How Far from human can a PC be before you as a player have a hard time getting into character? You standard fantasy races are just humans with pointy ears but what if you start getting real strange. A giant single cell organism that splits every few days, Intelligent fungi, A swarm of psychic spiders that form a hive mind. Where on the spectrum of strangeness do you start to loose the ability to empathize with your character? Just some questions as Im thinking about home brewing a setting.
It’s got to be a continuum, right? What I tend to do is to anthropomorphize the whatever-it-is and then empathize with it. As a DM/GM I do this all the time, so it’s easier to do so as a player playing something strange (like a sandwich in Gamma World or a myconid or whatever). I think what I might try with very-non-human character species is to give some guidelines on how to anthropomorphize them. Maybe something like a snippet of first-person fiction. From a certain point of view, an inhuman species does all the things a humanoid one does – hates and loves and wants. It just hates and loves and wants very different things.
It’s got to be a continuum, right? What I tend to do is to anthropomorphize the whatever-it-is and then empathize with it. As a DM/GM I do this all the time, so it’s easier to do so as a player playing something strange (like a sandwich in Gamma World or a myconid or whatever). I think what I might try with very-non-human character species is to give some guidelines on how to anthropomorphize them. Maybe something like a snippet of first-person fiction. From a certain point of view, an inhuman species does all the things a humanoid one does – hates and loves and wants. It just hates and loves and wants very different things.
I think its more of a psychological thing. Playing as an alien with human thoughts is easy. Playing a human with alien thoughts is hard. It comes down to “how do these creatures think differently than me?”
I think its more of a psychological thing. Playing as an alien with human thoughts is easy. Playing a human with alien thoughts is hard. It comes down to “how do these creatures think differently than me?”
Ive been some strange things. One of the more difficult things I have RPed was a spirit that was kind of a giant ball of tentacles. It was meant to be initially horrifying but then endearing once you got to know it. It was either incapable of speech or never spoke. I think it worked out pretty well though. Michael G. Barford was around for that one, so he might have a different take on it. I think the game was shooting the moon. We may have taken some liberties.
Ive been some strange things. One of the more difficult things I have RPed was a spirit that was kind of a giant ball of tentacles. It was meant to be initially horrifying but then endearing once you got to know it. It was either incapable of speech or never spoke. I think it worked out pretty well though. Michael G. Barford was around for that one, so he might have a different take on it. I think the game was shooting the moon. We may have taken some liberties.
I really enjoy playing the Fair Folk in Exalted. They are parasitic unreal beings composed of intangible Virtues wrapped in semi-physical illusions.
I really enjoy playing the Fair Folk in Exalted. They are parasitic unreal beings composed of intangible Virtues wrapped in semi-physical illusions.
Yeah and I was a tinkerbell! But I found that, even though my character could speak, David LaFreniere’s portrayal of the tentacle monster was more emotionally compelling because he managed to evoke a better sense of personality and individuality through play than I did. Sometimes having those constraints can lead to some really creative roleplaying! To be fair, Shooting the Moon is a one-shot, and playing a mute character can become unfun for the group after a session or two (from personal experience), even if you describe your actions for the group out loud.
That being said, I think at bare minimum, for a player to have what they need to roleplay a character, they need to have a sympathetic motivation, a means to work towards achieving a goal, a means of communicating with the group (however you describe it), and a way to differentiate them as individuals. If we’re all playing a game of Amoeba Cops, I would like for my amoeba cop to be able to be a different color. If we communicate through intertwining flagellae, as a player, I would like to describe the nature of that meaningful communication, preferably through words. But I think that’s definitely an area you can play around with.
Yeah and I was a tinkerbell! But I found that, even though my character could speak, David LaFreniere’s portrayal of the tentacle monster was more emotionally compelling because he managed to evoke a better sense of personality and individuality through play than I did. Sometimes having those constraints can lead to some really creative roleplaying! To be fair, Shooting the Moon is a one-shot, and playing a mute character can become unfun for the group after a session or two (from personal experience), even if you describe your actions for the group out loud.
That being said, I think at bare minimum, for a player to have what they need to roleplay a character, they need to have a sympathetic motivation, a means to work towards achieving a goal, a means of communicating with the group (however you describe it), and a way to differentiate them as individuals. If we’re all playing a game of Amoeba Cops, I would like for my amoeba cop to be able to be a different color. If we communicate through intertwining flagellae, as a player, I would like to describe the nature of that meaningful communication, preferably through words. But I think that’s definitely an area you can play around with.
I think like in writing fantasy and science fiction it comes down to the art to change only one or two aspects of human existence, thinking these changes through in all consistency possible but leaving everything else in default.
Like, changing how to produce energy to keep your body up but not changing the identity and integrity concept as such (e.g. vampires).
I think like in writing fantasy and science fiction it comes down to the art to change only one or two aspects of human existence, thinking these changes through in all consistency possible but leaving everything else in default.
Like, changing how to produce energy to keep your body up but not changing the identity and integrity concept as such (e.g. vampires).
I would agree with others who say it’s anything that can think humanly, but I would also say it gets hard for most people to role-play a thing that can’t do anything similar to human tasks or use anything like human methods. That gets hard because then it is exhausting to strain your creativity to think of what to do to convey the more compelling story/character/identity/empathy elements of any character. Brains are efficient when acting by memory (solving a problem by just doing whatever you did last time), but they are inefficient having to actually think through anything without resorting to memory. That’s why traveling is so exhausting, beyond jet lag or car butt, because solving even mundane ‘problems’ in the new place (eat, go to the bathroom, find somewhere you may sit, etc.) all requires actual thought and that’s tiring!
In reality and in role-play, we usually show inner experience more than tell it through our outward actions, and if a weird creature can’t or doesn’t do any of the tasks most players fall back on as ways to express any inner state (protesting, assenting, expressing urgency need, etc.), then I think it becomes only interesting for being novel, but more exhausting than worthwhile in the long run.
That said, one of my oddest white whale game design ideas is for players to play single- or few-celled organisms, most likely anthropomorphized Far Side-style with ties, armchairs, glasses, spouses, kids, and things like jobs, sports, celebrities, or politics to talk about. I mostly want to make it and make it fun since people always roll their eyes at the idea. 😛
I would agree with others who say it’s anything that can think humanly, but I would also say it gets hard for most people to role-play a thing that can’t do anything similar to human tasks or use anything like human methods. That gets hard because then it is exhausting to strain your creativity to think of what to do to convey the more compelling story/character/identity/empathy elements of any character. Brains are efficient when acting by memory (solving a problem by just doing whatever you did last time), but they are inefficient having to actually think through anything without resorting to memory. That’s why traveling is so exhausting, beyond jet lag or car butt, because solving even mundane ‘problems’ in the new place (eat, go to the bathroom, find somewhere you may sit, etc.) all requires actual thought and that’s tiring!
In reality and in role-play, we usually show inner experience more than tell it through our outward actions, and if a weird creature can’t or doesn’t do any of the tasks most players fall back on as ways to express any inner state (protesting, assenting, expressing urgency need, etc.), then I think it becomes only interesting for being novel, but more exhausting than worthwhile in the long run.
That said, one of my oddest white whale game design ideas is for players to play single- or few-celled organisms, most likely anthropomorphized Far Side-style with ties, armchairs, glasses, spouses, kids, and things like jobs, sports, celebrities, or politics to talk about. I mostly want to make it and make it fun since people always roll their eyes at the idea. 😛
Some people handle it better than others. I’ve run games where a PC was a Force-wielding fungal colony in an android body, and the player had zero problems. One friend played a shovel once.
Meanwhile, I have a hard time playing teenagers.
Some people handle it better than others. I’ve run games where a PC was a Force-wielding fungal colony in an android body, and the player had zero problems. One friend played a shovel once.
Meanwhile, I have a hard time playing teenagers.
Teenagers have a hard time being teenagers. I can’t imagine playing them would get any easier. 🙂
Teenagers have a hard time being teenagers. I can’t imagine playing them would get any easier. 🙂
The cast of Buffy makes it look so easy, tho
The cast of Buffy makes it look so easy, tho