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First a disclaimer..this is about GAME racism. I was trying to think of things that each race would call others as a way of insulting them. Here are a few, feel free to add as you see fit
Elves = twigs, find them in the forest and they snap sooo easily, burn well too
First a disclaimer..this is about GAME racism. I was trying to think of things that each race would call others as a way of insulting them. Here are a few, feel free to add as you see fit
Elves = Point-ears, treehuggers ... ask them if they ever eat anything ... deliberately call male elves "she" ...
I have a gruff human warblade who does just that. It's awesome because the player of the elf is kind of a homophobe but knows he really oughtn't to be, so it comes out as extreme agression in the game. Fun times.
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On DMPCs: "Remember, nothing will spice up your campaign quicker than long descriptions of NPC’s doing spectacular stuff while the players sit around and watch." -Shamus Young, DM of the Rings Divide By Zero: Irreverent Fool, you are my hero.
Gnomes - Lawn Ornaments (also works for dwarfs in some cases), Sparkies (for their spell-like abilities), Leprechauns, Miniatures etc. (of course, they usually wouldn't take offense)
Fey - Insects
Half-Orc - Half-Breed or Half-Blood (obvious), Thug, Beastmen, Halfmen
Elf - Effeminate, Pixies, High-heads (for their habit of being arrogant), Ears
Dwarf - Midget, Statue, Stone Man, Half Man, Beards
Orc - Teeth, Beast, Quarterwit, Grunt, Boarface
Gnoll - "Good Dog", Pup, Cub, "Go Fetch", etc.
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Subtlety is the art of changing something just enough
that people notice the difference,
without noticing the change.
Humans need something to mock their tendency to 'adopt' the cultures of other races. Clone or Mimic might work. (other race) Wannabe could hurt.
Other races could call them dull-ears/eyes/whatever in comparison to themselves (thinking elves mostly, here).
Sun-lovers or nightblind might be appropriate coming from creatures with low-light or darkvision.
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Subtlety is the art of changing something just enough
that people notice the difference,
without noticing the change.
How about the fact that humans can apparently breed with anything on two legs (or even four legs if you count dragons).
Human: Hey elf, you look like a girl.
Elf: To a human, everything must look like a girl.
Human: What?
Elf: Half-orcs, half-ogres...
Human: ... shut up.
Dwarf: Half-dragons, half-kobolds.
Human: I said shut up!
Elf: ...
Dwarf: ...
Human: ...
Elf: Centaurs.
small races might call the medium sized ones giants.
Halfling child: Daddy, daddy! I saw a bunch of bid ugly monsters and they were talking really loud, and shaking the ground with their big stupid feet!
Father halfling: Oh don't worry son, those are just humans.
Halfling child: There are green humans?
Father halfling: Green? They might be orcs... they're kind of like humans but... you know, more so.
Gnomes call halflings 'shoeless yokels' while halflings call gnomes 'freaks'.
Human - kid, blank (because of the versitality thing), rock (bland), raceslut (every half-whatever is half-human for a reason...)
Drow - spider monkey, spider kisser, coalskin, bleachy (because of the white hair), half-man (for the males)
Duergar - greymeat, dirtbeard
Tiefling - demey/ demette, horngirl/ hornboy, rattail
Aasimar - shinypants, angelface, prettyboy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thespianus
I fail to see how "No, that guy is too fat to be hurt by your fire" would make sense.
How about the fact that humans can apparently breed with anything on two legs (or even four legs if you count dragons).
Human: Hey elf, you look like a girl.
Elf: To a human, everything must look like a girl.
Human: What?
Elf: Half-orcs, half-ogres...
Human: ... shut up.
Dwarf: Half-dragons, half-kobolds.
Human: I said shut up!
Elf: ...
Dwarf: ...
Human: ...
Elf: Centaurs.
You are simply awesome. Mind if I quote you in my sig?
As for insulting humans, calling them "apes" always works well.
Also, dwarf (or gnome, or halfling, I suppose) = "lawn ornament." (5 points if you get the reference!)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Randel
How about the fact that humans can apparently breed with anything on two legs (or even four legs if you count dragons)?
Human: Hey elf, you look like a girl.
Elf: To a human, everything must look like a girl.
Human: What?
Elf: Half-orcs, half-ogres...
Human: ... shut up.
Dwarf: Half-dragons, half-kobolds.
Human: I said shut up!
Elf: ...
Dwarf: ...
Human: ...
Elf: Centaurs.
Elves (and maybe Half-Elves) could be called "long-ears."
Humans can be called "Round-ears" by elves.
Tieflings can be called "Goat-girl/boy" (NWN2), fiendling, brimstone breath, or simply fiends. Depends on whether they're proud of their fiendish ancestry or not, though.
Halfling -- "little boy" or "little girl." Might work for gnomes too.
"I dunno, you just gave me the image of a nerd flying slow motion over a coffee table towards another nerd, dual wielding massive books. It was awesome." -- Marriclay
Also, refer to an elf's ears as earspikes, always. They hate that.
No, they really do. My avatar in Second Life has elven ears, and someone very close to me frequently calls them earspikes. I keep wanting to use one to poke her eye out in retaliation. XD
Also, dwarf (or gnome, or halfling, I suppose) = "lawn ornament." (5 points if you get the reference!)
Discworld?
One of my players was running a dwarf a while back. The entire rest of the party kept forgetting his name, so they just referred to him as "The Dwarf" or, for whatever reason "Chromelick"
Probably something to do with the whole money obsession thing.
You are simply awesome. Mind if I quote you in my sig?
As for insulting humans, calling them "apes" always works well.
Also, dwarf (or gnome, or halfling, I suppose) = "lawn ornament." (5 points if you get the reference!)
Hopefully the members of the Campaign for Equal Heights doesnt hear you mentioning this phrase, also all them little buggers dow the dwarf bar would come screaming at you and cut you off at the knees if they heard it, so shush please.
Gnomes = big nose (they do have a good sense of smell, and I know in some worlds they do indeed have noses that are correspondingly large), penny-pinchers (if involved in banking), badgers (for affinities with burrowing mammals)
Dwarves = fat gnome, giant gnome (dwarves don't take well to being "accidentally" confused with or associated with other races), drunk Ulf (or substitute another common dwarven name in for Ulf)
Elves = pansie, tree-hugger (seconding Nowhere Girl on this one)
By the way, these suggestions are quite helpful, especially since I'm running a campaign where different races don't get along too well.
Also "dwarfs".
Is there any reason an entire race will call themselves "short people"?
I always understood Dwarf and Halfling to be what their races name was in whatever the dominant human language of the region. There's no way those races call themselves that, probably something with lots of hard sylables and appostraphies for the Dwarves and I think the WofC write ups useually have halflings calling themselves Hin, or is that just Faerun?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeroNumerous
A treasure destroying trap sounds like the work of someone who puts items in barrels or at the bottom of a death filled labyrinth.
Ah, you're starting to get it. Then you dig down and loot the remains. Give them bread and circusses and the proles wont rise against you. Give adventurers dungeons and trapped chests and they won't waste time looking for your home to kill your wife.
I always understood Dwarf and Halfling to be what their races name was in whatever the dominant human language of the region. There's no way those races call themselves that, probably something with lots of hard sylables and appostraphies for the Dwarves and I think the WofC write ups useually have halflings calling themselves Hin, or is that just Faerun?
Still, they look perfectly okay with the idea that their hight will be used as a word to describe their race in the common language used in the area.
For an entire race, "midget" is an insult, but "dwarf" isn't?
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