I don't like settings where humans are weaker, dumber, and morally inferior to every other sentient race of any importance. This is especially galling when the races involved are elves, dragons, or animal-people.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;281552This is especially galling when the races involved are elves, dragons, or animal-people.

Oooh, oooh, that reminds me of a done-to-death:

Please, for the love of all that's sacred or profane, no more cat-people.

Characters whose family was wiped out by the Injun-stand-ins, and now seek revenge.

Quote from: Cranewings;281409Any scientific explanation for magic is horrible to me.

'Scientific' explanations of any fantasy thing. Explaining it makes it science-fiction. Usually not very good science fiction.

EDIT: Although I've read a couple of Ursula Le Guin stories where this was done well. And Mutant Future and Encounter Critical are setting out to be bad science fiction, so it works OK when they do it.

Medieval European fantasy settings that use D&D tropes but aren't for D&D. In D&D it's traditional and part of what lets people quickly join new games, but if you're going to create your own system, why do D&D with an accent? I'm not talking about the "fantasy heartbreaker" BS from the forge, but rather something with different rules and a setting full of dungeons, dragons, etc.  

I'm a hypocrite on this issue because I've considered doing a high octane take on the D&D genre with entirely unrelated rules.

Also, stealing setting elements from fiction an amalgamating them into something lame. It might be because RPG fans want familiarity over originality, but I wish there was more unique stuff.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;281552I don't like settings where humans are weaker, dumber, and morally inferior to every other sentient race of any importance. This is especially galling when the races involved are elves, dragons, or animal-people.

Yes.

Quote from: The Shaman;281553Oooh, oooh, that reminds me of a done-to-death:

Please, for the love of all that's sacred or profane, no more cat-people.

I hate races, be it in fantasy or science fiction, that are just people-with-an-animal-head, as in Traveller or Palladium Fantasy (wolfen, were they called?). It may seem hypocritical that lately I have been declaring my love for a furry game (see my signature), but it's not the same, at least to me.

Vargr and Wolfen just people with animal heads?

Pull the other one.  Both are well developed races on par with anything else I can think of.

Now, the races from Spacemaster Privateers are another matter entirely but not in a bad way.  The author chose to use them as easy races to identify with and play.  They're symbolic races in a sense.  Much as Aesop used animals symbolically.  When you see a Tulgar standing nobly standing to the last or a Falanar stalking it's prey, or an Xanotasian gazing into your soul uncomprehendingly you understand what is being discussed.  They aren't alien but reflective of ourselves and thus playable.

But then I like races with animal heads...

Quote from: The Shaman;281553Oooh, oooh, that reminds me of a done-to-death:

Please, for the love of all that's sacred or profane, no more cat-people.

Quote from: Claudius;281613I hate races, be it in fantasy or science fiction, that are just people-with-an-animal-head, as in Traveller or Palladium Fantasy (wolfen, were they called?). It may seem hypocritical that lately I have been declaring my love for a furry game (see my signature), but it's not the same, at least to me.

I think you happened to pick a poor example. there are certainly fantasy races that are "humans with animal heads", but there are also some where they are clearly animals in humanoid form, and those are relatively more tolerable as long as they don't slink off too far into "furry" territory.

RPGPundit

People who think its "COOL!" to play E-e-vil characters and go overboard explaining why they think it is.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Pierce Inverarity;281537Kidding aside, the only fantasy/scifi element that's been done to death IMO is the Vampire. Everything else I can get behind in some manner, shape or form.

I think I'm agreeing with Pierce here, but with a further qualification. What's done to death to me is the sympathetic vampire. The vampire "good" guy (curse you Ann Rice). I don't mind vampires as stuff to be killed, especially if they're the evil, nasty, disgusting, terrifying monsters they're supposed to be. Angst my ass.

I also am immediately put off by any setting that present humans as somehow inferior and/or more corrupt than all the other races (curse you Tolkien), so much so that the last campaign (true20, my home-brew) I ran was humans only for the PCs.

Its the cheap acting that comes with "race chatter" that burns people and we all know its fortified by cheesy sci-fi.

"Try the Korr-Takh."

"It's delicious!"

"It's made from the testicles of humans..."

Alright, maybe thats too far but still in essence it sums it up: "culture clash" made obvious by the fact that this character has an insect head. So the fact that the player has cow horns or something is a constant reminder to inject "culture clash" as a response to ridicule. Somewhere along the line the ridicule slowed down enough to be non-existent and we've still got someone  playing with their cheeks sucked in. I'll tell ya what needs doing to undo the damage. Obviously "undoing" like "humans only" campaigns isn't going to help the problem somebody still has to GM the aliens, right? So how will that work if you're not addressing the problem? This obviously needs addressing and not total disintegration for as time goes on well... "the beast" will return again and again... How to address it? Challenge them. Make them go all the way with their repetitive "we are not you, we are lame" performances (I.E. "What are you a human in cat people drag? What are those teeth for? Shouldn't they have evolved away if you're so reticent about fighting?" etc.). Just prepare them for the big challenge instead of sweeping it under the carpet. And don't tolerate this "Lieutenant Worf shit". I swear to god if I have to live through one more cheese ball rpg performance adapted from Worf then I'm going to scream!

I just thought of another example of this:  the "ENEMY MINE type alien" player...(((SHUDDER)))