Dealing with in game racism [Archive] - Wizards Community

Dealing with in game racism [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Roscoe_Greenbottle
02-05-07, 12:10 PM I was playing a halfling in an eberron campaign and my party hates halflings and gnomes. They hated him even more since he had a a clawfoot mount that he healed with his mark of healing because it was almost dead instead of them at a few points of damage. In the end he was at -5 and one zombie was left after 3 waves of 4. The warforged could have killed the zombie and I could have healed thoron, but instead he kills thoron because he hates halflings and all things related.

I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes, but do any of you have someone in your party or maybe your whole party that hates a race or monster?
Tyler Do'Urden
02-05-07, 12:15 PM I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes...Then why'd you start one?

I'm sorry, but that is a dick move in its purest form. It can't be justified in or out of character. The issue then is not with the character or the game, it's with the player.
Roscoe_Greenbottle
02-05-07, 12:18 PM I know that. I got a new mount. I'm fine.

Back to the topic. Personally I really dislike most hobgoblins.
vader_rocks
02-05-07, 12:24 PM While it was a richard move and really shouldn't have been done, racism in-game is not an uncommon thing. Look at the conflict between Dwarves and Elves. Or even how society views half-elves. Its something that adds to roleplaying and the flavor of the game.

Still, I reiterate that it was a richard move. Wanna get back at him? Roll up a character that is racist about whatever he is.
Ace_of_Diamonds
02-05-07, 12:25 PM I have a burning, deep hatred for humans and night elves. Only problem with gnomes, dwarves, and draenei is that they're allied with the first two.

Oh wait, this isn't World of Warcraft.

Kobolds suck, they killed my parents.
Evil DM Mk3
02-05-07, 12:46 PM PvP is never a good place to be. Regardless of why. What on earth is a halfling doing in a halfing hating party? This is not role-palying, it is being a bad player. If it was role playing then they should have refused to travel with/thrown out the halfling. As described this is not racism, this is Player verses Player agression.
Tyler Do'Urden
02-05-07, 01:01 PM Personally I really dislike most hobgoblins.You've never met a hobgoblin.

You either dislike the people that play hobgoblin characters, dislike the way they play their hobgoblin characters, or you're just being hostile.

Games are supposed to be fun. If you can figure out a way to be hostile and have fun at the same time, god help you.
Alex_
02-05-07, 01:04 PM I was playing a halfling in an eberron campaign and my party hates halflings and gnomes.

Did you know this when you decided to play a halfling character?

It's very important to sort these sorts of things out BEFORE you start a campaign. If you know the other characters hate Halflings, someone choosing to make a Halfling character and starting the game without talking it out is a failure on both sides.

They hated him even more since he had a a clawfoot mount that he healed with his mark of healing because it was almost dead instead of them at a few points of damage. In the end he was at -5 and one zombie was left after 3 waves of 4. The warforged could have killed the zombie and I could have healed thoron, but instead he kills thoron because he hates halflings and all things related.

If you can handle that, keep on playing. If it's simply too much, and they won't agree to stop killing your mounts and you won't agree to stop playing halflings, it may be wise to sit this game out.

I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes, but do any of you have someone in your party or maybe your whole party that hates a race or monster?

I can't say I've played in campaigns where the others HATE a race,but in most campaigns I've played in, Halflings, Gnomes, and to a certain extent Dwarves are often treated with some manner of disdain and not taken seriously. I also like Half-Orcs and Goblinoids, which aren't very popular amongst most players.

I personally dislike Elves and Dragons (overrepresented and usually presented as superior if not perfect in every way) and have created many characters that share my attitudes. I never take it to the extreme that my character would kill a fellow member of the party though. Instead they begrudgingly accept their aid and consider their Elven or Draconic party mates the rare "good ones". Of course playing one of these characters is completely out of the question, although I do like the Seren barbarians of Argonessen, which may lead me to make my first ever Dragon-themed character that didn't despise Dragons.
Reversefigure4
02-05-07, 04:12 PM Extreme Racist characters - particularly those aimed at PC races - aren't suitable as player characters (in much the same way that the CE "Kill people purely at random for the hell of it" Assassin is not suitable as a player character).

A Dwarf who dislikes Elves, considering them all to be limp-wristed prancers who don't appreciate good, hard work, is fine. His racism will likely be confined to snide comments.

A Dwarf who hates Elves because they killed his parents, and wants to kill all Elves, is not fine. His racism will present itself in the form of killing every Elf he comes across, both PC and NPC, which breaks the game.
KianTreeshadow
02-06-07, 11:31 AM Well it's veryy interesting that this thread came up. In another thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10976324&postcount=508) I posted that i had died and needed revived. Long story short, being an Elf the party took me went to the temple of Corellon Larethian (Praise be to the Creator). Our cleric of Pelor was going on about how Pelor is better than any other god and that humans are the best race etc., right in the Elven temple. Quick negotiations by the the Gnome bard (whom our cleric is also prejudiced toward) and a swift removal of the cleric by the Human wizard, save my life, but almost started a holy war :angelhide . Of course we in the party know of this cleric's particularly fanatic devotion to his race and God, but he knows that if the ranger (me) goes down, he's boned, so more or less he keeps his comments to himself. In a side note, he calls all non humans mutants lol.

Now I agree that this can make or break a game. So far for us it has been ok and the DM steps in every now and then when need be. As far as it goes for our game, it's sort of part role-playing, part just having fun. I think as long as it gets controlled and does not get too out of hand, a little in game racism can be a nice twist to role playing and the game in general. (Just think what can happen if our cleric says the wrong thing in dwarven cave hehe)
willpower
02-06-07, 04:34 PM Well, like it or not racism is a part of roleplaying games. Particularly fantasy based with multiple 'races'. Consider it this way, if you made a modern day game, and you started attributing dexterity and intelligence bonuses for Asians. A bigger intelligence bonus for the Jewish. A str and dex bonus to blacks... How would this go over? It would be even worse when it came to attributing the attribute penalties. It only works in fantasy, because the races modified don't really exist. So no one exists to be offended. (I know someone will mention that Dwarfs exist, but not as described, what we call dwarves are not the same thing as in the game.)
Andrew_980
02-07-07, 12:48 AM It isn't about racist characters, but immature players.
icecoldkiller
02-07-07, 03:07 AM wat it comes down to is an annoyed player A hating the other player B because he B wanted to save his mount. it was 1 spell. ur party is really imature and needs to grow up BIG TIME

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Roscoe_Greenbottle 02-05-07, 12:10 PM	I was playing a halfling in an eberron campaign and my party hates halflings and gnomes. They hated him even more since he had a a clawfoot mount that he healed with his mark of healing because it was almost dead instead of them at a few points of damage. In the end he was at -5 and one zombie was left after 3 waves of 4. The warforged could have killed the zombie and I could have healed thoron, but instead he kills thoron because he hates halflings and all things related. I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes, but do any of you have someone in your party or maybe your whole party that hates a race or monster?
Tyler Do'Urden 02-05-07, 12:15 PM	I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes...Then why'd you start one? I'm sorry, but that is a dick move in its purest form. It can't be justified in or out of character. The issue then is not with the character or the game, it's with the player.
Roscoe_Greenbottle 02-05-07, 12:18 PM	I know that. I got a new mount. I'm fine. Back to the topic. Personally I really dislike most hobgoblins.
vader_rocks 02-05-07, 12:24 PM	While it was a richard move and really shouldn't have been done, racism in-game is not an uncommon thing. Look at the conflict between Dwarves and Elves. Or even how society views half-elves. Its something that adds to roleplaying and the flavor of the game. Still, I reiterate that it was a richard move. Wanna get back at him? Roll up a character that is racist about whatever he is.
Ace_of_Diamonds 02-05-07, 12:25 PM	I have a burning, deep hatred for humans and night elves. Only problem with gnomes, dwarves, and draenei is that they're allied with the first two. Oh wait, this isn't World of Warcraft. Kobolds suck, they killed my parents.
Evil DM Mk3 02-05-07, 12:46 PM	PvP is never a good place to be. Regardless of why. What on earth is a halfling doing in a halfing hating party? This is not role-palying, it is being a bad player. If it was role playing then they should have refused to travel with/thrown out the halfling. As described this is not racism, this is Player verses Player agression.
Tyler Do'Urden 02-05-07, 01:01 PM	Personally I really dislike most hobgoblins.You've never met a hobgoblin. You either dislike the people that play hobgoblin characters, dislike the way they play their hobgoblin characters, or you're just being hostile. Games are supposed to be fun. If you can figure out a way to be hostile and have fun at the same time, god help you.
Alex_ 02-05-07, 01:04 PM	I was playing a halfling in an eberron campaign and my party hates halflings and gnomes. Did you know this when you decided to play a halfling character? It's very important to sort these sorts of things out BEFORE you start a campaign. If you know the other characters hate Halflings, someone choosing to make a Halfling character and starting the game without talking it out is a failure on both sides. They hated him even more since he had a a clawfoot mount that he healed with his mark of healing because it was almost dead instead of them at a few points of damage. In the end he was at -5 and one zombie was left after 3 waves of 4. The warforged could have killed the zombie and I could have healed thoron, but instead he kills thoron because he hates halflings and all things related. If you can handle that, keep on playing. If it's simply too much, and they won't agree to stop killing your mounts and you won't agree to stop playing halflings, it may be wise to sit this game out. I don't want a thread about my party being a-holes, but do any of you have someone in your party or maybe your whole party that hates a race or monster? I can't say I've played in campaigns where the others HATE a race,but in most campaigns I've played in, Halflings, Gnomes, and to a certain extent Dwarves are often treated with some manner of disdain and not taken seriously. I also like Half-Orcs and Goblinoids, which aren't very popular amongst most players. I personally dislike Elves and Dragons (overrepresented and usually presented as superior if not perfect in every way) and have created many characters that share my attitudes. I never take it to the extreme that my character would kill a fellow member of the party though. Instead they begrudgingly accept their aid and consider their Elven or Draconic party mates the rare "good ones". Of course playing one of these characters is completely out of the question, although I do like the Seren barbarians of Argonessen, which may lead me to make my first ever Dragon-themed character that didn't despise Dragons.
Reversefigure4 02-05-07, 04:12 PM	Extreme Racist characters - particularly those aimed at PC races - aren't suitable as player characters (in much the same way that the CE "Kill people purely at random for the hell of it" Assassin is not suitable as a player character). A Dwarf who dislikes Elves, considering them all to be limp-wristed prancers who don't appreciate good, hard work, is fine. His racism will likely be confined to snide comments. A Dwarf who hates Elves because they killed his parents, and wants to kill all Elves, is not fine. His racism will present itself in the form of killing every Elf he comes across, both PC and NPC, which breaks the game.
KianTreeshadow 02-06-07, 11:31 AM	Well it's veryy interesting that this thread came up. In another thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10976324&postcount=508) I posted that i had died and needed revived. Long story short, being an Elf the party took me went to the temple of Corellon Larethian (Praise be to the Creator). Our cleric of Pelor was going on about how Pelor is better than any other god and that humans are the best race etc., right in the Elven temple. Quick negotiations by the the Gnome bard (whom our cleric is also prejudiced toward) and a swift removal of the cleric by the Human wizard, save my life, but almost started a holy war :angelhide . Of course we in the party know of this cleric's particularly fanatic devotion to his race and God, but he knows that if the ranger (me) goes down, he's boned, so more or less he keeps his comments to himself. In a side note, he calls all non humans mutants lol. Now I agree that this can make or break a game. So far for us it has been ok and the DM steps in every now and then when need be. As far as it goes for our game, it's sort of part role-playing, part just having fun. I think as long as it gets controlled and does not get too out of hand, a little in game racism can be a nice twist to role playing and the game in general. (Just think what can happen if our cleric says the wrong thing in dwarven cave hehe)
willpower 02-06-07, 04:34 PM	Well, like it or not racism is a part of roleplaying games. Particularly fantasy based with multiple 'races'. Consider it this way, if you made a modern day game, and you started attributing dexterity and intelligence bonuses for Asians. A bigger intelligence bonus for the Jewish. A str and dex bonus to blacks... How would this go over? It would be even worse when it came to attributing the attribute penalties. It only works in fantasy, because the races modified don't really exist. So no one exists to be offended. (I know someone will mention that Dwarfs exist, but not as described, what we call dwarves are not the same thing as in the game.)
Andrew_980 02-07-07, 12:48 AM	It isn't about racist characters, but immature players.
icecoldkiller 02-07-07, 03:07 AM	wat it comes down to is an annoyed player A hating the other player B because he B wanted to save his mount. it was 1 spell. ur party is really imature and needs to grow up BIG TIME