I’m getting kind of tired of every monstrous race being humanised. Sometimes it feels good to have a foe that you don’t sympathise with. Sometimes you just need a monster to kill. #ttrpg

Further thoughts on it. It seems the more 'humanoid' shaped a monster is, the more it seems to suffer the "human with pointy ears" effect. That is, people assume it must have human motivations, human emotions or human thought processes.

I think that is a very constraining way to think about world building.
Why can't something be completely inhuman while possessing the outward appearance of humanity, or at least 'humanoid-ity'?

Even better, it might have some mental/emotional aspects in common with humans but be completely missing or subverting others. Not simply a cultural difference but an actual absence of something we consider fundamental to our mental make up.

For e.g. the Mindflayers of 3.5 D&D were incapable feeling emotions of joy or happiness. The closest they came was a sense of intellectual satisfaction when an experiment worked. And of course they were unable to empathise in any capacity.

Another example. The Uruk Hai of LotR were genetically engineered monsters. Biological warmachines. Compare them to the orcs of Eberron, who are closer to traditional fantasy elves in outlook (nature based, spiritual, fierce when angered but otherwise peaceful).

One franchise that does it well is Goblinslayer. The goblins have many similarities to humans in their emotions and thoughts but utterly lack the ability to empathize with the humans they brutalize due to their unique (and horrific) way of reproduction.

Having beings that can be understood to a point but be utterly inhuman in outlook after that point makes for some great PC/NPC interactions. It also opens up some really interesting story options for the players to oppose or exploit.

Apologies for the rambling nature of this thread. My thoughts aren't very organized.

#dnd #ttrpg #fantasy #worldbuilding