On Unique Races (A Roleplay Discussion)

[Erit of Eastcris]

I'm uncertain on if this is better suited to ConCrit and I doubt it's Academy material (brusque, neanderthalic spewer of profanity that I am) so I'm putting it here, and if it ends up being moved and I get yelled at... Well, I sure got myself in hot water fast, now didn't I. Moving on.

I've been lurking through request threads and some RPs that I'm not involved in, and I noticed that (and this may just be because I didn't look through the entire archive of umpteen zillion, in which case I apologize for jumping to conclusions) not a single one of them involved a race I haven't heard of before or knew by another name, or fury forbid involved nekomata. I'm curious as to why; it isn't that difficult to create a race of one's own, is it? I find it adds color to a non-realism world when one populates it with interesting races that are either established but done interestingly (dwarves, elves, gnomes etceteras) and/or new, exotic races made for that world. For instance, I'm particularly fond of using members of a race known as "Sin Eaters", who look like vampires and can easily be mistaken for them, but instead of blood they feed on one's wrongdoings and the memories thereof, and whose supernatural powers are derived from a genetic quirk that, as they use them, slowly corrodes their mind and drives them mad. I have yet to see anything atypical to that extent, and I'm just curious as to the various reasons one has for that; is it a lack of drive, attachment to the familiar, a lack of the needed creativity, what?

And on a similar note, what are everyone's thoughts on "custom" races? Do you like roleplaying in settings that have them? Do you tend to shy away from them? Have you made any yourself, and if so do you like using them in roleplays?

As a spare note, if one should be curious on the races I've made, feel free to ask. (No, this wasn't one long rant of me bragging; I'm quite curious to know some answers)

 

[Nihilistic_Impact]

For starters, a lot of folks utilise those same old species due to the familiarity. There is an ease of communication due to a shared cultural experience so you don't need to info dump your role play partner.

For the creative types you get into such things as ecology, how did they come about, what societal pressures did they experience, varying cultures within a species so you don't end up with the star trek mono-culture aliens. How do they interact with others? Just a whole host of things which give me a fucking head ache when I try to come up with an original fantasy setting because I'm tired of the same old elf and dwarf shit fest.

Unique is good, but it creates a disconnect as it's an outside context problem. You need to wrap things up in familiarity so folks to relate to it.

I've rambled and strayed a bit; I too would like to see more, and more thought on the nature beyond physical presence.

 

[Trygon]

I don't think you can really call your race 'custom' or 'original' when you start the description with 'Like vampires, but'

In fact, I think the 'Like vampires, but' are the most overused cliche among roleplaying entirely. Anyone who plays a 'like vampires, but' in my experience has been someone going for a cool bad guy who doesn't want his immediate vulnerability telegraphed by several hundred years of literature, but still wants to slip into the masturbatory fantasies of vampire fangirls.

As for me, I've only roleplayed three races often enough to bear mentioning. Dragons are my favorite, because I like riddles and greed and killing someone just for scattering some of your hoard. Trygon was a bit more complex than just a dragon... But I didn't bother to assign a name to 'idiot fallen godling'. Humans need no introduction, I know what it's like to be one intimately. And finally, I have a vampire who's persisted, a character I originally made solely to spite the endless 'like vampires, but' that surrounded me with a novelty - A vampire who was burned by crosses, overcome by garlic, and withered in the sun.

We use these names not because they are unoriginal, but because they convey meaning. 'Sin Eater' is a laughably juvenile title that I'm forcing myself to take seriously enough to try and imagine why any group would ever call themselves that. Even though it's a pointedly apt description of what they do (Indicating the name preceded the creatures themselves), why would they call themselves that? Why would anyone else call them that? The only time I've ever seen a term like 'Sin Eater' get applied to anything is in the opening crawl of an anime, which I suppose is part and parcel to the whole mess.

You want to be original? It's a fool's errand, but a good first step would be making sure your character's character is original, instead of playing monster mad-libs to get a Baku-pire.

 

[Pokemon Master Serena]

To add a more broad point of view to this discussion and hopefully keep it from derailing from an interesting topic of discussion, you have to really sit back and look at the big picture when creating an entire race from scratch. I, personally, love personalizing my OC characters to certain degrees. In Naruto, fandoms, for example, I have a clan which I created in that world with their own kekkei genkai and their own style of taijutsu that is infused with basic and traditional (for them at least) ninjutsu techniques. This was an easy task. The world was already built for me. The history is already established. All that I had to do was design my clan and plug them in to it all.

When you're creating an entirely new people, however, there is a much more broad spectrum of questions. Where do these people live? Are they nomadic or do they establish cities? What adaptations do they possess that enable them to thrive there? What do they eat? Do they have their own language? What is the history of their people? What is their culture like? How does their culture clash or mess with the cultures of the people around them?

Creating entirely new races is a hefty task. It is one that I enjoy, but only for role plays with partners that I have known for a while and know that the RP will be enjoyable and long-lived. I would like to get the most out of all of that effort, after all. On sites like this, it can take some time to really get to know your partners well enough to feel comfortable doing this.

 

[littlerooster]

I think if you wanted to create a truly original race you first have to start with an original type of appearance, and herein lies your first problem, everyone thinks of life as having a head, arms, legs and a torso of some description, so you would have to think outside the box on a major scale and think of something different even if it defies what we consider to be possible.

The other issue is we tend to build a character or race around aspects that we admire in some way, so we get the usual themes again - Dragons, Vamps, Werewolves etc.

So just thinking a little here I would be inclined to look at different diseases and medical conditions and see if something could be based on that (Just as with Werewolves), and then work on what type of attitude that that condition would bring out in someone who has it and then try and build an appearance around that somehow maybe mashing a disease with something more physical.

In terms of appearance we are probably always going to be stuck with the usual variation of a human or animal/creature.

Just a thought.

 

[LadyLarunai]

The problem with original creations it that you can link basically anything to something else, for instance your "Sin-Eaters" in name alone already exist multiple times as do beings that feed off the sins and evil of others the most original thing I have need seem to come from the sci- fi genre where anthropomorphism does not seem to matter, head crabs, the brain suckers from futurama, light orbs from Star Trek, the blob, the pink alien things from mass effect, and although I'm am not a big scifi buff they seem more original that most things that fall into fantasy be them Demi gods or radioactive flesh eating piranha kittens