How critical should a character's race be to their identity?

One in 20.

>>54069380
Depends on the character. If it's an elven justicar whose duty is to upload ancient elven law, chances are he's going to take being an elf very seriously.

On the other hand, there's a dwarf who finds the idea of growing a beard and drinking all day to be very unappealing, which is why he left his mountain home as soon as he could.

>>54069380

Depends on the setting. Depends on the character. Depends on everything.

>>54069552
>if I don't have an opinion I'll look smart!

>>54069724
>being critical of dumb questions means you don't have an opinion

A big part of their character. Societies a character is apart of is likely not going to be a complete polyglot due to the inability to easily travel long distances. Where ever they're from is likely going to have a distinct racial majority and thus have the culture revolve around that majority. Let's say that you're a human character living in a racially dwarven dominate area.

Stuff like local available food is tailored to dwarves, architecture is tailored to dwarves, art is tailored to dwarven tastes (which because of things like relative heart rates means dwarven music may naturally make you uncomfortable), and more. Being a fish out of water means you're going to have a very strange upbringing Carrot from Discord is a fun example. More than your race it should be the culture of the dominant race where you are and how your race interacts with that which should define you.

>>54069552
D&D 3e.

File: 123.gif (3MB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 500x375px

>>54069380
Pretty important. Race defines what you're going to be naturally capable of, what cultures you're likely to be exposed to, general toughness, predisposition towards certain personality traits, etc. You're not going to have a Napoleon complex if you're a 7'2" dragonkin unless you're exceptionally petty. Likewise, if you're a gnoll you're going to be pissed literally all the time, or at least 75% of the time, because that's how gnolls are wired.

Obviously there are always exceptions, but then you have to take into account how being exceptional is going to impact other's perception of your character, which will in turn impact how they develop and even see themselves.

A gnoll who's really chill isn't going to last in normal gnoll society. In a strict dominance hierarchy where the meanest bitch is at the top, someone who just wants to chillax and read all day is going to be killed or ejected FAST if they can't be whipped into shape as at least a servant. Then they have to deal with integrating into another society which will have justifiable reservations about letting the demon hyena hang out with them. All of this combined is going to play a pretty large role in how a character perceives themselves and the world around them, form their opinions on their peers, and influence how they get by in life.

The actual culture of where a person grows up is probably more important, generally speaking. The catch is that in a lot of settings culture and race are very tightly linked, as are race and personality and capability.

>>54069820
Of course, one of the #1 reasons for people to end up in adventurer parties is because they couldn't hack it in their own society, or were ejected for some other reason. Normies don't become adventurers. They become raiders, tanners, carpenters, miners, what have you.

I'd say that in an adventurer party, it's the norm for the people in it to be outsiders. So that chill Gnoll isn't that weird.

File: 1485478243688.jpg (357KB, 1920x1280px) Image search: [Google]

357KB, 1920x1280px

Just like in the real world,

race is everything.

>>54069820
Pretty much this. What this anon is trying to say is...
>depends on the setting

In most cases race = culture unless they're a transplant, but even then race still affects their culture.

Unless you have a setting where every race is treated equally and the only difference is their size and shape, in which case, why do you even have races?

File: Pointless argument starter.jpg (32KB, 425x340px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 425x340px

>>54069380
Pic related is so relevant to so many threads like this one that it should be a very dominant meme on this board.

>>54069814
>it's really important
>well, ok, it's actually near irrelevant in itself, culture and society is what matters

You really took the scenic route to reason

File: Gnoll.jpg (87KB, 640x880px) Image search: [Google]

87KB, 640x880px

>>54069916
It's not that weird as an adventurer, no. But it's going to have pretty drastic implications on that character's personality and world outlook. They might have had an inferiority complex almost literally beaten into them and later found a caring druid mentor which helped them rise out of the depths of self-loathing and lethargy that come with hating everything about yourself. That's going to do a lot to shape how your character behaves in the world at large.

Generally what you want to do when you have a personality concept is work backwards.
>Ok so my character is quiet. Was he always this way or did he learn to act this way?
>learn
>OK, so why might he have learned to avoid running his mouth?
>got his ass beat every time he spoke up to his superior in the pack
>implications this has for future behavior?
>probably hesitant to speak generally, fears his opinion won't be valued, prone to going on long sprees of breathless ranting when he finally gets an opportunity to talk about something that interests him and he knows the listener won't clock him for it.

You can go down the line like this for most character behavioral traits. You probably don't want to for a casual game of D&D or whatever, but it's a good way to add depth to an otherwise pretty standard character.

>>54069552
This.

>>54069724
There is a big difference between not having an opinion and having the opinion that somethings is dependent on context.

>>54069380
Generally, my rule is that a character should be a step or two out of the race/culture's archetype, but not too much more than that. Reason being, if you just play the archetype, your character isn't really an individual, just a carbon copy. But if you go so far as to reject literally everything about the character's race/culture, then there isn't much reason to play that race/culture in the first place.

For instance, you make a dwarf. Maybe your dwarf holds great reverence for ancestors and smithing, but actually doesn't much care for alcohol, or loves alcohol but thinks smithing is boring.

Or a high elf. Appreciates magic and is kind of an arrogant ass, but is actually rather militarily-minded.

File: 1457071843409s.png (136KB, 626x258px) Image search: [Google]

136KB, 626x258px

>>54069974
>Pretty much this. What this anon is trying to say is...
>>depends on the setting
Not what I'm saying at all, really.

It does depend pretty heavily on the setting, but any setting with multiple player races is going to have this line of development. Races inevitably have distinct temperament, culture, and physical norms which will influence the development of any of their members.

Even in a completely polyglot culture, an 8'1" minotaur isn't going to be the runty kid that everyone bullies into running their errands unless he's a major physical outlier. This is an example of how a race has a very visible effect on a character's central identity.

Unless you mean 'race' as how they're defined in humans, which definitely is a reflection of culture first and biological differences second.