I love different ancestries and character types, and these have always been a part of my game. The above is from the Pathfinder 2e Advanced Players Guide, and they are some very cool options for characters.
But I noticed this trend in almost every fantasy game these days.
Everything is turning into a cartoon.
What I find troubling about this is not the options it gives us, but often I find players will use these as a reason to not develop a background and go with an animal stereotype "as" their character. If you did this with any human race, it would be deeply troubling, but with animals, players will adopt the stereotype and lean into it as if it were their entire archetype.
I am a mouse person. Therefore, I go crazy when I see cheese!
I am a catkin, so I lick my paws and groom myself! Catnip makes me go wild! I purr and growl!
I am a crow or raven person, so I caw-caw when there is trouble!
I am a wolf person. Therefore, I walk around with my tongue out, pant, and howl at the moon!
And I sit at the table and want to scream. Would you not do that! You are just replacing problematic human stereotypes with "ha-ha" animal ones, and if these races were actually in the world - they would likely find that just as offensive as well. I bet if we played a game with humans only, you would complain about having to create a backstory and character concept and call the game boring.
I like having them in my game; it just bothers me when players get lazy and use typical animal stereotypes as their character. No backstory, personality, who am I, drama, family, or connection to the world - just an animal stereotype sits at the table.
Is it fun to roleplay and act like an animal? I guess so, but I get a table full of players doing this, and I feel like I am in a cartoon.
Good Players Make the Difference
Now, to be fair, there are some excellent anthro role-players out there, and I see some great stories and characters based on animal heritages. Those who take the time, love the ancestry, and use that to enhance the story they are telling are great players to have at a table. They also lift others around them who choose animal character types and elevate the game. They also play against stereotypes and use that to enhance their roleplaying.
I suppose modern D&D and Pathfinder exist in a world influenced by anime and manga. Since you see a lot of animal-style characters in that media, it transfers to roleplaying, and people want to see them here too. It is not bad, just something a lot of games do very poorly and often enforce the stereotype "as" ancestry instead of creating a unique world and culture for them.
Quality over quantity.
Do they fit into the world and history, or are they just here?
To respect an ancestry is to give them a place in the story of the world. A home. A history. Culture and tradition. A reason to be here. Importance.
Options
Not that cartoony is not bad - this is purely a choice and style decision. I love anthro RP when it is done right. I do not like it when it is used to bring lazy stereotypes to my table; any more than stereotyping a human or traditional fantasy race would be welcome. Because you are an animal, ancestry does not give you a pass from having a family, building a connection to the world, and having an interesting backstory to share with others.
But there are options.
I don't want to call the non-cartoony options "pushback" because that would be unfair to games and the people who wrote them. Many games make a conscious decision to give a curated set of options for backgrounds and ancestries, which is very cool for groups that like the more Tolkien-style stories or gritty fantasy worlds like Game of Thrones; we have games that provide those choices. Even games are entirely anthro and animal characters, so those options exist too.
Choice in gaming is always good, and I feel those who frame this as pushback against the modern cartoony style are just looking for anger clicks. People have preferences and choices, so supporting those is always the best and most inclusive way.
The Low Fantasy Gaming RPG is an excellent 5E-style of option for a more realistic style of game that keeps the rules people are used to. I prefer the word realism because it perfectly contrasts the cartoony style. I can have a low-fantasy cartoony world with anthro characters, for instance. The realism-to-cartoony line has a lot of points in between and gives you a slider you can adjust to taste.
I can add anthro ancestries to Low Fantasy Gaming, but the game gives me the familiar starting point of the human-elf-dwarf-halfling base with a half-skorn (beastmen) option that can be swapped for orcs. If my group chooses to add one anthro race to this world (like replacing skorn with wolf-kin), it immediately stands out and is unique. Still, I would also require my group to do the homework and explain how it fits in, what the conflicts are, what the society is like, their internal factions and all the fantastic world-building stuff.
But for groups that want to create a more familiar style of world and game, these options are fantastic.
I would likely stop with just a handful of significant, highly detailed special ancestries than a book full of random and flavorless options. I don't want 100 different animal shapes to roleplay with; I want a handful of great and flavorful ones that fit into the world and character stories - even if it is just one.
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