What's some rpg stereotypes that you'd like to see

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>>51525596

Those are fantasy worldbuilding elements which exist well outside the bounds of RPGs. The "industry" really doesn't push things like that one way or another and a GM can write up any setting he wants.

>>51525596
>People with horns are evil
>Dragons have to be smart
Rejoice, then, because these stereotypes don't really exist. Draenei and Qunari are not evil, and I can't be arsed listing all the works of fiction with bestial dragons.

>>51525634
This.
If you don't like something, change it in your own games and settings.

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>>51525596
>Dragons have to be smart

I know D&D is pretty unknown in RPG circles so OP can be forgiven

>>51525682
>Qunari are not evil

>>51525596
>SJWs have to inject their left-wing politics into every published game.

This one in particular needs to go.

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>>51525682
>>People with horns are evil

But they can still be good partners.

>>51525596
>elves are predominantly nature attuned, better humans but with weird ears
>human, dwarf, elf, gnome are the mandatory races
>it's more lucrative to just murder or backstab everything/everyone

>>51525596

>elves speak elves
>dwarves speak dwarves
>orcs speak orcish

>>51525596
Women are capable adventurers.

>>51526546
>I can't understand that most fantasy stories are told from human perspective
>and despite the fact that all of those races have words for their own languages I get triggered when humans just say elvish because they can't be bothered to say it in elvish

>>51526525
>better humans
>-2 con

Lol no

>>51526591
Here's the (You) you specifically came here to try to get

>>51525682
>Qunari are not evil
>If you don't fit in with our society we mind-break you until you do.

>>51525596
Elves are the superior, ancient race

There exists objective forces of good and evil that are fundamentally opposed to one another.

Medieval European Fantasy (without all the violence and intrigue and general sociopolitical complexity that actually made Medieval Europe so fascinating).

Theme park versions of non-European cultures. Like every DnD folds together China and Japan and has an Egypt pastiche way in the corner

Shoddy-ass worldbuilding where people and places exist for adventure hooks and nothing beyond that

>>51526658
I was serious tho. Female warriors should not be as strong or fast as male warriors

>>51526736
(You)

>>51526781

Truly insightful argument. I'm sure he feels foolish now.

>>51527348
(You)

>>51526736
on average, yes, they should be weaker.

In individual cases, no.And adventurers are not ordinary.

>>51526074
>20+ dragons in 2e MM
>most are at least exceptional intelligence, a few are as smart as mind flayers, a steel dragon is as smart as a lich
>exactly one is below human intelligence
>"see, there's no stereotype of dragons being smart!"

>>51527465
But muh realism! I mean, yeah, they can totally look the other way fighting fire-breathing lizards the size of a freight truck alongside a person throwing lightning from their hands and another who can shape shift from a 120lb wet human into a 600lb bear, but a woman who can competently swing a sword? Like, let's try to keep things grounded in reality.

>>51525596
My home-brew's going to effectively have two varieties of Dragons. The first, more "traditional" (oft Western-style) variety is going to take a page from Dark Sun and come from mortal / fey races that metamorphosed from the acquisition of Great Power and needing a form that doesn't, well, explode / dissolve in the process. While these Dragons will GENERALLY be at least fairly intelligent, they didn't need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to get where they are so some are a bit less impressive.

The second variety, "Worms" (because fuck it I love the Eastern aesthetic and fuck if I'm not taking advantage of Tolkien's use of O instead of Y), are just what it says on the tin: Worms. Worms, and other scavengers. Who happened to feast upon the remnants of a Divine or whatnot. In this case Intelligence trends are a reverse of the above: Some became uplifted (and even then some more than others!), but the majority have turned into titanic ravenous beasts with barely two braincells to rub together towards something other than basic survival needs. Said Worms are rare because, well, dead gods don't just lie around everywhere and they tend to cannibalize each other after they've glut on their source, but they remain more common than the first.

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>>51527701
Think something like this for a serpent that feasted upon the fragment of a god / godling with Winter or Ice or something in its domain.

As said there isn't exactly a dearth of such things to be feasted upon (and even less that are accessible to common wildlife in some manner or another), but it's not unheard of in-setting and still more common than someone scrounging enough power to go "T'hell with mortality and the natural order GIMME THAT ALL-POWERFUL MOJO". Especially since those who become Dragons tend to do so because they couldn't acquire such power through other methods (like divine patronage or fell pacts).

guns=bad in fantasy settings

I mean seriously if you're going to be a bitch and have repeating crossbows just add guns you worthless fucks. Samurai had them to.

>Orcs are actually noble savages!
Why can't I have brutish, rapey Orcs without orc- apologists crying?

>Gnomes are quirky tinkerers!
No, Gnomes don't exist. Fuck em.

>Muh heavy drinking Scottish Jew Dwarves!
Let me do something more interesting with them than alcoholic miners.

>>51526525
>elves are predominantly nature attuned, better humans but with weird ears
>>51526710
>Elves are the superior, ancient race
But that's pretty much the defining trait of (modern) elves. Complaining about that seems like complaining that dwarves are the short race.

>>51525596
>Dragons have to be smart
I'll second my dislike for that and add 'dragons have to be huge'.

>>51527701
>But muh realism! I mean, yeah, they can totally look the other way fighting fire-breathing lizards...
Just because there are fantastic elements doesn't mean you can do arbitrary shit. If you've got a race called 'humans' and that race has a gender called 'female', people will generally expect them to resemble the women they are familiar with and find it weird when they don't seem to have the same traits.

>>51527972
Which is why you conveniently cut out people throwing lightning bolts and shapeshifting into bears. I mean when I think of men, I think of Bob down at the bar and his ability to turn shoelaces into snakes.

If you want to make this "BUT IT'S ARBITRARY" shit then by all means go for fucking broke and stick by your standards. I eagerly await your argument for PCs having no more than 12 HP so they can die to a single arrow regardless of level.

>>51525596
Critical hits (or fails), automatic successes, exploding dice, and any other "this particular dice face has more mechanical effects than all the others" mechanics.

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>>51527925
>more interesting with them than alcoholic miners.

>>51526661
And this is worse than Nazi Chantry in which way?

>>51526710
>Theme park versions of non-European cultures
Even the European cultures are theme park versions. We can only have romanticised English middle ages. If you're not English, too bad! Aren't all white people the same, hurr?

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>>51527972

> people will generally expect them to resemble the women they are familiar with and find it weird when they don't seem to have the same traits.


Ultimately irrelevant. Adventurers are outliers by definition. A female adventurer by nature can be smarter and/or stronger than most members of both genders. This is even the case IRL. I'm sure there are plenty of women stronger than you, anon.

Anyone who actually makes a fuss over female PCs and cites gender statistics like that has any bearing whatsoever needs to get over themselves.

>>51525596

>Humans always have to be a PC race and can't be low-level fodder monsters like goblins and kobolds

I mean think about it; they're a 1d3 hp race who die to a cat glaring at them too hard. They're perfect for something you just strew about in the desert that'll mug and attempt to eat you if you get to close to its lair, but why would you want to play one when kobolds have higher vitality?

>>51528436
A kobold has about as much strength and intelligence as a bipedal cat.

>>51525596
both smart and animalistic dragons have existed in mythology for ages

>>51528466
As well as good horned humanoids, such as satyrs

>>51528545

>satyrs
>good

>>51528461
Having humans available as an option in some manner or another is helpful when making home-brews as - regardless of the lore of the setting and its races - people know humans. They know their behavioral ticks, frailties and perks, etcetera.

That said, I would like to see more settings wherein humans are not treated as the standard from which all other races are judged by. Wherein the setting confronts the fact that humans or half-humans tend to have some of the shortest natural lifespans, or where they aren't the most populous and common race but instead another demographic similar to Gnomes and Dwarves (high populations of Elves are relatively common courtesy of people spinning "dying out race" on its head).

Admittedly I'm very much channeling the "in some manner or another" from above since my setting's humans accident their mortal coil and so now those who're left are all undead (predominantly of a skeletal or spectral nature) as well as straight-up incapable of population growth.

>>51526258

Can I get a source? Reverse-google search yields nothing.

>>51528560
Here's your (You).

>>51526258
>drow

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>>51525596
Using "she" instead of "he" for the gender neutral pronoun.

>>51526546
>Spaniards speak Spanish
>French speak French
>Italians speak Italian

>>51526736
It's completely reasonable to assume that your average female warrior would not be as strong as your average male warrior.

My viewpoint is that if you're playing a female character with high strength, you have high strength. Yes, it would be a rarity, but it still has the possibility to exist. Maybe that makes things more interesting by having that character be immediately noticed in towns or outcast for not following the standards of the society.

On the other hand, I totally respect the approach AD&D took where females didn't have a strength penalty but did in some cases have a lower maximum possible strength score. But if that's the case, I think the DM should give females some advantages, even if only in roleplaying, such as finding it easier to get help from strangers.

>>51527811
This.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp0cNZopl_U

>>51528044
Agreed. I believe critical hits/fails or automatic successes should be based on the circumstances, not the roll. As for exploding dice, I don't enjoy it as a core mechanic but I kind of like it when it's unique to halflings through halfling luck.

Bear in mind this is for a homebrew system where each species has one major perk, so I like the appeal of being able to have odds more in your favor rather than a reliable effect.

>>51527811
On the contrary, guns in my settings are considered expensive-ass (and rare) Crossbow+.
One NPC archer is a secret gunaboo, they're just too expensive to make normally because they're enchanted and magic, automatically making them enchanted mastercraft weapons made by masters of the arts and only belonging to the noble houses in the nations they originate from or to someone lucky enough to get their hands on one.

>>51525634
Dude, who made that art?

>>51528674
This. Female privilege is being able to make any man think you want his dick and being able to make him do what you want for it.

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>>51528807

No idea. It is really good though.

Reverse image search tells me it's apparently rule 63 fanart of Jace. Which honestly kind of disappoints me because I don't give two shits about Magic. When I first found it I think I got it from Googling "water mage" or something to that effect.

>>51528873
but I do give two shits about magic

>>51526661
>conformity
>evil

>>51527465
>>51527701
>>51527972
>>51528238
>>51528674
>>51528833

Y'all niggas got baited.

>>51528700
Great advice to actually research historical firearms before excluding them just to uphold normalcy. I've been hesitant towards guns in the past, but now I'm encouraged to actually take a look at their development and see what diversity they could bring.

>>51526258
>Drow.

>>51528644

This only really irks me when its used in contexts where the female equivalent is effectively non-existent in-setting and not elaborated on. When is the last time you saw a female kobold, goblin, or ogre, much less one that was an adventurer?

>>51528894

I feel bad for your wallet, anon.

>>51526710
>Theme park versions of non-European cultures
I don't know man, any venture into Greek/Italian history and mythology in modern fantasy feels pretty theme park-like to me.

>>51528700

>Dungeons and Dragons era of fantasy

But, Dungeons and Dragons was one of the first major settings to /encourage/ the use of firearms and artillery via settings such as Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms, even going as far as to have a god devoted to their use. The 1d12 statblock pistols usually end up being given in most CRPGs is directly derrived from D&D.

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>>51527925

>Why can't I have brutish, rapey Orcs without orc- apologists crying?

So you want traditional orcs because a different interpretation of them triggers you....

>Let me do something more interesting with them than alcoholic miners.

... but want speshul snowflake muh OC donut steal dwarves?

>>51528700

He's incorrect about D&D, since guns and cannons have been a part of the game since at least the Known World campaign setting (later called Mystara).

The true origin is Tolkien. Tolkien was very anti-industrialization (having been a veteran of the first World War, this is understandable), and he saw firearms as an integral first step toward this great dehumanizing aspect that our mastery over technology had wrought.

The entire homecoming to the Shire part of the Return of the King is Tolkien making a statement about evil men and their ambitions making slaves out of good country folk with technology and industry.

Blame Tolkien's imitators, since they copied his themes and style with none of the substance.

>>51525596
Allow me to mention somthing of great rage.
D20 Slayers.
That book literally lays out stereotypes to BE ABIDED BY including evil-sounding names.
I don't like that, and I think that book can trigger you like it does me.

>>51531025

I'd figured there were no guns in LOTR because Tolkien wanted to write a story about Vikings.

I know he didn't like industrialization but you may be reading way too much into it on this particular matter.

>>51531081

>LotR is a story about vikings
>Dune is a story about space adventure
>Ben-Hur is a story about an angry Jew, with occasional guest appearances by Brian, the Messiah
>Shogun is a story about samurai
>Jurassic Park is a story about dinosaurs

Maybe I am reading too much into this.

>>51528622
Dude. Check what a Satyr is.

>>51526661
They're pretty much the same thing as normal fuedal society, just more honest about it and people at least do what they're good at instead of what they're born into.

Plus, everyone thinks they live longer but it's just because they have better doctors.

>>51526074
Bump

>>51527925
>Why can't I have brutish, rapey Orcs without orc - apologists crying?

Because you are a fucktard. Your players are ignorant fucktards.

>No, Gnomes don't exist. Fuck em.

See above.

>Let me do something more interesting with them than alcoholic miners.

Who's stopping you? Right... you're stopping you.

>>51526258
Horns give you something to hold onto, there like pigtails 2.0

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>>51525596
>magicians with red hair use fire magic
>likewise magicians with white hair use ice magic
>creatures withouts human vocal cords, throat, lungs, tongue and/or mouthparts can speak human languages effortlessly
>colossal, monstrous beasts never seem to suffer from their immense bulk and weight or restricted in any ways by it
>orcs are always bigger and buffer than mere humans, even though Tolkien orcs were said to be slightly shorter than men
>necromancers always sport legions of skeletons and zombies, although necromancery originally meant simply communion with the dead (ghosts etc.)
>dwarves have scottish accents
>half-race-offspring exist in large numbers
>magic and sorcery is all about bright colours, sparkles, lightshows, pyrotechnic spectacles and visual sfx
>big, brutish and tough creatures have to be by default dumb and unintelligent (aka trolls)

>>51531078
>D20 Slayers.
The Slayers RPG, or something else?

>>51525596
>OPs are always faggots
>OPs use skub
I mean, I understand they're supposed to be subhuman trash, but that's a bit too much.

>>51525596
Ok sure, angels have horns, devils have halos.
The horns are still glowing gold goodness and halos are firey brimstone badness tho. Gotta keep SOME aesthetics.

>>51534749
Now to make a game where all this shit is backwards.

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>>51534877
I think my favourite "halo" was done in Asura's Wrath. It's just that little bit more impressive and every character's was slightly different than a generic glowy ring floating above the head.

>>51528644
>>51529210
Kind of used to this one already. Am from a country where "she" has been used for that for thousands of years. Hell, we even refer to days, time, planets, stars and mankind as "she".
Kind of like how Finland doesn't even have "he" or "she" to begin with, except that we do but it's only "she" and used for everything.

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>>51531562

>>51528609
here ya go. it's nsfw tho

http://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=2066467

>>51528873
>rule 63 fanart of Jace. Which honestly kind of disappoints me because I don't give two shits about Magic.

If you REALLY didn't give two shits about Magic (like me) you wouldn't have even recognized the name Jace (like I didn't until you explained it)

>>51538459
I actually still don't know who is Jace.

>>51528666
>>51526629

not him but it is kind of weird though when you have all these anachronistically multicultural societies in what appears to be a medieval-ish setting, and on top of that neighboring families who don't seem to be recent immigrants are fluent in different languages purely because of race. Or if a PC gets bonus racial languages even if born and raised in a human-majority city.

>>51526243
Agreed. I keep seeing it more and more in books and I just have to eyeroll at how they can't seem to help themselves. I gave a hard pass on the add-on for Betrayal at House on the Hill because of it.

>>51525596
>>Dragons have to be smart
but even in d&d some species of dragon are not very smart

>>51529210
>When is the last time you saw a female goblin

literally every day on /aco/

>>51527811
I particularly hate it when a setting bends over backwards to justify guns not existing, then creates things that fulfill the same niche without being guns.

Like, why the fuck not just make guns a thing? If your setting would be absolutely ruined by people using flintlock muskets then it's a shit setting.

>>51525682

The Qunari aren't evil, the Qun is.

>>51527811
>>51539645

if guns exist then what non-weeb justifications do you have for fighters with swords?

>>51539842
The fact that guns existed alongside melee weapons on the battlefield for quite some time.

Guns are slow to reload, and if you're in close quarters you're better off firing once and switching to a melee weapon.

>>51539816
It's not. It's a different culture that a modern Western person is likely to find unethical. But I guarantee to you that even today there are millions of people in the world who would love to live in such a society. And seeing how BioWare are enormous SJW's, this is clearly their intended message.

>>51539842
The same one that allowed guns and foot troops/cavalry to coexist for hundreds of years?

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>>51539865

The smartest person in the setting knows it's full of shit.

>Black&Red is evil
>Vampires are evil
>Vampires all dress the same (seriously what is up with this)
>Dragons have to be magic
>Massive religious empires have to be repressive, racist, and anti-magic
>Noble peace-lovers have to possess empathy, mercy, and benevolent methods
>Heroic rebellions can't be a vehicle of evil
>Good guys don't kill eachother

>>51539925
>Racist, 'non-repressive' pro-magic religious empire
High Elves.

>>51540029
High Elves are very religious?

>>51539925
>rebellions can't be a vehicle of evil
You can blame the American mentality for that

>>51538459

I have several friends who are huge into Magic.

>>51525596
>Magic does everything
>'Grey and grey morality' means both sides are irredeemable assholes
>Low magic = shithole
>Realistic = grimdark
>>51540104
They have Corellon at least.

>>51534863
I want Dewey to leave.

>>51540304
>Low magic = shithole
>Realistic = grimdark
Really sick to the stomach of those two personally. I suppose it's because magic is the metaphor for technology and science in every other setting.

>>51534749
>half-race-offspring exist in large numbers
I never got this.

I didn't read the Tolkien books until I was well into my 20s, but even as a teenager playing D&D, if you wanted to be a half-elf, chances were pretty good that you were the only half-elf in the setting.

Felt pretty good to be validated later on in life by a dead British guy.

>>51542624

Yeah, half-anything as a race is retarded. Better to make halfies rare and sterile.

>>51539842

Because you can still be stabbed to death with swords.

Mechanically it's still going to take a few hits regardless of the weapon anyways.

>>51528238
>This is even the case IRL
I don't mind women being as strong as men in a fantasy game, but this isn't true. Sure, exceptionally strong women can be stronger than exceptionally weak men, but the difference between men and women is *everything* puberty did to your muscles. They are literally as weak as children, and expecting otherwise is going to lead you astray.

The difference is even greater when you get to the upper end of human ability, which is the kind of people who become adventurers.

>>51542624
>>51542727
There's a way to make it work, frankly, if you need to. Let's assume there's an island on which human and elven ships crashed, and these two populations intermingled as time went on, resulting in a society of half-elf mestizos. I personally don't have halfbloods as separate races in my games, but if the players request it, why not.

>>51534749
"-mancy" really just means "divination".

>>51539842
Hit points

>>51526661
>>If you don't fit in with our society we mind-break you until you do.
it's called 'upbringing'

>>51529210
All the kobolds goblins, and ogres you see ARE the female members of the species. The males are small, toad-like creatures that only come out from their burrows during mating season.

>>51543089
>The difference is even greater when you get to the upper end of human ability, which is the kind of people who become adventurers.
Is this sort of thing mollified by having a woman of exceeding strength being a mongrel with regards to heritage? After all, male and female elves are pretty much identical with regards to strength, so a half-elf woman with an extremely strong human father could arguably inherit his musculature.

>>51543089
>They are literally as weak as children

I'm giving you a (You) even though you don't deserve it and I should know better.

I'm well aware when you get to the upper limit on human physical condition men come out ahead. But this is all completely irrelevant to individuals. Even in real life.

>>51540304
Agreed on those last two

>>51525596
Selective realism (yeah yeah, that martial vs caster shit again. If you want to justify, justify either both or none)

>>51526647
Con is such a trash stat.

>>51543478
It's something that's done to appeal to players of all tastes, and it's therefore necessary.

>>51543651

This. The whole point of fantasy is blending the fantastic with the mundane to get something the author wants. This necessitates selective realism.

The reality is though most authors aren't very good so the selective realism comes off clumsy.

>>51543651
More often than not, it's done to attempt to appeal to two different tastes at the same time:
>People who want martials to be everydudes doing badass shit of their own power without magic or help
>People who want to play world-breaking magic-users
In theory, this would be fine- if it didn't break the game in certain editions. But it does, and it ends up coming out more piece-wise than consistent.
>Let's trek across the Burhuri Desert to confront the sorcerer Chen-Wi in his den of degeneracy and villainry!
>How about we just teleport there instead?

>>51543292
Great, now I want to see elf on human lesbian rape.

>>51543302
>But this is all completely irrelevant to individuals. Even in real life.
So painfully wrong, I don't even get how someone could be this misinformed.

>>51538524
What's in the add-on?

>>51543651
>It's something that's done to appeal to players of all tastes, and it's therefore shit.
FTFY. Appeal to everyone means not excellent for anyone.

I still want this to go. Have badass fireball-slinging mages and nigh-superhuman martial heroes, or have grizzled soldier martials and ritualist/scholarly casters whose magic is powerful but burdened with need for effort or some otherworldly constraints.

In fact, said constraints might be a good counterbalance. Can't touch cold iron, it drains your glamour. Dependent on the phases of the moon/planets. You can upset the balance of your natural energies to give you powers but at the cost of hurting your opposite aspects, this takes time/actual rest to heal (losing the gained powers). Martials? Nah, they don't give a shit. Mundane class mundane problems, magical class magical problems.

>>51539842
The fact that you know nothing about history yet seem to have strong opinions about it.

>>51545187
>Appeal to everyone means not excellent for anyone.
You're welcome to go play niche systems.