bending stereotypes

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Aren't Roman usually the good guys? Or at the least the bastion of civilization against which the barbarous horde wages war?
Roman rulers are often the bad guys, but then aren't most rulers portrayed that way in fiction and reality?

They're often the good guys in books. Usually they are the bad guys in movies. Go figure.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

They're often the good guys in books. Usually they are the bad guys in movies. Go figure.

Barbarians have gained momentum as heroes more and more it seems. Remember when Klingons were villains of destruction fighting the American... I mean Federation land of order?
It probably speaks of disenfranchisement and desire to just smash what's wrong rather than protect what's right. Or just that everyone romanticizes simple rules of conduct and violent consequences of wrongness.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Barbarians have gained momentum as heroes more and more it seems. Remember when Klingons were villains of destruction fighting the American... I mean Federation land of order?
It probably speaks of disenfranchisement and desire to just smash what's wrong rather than protect what's right. Or just that everyone romanticizes simple rules of conduct and violent consequences of wrongness.

Of course real barbarians can't afford to be quite like that. To dangerous. And in any case the real Teutons had their own contributions to Western legal tradition that compliments the Roman one. And almost all tribal peoples have convoluted and often oppressive systems of rule to keep internal order and prevent feuding.

There is a lot to both theories though. Most epics come from barbarian times.

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Sleeping around usually means indiscriminate promiscuity, not just numerous no-strings-attached sexual partners. At least it does to me and others, if not everyone that uses that term.

It may not work for paragons of virtue in practice as well as theory. Unless extreme care and prep work is done to gauge potential flings, it's risky emotionally as well as medically.

When I said "sleeping around', I meant large amount of no-strings-attached sexual partners.

As for medical risks:

1) in D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, lvl 3 paladins are immune to disease, it's a class feature they gain from divine blessings, so it's not a stretch that they would be immune to STIs. It's not much of a stretch that it allows them to avoid becoming carriers as well.

2) The other big risk is accidental pregnancy, but this one is easy to sidestep: if the paladin is sterile (and divination spells could easily reveal that) or uses contraception (there are no less than 4 ways a contraceptive could work in D&D/Pathfinder: necromancy to kill the sperm, abjuration to make a barrier preventing the sperm from going through (which is basically what Vasalgel is about, making a semi permeable barrier in the vas deferens that would block the sperm), conjuration to conjure some very weak acid (sperm are extremely fragile, so the acid could serve as a spermicide while leaving the rest of the body alone), and evocation (heating the testes. A few extra Kelvin degrees is enough to literally cook the sperm. Experiments have been done that showed that getting the testes into warm water for enough time was an effective and reversible, if impractical, contraceptive. This plan turns much more practical with magic.). All four of this contraceptive spells could exist in the same campaign.). And that's not getting into the ways to do the naughty without risks of pregnancy, which includes same sex sex, and other things.

3) There is still the risk of getting in the sights of a Yandere, but any paladin worth his salt is gonna be able to deal with that.

4) I'm sure there are people who are mature enough to know the difference between a no-strings-attached one night fling, and something more. These people can easily be identified by a Sense Motive roll, which I believe is a class skill for Paladins. Even if it's not, just bring a wing (wo)man with Sense Motive as a class skill to do that part for you. Hell, offer them some activity of their own if it's needed, if you're a paladin, you likely have the Charisma to make Diplomacy rolls to get people in your bed and act as a middle (wo)man for your buddies, and when you have reached lvl 3, you likely have gotten in a few fights against the forces of Evil meaning you and your allies likely gained enough prestige to get a sizeable crowd of groupies of both sexes. Take your pick using Sense Motive as described above.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by RyanW

A god of death that is more psychopomp than psychopath.

That's reasonably common isn't it?
Pharasma, The Stranger (and his Silent Sisters), Kelemvor, Death (Sandman), Death (Disc), Black Racer (sometimes anyway), Thoth, Anubis, Yama, Papa Legba...

[vicky_molokh]

A Zerg-/Tyranid-/Vong-/Starship-Troopers-Bugs-like bio-civilization that is presented as a perfectly reasonable, diplomatic and friendship-capable one, preferably in an alliance with/part of the local mainstream portagonist race/federation/etc. (which usually means or includes humans).

[dcarson]

The Thranx in Alan Dan Foster's Flinx stories are insectoid and get along well enough with humans that the human government and theirs merged. There is a large human population on Hivehome on an area known Mediterranean Plateau which they regard as cold dry unpleasant place and a Thranx population in the Amazon basin on Earth.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by dcarson

The Thranx in Alan Dan Foster's Flinx stories are insectoid and get along well enough with humans that the human government and theirs merged. There is a large human population on Hivehome on an area known Mediterranean Plateau which they regard as cold dry unpleasant place and a Thranx population in the Amazon basin on Earth.

Being insectoid does not a zergoid make.
Notice the trends that those civilizations/species share, which aren't shared by Thranx (at least as far as I've read - I'm not the most knowledgeable person regarding the Humanx setting):

• Their representatives are highly varied; an Overlord, a Cerebrate, a Queen, a Kerrigan*, an Abathur etc. are very physiologically different.
• Linked to the above: they have biological castes, each of which tends to have special superhuman abilities and a mentality best suited for its role.
• They forego human-level toolworking, instead focusing on cinematic/superscience 'organic technology' or 'hyper-evolution' or the like in order to become the tools for the task at hand.
• Their reproduction methods tend to include complex, interesting and very non-linear forms and phases. E.g. Grekim have 3 sexes, and any 2 sexes can settle down nearby and grow into building-like entities to reproduce a member of the 3rd sex. Ditto for the Drone -> Hive -> Larva -> Drone of the Zerg.
• They tend to have a pyramidal distribution of intelligence/sapience. Just like a human uses electronic computers and NAIs or sub-NAI systems to do lots of stuff, a sapient squishy alien uses non-sapient ones to achieve similar goals.

* == 'a' because it's not quite clear to me whether there's cloning and telepathic mind-transfer involved - I'm not sure how Zerg resurrections work in the fluff, as opposed to gameplay.

[ericthered]

The Hive Queens in Xenocide/Children of the mind.

Granted, they play the other role in earlier books, but in the end they are a subversion of evil-bug aliens, even at those points.

Yes, I didn't mention the author or first book name because massive spoilers.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

A Zerg-/Tyranid-/Vong-/Starship-Troopers-Bugs-like bio-civilization that is presented as a perfectly reasonable, diplomatic and friendship-capable one, preferably in an alliance with/part of the local mainstream portagonist race/federation/etc. (which usually means or includes humans).

They had one like that in Master of Orion, I forget their name. They were vicious and bloodthirsty but that's par for the course in that game. But they bargain with the Player just like any other race.