Non-human PCs

From: Brian Tickler <tickler_at_netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 17:53:40 -0700 (PDT)


> From: rhwolfe_at_ix.netcom.com (Robert H. Wolfe)
>
> On non-human PCs, Brian Tickler wrote:
>
> >Ducks - no (don't even exist IMG)
>
> They did, once. You should've seen how he treated Rupert the Avenger.
> It was so unnecessarily cruel. Sob. Garotted to death by a Chaotic
> Thanatari Pixie. It was just wrong.
>
> Brian is my oldest and dearest friend, but his utter blindness to the
> delights of ducks utterly confounds me to this day.

Argh! I wrote a long message detailing this episode, but I had to run off to do something and my connection timed out...I hate that...well, in short, I was defending myself here: I did not kill Rupert out of malice (didn't he get killed by a zombie in Al Dewey's campaign in 1980 or so? must have been another duck...), he simply was unlucky enough to be the logical target of the Thanatari Pixie's (a bound guardian, actually) garrote since Arreth was being engaged by his master, a Doomed One. The Pixie/guardian was probably more dangerous than his own master. Rupert was Humakti, and like all Humakti I gave him extra leeway on his DI when he felt his life slipping away; unfortunately he didn't make it.

Now Cor the Thrice-Dead (a baboon) has a real reason to think I have it in for him, but it's really just bad luck... :). Seriously, I do not take out vendettas on PCs; they are not responsible for their actions... :).

The real reason I don't allow ducks anymore comes from the example of another duck that I allowed in later. This duck caused so much annoyance and grief for myself and the party that I decided I had enough with ducks... I had never been happy with a race that I felt was created for mere comic relief. The fact that some players choose to play ducks so that they can make a mockery of more serious characters/players just sealed their fate.

I have, to a lesser degree, the same view on Tricksters: "Hey, let's loosen Gronk the Troll's armor straps while he's not paying attention...ha, ha, look his leg got chopped off! What a riot! Who's got the Xenohealing 6? Nobody? Oops..........."

My feeling has always been that the comedy comes from the players themselves and should not intrude into the actual actions of characters in ways that would never happen in a realistic-fantasy-world. Playing practical jokes on companions during combat strikes me as very unfunny.

Having said all that, let me make my disclaimer and say that only some people (Robert not among them) play them this way, and, yes, it's unfair for me to dislike ducks and tricksters based on the actions of only some players/characters, but, hey, there's always other RQ campaigns to go to, right? Whoops, wait, there aren't anymore...hmmm... :)

Actually, Robert, your facination with ducks and tricksters has always confounded *me*, but we do back quite a while, so I'll let it slide :).

> >Personally I have played Dark Trolls, Elves, a Dwarf (briefly), a
> >Dragonewt,
>
> The DNewt was a monstrousity, balance-wise. But we were young and
> foolish (and I played one too).

I actually forgot about him...I was talking about Lashout Longtail, a renegade beaked dragonewt, not Saraksan the Flame of Truth, a Full Priest who sits in my binder unplayed like my 40th level wizard from my early D&D days (that's what happens when you're 13...these old monstrousities are great NPCs though). So anyway, I have 2 Dragonewt PCs, I guess; it's just that one of them has Firebreath 12... :).

> >>Eventually, they [elves] all
> >>end up looking exactly the same. (Wood Lord, Arrow Trance, Elf Bow
> >>mastery. Yawn)
> >
> >pleasure of song, music, and dance. [SNIP} The goal of this character
> >was not to be a Elven powerhouse of bow and arrow.
>
> You are a good man. Not coincidently, IMG, both of the interesting elf
> characters also started out in RQ2. It's the RQ3 elf character
> generator that churns out the boring clones. It doesn't take a math
> whiz to see that taking elf warrior experience yields a very good
> chance of having a Wood Lord just through previous experience. Which
> is both boring and wrong.

Yep, sounds like RQ2 Chalana Arroys..."What, you're a priest already? When did that happen?"

There is only one elf playing in my game, and she is pretty distinctive.

> Sounds like a fun character. He would've fit right in in my Glorantha.
>
> Of course, Brian, with his deep seated anti-Duck psychosis, would've
> slaughtered him out of hand.

Not true. I wouldn't have allowed a duck in the first place...this not only solves my GM problems, but also cuts off any chance that someone will get offended thinking that I killed their duck out of spite :).

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