First off, his name Travis Tilton is abbreviated Travis T. or travesty since he was is an affront to nature. The funny thing about it is the player had no idea about this until maybe the third or fourth game when I saw it on his character sheet and started calling him Travesty.
But I think my favorite was when we got completely lost on a couple of failed nature checks and ended up losing several days of walking when we ended up back where we started.
Does this kind of thing happen in anyone elses games?
and the firesoul genasi.
I find it hard to be amused by incidents of racism, fantastic or otherwise.
Bah. This is tame to some of the stuff I've seen in a Dark Sun inspired online RPG (with over a hundred players, if not a few hundred).
First of all elves are very tribal, but also see stealing as an art form. So they're of course ridiculed and scorned and they in turn ridicule and scorn everyone not in their tribe (including other elves). Half-Elves are considered to have the worst of the elven traits by humans or the worst of the human traits by elves. Elves see half-elves as honorless offcasts, humans see them as no good thieves.
Then there's muls (half dwarf, half human), no-one dares say anything bad about them to their face. They have a tendency to go beserk and just start killing everything in sight. As such they're never allowed to roam free and are always considered someone's property (if they don't have an owner, they find they suddenly have one in short time).
Half-Giants are just plain stupid. So there's lots of discrimination towards them, but its fairly deserved as they are just stupid. This isn't an unfair stereotype. its a fact. Their int score is the lowest of all races.
Halflings are tribalistic cannibals so they're of course considered dangerous savages.
In fact, the only playable race that escapes racism are dwarves (elves technically discriminate against dwarves. But elves discriminate against everyone outside of their tribe including other elves so they don't count). Although light-hearted names such as "stumpy" or "baldy" are often used.
Then there's the racism that exists because of where you're from. There's two major city-states who've been warring for hundreds and hundreds of years. Most PCs are from one of them so the "northerners" are considered poorly by "southerners" and vice versa.
Of course, then there's discrimination based on your magical or psionic aptitude. There are those who are born with an intrinsic ability to cast magick (called elementalists). They're looked down upon by everyone, although they're only hunted down and killed in the north. In the south they're allowed to exist if they have a magical gem placed on them. What it does no-one but the government knows and it isn't telling. But most view it as a means of controlling these dangerous people.
Then there are those who seek out magic and attempt to learn it from old books or scrolls (i.e. Wizards in D&D terms). The setting is post-apocalyptic and wizards are blamed for destroying the world in the first place so they're hunted down on sight and killed.
Psionicists (or mindbenders as most people call them) are likewise hunted down and killed. Simply because their natural talents are considered too dangerous.
I don't know if its what you meant. But its got some of the most die-hard roleplaying I've ever seen. Often signficantly more roleplaying then D&D has. Sometimes people will play a character for years without ever once using a combat or spell ability.
As someone coming to D&D from this game, I naturally discriminate against certain races based on my character. If I'm playing a drow I consider most races to have a tendency to be weak, although most of them do have the ability to rise above their racial limitations. Although elves and eladrin don't of course. All of them are just innately weak (which gives me room to be nice and surprised if I ever see an elf whose acting in a manner that I think a drow should act in).
I don't think anyones ever been able to come up with a race (including Humans) that didn't cop some 'racism'. I remember one guy had an Anthropomorphic Fox from SS and the Drow in the party spent every available moment attempting to turn him into a scarf.
Drow: You're a coward
Him (Player): Oh, in my characters culture, that means he has a big shlong.
Dwarf: Why, thank you, kind drow!
Drow: DAMN YOU SHORT MAN! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
Him: Damn him? That means you respect his fighting skills!
Dwarf: Wow, I've never been so complimented.
Drow: I will kill you. And it will be slow and painful.
Dwarf: A Warriors death! None more fitting for me! Thank you kind sir! Am I glad I'm in an adventuring group with such a respectful drow!
Drow: *face stab*.
Goblin Chaos Sorcerer + Goliath Wildblood Warden = FTW
The goliath has taken it upon himself to join the local candlemaker's guild to learn to make enchanted, scented candles. The goblin has a very high Intimidate skill and has been known to burn AP, making multi Intim checks in order to quickly end encounters.
