Fantasy Races

    Why do fantasy games have all those races, Player or otherwise? Is it just tradition or is there something fundamentally necessary about all these different types of folks being in an fantasy setting? From a design standpoint, what does it add? Is it a cop-out or just a simplified replacement for different human cultures?

     It's definitely an RPG genre convention. I know some of my players like to play non-humans but they usually end up being of the Star Trek bumpy forehead alien type (that is just funny looking humans). I also have players who will play nothing but caucasian humans and get pissy if they can't (to the point of coming up with outrageous stories about how their white european character came to be a ninja in 11th century Japan). This makes me think it's not about role-playing an alien culture so much as looking funny/cool and getting special whiz-bang "racial abilities" with a little (very little) pre-defined characterization. Honestly this is fine with me considering the genre. At least all the PCs aren't a bunch of min/maxed clones.

     Maybe all those races are in a setting because that world is magical. If everything is magical and alive somehow maybe they just appeared one day spontaneously, maybe the gods had a hand in it, maybe they came from another world or dimension, maybe they're mutants, maybe some were created by wizards, maybe all of the above. I don't know. Does anyone know? Does it matter?

What I want to say here...

I guess I want to get ideas out of my head in a public kind of way about what ever comes to my mind. Maybe what ever I think is cool at the time or RPG stuff. Probably mostly RPG stuff. Anyway, I like PnP RPGs and have been running games and playing for about 26 yrs, mostly GURPS and D&D in one form or another.

I also want to use this blog to improve my abysmal writing skills through practice. I'm sure being able to communicate well in a written format could help me someday.

Thanks and please come back.

Jon