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(08-05-2015, 07:45 PM)Graeham Wrote: On a side note, I do wonder if people shy away from role-playing lalafell because of the uphill struggle they often have to be taken seriously. It isn't a whole lot of fun when a character isn't allowed to score a victory - and roll fights alone aren't a fair system in every case since they usually revolve around leaving things up to chance rather than establishing that a smaller character can, in fact, beat a larger character in a straight up fight.This thread for instance, did not sour me on being Lalafell, but golly gee it did sour me on Highlanders!
Well, not really. It just always seems like when this issue is brought up, or just realism in general, it's always a Highlander, even when it's not Warren, lol. Forgive me if my tone is kinda biting, I'm tired of this subject.
I played the character I wanted to because I felt like it. The thread was interesting in that it made me more aware that a lot of people disrespect my character concept and others like it by its very nature, and that I should avoid playing with them, so in that sense it was very useful. ICly, I've rarely actually encountered people within my RP group that demonstrate these assumptions. Certainly, I've made allowances and explained why it's possible both OOC and ICly, and have never made light of innate disadvantages like reach, but to whom is it enough and to who is it not? Why make the effort? An overemphasis on grittiness in an innately unrealistic setting discourage people from taking the time to play a fanciful character, and regulates a segment of the setting to comic relief.
I have invoked the exceptional nature of my character, who is by all intents and purposes "superhuman," or "superlala" I guess, due to training, freakishness, and a long, pretty spoilery hidden backstory, to allow for things IC. I can see a lot of people would just innately not buy it, even with said explanations in place, no matter how I sell it to them. They have a solidly entrenched view of how realistic the setting ought to be. To those players, I will flip the bird and hover away on a plume of blue Elixir Field aether. Compared to what Monks do in setting, nothing of what I've demonstrated ICly is even remotely impossible, but this speaks of a very personal system of degrees.
Just for example, Warren can make the distinction, for instance, that someone throwing a larger being is unrealistic, and then argue that it's only extreme circumstances like this that he's against, but tacitly, what's being argued is that the race's strength is innately inferior in a significant way, as opposed to the canonically demonstrated way, which is minor. An explanation Warren would buy would not appeal to the next Baralander who insists everyone Fecht and MMA their way to victory outside of the sanctioned limits of /roll RP combat. And I don't see how someone can make a distinction between a small character using tremendous force to mist your head or shatter a cobalt breastplate than a small character using tremendous force to lift another character bodily. The latter is only "less plausible" because of the fact that the person above can stand up, but as far as I was able to discern from the thread, the issue wasn't with the body mechanics as much as the strength involved. Regardless, teasing out minor points like this is pretty irrelevant, as the setting is suffused with magical influences. None of it is impossible in the slightest way.
Other things can apply this too. Some would find the idea of a lala punching powerfully believable, but not any of the things Monks regularly do in the setting, canonically, or even things much less exotic, such as not even throwing hadoukens of aether but cutting with waves of air pressure, a really common fictional motif in Asian fantasy, to the point of being nearly pedestrian. Sure, I've got my biases, I watch Wuxia and enjoy a lot of anime that uses similar motifs to it, but a lot of what Monks do demonstrates superhuman strength, so why is it that practically every member of a caste of warriors, regardless of race (Lalafell Monks appear in MNK quests pretty regularly too.) demonstrates supernatural physical prowess canonically, but it is impossible for a Lalafell of unusual strength to knock a man over?
Because some players have already decided, before you ever played with them, that the Lala character is a joke. I see that, personally, as imprinting one's own subjective suspension of disbelief onto someone else's character. That's godmodding.
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AV by Kura-Ou
Wiki (Last updated 01/16)
My Balmung profile.
AV by Kura-Ou
Wiki (Last updated 01/16)
My Balmung profile.