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I'd like to make a collection of RP pointers for roleplaying particular races - specifically how to roleplay their racial inclinations. It's something of a pet peeve of mine to see elves acting like nothing more than pointy-eared humans (and completely disregarding the "long view" elves take), dwarves as nothing more than faux-Scottish drunkards and brawlers, kobolds as puppies that yip a lot, etc.

There are some (excellent) guides and discussion on specific races on these forums already, but in practice there's often still a lack of genuine differentiation of these non-human races as compared to humans and each other. This may in part due to PC's tending to be oddballs of their race and/or the usual racial inclinations (roleplaying the elven long view and "apathy" towards many common events might not make for a fun PC).

So an open question to players of non-humans: how do you reflect your character's race in their personality, decisions, motivations, etc. And what kind of advise would you give to other players, based on your own experience, in order to get the most out of playing a particular race while keeping it feasable as a PC?

While for new players would love such things, many people RP as they want to, playful pointers would be nice, but please do not force your own view on how others should roleplay.

If you do make a few pointers few pointers for each race or a book number for each race with a quote for how the race acts, then feel free to do that~.

I am a player of almost exclusively humans for this very reason. First of all, I come by the human mindset naturally, as I think most of us do. Attempting to roleplay as an alien race that doesn't exist presents a lot of extra challenges in adopting the proper worldview and mindset. Unless I have the exact kind of character concept that will work or the given character has an overwhelming motivation to be cooperative with others, I always see potential problems with getting along in a traditional party when I am honest. I can count the number of non-human characters I have played on one hand, and the funny thing is that at the current moment, I can only think of...uh, I played an aasimar once and I played a tiefling another time. I may have played an elf at some point in ancient history. I am currently playing a halfling pirate captain who used to be the madame of a floating whorehouse, speaks with a French W. Indies accent and gives the title of "first mate" a whole new meaning on her vessel, but in spite of the fact that she is a Victorian doll sized foul-mouthed whore, she's still more or less like a human.

As a GM, the characters are more light touches. I can exercise those stranger races and worldviews without overly concerning myself about party dynamic, and I can explore them in unique ways, at the very least as foils against the majority human worldview (which we all possess naturally and even inflict upon non-humans we play often enough, as Elorathall suggests). So I wield plenty of non-human NPCs.

I just don't really do non-human PCs very often at all, so I can't offer any more feedback. Sorry!

Well, I can possibly point toward a decent amount of elven lore and rp tips. Elves are a bit odd, though. As far as the 'alien' races go, imo, they're actually the most like humans. Don't tell them that, of course. My reasoning behind this is the fact that there are so many different kinds of elves. Their opinions dissent based on their subrace, and that many varied ideals leads me to an almost human-like opinion of that side of them.

However, obviously there are giant distinctions to be made between playing a human and an elf.

There is also a psychological aspect to playing an elf that a lot of players never really touch on. My elf right now is going through a crisis of conscience, specifically because of his longevity. I find this to be appropriate on a militant elf, because of what he is and how long he will be what he is. He has ICly seen too much battle and warfare, to the point that his psyche is scarred. He's grappling with that fact, as he doesn't know if he can ever be anything but a "weapon."

This is particularly important to note in an elf, because many elves like to live basically a lifetime at a time, especially wood elves as they deal with races that live quite a bit shorter lives than they. If an elf feels incapable of change, that they have been molded into something they cannot escape, it would affect them more than a shorter lived race, imo.

So yes, I think an elf's longevity is the most important part of deciding on their psyche and emotional responses to events. It's also why elves have a harder time forgiving and forgetting than the shorter lived races do. A human might make a mistake, and dwell on it for a time. Especially a bad one. Their lifespan forces the majority of them to eventually accept it and move on, though. An elf might dwell on that same mistake for a century, because they have no fear of wasting that time. In this respect, elves generally take things harder than humans, or at least consider it longer.

I am both enthused and wary of something like a racial RP guide. I think it would be valuable, but it needs to be done with the lightest possible touch, lest it devolve into "OMG your doing it wrong!!!" I mean, I know nobody who's yet written in this thread is that sort of player, but I kind of feel like that's a really easy trap to fall into. Like, Davis's "whatever you're feeling, your elf will probably feel it for ten times longer than a human" seems fine to me, but I sort of preemptively shudder at the thought of a discussion of how a sun elf "should" feel about half-elves, or how an elven paladin "should" feel about stealth and sneak attacks, and so forth. (I cite elves here because it's the race I know best, but I imagine there's similar pitfalls for dwarves and gnomes and whatever else.) There's a really, *really* fine line between "this is how elves typically are" and "this is how you're supposed to play an elf."

radda radda I'll rp my characters as characters.

davis114 wrote:

You have to have some patience to properly play an elf.

This sentence, for me, stood out. "Properly" play an elf. As a player who has been told that my elf is not enough elf-like, I hate these kind of comments. I will add that Davis has not said such. First of all, it is a good starting point as an elf to start there certainly. However, once your in Amia, the roleplay starts to mold your character to be the way they are at a given time. I would say, do your background creation and lore-checks, create a character and play and have fun. Don't worry if your not playing your character wrong. Instead, try, learn, adjust if need be and most of all: Have Fun.

Once you meet a character that has been on Amia for some time, or even brief time, get to know them before judging them that they might first hand seem like "Right way played race." Sometimes stories create our characters to act very unlike your common counterpart.

And while I took Davis comment into discussion separatedly, I know Davis is not a player to judge others as my text above explains. So, please don't take it like I am saying he is. Just to clarify.

EDIT: Instead of racial quides, maybe offer links to race information where a player can check the lore if they want to. This way, they will take what they like and make intreprentation of the lore in their way. Creating an unique character.

You do have to have patience, though. It's not like other communities. ICly, anything being done in Winya takes forever. Now, part of that is due to OOC concerns, that we're dealing with very constructively over in our subforum. But ICly, elves just take forever to come to decisions. They don't feel that same pressure of time that most other races feel, therefore they nitpick and discuss every single detail of every single decision they make.

And that's fine. That's what canon elves do. Of course, you have your elves that want things done faster, particular those subraces that are on good terms with humans and other short-lived races. I play one of those, so it's very easy to play frustration at things progressing slowly. There are plenty of times he's been counselled to have patience. I think that's superb rp, because that's just what canon elves would say.

So, you DO have to have some patience. Due to the very nature of elves, rp is just going to take longer to develop, generally speaking. A similar plotline in a human city will likely progress faster, because of the inherent differences between elves and humans.

Now, I meant that on the OOC side of things. Anyone, as a player, has to have some patience. Your elf can be as spontaneous and quick-triggered as you want. Idan is. I just have to separate my own thoughts from his in that regard, as I'm not particularly that way, and I know the speed at which elven rp generally tends to function.

That thought process has given me plenty of rp opportunities. Because I can easily separate my thoughts from his, I can play his frustration without ever becoming frustrated OOCly. And that's an important function too. Quite a few elves are just horribly racist, generally terrible creatures. Separating yourself from that rp and thought process is key to enjoying the character.

I'll cite an example. (Outside of Qirlan and Meldrium. That's too obvious.) Voronwer! I have a lot of respect for how Derk has played his elves. Idan and Voronwer disagreed all the damn time, to the point that Idan just wanted to use Voronwer for target practice. But they're different sorts of elves. They -should- disagree. However, Derk and I hardly ever disagree on the OOC side of things. So you need that level of patience to play out that dynamic between different kinds of elves, without getting frustrated at the lack of progress OOCly.

Yossarin wrote:

I am a player of almost exclusively humans for this very reason. First of all, I come by the human mindset naturally, as I think most of us do. Attempting to roleplay as an alien race that doesn't exist presents a lot of extra challenges in adopting the proper worldview and mindset.

I agree with this however not sure what this says about me from a psychological stand point since I enjoy playing drow from Lolths world.

Davis has a good point for patience for elves and it's the same for Drow. I spend a lot of time attempting to get what symbols and insignia (and what weapons, how fine they are, what enchantments my character might recognize) from other players for their characters. I read the bios but a lot of times whats in bios isn't necessarily what's on the character that minute. So, I inquire via emotes to get that information. The reason is that my characters reaction to your character depends on this information.

A lot of times players are going so fast they aren't able to get that information to me. Which makes it a little more challenging for me. Rank, position and ability is very important in my drows world.

I'll say that again 'my drows world'. And heres my 2 cents about playing a different race...

-- Learn as much as you can about the race.

-- Build a back story. It doesn't have to be as complicated or detailed as mine is for my drow. I know players who build an outline backstory and its RP that fills in the blanks.

-- Here's what I think is the important part. Have reasons for your characters weakness, fears, reactions. IMHO, you can have a drow that enjoys sunshine as long as the character has a compelling reason.

One of the things I enjoy about Amia is the variety of characters. There are commonalities about the races. I can make suggestions about drow since I spent waaaaay too much time on research. However, its up to the player to decide what their character should be.

That said I will caution that when characters are made that are too different from whats currently accepted in Amia be prepared to be taken to task ICly. And keep in mind it's the characters reaction and not the players reaction. When an elf took my elf druid in metal armor to task about not wearing natural materials, I had a nice OOC conversation with the player while my elf stood there in horrified embarrassment.

Hope this is helpful to the topic.

I strongly dislike how racial rp is done. Not so much because of how its done icly but because certain players feel the dire need to tell some one what they are doing is 'wrong'. Or that they 'shouldn't play their character as X Y and Z. When in reality the character is just developing and growing in the rp.

This is the sort of mentality I do not like. When things get to the point where you can't even develop in one direction or another. Or change is no longer allowed. Restrictions just pile up. Things become less fun when you feel that every one is going to degrade you for any little things then you just feel like you don't want to play the character or that you've wasted time and you get more discouraged from trying so again in the future because of how some one else wanted to dictate your style of roleplay and tell you what your character should be doing.

What's worse is when people use 'racial rp' as an excuse to create -ridiculous- conflict. Not every one enjoys conflict and forcing such on to a character isn't really all that great either and yet I see people do it because they enjoy the conflict. I see people do it with out much care nor regard to the other player.

Let me give an example.

Say a character plans a tea party and only invites a few close friends. Say another character has conflict with the race of the first character and uses this racial conflict as an excuse to just wreck the tea party and potentially kill off the host. Despite other characters offering reasons to stop or that there may be guards they do so with out care of repercussion. Now perhaps the player of the destructional character is having a blast but... The other player is probably not going to be having fun.

Ofter friendly suggestion and make Lore available OOC. And trust players to play the concept they have. Don't take out OOC stuff IC. And give a little. Some time people want to play a ridiculous character concept for pure fun of the game, or that's what they want to play. When you start telling people they can't play the role they invented or came up with and instead must fulfill a certain role it puts limitations on fun.

In short THIS

That said-- Every one is welcome to come play with my Aasimar, Drow, Silver dragon disciple, Paladin of Oghma with a Fairy dragon familiar who was found in a cabbage patch as a child and raised by and elf and human.

I welcome the ic of this. Have fun with it. He's meant to be ridiculous-- fee free to treat him accordingly.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. Not on the playing a character 'wrong' part. That's not a good way to go about things, and I don't believe that's been hinted at in this discussion. However, if I invite an Orc to my tea party, and a dwarf, I have absolutely no IC problem with that dwarf wrecking that Orc, and myself, simply because dwarves generally hate orcs. Now, I also have no problem with him not doing that.

Essentially, I have no problem with racial rp being played out. Should it be enforced in any way? Absolutely not. But I'm not going to fault a player for rp'ing the very real racial stigmas their character would more than likely have.

I think PS meant a scenario where a character who isn't involved in some RP event uses racial tensions as an excuse to crash that it and likely provoke PvP. Personally I think that's a gray area, depending on how it's handled. It can be perfectly reasonable RP, but it's not like it's unheard of for people to use quite flimsy justifications because they want to pick a fight OOCly.

More on topic, I've found it quite an interesting experience to balance Aven's water genasi tendencies towards lawfulness with the chaotic nature of her upbringing and especially her faith. She's also got that planetouched pride intact, having grown up in a region where her abilities would have given her a significant edge, and the only reason she isn't lording it over people more often is that, like most water genasi, she is relatively introverted.

This entire thread has a lot of info for halflings, in particular i wrote a bit about Halfling subraces at the bottom:

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Racial RP

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