Dulahan said:
I agree with Houserules never being the solution. And my main reason is if I'm not GMing it REQUIRES a GM who is ok with them, which I've never had before. Otherwise good GMs, but if they nix it I'm stuck having to be Vassily Baggins, not Vassily Zaitsev.
I'm truly sorry if you've never had a GM ok with houserules, that's unfathomable to me. I have literally never had a campaign (with a pool of about 4 GMs) who hasn't given almost every player a "special request" of some kind for each, to the point where it's almost standard practice across my gaming group. As KommissarK pointed out, it's explicitly IN the rulebook that the "rules' are more like Guidelines, and GMs and Players should bend them as needed to make a fun experience. If those GMs are treating the rulebook as a Holy Bible that cannot be spoken against, they need to readjust their perspective.
Also, if people's issues are roleplaying a Ratling, then why not just pick the ratling option and say in-game it's just a short human? The only thing that makes a Ratling different than the other Guardsmen is the Size (Weedy) attribute, and you could either just say the person is short or simply drop that attribute. Other than that, you have nothing that makes the Ratling inherently Ratling-like that couldn't be found in "normal" humans.