From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Sun 13 Apr 1997 - 00:14:34 EEST
Assorted people give their Must Have/Spit Lists for non-human PCs.
Assorted other people decry the above groups as (respectively) wicked
powergamers, and Spoilsport Proscriptive Gloranthoids (maybe even, what's
worse -- gasp! -- one of the Dread "Scholar" faction!).
Personally, I don't think it overly matters if some races might be "too
difficult to roleplay". After all, GMs will still have to "play" them in
at least a limited sense, so I'm not sure than sheer thespianism should be
the criterion. More to the point is -- would a race be enjoyable to play,
and would it enhance or hinder the storytelling, and other elements of
gameplay? On the first, I'm pretty much in the "whatever floats your boat"
camp, but the second is more troublesome. Particularly if one uses the
Generic Grab-Bag Party style of play, having someone play a Slime Mould Elf
week-in, week-out might get a bit wearing for all concerned.
I think a better way to handle egregiously weird player characters is in
more of a "troupe" or "character pool" sort of fashion, where you can have
any sort of character you like, but will only play it when it's
"appropriate" to do so. (Greg has hinted that G:tG may use elements of
this style, but I think he has in mind someone playing several different
members of the same clan, rather than just an arbitrary assortment of
characters.) So if one has a non-rootless elf, you only get to play him if
the storyline switches to the forest, or requires him to leave it. If you
have a Storm Voice, you get to play him only during his "leave", or when
he's performing his Religious Duties. Otherwise, you play some other
character. This doesn't really help with the Truly Odd cases, admittedly;
given that dragonewts behave seemingly randomly, and have motivations
which are not so much understood as wildly guessed at by humans, it
makes it somewhat artificial to decide when it's "appropriate" for them
to be played, much less what they might do when they are. But if the
player is happy to accept the GM's view of when it's kosher, I think
it mostly works.
This approach would let someone have a True Dragon character -- just
so long as they only play them 1 day per 1625 years or so. ("But
tonight's the night!", as the old joke goes.)
Slainte,
Alex.
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