Penny Arcade - Comic - On My Mother's Side

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Penny Arcade - Comic - On My Mother's Side

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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Golden Yak

One of those self-hating elves.

dennis

I kind of wish he'd drawn them like they are in the game.

MagicalGoats

Is that... He-Man?! He's even got the black eyebrows and blonde hair! Prince Adam must be working a side hustle, I guess.

dennis

Well, it's definitely not Sir Sex.

keepwatchingtheskies

That elf was once (in OG D&D) a class seems weird now but elves being different from (human) warriors being different from (human) mages also does not seem that strange a concept. From a player perspective, a human may be defined by their profession, but an alien race may not fit into any truly recognisable categories? Forget about playing an elf something - just try to properly roleplay an elf, dude. Hard enough as it is!

More familiar to me however (as I started with AD&D) are the race/class restrictions, where for instance a halfling could not be a paladin and a dwarf could not be a wizard, and demi-humans were somehow restricted in how far they could advance in a class. I never cared for the level restrictions, but those limited race/class combinations? To me they mean the races are more grounded and more clearly defined.

I mean, if you want to go against the grain and play that dwarf mage, or paladin halfling, more power to you. House-rule that shit and come up with a proper backstory on why your character is the exceptional exception. But a good RPG system to me at least sets the norm so that the players can recognise and agree on deviations from the norm.

MichaelLC

So you're saying humans are 'normal' and non-humans are abnormal? How about lesser, or inferior? I mean, it's all right there in the book, you're not making this up...

keepwatchingtheskies

MichaelLC wrote: »

So you're saying humans are 'normal' and non-humans are abnormal?

Wait when did this become political or controversial? Yes, non-human characters are abnormal to human players. That's part of their charm and challenge.

Djiem

keepwatchingtheskies wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

So you're saying humans are 'normal' and non-humans are abnormal?

Wait when did this become political or controversial? Yes, non-human characters are abnormal to human players. That's part of their charm and challenge.

That's a very prevalent theme in Shadowrun.

V1m

MichaelLC wrote: »

So you're saying humans are 'normal' and non-humans are abnormal? How about lesser, or inferior? I mean, it's all right there in the book, you're not making this up...

If we're going to be like that about it, the source materiel makes no bones whatsoever about elves being superior to humans.

Also a 70% xp penalty when your life expectancy is "Whatever I goddamb well feel like" is kind of OK. Casting 'Haste' ages you a year? Oh man, I cast it when I'm going to the shops lol, imagine caring about a year.

Plus infravision is pretty rad.

MichaelLC

I, uh, was just carrying the strip to the next level of ridiculousness.

keepwatchingtheskies

Phew!

By the way since Djiem mentioned Shadowrun as a world that features fantasy racism, this also plays an important role in Troika's Arcanum (highly recommended for its lore, races partially standing in for classes in an industrial society), Terry Pratchett's Discworld (awesome) and famously Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series and the CDPR games. Also, Netflix's 'Bright', if you liked Shadowrun or Arcanum, may scratch the same itch. Fantasy racism as a mirror for regular racism is a weird kind of thing though, it takes a good writer to make it work in a world where races actually exist and have (somewhat) different innate abilities.

dennis

MichaelLC wrote: »

I, uh, was just carrying the strip to the next level of ridiculousness.

Poe's Law strikes again.