agents to poison people, capture people and extract state secrets. Anyone who doesn’t worship the state is either executed or taken to a re-education camp.
Now you see a purple person walking around on the streets of Seoul. Would you trust them?
Drow society is a slaving, caste-based social-Darwinist hellscape. Orcs go around doing Mongol/Viking stuff, and Tieflings are descended from beings that are various forms of manifest evil. None of those sound trustworthy.
No. I would not trust the Purple Man: http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/david-tennant-purple-man-jessica-jones-season-2
For serious though, I gather that you’re saying one-of-a-kind freaks are more worthy of remark, but that the “unpopular races” should expect subtler forms of discrimination…?
More that the discrimination against the “Evil” races makes logical sense in a fantasy world.
Fun fact: The way you detect a Drow’s alignment is base on how they dress.
If they dress in spider-themed S&M gear they’re evil. If they dress conservatively they’re good.
For example, Inquisitor is Neutral since she dresses only moderately sexy.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny (Warning, a TvTropes link! My soul is lost, but you may still turn away!)
Don’t judge me, judge Wizards/TSR and their weird hangups.
“If we’re supposed to be a matriarchy, why do we dress like this?”
I aspire to raise my fashion levels to “moderately sexy” one day.
Just add some cleavage and a midriff to your wardrobe. Maybe get some luxuriously long hair and a nice hat, and you too can be moderately sexy.
The hat is the key here.
I’m reminded of how my campaign setting from my first campaign as GM (I’ve mentioned this before) has so much weird stuff happening all the time(which has become so normalized) that I suspect the random townsfolk aren’t even particularly speciesist, simply because they see Drow adventurers and Vampire merchants and Goblin housekeepers all the time. I suppose it’s an extremely optimistic view of human nature, but given that that setting is all about cheerfully zany adventuring, I think it fits.
Another campaign setting that I’ve outlined (and I think I’ve also mentioned here before), Shadowfire, is kind of the opposite. It’s entire premise is that some years ago a coalition of all of the Good races defeated Evil Dark Overlord Guy and his army of all of the Evil races. Then the Good Coalition found itself in control of a large amount of territory comprised of huge numbers of Evil race civilians. The campaign takes place in the EDOG’s former capital, which at this point has a population of about 60% “Evil”, 30% “Neutral” (mainly former slaves of EDOG’s forces) and 10% “Good.” The PCs are a part of a task force whose job is to keep the peace. The party may be composed of any mix of Good, Evil and Neutral, and no matter what, they will face some sort of discrimination – many of the Good and Neutral inhabitants look down on or are suspicious of Evil-race PCs, while Good-race PCs are going to turn heads in Evil-race-dominated parts of town, as they are seen as an occupying army. I’d really like to run a campaign in the Shadowfire setting sometime, since it’s a great intrigue, morality and hard choices-based setting with a lot of different ways for PCs to handle things beyond “Barbarian Smash”!
Lastly, I’ll just quickly mention something I’ve been doing in a setting with a somewhat similar “evil race” situation – Star Wars. A friend of mine and I have been writing our own Star Wars TV show (because we can), and one thing we’ve tried to do is to play around with the default assumption of “good” and “evil” species that the audience is used to. For example, two major characters are a Trandoshian (lizard person) and a Clawdite (shapeshifting bounty hunter from Episode II), both traditionally antagonist species, and the Geonosians are important allies of the protagonists. On the other hand, one of our villains is likely to be Mon Calamari (Admiral Ackbar’s species), a traditionally “good” species. So it’s a lot of fun to mess around with perceptions like that, especially with good in-universe reason besides a Drizzt-like “only good one” situation (namely that the New Republic is intentionally far more cosmopolitan in contrast to the pro-human Empire).
(Also, the classic Star Wars “We don’t serve their kind here” that you mentioned before always amused me, because what exactly is a bar going to sell robots anyways? They don’t eat or drink!)
My attempt at this kind of setting was my first published adventure:
https://adventureaweek.com/shop/pathfinder/b17-death-taxes/?doing_wp_cron=1529689357.4748249053955078125000
Lots of fun riffing on monstrous races taking a stab a civilized life in there.
Any links to Shadowfire resources? That sounds like a blast and a half to play.
I know it’s been almost two months since you asked about this, but I finally got around to gathering up my Shadowfire resources and putting them all together in a form someone other than me can understand. I’d love to know your thoughts on it!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BNzQj84pv2OAwrFV7Wj7UZUrs2OgqZVf7jgttPZh_JI/edit?usp=sharing
making my way through. 🙂
Are Alc’s tentacles new? Is he going to get a new piece of body-horror every time we see him?
I asked Laurel this same question. A lot of the sight-gags are hers, so we’ll have to wait and see the dictates of her fickle muse. :3
When you play a race you are not playing some walking bonuses, you are playing as a member of a people with history and traditions, cultural and racial baggage. That is why i only play humans, robots and undead, they are my favorite races and also are the ones i know how to roleplay. Racism is a serious issue in the real world, you know that big thing outside the window, so why it can not be an issue in the setting world. If you are playing a drow in the high elves land, well that is your choice prepere to face some problems. As i said racism is a serious issue and one not must escape from it, one must face it to change the way the setting work. You choose a race for the bonus and now you are beaten and left in the mud by an angry group of elves bigots, the what are you going to do. Likein Dragon Age, when i play an elf i whas surprised for the way people addressed my PC.
“You elf. Why are you dress like you are in the army?”
“Maybe because i am in the army?”
“So you are an elf and a greywatcher, i don’t know how to address you.”
“Just address me like you would with any human”
“Yes, i mean no, er.. i mean…”
Races can have a lot of baggage, some people can we cool whit it, other not, but i think you mast face the issue. That is why another reason why i play humans, robots and undead. All hail the glorious human, supreme race of the civilized world, their undead highness achivers of human immortality and their glorious creations the robotus ex humanis. Inmy group we divide the npc roleplay among the players and the dm, so in a session some time ago, when i was repressinting the speech of the local lord i give the following extract:
“The elves are not our friends, the seduce and defile our women, they bring drow slavers, they bring their strange teas and bread, some of them are good persons i asume, but we must build a wall and make the dwarfs pay for it” – Lord Ronald Triumph.
Guess what year it was. We the started to chat about racism and politics and then our dm ask us if we wanted to have a political debate or a roleplay session… we choose to have a political debate inside the roleplay session… and i still support the says of my pc about the cultural and economic benefits of a treaty between the drow and duergar slavers. But that is another theme. 🙂
That is a fair cop in a home game, but as the day and the discussion have worn on, I’ve become a bit curious about organized play. Do you think this sort of thing ought to be emphasized when playing with strangers? At a convention or a local shop? In other words, does the calculus change when you can’t count on your buddies’ comfort level with difficult but serious issue?
Well, that, obviously depends of the other players. I mean RPG it is not a single player game, you need to play with other people and get a common agreement about the ins and outs in the game. Maybe you try something another not like, once well… if you don’t know it, twice you are kinda annoying, thrice you are a troll, and not the good one kind that gives XP. So it is tricky. When you play with another people kinda is better keep things standard until you know them better, a note of color or two about races and their issues, can be okay but not full open racial conflict.
The real question is “What weirdos would go to a house-party thrown by a mad scientist who has few ethical lines?” If you don’t wake up with some sort of horrifying body-modification it’ll be impressive.
My brother’s character has been weird from the start: A grabby little ratfolk with a two tailed scorpion mount. A few levels and many fights later, he also has a giant wasp that carries him around, has been blinded, and has a “seeing eye spider” fey touched web tyrant. Oh, and his character’s build is pretty damn powerful and versatile too.
How does the world react to this guy? Is he viewed with fear and suspicion or do NPC passersby tend to shrug their shoulders and keep walking?
He gets odd looks, especially from tavern keepers when his menagerie follows him in, promptly followed by him making a big scene, pushing the scorpion out the door or window. As of today, it’s far too big to waltz on into a tavern or inn anymore.
So it just kind of peers in the window in the background? Good times.
I should probably do a comic on the subject of “I forgot how weird we are” some time. I mean, if your neighbor owned a pet mountain lion and let it wander his back yard, you’d have some concerns. I like reminding my players of that sort of thing every once in a while.
It’s quite funny. We always have a collection of very weird Races. Like Ratlings, Tieflings, Lizardfolk etc. but in our Groups there is always at least one Human by conincidence, and be it only for those Nice human starting Bonuses.
So most of the Time the Humans gets to be the one who must do the Socialising, even if he is a Big Dumb Fighter with a Charisma of rusty Bucket, at least People won’t run away from like from the Tiefling. (I mean really, can some backwater Peasnt spot the difference between a Tiefling and a Devil? I doubt so. Citys of course are more liberal.)
It also very much depends on where you play. For example a Lich, a Vampire, a Skeleton and a Ghost, will just merge with the Croud in Geb. (Pathfinder Setting, Land of the Undead.) In EVERY other Country on the other hand,…
But tiefling characters do tend to have it rough in your games? Right on. It sounds very setting-driven, which IMO makes for a more believable world. That “IMO” is important though. You’ve gotta check in with the players about their expectations. No fun playing one of the unpopular races if you signed up for a little edgy outsider flavor and got a campaign full of torches and pitchforks.
Well yes and No. If you are in a big City, especally a Trade one, People will be far more open minded. They will be a bit wary, but Tieflings aren’t that uncommon. I mean com on, in some of these Citys there are X different races, it’s all Magiced up as Hell. People have seen enough Stuff, you Horns won’t impress most People sorry.
In the Rural Backwater Village however everyone will run for their dear Live and shut the door, until one of your,… les monstrous buddys has explained, that no thats not a Devil who came to drag all your Souls to hell.
I make it less: Kill it with Fire, and more HELP Run away! I mean really, are you and your three Village Guard buddy brave enough to take on a Devil? These Guys will be shaking in their Knees, quivering, and politly asking you to not do anything.
After the Situation is explained, People will still be fearfull and Uneasy. My NPCs have a Sense of Self Preseveration. Picking a fight with the Hell-Spawn or the Two Meter Muscle Thing of an Half Orc? Yeah, no thats just stupid unless there is a rather big Croud of very drunk ruffians. That skinny arrogant Elf on the other hand,…
Of Course i always talk with my Players beforehand, on what their Race means to the Campaign. For example a Lizardfolk will be the Center of attention, because he is strange and unknown in these lands. The Goblin will have to disguise himself as a Halfling to avoid being killed on Sight.
Mostly what I notice is way too many people wanting to play humans and too many GMs not wanting to let me harmlessly reflavor a race to have a physical appearance I want. BAH!
Like… what kind of reflavor are you looking for?
Oh gee, what kind aren’t I?
Dwarf stats reflavored as human. Aarakokra reflavored as a bat-person. Just whatever idea strikes my fancy or would make the character less generic really.
But re-flavoring anything as human makes them more generic. The people who play humans are the people whose pet rocks die of boredom.
Choosing human for your race in a fantasy RPG is like choosing accountant for your class, but accountants are actually more interesting in a fantasy universe because they’re working with stocks in magic companies and the like.
Counterpoint: the people who feel they need to play exotic races to be interesting are typically trying to mask their own insecurities. A boring character is a boring character, and a fresh coat of paint can’t hide that.
Making a human interesting takes only the barest spark of imagination.
Not when you want to re-flavor a cleric as a magical blacksmith. Then it’s a LOT more interesting to be doing that as a human, because that’s your characters thing, than it is to be doing it as a dwarf because….. is a dwarf.
Humans are only typically boring because people choose to play humans too often purely because they’re mechanically convenient. Not because being a human is an inherently boring choice (unless you’re always picking human because you’re the kind of person who apparently can’t wrap their head around being something else which is a whole different problem).
Normally I play half-orcs, and as another poster had mentioned before, half-orcs are so obligatory to your standard fair DnD playable races that I have almost forgotten the sordid past of their orcish halves. It doesn’t help that more often than not, other fellow half-orcs typically try to avert the almost equally common and expected half-Orc origin story of “orc men raping human females”, typically with either orcish women baring children from human fathers, or simply having consensual relationships.
Honestly it’s gotten to this strange point where half-orcs are almost completely Distinguishable from their orcish kin; where they may share their innate tendency for strength or warfare, many half-orcs have gained a reputation of honor and bravery on par of human warrior cultures, valuaing their power and abilities over their particular origins. They are seen less as “Viking raiders” and more akin to “Scottish highlanders” in terms of attached cultural infamey.”
It’s gotten to a point where when another PC brought up my half-orcs orcish heritage in a negative light (mainly about how someone as skilled in culinary arts as my character choose to become a murder hobo after I had some extremely good rolls on my day job check), other PC’s brought up a myriad of other “good” orcs, both fullblooded and half-blooded, who have chosen perfectly acceptable careers and excel while still retaining their cultural origins. It just sort of made me realize that despite how I painted my characters backstory as “rough and violent”, he ultimately had a better childhood then most half-orcs would have in the past.
Granted he grew up a cabin boy on a pirate ship. But at least he had a father who cared enough to support him up until he was slain in a mutiny. But that’s better than orphaned or in slavery as most half orcs do.
There’s only so much table time to go around. That means certain story elements get glossed. Most dnd games aren’t about racial outsiders learning to cope in a bigoted world. They are, however, about groups of disparate weirdos learning to come together and function as a team. I think that half-orc players tend to experience racial animosity in those terms. Other players may address it, but the world (read: GMs) tends to care more about plot than character development, and overcoming bias is a character-centric sort of element.
just powered through all this comic after finding a link on some forum XD been a longtime player but only a recent GM, my first game being a solo player actually. I decided right away that many of the ‘unusual’ races would just frankly be more run of the mill in my campaign area. what’s the point of making all these neat animal races or subraces of elves and half-vampires and god knows what else if theres only like 10 in your universe?
i was always one to want to play those cooler races but they were oft restricted due to campaign setting or you had to deal with a LOT of crap from npc and pc alike…. so now that i have the power it’s a freebie. i even made two new races for the country i created, some halfling-sized rabbit folk and a deer race with two subraces that is also the royal line in this country. you’re equally as likely to run into something with paws or a drow or a dwarf. shakes things up a bit to be sure 🙂
best part? my only player is like, a vanilla human paladin. it’s precious.
Welcome to the comic, Lily Moon! Glad to have you. 🙂
GJ getting creative with your worldbuidling. I know there are some grognards out there who prefer gritty pseudo-medieval humans-only no items final destination campaigns, and there’s a place for that. I happen to enjoy explaining how the Deer King gets his crown on over his antlers though.
On the subject of that OotS comic, and somewhat related to this, I’ve found that a good way to detect creepy misogynist players and GMs is to make a half-orc character and say that their mother was the orc. It’s amazing what sort of preconceptions and attitudes you can shake out of the tree with that one.
I’ve seen PCs get weirder, yeah – I recall Tieflings, Drow, and Aasimaar being the most out-there once upon a time. A half-dragon was a 7′ winged humanoid monster you might find as a mid-boss in the hosts of evil – not a party member! But given the minimalism in my own campaigns that I do so bang on about, I have rather avoided it when DMing myself.
I was playing orc (not a half-ork, a full pledged greenskin beauty), and I was expecting this trope because two other party members were even weirder: a treant of some sort and a construct in a form of centaur. So looking at full group everyone understood that I was the one they need to respect and talk to.
In another game we were on the other side of a coin: there was a drow port town that welcomed all the races coming with a trade or pirate ships, but they bore a special hatred for humans.
Huh. You’d think those drow would hate surface elves more than humans. Was it a setting-specific sort of hatred?
Unfortunately not, as it would be some interesting roleplaying, even though one of the last groups i was in i was the only ”normal” one out of six PCs with at least two being of a race only a few have heard of in the entire city, but the DM only used it for some small talk of ”what are you supposed to be” or ”you are a strange group”, and the players by calling me ”the normal one” in and out of character.
The only fun and funny part, as i found out in the middle of the campaign, is that one of the strange ones was a CG PC (played as CN, but not stupid at all) made through decisions relying on dice rolls.