Thought of the Day Thursday: Demihumans and Humanocentric Gaming
One of the things that really has been bugging me lately about the fantasy games I’ve campaigned in is the proliferation of demihumans. I’ve been just as guilty as anyone of forgoing creating a human character for creating an elf, or dwarf, or some other crazy ass humanoid like a litoran. Why? When I sit back and think about it, the thing that really bugs me is that folks tend to play nonhumans as simply humans in costume with some bonuses and extras. Kinda falling into the whole Star Trek paradigm where all nonhuman species are typically a monolithic culture and highly stereotyped. Now don’t get me wrong, I feel that there is a place for that. However, I also feel like that kinda thing has been done to death (as I’m sure bitching about it has been – but here I go anyway…). At any rate, I’ve just plain had it with demihumans as playable characters in my campaign. They tend to be overdone as a stereotype, or are used as a min/max tool, etc. Now I know this could all just be cha