"Races" vs. "Monsters"

[mark hill]

Originally Posted by Skarg

.. Centaurs and mermen are thought by many to not exist ..

wow .. very different again .. in my games centaurs would be the second most common highway bandits (after humans) raiding caravans with war whoops and often foolhardy displays of personal bravery, running away with snatched up loot, horses, and tragically doomed captives, and leaving impressively bloody and on-fire carnage in the style of raiding american plains indians in the wild west days (pick the bloodthirsty western film of your choice .. I rather favour 'Hostiles' (2017) starring christian bale, as a guide to the behaviour of centaur raiding parties in combat)

what happens to these stolen horses and snatched up captives? nothing that can be discussed on these forums .. interested persons I refer to books on greek mythology .. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature gives pretty well the full horrific details, IIRC .. and it makes Tolkien's orcs look like santa's friendly workshop elves to tell the truth, centaurs are just stunningly, breathtakingly awful if done as the old greeks saw them :)

I guess in this sense, many people on (my) Cidri might refer to centaurs as 'monsters', if they didnt use much less polite, more emotionally charged terms to refer to the four-footed folk

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by FireHorse

Q1: In your own personal little chunk of Cidri (as opposed to the Official Cidri, or the chunk at anybody else's House), which dominant species get to run the cities and pretend they're Civilized, while callously slandering all the other ones as "monsters"? Or to put it another (possibly less accurate) way, which ones do you allow as Player Characters?

Q2: What's the distinction between the two? Is it basic intelligence? Complexity (and size) of social structure? Good vs. Evil? Something else?

In my world of Goranth the only playable race are The People. All references to the race/species is just The People. Since that is the only playable race there are no other races to compare stats with. The People are actually Kobolds, but the players don't know. There is no reason for them to question their 'humanity' because it's never as issue. The Wagon is the wagon, the Zorses are just Zorses, mules and just mules, they ride on the wagon, and yet no one asks why they can't see over the wagon because it's just a big wagon...

The People start with 8 ST, 8 DX, 8 IQ, and 8 EXTRA attribute points to be allotted between any or all of these attributes, as the player chooses. Thus, each person begins with a total of 32 points – for instance, 9 ST, 12 DX, and 11 IQ. No character can have an attribute lower than 8. All People have an MA of 6. Attribute points cannot be spent directly on MA.

The players are on their way to find the Stone Folk (dwarves) that The People haven't seen in 400 years and there are no records of who they are or what they look like (Deus Ex Deity, the Gods do not want them in contact with others for plot purposes).

Real questions will start to be asked when I describe the dwarves not having tails or head crests and only being slightly taller than the People.

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by FireHorse

Maybe these Prootwaddle things? I have no idea what the #&!$ Prootwaddles are, or where they came from, but they sound incredibly annoying. Maybe people would enjoy killing lots of them…?

Prootwaddles are annoying SCA participants. Just ask Steve...

[Sinanju]

Originally Posted by mark hill

wow .. very different again .. in my games centaurs would be the second most common highway bandits (after humans) raiding caravans with war whoops and often foolhardy displays of personal bravery, running away with snatched up loot, horses, and tragically doomed captives, and leaving impressively bloody and on-fire carnage in the style of raiding american plains indians in the wild west days (pick the bloodthirsty western film of your choice .. I rather favour 'Hostiles' (2017) starring christian bale, as a guide to the behaviour of centaur raiding parties in combat)

I'm planning to have orcs on horseback roaming the vast plains of part of my world, calling themselves the Horse Clans (not to be confused with the horse clans of a certain novel series). I suspect they and the centaurs would be mortal enemies, since they kinda compete for the same "niche".

[KevinJ]

Any intelligent 'race' could be part of polite society. Palladium Fantasy RPG is a good example. Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Goblins rub elbows with Elves, Humans, and Dwarves in the cosmopolitan cities. Troll and Kobold traders move goods between cities protected by Gmone and Wolfen mercenaries. Anyonecan be civilized and anyone can be barbarian raiders, except Changeling, and everyone fears and hates them.

It's up to the GM to choose which races will be available as PCs, the same with talents, weapons, armor, and technology. If the GM wants Orcs to be the urbane, well educated, and cultured predominant society with Renaissance technology and the elves to be Bronze Age eco-terrorists and humans to be Neolithic hunter gatherers, then that's how it is.

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Sinanju

I'm planning to have orcs on horseback roaming the vast plains of part of my world, calling themselves the Horse Clans (not to be confused with the horse clans of a certain novel series). I suspect they and the centaurs would be mortal enemies, since they kinda compete for the same "niche".

Are you mocking the Mongols?

[Sinanju]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Are you mocking the Mongols?

Mocking? No.

Are my Orc horse nomads modeled in part after the Mongols, and in part after the plains Indians once they had horses? Yes.

Why do you think this is mocking them?

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Sinanju

Why do you think this is mocking them?

I know you weren't mocking, it's common to take aspects from real world history to create in game cultures. I do it all the time.

I have, however, seen games where orcs replace Mongols, but they leave out anything in Mongol culture that isn't rape, murder, and war. Hardly a sustainable culture even with the best suspension of disbelief.

[Sinanju]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

I know you weren't mocking, it's common to take aspects from real world history to create in game cultures. I do it all the time.

I have, however, seen games where orcs replace Mongols, but they leave out anything in Mongol culture that isn't rape, murder, and war. Hardly a sustainable culture even with the best suspension of disbelief.

Ah. Yeah, that wouldn't be pretty.

That's not my plan, though.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Real questions will start to be asked when I describe the dwarves not having tails or head crests and only being slightly taller than the People.

Sounds like your kobolds (aka. the People) are based the reptilian version from D&D. Do they share the dragon-decendant delusion as well?

Our TFT version was heavily influenced by the original Cardboard Heroes design... more like a primitive deep-dwelling offshoot of dwarves.