6 hours ago, Archlyte said:

While I would like to answer this question I think it would offend some of the forum dwellers here who get upset when someone else does not like what they like.

As long as your means of expressing that opinion isn’t your standard of insulting those who do things differently and putting forth your opinion as the One and Only True Correct Way, then crying about being “attacked” when others express their own opinions and anecdotes, have at it.

15 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

This is the internet. Don't let their inability to deal with things like adults silence you on expressing yourself (so long as you're following the board rules, of course).

Yeah and if they are truly offended they can just block you

14 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

This is the internet. Don't let their inability to deal with things like adults silence you on expressing yourself (so long as you're following the board rules, of course).

I appreciate that Happy. Here goes.

@Xcapobl

• Ok so the thing with having people play something other than the thing they play every time: I encourage people to try new things and that includes people who normally play humans being encouraged to try other species. It's more rare than the opposite, but it has happened.
• Sexy Female Twi'lek Man: I don't like this sort of an external-only way of viewing the character. I like for players to really try to get immersed and make decisions from the 1st person perspective. Plus, The guy who is making his character mainly because he sees a character online that has him reaching for his blue pills is not a compelling reason to make that character in my book. If that is something that you enjoy in your games then great, but for me it's not. I can think of a dozen ways to choose your character that are superior to this way of deciding what to play. If I was a beer & pretzels guy I wouldn't mind, but that's not my MO. Plus I have been married to a woman for almost 30 years and the finer aspects of being a female are not things that these guys are interested in playing accurately. It's usually just an excuse to make a sexy avatar that they can admire in their mind and to be used to try and have sex scenes with other hot female characters. This was fun the first few times I encountered in in my rpg career but at this point it has lost any charm to me.
• Humor is maybe the most volatile ingredient you can mess with in a game you mean to carry serious situations and drama when appropriate. It's like hyperfuel. Look no further than Jar Jar and the ewoks to see what happens when humor misfires. Also you can see what happens when juxtaposition or bad dialogue causes an unintended humorous effect such as complaining about the nature of sand. I like humor and funny stuff but I am very careful with it when it is something that can affect the game continuity.
• I want to play something different from myself: So you are just like a space pilot who makes his living transporting spice from one solar system to another? Or maybe you are really a princess leading a rebellion and the game is too close to your real life. To add to this, people playing aliens are usually just playing humans but with funny heads and will just try to get into the same situations as everyone else and have the same psychology and all that. I don't let that fly in most instances and have to remind them of things like how they don't find the bartender attractive because he only has two eyes and his skin isn't even covered in slime. The occasional dead on alien player will emerge and when they do they are fantastic. They don't act like a human, they introduce interesting culture and psychology without being obnoxious about it. But those players are rare.
• Bonuses!: Or also known as Pathfinder Sickness, I have no use for this in most instances because I don't like min/maxing. Players you will not beat me so don't even try, just make a character that works for its purpose. If it's to be a great pilot or shooter then fine, but don't try to build a better mousetrap out of parts from the books to try and avoid any chance of failure.
• Deprivation of Fun: This is something that I feel can get weedy real quick but to me the equation in a 5 person game is basically that Fun is when all 5 people have nothing that drags their fun into the negative. So each person comes to the table with the potential for fun including everything in their bag of tricks maybe up to and including things that will drag other people's fun into the negative while giving them satisfaction. The mean is achieved by each person having a threshold of where it is just not fun enough for them to want to play any more. I encourage anyone who dislikes my policies to vote with their feet, and I assure them of my understanding that not every game is a fit for every player or GM. I used to be very strict about no aliens but I adjusted that because I found that some few players could actually pull it off, but even still there will always be something that a GM who is serious about their game will put a cap on. If not getting to play an alien or a droid is enough for someone to not want to play then I see it as a good indicator that maybe the game wouldn't have been fun for them any way and I don't want to waste anyone's time.

9 minutes ago, Jawa4thewin said:

Yeah and if they are truly offended they can just block you

Yeah and I think that is perfectly reasonable.

51 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

• I want to play something different from myself: So you are just like a space pilot who makes his living transporting spice from one solar system to another? Or maybe you are really a princess leading a rebellion and the game is too close to your real life. To add to this, people playing aliens are usually just playing humans but with funny heads and will just try to get into the same situations as everyone else and have the same psychology and all that. I don't let that fly in most instances and have to remind them of things like how they don't find the bartender attractive because he only has two eyes and his skin isn't even covered in slime. The occasional dead on alien player will emerge and when they do they are fantastic. They don't act like a human, they introduce interesting culture and psychology without being obnoxious about it. But those players are rare.

This is precisely why I don't choose to play a deep cover agent working as a middle manager in an Empire-run healthcare corporation. Trying to keep my employees from being ground into dust by the repressive policies of the day (COMPNOR is real!) is way too close to my reality.

To the main question of the thread, as others have mentioned, Humans main advantage is versatility. They have a very good starting point for Characteristics, and can thus go in any direction the player wants with little extra investment of XP and talents. They can also have a slight edge in non-career skills, compared to others of the same build as them, which is helpful when they encounter situations outside their primary focus. (The Politico who just happens to be a good shot with a blaster. Not useful in his day to day work, but REALLY handy during that hostage attempt on him the other day.)

They are more easily able to move in and out of Imperial territory without experiencing any systemic bigotry and suspicion.

They are (as others stated) more able to disguise themselves as others without too many biological limitations already in place.

They are easier for most players to accurately portray, instead of trying to "be an alien". I've seen lots of players who just play a human, even when they are an alien, and never actually try and consider the alien's culture or way of viewing the world, and how that would color their roleplaying. Some players do it just fine, but a lot don't.

Sometimes you pick a race as you are a fan of the idea of them or look even through they are not as good stat wise

I am playing a Chiss even though a human is better in game stats

One of the best advantages of playing a Human in this game is that you can join the Imperial Navy and hunt down rebel terrorist scum! Yeah!

I understand the impulse to play something that you're not and to do stuff that you don't normally do.

I mean, Happy and I were just reflecting last weekend how refreshing playing Star Wars is as we cleared out that kobold nest down in Yehaw Junction. To bad we couldn't find a MU to help us. After all, we're dealing with those Orks out in Ocoee this weekend. Too bad we don't have stimpak's IRL. Those would really come in handy. Anyone know a Cleric who can join us? Heals man.

20 hours ago, Oldmike1 said:

Sometimes you pick a race as you are a fan of the idea of them or look even through they are not as good stat wise

I am playing a Chiss even though a human is better in game stats

I love this. It's this type of player who I am always willing to bend over backwards for to help them realize their character.

On 3/1/2019 at 10:06 PM, Archlyte said:

I love this. It's this type of player who I am always willing to bend over backwards for to help them realize their character.

But they're not playing a human (in this example given).

😁

11 hours ago, Xcapobl said:

But they're not playing a human (in this example given).

😁

I was in between appointments when I read that post the first time and I interpreted it to mean that it was a situation where a player wants to do a serious job of playing that species and isn't min/maxing. Oldmike1 actually said something more along the lines of the cosmetic choice which I don't like as a standalone reason. I feel like this thread has had some negative responses that have kind of pushed me back toward my old positions unless the player is accomplished and solid. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt but I think the common stance is what I originally appraised it to be.