7 réponses à ce sujet

[Vortex13]

I have been looking for a good science fiction table top RPG group to play with on Roll20.net and so far every single one I have looked up to possibly join have said the same thing: "Humans only."

 

From Numenera, to Traveller, to Halo Mythic, to Stars without Number, all of these games have had a human only restriction despite having rules written for playing as other alien species. If this was one or two GMs I could understand, but for everyone (as far as I've seen) to place this caveat on their games is a little disheartening. I mean why even include rules for playing as these other races if no one is going to use them?

 

It's not even about power gaming here; in most cases the humans are the most optimized for min/maxing anyway; I just want to role-play as something different, but every time I speak to the GM about joining their campaign "no aliens allowed" is always the first thing they mention.

 

I have recently gotten into a Shadowrun campaign, and its a little better as far as race options go; instead of humans everyone wants to be an elf though; but even then the more 'unique' metasapients, free spirits, or AIs are off limits despite rules existing for them.

 

 

Is there some unofficial memo that I'm not getting here?

 

 

/rant 

[Fast Jimmy]

I've just signed up for Roll 20 recently (first session with total strangers is in five days... I feel like I'm going on a blind date) and found the LFG system a little odd.

While I realize there are only a certain number of DMs who are actively recruiting for any given campaign at any given time, I too was surprised at the level of restrictions or narrow focus on a lot of the campaigns.

In regards to human only in sci-fi, I think it could be one of two things. 1 - lack of desire to deal with alien stats/abilities (although this seems unlikely if any NPCs or enemies are aliens are in the campaign). 2 - they've had bad experiences with players using alien behavior and personalities as a crutch for bad RPing and gaming.

In the long, long ago, I played a Star Trek PnP where one of the players in the group was Klingon and used it as an excuse to challenge, defy and subvert the DM's campaign at nearly every turn. "That's not what a Klingon would do!" "My character would never go along with this mission - it goes against his Klingon nature!" "My character attacks, not suffering the foolishness of this any longer!" Etc., etc.

My suggestion would be to see if you can find a campaign you might like and PM the DM/write on the open forum board to them about it. There may be legitimate campaign reasons for it, or there may be reservations about running into bad players that you may be able to convince them you aren't a "threat" of.

Good luck!

[Vortex13]

I've just signed up for Roll 20 recently (first session with total strangers is in five days... I feel like I'm going on a blind date) and found the LFG system a little odd.

While I realize there are only a certain number of DMs who are actively recruiting for any given campaign at any given time, I too was surprised at the level of restrictions or narrow focus on a lot of the campaigns.

In regards to human only in sci-fi, I think it could be one of two things. 1 - lack of desire to deal with alien stats/abilities (although this seems unlikely if any NPCs or enemies are aliens are in the campaign). 2 - they've had bad experiences with players using alien behavior and personalities as a crutch for bad RPing and gaming.

In the long, long ago, I played a Star Trek PnP where one of the players in the group was Klingon and used it as an excuse to challenge, defy and subvert the DM's campaign at nearly every turn. "That's not what a Klingon would do!" "My character would never go along with this mission - it goes against his Klingon nature!" "My character attacks, not suffering the foolishness of this any longer!" Etc., etc.

My suggestion would be to see if you can find a campaign you might like and PM the DM/write on the open forum board to them about it. There may be legitimate campaign reasons for it, or there may be reservations about running into bad players that you may be able to convince them you aren't a "threat" of.

Good luck!

 

 

Thanks, I'm glad that I am not the only one that noticed this. 

 

 

As far as alien players de-railing the game, I can understand that to a point, but then again one can just as easily de-rail a campaign with a human character.

 

The Halo: Mythic system is the only one that I have seen where playing as an alien might be considered OP to a run of the mill human (Elite vs. Human Marine) but even then you have Spartan IIs and IIIs, or Grunts, Jackals, etc to balance it out. 

[Fast Jimmy]

Thanks, I'm glad that I am not the only one that noticed this.


As far as alien players de-railing the game, I can understand that to a point, but then again one can just as easily de-rail a campaign with a human character.

The Halo: Mythic system is the only one that I have seen where playing as an alien might be considered OP to a run of the mill human (Elite vs. Human Marine) but even then you have Spartan IIs and IIIs, or Grunts, Jackals, etc to balance it out.

Agreed. I would ping the DM - if the story they want to tell only makes sense with humans, I'd say take a pass. There's a few things worse than a DM who wants to tell a story more than they want to run a campaign.

[Vortex13]

Agreed. I would ping the DM - if the story they want to tell only makes sense with humans, I'd say take a pass. There's a few things worse than a DM who wants to tell a story more than they want to run a campaign.

 

Yeah. Having an overall campaign arc in mind is good forward planing, but not allowing players to go off the rails a bit in the name of good roleplaying is a quick way to suck the fun out of the game.

 

 

I had a friend in one PnP game where he was a preacher, and he came across a group of thugs beating a helpless man. Playing to his character my friend wanted  to go and put a stop to the attack or at least call attention to the violence, but the GM said: "No. Your character doesn't want to go and help."

[Fast Jimmy]

Yeah. Having an overall campaign arc in mind is good forward planing, but not allowing players to go off the rails a bit in the name of good roleplaying is a quick way to suck the fun out of the game.


I had a friend in one PnP game where he was a preacher, and he came across a group of thugs beating a helpless man. Playing to his character my friend wanted to go and put a stop to the attack or at least call attention to the violence, but the GM said: "No. Your character doesn't want to go and help."

Yikes. That sounds terribad. At least make a skill roll or something to explain why you don't do it.

I'm doing an E6 3.5 D&D campaign. Never done E6 (although it won't really be all that different from any other campaign for a while since we are starting at Level 1 anyway), so I'm curious to see how that plays out. The DM seems like a good dude, so fingers crossed.


I've seen a couple of ShadowRun campaigns on Roll20 that allow multiple races? I know that's not "alien" but it is a sci-fi slant, if that strikes your fancy?

[Vortex13]

Yikes. That sounds terribad. At least make a skill roll or something to explain why you don't do it.

I'm doing an E6 3.5 D&D campaign. Never done E6 (although it won't really be all that different from any other campaign for a while since we are starting at Level 1 anyway), so I'm curious to see how that plays out. The DM seems like a good dude, so fingers crossed.


I've seen a couple of ShadowRun campaigns on Roll20 that allow multiple races? I know that's not "alien" but it is a sci-fi slant, if that strikes your fancy?

 

 

Yeah I'm in a Shadowrun campaign atm. It's cool having the option to play as elves, dwarfs, orc, and trolls; though I will never get peoples' fascination with elves, nor their 'elite' status in all setting they are present in. 

 

 

That being said there are some other interesting racial choices, like centaurs, free spirits, AIs, etc. that are "off limits" according to most GMs despite having fully fleshed out rules for playing as one. Sure there is variety in the baseline races, but being a centaur with a sniper rifle, or an AI helping the team while moving throughout the Matrix would be really fun to role play.

 

 

I am hoping that I can convince the GM to let me play as one, right now though I am playing as a Dwarf Rigger codenamed Grumpy.

[AutumnWitch]

Funny when I DM/GM I prefer campaigns with no humans at all, These people you talk about are either just lazy or silly, Phhhht!!!! Can't believe that .,..its ROLL PLAYING for goodness sake. *shakes head*