Poll time.

Do roll your eyes, groan in annoyance, rub your brow in frustration or make sarcastic remarks when one of your (potential) players states he/she wants to play one of the options above (remember it's multiple choice)?

Why?

There's no poll.

Options?

Now there are. Weird glitch in the submission.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;874152Why?

I voted: centaur and aquatic race, because they won't work with the usual settings (land based, and sooner or later climbing something a centaur can't); clinically insane person, because it's going to disrupt the game; and half-vampire, just because it will be irrelevant or take over the game - there's never a middle ground. Probably wouldn't bother me if there were rules for it that did hit that middle ground.

The others are all OK with me, at least enough that I won't roll my eyes at them alone. (Brooding loner has to be willing to brood with at least a small group of fellow party members, or it won't work for the game. I still won't roll my eyes.)

Centaur: Do you really want to be in the stable of the inn? I'm fine.
Pixie - Well, you're the first. Be my guest, hypothetical player. Just don't expect the game to be fair to your small stature.
Cat humanoid - Fine, I allow those and lizardmen by default. Certainly better than an elf!
Drow - If you tell me he's good, misunderstood and dual-wielding, it's a "no". If you're looking forwards to squicking the group with an evil drow in the wrong kind of campaign, it's a "fuck, no!"
Tiefling - fine!
Half-vampire - You don't get a katana. The other half is not a werewolf. If you're fine with paying the points, I'm fine with you getting the bonuses.
Aquatic race - You're the first, but as long as it's amphibious, be my guest.
Amnesiac - Didn't read the setting? I do that myself, no criticism. Be my guest.
Brooding loner - If you can work with others, I'm fine. If you can't but are fine with the consequences, I'm fine as well. Are you?
Dispossessed noble - Fine.
Paladin - You're very much welcome!
Druid - If you're planning to play a PETA, nature is going to turn on you. Otherwise, fine.
Monk, samurai or ninja in a non-Asian setting - Fuck, no.
Man/woman (opposite of their own gender) - No. Not unless you can persuade me you can roleplay it. To this day, 3 people have, and not a single one wants to actually do it when playing.
Clinically insane person - Unless you persuade me you understand what it really looks like, and explain how this one is going to function with others, it's a "fuck no!" Which means it's probably a "fuck no" to the absolute majority of people.

Hey, it shows I haven't voted for the druids? What? I'm more prone to believe that I've checked it twice!
Can a mod add a vote from me?

Quote from: AsenRG;874161Aquatic race - You're the first, but as long as it's amphibious, be my guest.

I read it as water breathing only; I guess I have no problem with an amphibious race.

Half-vampire just sounds like nonsense to me... go full vampire or go home.
I don't know what a Tiefling is and don't care enough to look 'em up... some sort of quasi-magical mouse people, yeah?

Otherwise, assuming a wide-open gonzo setting ala Arduin, I wouldn't outright forbid any of those but people asking for Cat people or Monks/Ninjas/Samurai are gonna be under suspicion for a while.

I haven't found Centaurs to work in games, but that's odd considering that I've seen Bariaurs work in Planescape and of course Vrusk in Star Frontiers.

Hmm...I gotta look into Centaur PCs for Mazes & Minotaurs.

Pixies are fine in Tunnels & Trolls. I haven't seen tiny PCs work great in other games.

Drow...nope. Same for Dark Elves in Warhammer.

Half-vampire? WTF? You are either undead or not.

Aquatic? There was an article about Dolphin PCs in Traveller. I used them in an Aliens one-shot and they were cool/weird, but I can't see them in a long term campaign. Maybe, I'm wrong.

Amensiac? Absolutely. Oops, did I mention that I'm a CoC GM, Chaos junkie and splatterpunk fiend?

Brooding Loner? Fuck off and die. RPGs are team games.

That said, I once had a player in a supers game who had a brooding loner who couldn't stand being by himself so he double-brooded as a point of levity. He was a Batman guy who would always find excuses why the other PCs needed him to stick with them. The player even paid for a second Secret Identity that the PC used to hang out with the team when they were not in costume. It allowed the player to make all the Batman/Wolverine speeches, but stay with the team.

Monk, samurai or ninja in a non-Asian setting? Depends. I would need to be convinced it made sense for the campaign.

Man/woman? So much depends on the player and the group.

Insane person? The Crazy is an OCC from Rifts! Outside of Rifts, I am hesitant. Are we playing something cartoon / cinematic where we can play the Funny Crazy (Murdock from A-team) or more realistic where mental illness can be squicky?

It's entirely system and setting dependent, so I'm not really sure how to vote:

centaur: If I'm running a dungeon crawl, yeah, I'd roll my eyes. If I'm running a game set in or around Dragon Pass, Glorantha, I'd be cool with it.

Pixie: What's a pixie in this setting? What's the tone of the game? In some settings, a pixie would be too goofy for a serious game. In others, a pixie would be too fucking scary for a light-hearted game.

Cat humanoid: If I'm running Atlantis: the Second Age, go for it. There are various options which fit the bill in Glorantha. I'd generally be cool with it, unless I'm running, say, a strictly human-centric swords-and-sorcery game, such as AS&SH.

Drow: While some of the settings I run have dark/underground dwelling elves, Drow as such don't exist in the settings I usually run. If I were to run a Forgotten Realms game, well, I don't know. I supposed I'd be cool with it, but I'd have to do more FR research.

Tiefling: Don't exist in the settings I usually run.

Half-vampire: Don't exist in the settings I usually run. I'm not familiar with a setting with half-vampires. You're either a vampire or you're not. If I was running Glorantha, I'd probably disallow it (not sure if that fits "roll your eyes" or not). If I was running Shadow of the Demon Lord, I'd almost encourage it.

Aquatic race: Assuming the campaign isn't aquatic, I'd allow it if the race was amphibious.

Amnesiac: If this is an excuse for a player to shout "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" and step all over the other players lines, I'd disallow it (assuming I think a player inclined to do this shit is worth keeping around in the first place; I don't give a shit your parents didn't hug you enough, you don't have the right to stomp all over other people's fun time trying to get the attention from them your parent's never gave you). If the player wants to do something interesting with the concept, go for it.

Brooding loner: Generally disallow in games which assume the characters form a more-or-less consistent group. Otherwise, same answer as for Amnesiac.

Dispossessed noble: Sure.

Paladin: If they exist in the setting, and the player isn't going to play their character as Lawful Stupid (or nearest equivalent in that system/setting), I'm fine with it. I can often come up with a reasonable equivalent in systems/settings that don't have paladins as such.

Druid: If they exist in the setting, I'm fine with it. I can often come up with a reasonable equivalent in systems/settings that don't have druids as such. If I've prepped for and pitched a dungeon crawl, I'm not going to throw that out for one player.

Monk, samurai or ninja in a non-Asian setting: This is a pretty straight-forward disallow.

Man/woman (opposite of their own gender): If the player isn't an idiot/asshole, I'm fine with it. I they are an idiot/asshole, then I have to wonder why I'm wasting my time with them.

Clinically insane person: See answer under Amnesiac.

Drow and Half Vampire.

Drow because well I'm just sick of them after Drizzt books and all that.

Half Vampire because my thinking is that being half vampire is like being a little pregnant.

That said, since I moved the system completely behind screen I find that it's taken out a lot of the oomph behind these "I'm so special" characters.  While many players say they it's something story based that's motivating their choices, once they don't have the special mechanical benefits to directly handle, they seem to request these kinds of characters a whole lot less.

Nobody hates paladins and dispossessed nobles, but 80% of us hate [strike]Blade wannabes[/strike] half-vampires, it seems;)!

Quote from: AsenRG;874183Nobody hates paladins and dispossessed nobles, but 80% of us hate [strike]Blade wannabes[/strike] half-vampires, it seems;)!

Half-vampire is just a stupid concept, IMO. I wouldn't have them as PC, NPCs or furniture in any game I run. The rest all have their time and place.

It depends.

If I have the time to do like Gary did and run for multiple groups, go ahead and be whatever you want; if necessary I can always run your character solo.

Otherwise, I'm pretty skeptical about anything out of the mainstream.  "Work and play well with others" is the #1 rule of character creation in a world I'm running.

The most boring people in the world always play elves.