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Douche
2016-06-07, 10:09 AM
This is D&D 5e. It's a custom setting. The DM said he wants a serious world with only standard races... But I want to play a feline sapien.

I don't understand why the DM is limiting my self-expression. If I want an outlet to roleplay as a half-cat half-person, then I should be allowed to do it. I was even gonna bring in cat ears and a tail so I could wear them during the game.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-07, 10:14 AM
I would find a different game with a GM that likes cat people. Such things are extremely popular. If you live in a major metro area, with moderate amount of effort checking local game stores and posting ads online I'm sure you should be able to find a like-minded group.

Hell you could probably find a group that wants everyone to play talking fruit trying to recover from their crippling addictions and emotional issues by finding religion. Which isn't to say that's your bag exactly just that there's all kinds of people out there. Go and find some of your own and leave Mr.Serious to his catpersonless game.

CharonsHelper
2016-06-07, 10:16 AM
I sense a troll. *uses fire/acid*

kraftcheese
2016-06-07, 10:31 AM
I sense a troll. *uses fire/acid*

It's IS Douche after all.

slowplay
2016-06-07, 10:54 AM
Well, Douche, maybe show your DM how fun a cat person can be?

When you show up to the next session, instead of knocking, just meow incessantly until you are let in.

DMs like gifts, so deliver them a rodent you have slain, diectly to their favorite shoes.

Cat people are also capricious rascals, so make sure you jump up on the gaming table and walk across it like you own it. Preferably during a combat encounter.

Hth

Temperjoke
2016-06-07, 11:17 AM
Well, Douche, maybe show your DM how fun a cat person can be?

When you show up to the next session, instead of knocking, just meow incessantly until you are let in.

DMs like gifts, so deliver them a rodent you have slain, diectly to their favorite shoes.

Cat people are also capricious rascals, so make sure you jump up on the gaming table and walk across it like you own it. Preferably during a combat encounter.

Hth

Don't forget to ignore him when it's your turn, and beg and complain for attention when it's not your turn.

Be sure to knock his drink off the table while you're looking at him too.

Douche
2016-06-07, 11:21 AM
Well, Douche, maybe show your DM how fun a cat person can be?

When you show up to the next session, instead of knocking, just meow incessantly until you are let in.

DMs like gifts, so deliver them a rodent you have slain, diectly to their favorite shoes.

Cat people are also capricious rascals, so make sure you jump up on the gaming table and walk across it like you own it. Preferably during a combat encounter.

Hth

I can tell you're messing with me, but you just gave me a great idea...

I will just roleplay as a guy who roleplays as a cat. He'll paint whiskers on his face and wear cat ears just like me, and act like a cat at all times. Like, maybe I'll just always describe how I am licking and cleaning myself.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to be a druid so I can at least shapeshift into a cat when I feel like it. At some point, hopefully the DM will cave and let me just be a cat person like I've always dreamed. This is not sexual, btw.

DireSickFish
2016-06-07, 11:31 AM
What is so enticing about being a cat person?

As a DM I make rules to set a certain tone for my games. Player expression is good but it can run counter to my ideas as a DM, or what I find fun as a DM. So to curb that I make clear what I like and don't like.

For example I dislike inter party alignment debates. So while I don't track alignment harshly I do tell people that the group needs to work together and if it doesn't they need to make new characters or modify there existing ones. When a new player I have wants to join a good leaning party with an evil dragonborn follower of Tiamat. I am well within my rights to ask them to make a new character as there "expression" would get killed by the current party.

The only way to convince your DM is to find out what they are hoping to accomplish with race restriction. Being to serious isn't enough to go off of for a counter argument.

Slipperychicken
2016-06-07, 11:43 AM
I would find a different game with a GM that likes cat people.

Came here to post this.

Clistenes
2016-06-07, 01:17 PM
I think that, so long as your cat person isn't a japanese catgirl, a Thundercat clone, or a copy of Tom, Mr. Jinx, Top Cat, Gardfield or Heathcliff, he will be understanding. Just ask him to let you play a feline Lycanthrope, play it like a Lycanthrope instead of Nuku Nuku or Cheetarah or Gardfield, and he will be OK.

bulbaquil
2016-06-07, 02:26 PM
I don't understand why the DM is limiting my self-expression.

You said it yourself:


The DM said he wants a serious world with only standard races...

So don't play a catfolk. Or find a different game with a different DM who will let you play a catfolk.

There are plenty of other races you can choose from. For instance, you could play a human, which is sort of like a catfolk except with the minor cosmetic parts changed. Halfling is also viable; many halflings, much like cats, are known for being sneaky. Tieflings typically have tails, and there are at least some pitiful people who think cats and tieflings both are inherently evil (which of course isn't true).

Kitten Champion
2016-06-07, 02:47 PM
There are plenty of other races you can choose from. For instance, you could play a human, which is sort of like a catfolk except with the minor cosmetic parts changed. Halfling is also viable; many halflings, much like cats, are known for being sneaky. Tieflings typically have tails, and there are at least some pitiful people who think cats and tieflings both are inherently evil (which of course isn't true).

Yeah, were I itching to make a cat-person for whatever reason, I'd just make a standard race character and then give him/her feline-esque personality traits. The world remains cat-person free for the DM's benefit but the essence of the experience would be there as a player.

Something like a Shifter from the Eberron Campaign setting, really.

ComaVision
2016-06-07, 02:52 PM
I think I'd cancel the game if someone came to play D&D at my house dressed as a cat. I think I'd spend the next four hours in the shower instead.

CharonsHelper
2016-06-07, 03:00 PM
I think I'd cancel the game if someone came to play D&D at my house dressed as a cat. I think I'd spend the next four hours in the shower instead.

How I picture this looking (Peter Griffin dressed like a cat) >https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0XfdoSipPaI/hqdefault.jpg

Drakefall
2016-06-07, 03:05 PM
Ask him nicely and have a conversation about where the weirdness line thou shalt not cross is?

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-07, 03:12 PM
Don't break the rule, just ask if you can play a cat-man that is the horrific result of an experiment. He's adventuring to find a way to reverse the fluffiness forced upon him. He didn't ask for this!

...I think this was a Gargoyles episode, actually.

Knaight
2016-06-07, 03:38 PM
I think that, so long as your cat person isn't a japanese catgirl, a Thundercat clone, or a copy of Tom, Mr. Jinx, Top Cat, Gardfield or Heathcliff, he will be understanding. Just ask him to let you play a feline Lycanthrope, play it like a Lycanthrope instead of Nuku Nuku or Cheetarah or Gardfield, and he will be OK.

It's not a matter of understanding. It's a matter of making a character within the constraints of the game, which may or may not have anything functional. The inclusion of some fantasy elements (the "standard race" roster minus humans, probably magic, etc.) doesn't necessitate the inclusion of others, and there may or may not be room to slide them in. This can be true even if you can get much more exotic things in. I've had games where players were able to talk me into working up custom baby kraken PCs which couldn't have supported catfolk well, as just one example.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-07, 03:45 PM
It's not a matter of understanding. It's a matter of making a character within the constraints of the game, which may or man not have anything functional. The inclusion of some fantasy elements (the "standard race" roster minus humans, probably magic, etc.) doesn't necessitate the inclusion of others, and there may or may not be room to slide them in. This can be true even if you can get much more exotic things in. I've had games where players were able to talk me into working up custom baby kraken PCs which couldn't have supported catfolk well, as just one example.

Exactly. I've run games where Centaurs and Dog-People were "standard" races but Cat-People were totally not a thing. I've also had games where cat people (well, Tiger-people specifically) and talking monkeys would be viable PCs but a standard Elf or Dwarf would be totally out of place.

If I'm playing a Star Trek game Klingon might be fine but a wookie certainly won't be. Some Star Wars games probably have room for a wookie, but probably none have room for a Klingon.


Don't break the rule, just ask if you can play a cat-man that is the horrific result of an experiment. He's adventuring to find a way to reverse the fluffiness forced upon him. He didn't ask for this!

...I think this was a Gargoyles episode, actually.

Why be That Guy(tm)?

GM: I'm running a game. Here are the rough parameters.
Player: I want to do this thing outside the parameters.
GM: Please no.
Player: Hmmm. What's the way I can get closest to doing the thing, while staying within the exact wording of parameters by the thinnest possible margin Hmm.

Seriously if someone wants to run a game and wants a certain feel or tone, make a good faith effort to play along with that as closely as you can. Join the game in the intended spirit of the game and enjoy it for what they're trying to make out of it. If that doesn't appeal to you or you want to use your limited time for something with a different feel, go for that.

If the GM wants a heroic game, don't try to find a way to slip in the broodiest anti-hero you can get away with. If that's important to you play with a group & GM that like that sort of thing (there are plenty).
If the GM wants a dark & gritty game about political intrigue don't try to do the whole power of friendship thing. If that's important to you play with a group & GM that like that sort of thing (there are plenty).

Blue Lantern
2016-06-07, 03:50 PM
The number of people taking this topic seriously is hilarious.

JNAProductions
2016-06-07, 03:51 PM
This is D&D 5e. It's a custom setting. The DM said he wants a serious world with only standard races... But I want to play a feline sapien.

I don't understand why the DM is limiting my self-expression. If I want an outlet to roleplay as a half-cat half-person, then I should be allowed to do it. I was even gonna bring in cat ears and a tail so I could wear them during the game.

Taking this seriously, because hey, you never know.

I bolded the important bit-that's what the DM wants for this campaign. While cat-people (such as the Tibbit in my homebrew) can be a lot of fun, they aren't the best for serious campaigns. They can work, but how long have you known this DM? If you two are new to each other, he can't know that you're able to play seriously while also a cat person. So either find a new DM, or just play a regular race. It might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it should still be fun, right?

CharonsHelper
2016-06-07, 03:54 PM
The number of people taking this topic seriously is hilarious.

The troll is strong in this one.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-07, 04:07 PM
Taking this seriously, because hey, you never know.

I bolded the important bit-that's what the DM wants for this campaign. While cat-people (such as the Tibbit in my homebrew) can be a lot of fun, they aren't the best for serious campaigns. They can work, but how long have you known this DM? If you two are new to each other, he can't know that you're able to play seriously while also a cat person. So either find a new DM, or just play a regular race. It might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it should still be fun, right?

I don't think it's fair to say that Cat People don't work in serious games. Rather, Cat-People in settings where cat people aren't a thing can't work in serious games. If one was say playing a game set in Eorzea (The universe of the online game Final Fantasy 14), you could have a perfectly serious game with a cat person. That's because cat people are a canon part of that universe and already play serious established roles in the lore of the world. They've got fleshed naming conventions, social structures and just generally function as a believable element in that context.

Sure you can go full on idiot with the cat person thing and be a never ending flood of meow puns, licking things and just generally being kind of creepy about it. However you can take any basic character trait and still be dumb with it. I could choose a regular old human and spend the entire game acting like Carl (http://aqua-teen-hunger-force.wikia.com/wiki/Carl_Brutananadilewski) complete with accent if I was just looking to take the piss.

JNAProductions
2016-06-07, 04:12 PM
I don't think it's fair to say that Cat People don't work in serious games. Rather, Cat-People in settings where cat people aren't a thing can't work in serious games. If one was say playing a game set in Eorzea (The universe of the online game Final Fantasy 14), you could have a perfectly serious game with a cat person. That's because cat people are a canon part of that universe and already play serious established roles in the lore of the world. They've got fleshed naming conventions, social structures and just generally function as a believable element in that context.

Sure you can go full on idiot with the cat person thing and be a never ending flood of meow puns, licking things and just generally being kind of creepy about it. However you can take any basic character trait and still be dumb with it. I could choose a regular old human and spend the entire game acting like Carl (http://aqua-teen-hunger-force.wikia.com/wiki/Carl_Brutananadilewski) complete with accent if I was just looking to take the piss.

True. But, assuming relatively standard D&D Universe, cat people are NOT part of the standard setting.

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-07, 04:17 PM
Why be That Guy(tm)?

If being that guy means I might suggest a character with a horrible curse trying to reclaim humanity in a serious game, then yes, I am that guy.

Through it does depend on edition. Shifters were in the PHBII I think, for 4e? Tieflings/Aasimar are standard for 5e (What the OP posted about), which certainly aren't standard in earlier editions. And I'm still moderately surprised they won out over Shifters/Goliaths for the new races to be in DnD.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-07, 04:22 PM
If being that guy means I might suggest a character with a horrible curse trying to reclaim humanity in a serious game, then yes, I am that guy.

No. It's not the curse part. It's the "get a cat person in a no cat person game" part. Like if his horrible curse robbing his humanity was a curse that made it so that he could no longer feel the emotions of passion, anger, fear or regret that's fine. You aren't that guy for having that curse in the game the OP described. If your curse is one that horribly deformed your body by like making our face really messed up in some way that wasn't like a cat, that's fine too. You aren't that guy for having that horrible curse.

However if the GM is like "No cat people" and you're all "Oh but what if i'm a normal guy under a HORRIBLE CURSE:smallwink: that makes him have whole bunch of feline features:smallwink: but don't worry he's not a cat person:smallwink: just a guy with a curse:smallwink::smallwink::smallwink::smallwink:: smallwink:"

Then yeah you are being That Guy.

LibraryOgre
2016-06-07, 04:25 PM
This is D&D 5e. It's a custom setting. The DM said he wants a serious world with only standard races... But I want to play a feline sapien.

I don't understand why the DM is limiting my self-expression. If I want an outlet to roleplay as a half-cat half-person, then I should be allowed to do it. I was even gonna bring in cat ears and a tail so I could wear them during the game.

Conversely, why are you limiting your DM's self-expression by insisting that you should be allowed to play something that doesn't have a place in the world he created? He wants to run stories in a world with some defined set of races... he's likely worked out how those races interact, much of the politics involved, and so on... and you want to dress as a cat.

Folks never think about the GM as an expressive part of the group.

Knaight
2016-06-07, 04:28 PM
The number of people taking this topic seriously is hilarious.

The OP clearly isn't serious, but as there are people with multiple perspectives on this who are, the discussion works just fine as a serious one, despite original intent.


Seriously if someone wants to run a game and wants a certain feel or tone, make a good faith effort to play along with that as closely as you can. Join the game in the intended spirit of the game and enjoy it for what they're trying to make out of it. If that doesn't appeal to you or you want to use your limited time for something with a different feel, go for that.

If the GM wants a heroic game, don't try to find a way to slip in the broodiest anti-hero you can get away with. If that's important to you play with a group & GM that like that sort of thing (there are plenty).
If the GM wants a dark & gritty game about political intrigue don't try to do the whole power of friendship thing. If that's important to you play with a group & GM that like that sort of thing (there are plenty).
With that said, I get that some people just want to do something off kilter a bit, and that's fine. There are compromises that usually can be reached. Pulling some nonsense that technically skirts within the letter of the restriction while blowing off the spirit of the restriction isn't it. Take these examples - if you want the broody anti-hero in a heroic game, you could just tone it down a bit. Make the reluctant hero who always doubts their ability to do heroics, but who consistently comes through. If you want the power of friendship thing, make the weary idealist who knows they're fighting a losing fight trying to get cooperation going, but who keeps fighting it because of their ideals, knowing full well that they're liable to end up a tragic figure. Make something engaged with the themes somehow, even if that engagement is at least partially resistance. Similarly, there might be something a bit esoteric if you really want that, but find what works within the milieu of the setting and go with that.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-07, 05:03 PM
The OP clearly isn't serious, but as there are people with multiple perspectives on this who are, the discussion works just fine as a serious one, despite original intent.


With that said, I get that some people just want to do something off kilter a bit, and that's fine. There are compromises that usually can be reached. Pulling some nonsense that technically skirts within the letter of the restriction while blowing off the spirit of the restriction isn't it. Take these examples - if you want the broody anti-hero in a heroic game, you could just tone it down a bit. Make the reluctant hero who always doubts their ability to do heroics, but who consistently comes through. If you want the power of friendship thing, make the weary idealist who knows they're fighting a losing fight trying to get cooperation going, but who keeps fighting it because of their ideals, knowing full well that they're liable to end up a tragic figure. Make something engaged with the themes somehow, even if that engagement is at least partially resistance. Similarly, there might be something a bit esoteric if you really want that, but find what works within the milieu of the setting and go with that.

I think at least for me it depends what end you're coming from. If you're playing the heroic game and you go "Ooh! Heroic game, cool. I can do heroes! Hmm maybe someone who is a bit unsure and has had a rough time in life, that could be an interesting take" is a very different mindset to be approaching the game than "Ugh. A Heroic Game? I just got done with that new Punisher series and was really looking forward to cracking some skulls. I guess I can make a guy whose always wrestling with his urges to do dirty justice".

Similarly "Oh man! Gritty politics. Love me that. I think I'll give the hopeless idealist a spin, bet I can get some delicious tragedy out of that" is different than "Gritty Politics? Ugh, that's always such a downer. I'll just try to be as idealistic as hell and if they kill me whatever that's just stupid gritty-ness being stupid".

I think a good faith faith effort requires buying into the central premise first and then finding something you like that fits in it. Rather than having some idea of what you want to do and contorting it to fit.

Knaight
2016-06-07, 05:09 PM
I think a good faith faith effort requires buying into the central premise first and then finding something you like that fits in it. Rather than having some idea of what you want to do and contorting it to fit.

Buying into the central premise is essential, but whether it's actually the first step seems pretty immaterial. I'd put the difference more between having an idea and trying to genuinely fit it to the premise, versus having an idea and trying to fast talk it into the premise when you have no intention of actually engaging with it. I've GMed for a number of players who favor the esoteric (and one of them is my younger brother, who shows up in a disproportionate number of games for obvious reasons), and the ones who genuinely try to work with the setting are never a problem.

Belac93
2016-06-07, 06:29 PM
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/36/7f/28/367f286d6ed0074422c73437826d4dde.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/01/c5/5f/01c55fe09a8d722180d5d8c6fc95e57e.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/01/31/ee0131c0f9fc9a50aedeb5e04b13880d.jpg

goto124
2016-06-07, 09:24 PM
Unlike playing an anti-hero in a heroic game, playing someone pretending to be a cat in a world with no cat-people is not automatically against genre. Most likely, the setting just didn't have cat-people. Besides, you could always ask.

In a serious game, if a creature nobody has ever seen before walks into the midst of a town, it's probably going to get attacked or otherwise chased out. That's likely to happen to a cat-person in a setting with no cat-people. Well, unless you pick up shapeshifting abilities, or hide your features (which has limitations, like how people like to see what's behind the mask). But always run ideas by the GM.

But if the GM has a personal hatred of cat-people and feels they're just not serious enough, don't push it. Don't play a cat-person, not even a semblence of it. Or leave the game and go for another GM who welcomes cat-people.

Liquor Box
2016-06-07, 10:18 PM
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/36/7f/28/367f286d6ed0074422c73437826d4dde.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/01/c5/5f/01c55fe09a8d722180d5d8c6fc95e57e.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/01/31/ee0131c0f9fc9a50aedeb5e04b13880d.jpg

This thread was already pretty funny, but I love it how that very serious catperson in the middle is actually cradling a pet cat as he stares grimly into the 'camera'.

SirBellias
2016-06-07, 11:02 PM
This thread was already pretty funny, but I love it how that very serious catperson in the middle is actually cradling a pet cat as he stares grimly into the 'camera'.

Don't talk about his nephew like that!

Lacco
2016-06-08, 03:37 AM
My normal response would be - like already stated - to not push the issue, or to find another group. Or even - ask the GM to play one-on-one session with the cat-person character to try to persuade him you are up to it.

As a GM, I'd do that - because in most cases (speaking from my experience, which may differ), during the one-one-one you find out that there's no difference between playing a cat-person, a point-ear-person, a pixie-with-masking-person or even rhino-person-of-humanlike-average-proportions...and normal human :smallbiggrin:. Why? Because most of the time the players just don't get into the character so much to make a difference - they just get the mechanical stuff and that's all. I have yet to find a player who will roleplay an elf well (which is a great achievement due to the fact that imagining what a thousand-years-old person who views time completely different would think... well, if you can manage, I tip my hat to you).

On the other hand, seeing the whole thread, let's do a suggestion:

How about playing a cat-person in your head? Go to the table with a human on your charsheet, but imagine he's a cat-person! GM can't stop you! When you tell him you're talking to NPC, in your head imagine he's meowing, when you tell him your PC takes evening bath, imagine he's cleaning himself like a cat! :smallwink:

And why stop there? Imagine everyone at the table is playing cat-people! :smallbiggrin: Or even that everyone at the table is cat-person! :smallbiggrin: Or imagine the table is a cat...well, no. That wouldn't work... :smallbiggrin:

mephnick
2016-06-08, 06:54 AM
I have my own setting. It doesn't have cat people. If you ask to play a cat person I will say "No. Go away."

If you ask really nicely I'll just say "No."

Lord Torath
2016-06-08, 07:52 AM
I'd recommend creating a character that fits well in his new world, and play it non-disruptively to the best of your ability. Show him you can play a character that works well with both the setting and the party.

Then, after he knows you won't try to destroy his world, and can play nice with others, ask him if he can have his next setting include Rakasta as a playable race.

Douche
2016-06-08, 10:50 AM
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/36/7f/28/367f286d6ed0074422c73437826d4dde.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/01/c5/5f/01c55fe09a8d722180d5d8c6fc95e57e.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/01/31/ee0131c0f9fc9a50aedeb5e04b13880d.jpg

OMG, that is the most adorable thing ever. Now I absolutely have to play a cat person!

I sent him the pics

BTW I can't just find a new game. This is a group of friends who we've been playing with for years. I was the DM one time and the guy who is DMing last time, I let him play a deep gnome, idiot character who disrupted everything. I let him have fun in my game so I don't get why he is being a douche about me living out my fantasies.

And I would be good at roleplaying a cat. I have been reading up on a lot of cat person forums and stuff so I know how to be a real animal, if ya know what I mean.

DireSickFish
2016-06-08, 10:55 AM
And I would be good at roleplaying a cat. I have been reading up on a lot of cat person forums and stuff so I know how to be a real animal, if ya know what I mean.

I have no idea what you mean. Please elaborate.

The Glyphstone
2016-06-08, 11:08 AM
OMG, that is the most adorable thing ever. Now I absolutely have to play a cat person!

I sent him the pics

BTW I can't just find a new game. This is a group of friends who we've been playing with for years. I was the DM one time and the guy who is DMing last time, I let him play a deep gnome, idiot character who disrupted everything. I let him have fun in my game so I don't get why he is being a douche about me living out my fantasies.

And I would be good at roleplaying a cat. I have been reading up on a lot of cat person forums and stuff so I know how to be a real animal, if ya know what I mean.

Is it the 'standard races' or 'serious world' you are intending to object to? Based on your apparent history with this DM and things like the cat ear headband or 'act like an animal', it sounds like your intention is to be just as disruptive to his game as his deep gnome apparently was to yours. You don't need a special snowflake race to be a disruptive jerk at the table (you shouldn't be), but if your desire is revenge, you can get that with all manner of extremely silly concepts using core races. Kronk the Barbarian Wizard is one I'm a little fond of, as a core race+core class, no frills mechanical concept that becomes utterly absurd in the execution.]


If it's just the 'standard races' you want to change...come up with a strong concept. Prove to your DM that you can play a serious game and serious character despite being a cat-person, and avoid silly frills like ear headbands at the table.

Douche
2016-06-08, 11:24 AM
Is it the 'standard races' or 'serious world' you are intending to object to? Based on your apparent history with this DM and things like the cat ear headband or 'act like an animal', it sounds like your intention is to be just as disruptive to his game as his deep gnome apparently was to yours. You don't need a special snowflake race to be a disruptive jerk at the table (you shouldn't be), but if your desire is revenge, you can get that with all manner of extremely silly concepts using core races. Kronk the Barbarian Wizard is one I'm a little fond of, as a core race+core class, no frills mechanical concept that becomes utterly absurd in the execution.]


If it's just the 'standard races' you want to change...come up with a strong concept. Prove to your DM that you can play a serious game and serious character despite being a cat-person, and avoid silly frills like ear headbands at the table.

I'm not looking for revenge, I just want to express who I truly am inside, together with all my friends who are my closest comrades. I would make a great pet. They'd always be adventuring and I could follow them around and curl up on Faldron's lap and such. It'd be so nice.

DireSickFish
2016-06-08, 11:31 AM
I'm not looking for revenge, I just want to express who I truly am inside, together with all my friends who are my closest comrades. I would make a great pet. They'd always be adventuring and I could follow them around and curl up on Faldron's lap and such. It'd be so nice.

I would also be super uncomfortable with that as a DM and/or player. While expression yourself is an important aspect of roleplaying it is not the only important aspect. If someone else was an inner cat hater and wanted to play a character that abused animals (especially cats) you would have a problem with it. Even if you weren't currently playing a cat, because of the high regard you have for them it would negatively impact your game experience such that you might not be able to play with that character in the group. The player of the cat abuser could defend himself by saying he can't abuse cats in real life because that's wrong and it's harmless fun when done in fantasy.

Roleplaying is a group activity and compromises need to be made to social etiquette and others preferences to keep the game running smoothly. Especially as the DM, who shoulders a lot more of the social responsibility and outside adventure work. It's imperative you don't infringe on his right to be comfortable with your right for self expression.

Eisirt
2016-06-08, 11:38 AM
{{Scrubbed}}

The Glyphstone
2016-06-08, 11:43 AM
Are you trying to be a cat person, or a cat? One can be made serious with work. The other was the subject of a Dragon Magazine's April Fools Day article.

RazorChain
2016-06-08, 11:57 AM
This is D&D 5e. It's a custom setting. The DM said he wants a serious world with only standard races... But I want to play a feline sapien.

I don't understand why the DM is limiting my self-expression. If I want an outlet to roleplay as a half-cat half-person, then I should be allowed to do it. I was even gonna bring in cat ears and a tail so I could wear them during the game.

Bring your cat ears and tail, then you go on all fours and rub against the DM's leg while you go "MEOW MEOW" Then you look up with your kitten eyes and beg. If begging doesn't help then you should grovel.

If none of the above works then you should play a elven female that is a wizard. As soon you get a spell that can trasnform you then you use it and become a tranny cat-elf

PrincessCupcake
2016-06-09, 12:44 AM
If the issue is "I want to look like a cat-person, but don't want to break the setting": Ask him about Tieflings and their heritages. Specifically if you can be a Rakshasa-blooded Tiefling. That way, for the purposes of his setting, you are a Tiefling which is a standard 5e race. So his world can react to you in a way he can codify. And for the purposes of your self expression, you are part cat.

Fair warning, people will probably be upset at a Tiefling trying to crawl into their lap and weirded out by you purring at them. Unless you were very small or extremely good looking I suppose.

I have unintentionally created the best/worst character idea ever.

Crake
2016-06-09, 01:41 AM
If the issue is "I want to look like a cat-person, but don't want to break the setting": Ask him about Tieflings and their heritages. Specifically if you can be a Rakshasa-blooded Tiefling. That way, for the purposes of his setting, you are a Tiefling which is a standard 5e race. So his world can react to you in a way he can codify. And for the purposes of your self expression, you are part cat.

Fair warning, people will probably be upset at a Tiefling trying to crawl into their lap and weirded out by you purring at them. Unless you were very small or extremely good looking I suppose.

I have unintentionally created the best/worst character idea ever.

Rakshasa aren't actually fiends, and thus do not create half-fiends, and conversely, tieflings, so this wouldn't really work.

MrStabby
2016-06-09, 08:45 AM
Rakshasa aren't actually fiends, and thus do not create half-fiends, and conversely, tieflings, so this wouldn't really work.

May be edition dependant? My 5th ed MM says: Medium Fiend, Lawful Evil.

Crake
2016-06-09, 10:59 AM
May be edition dependant? My 5th ed MM says: Medium Fiend, Lawful Evil.

Ah fair enough, in previous editions they were just native outsiders, so they weren't even planar creatures.

goto124
2016-06-09, 11:10 AM
Ah fair enough, in previous editions they were just native outsiders, so they weren't even planar creatures.

Outsiders, or outsiders?

[insert relevant OotS strip here]

Temperjoke
2016-06-09, 12:21 PM
Having you considered playing a cat that thinks it's a person? Awakened Cat (or whichever feline you want)?

The Glyphstone
2016-06-09, 12:23 PM
Having you considered playing a cat that thinks it's a person? Awakened Cat (or whichever feline you want)?

While doing your best voice impression of Antonio Banderas.

ClintACK
2016-06-09, 01:06 PM
Have you considered playing a druid?

At 2nd level, you can be a cat for two hours per short rest.

Maybe the arcane caster will even let you pretend to be his or her familiar?

Leith
2016-06-09, 01:48 PM
Here's some serious advice: Whine until you get your way.
Or at least an acceptable compromise.
You let your friend do what ws fun for him when you were running the campaign, now it's his turn. Yeah, if your willing you can do all the things other people on this thread have suggested and compromise with yourself but I think it will probably work out better for all if you just talk to him and whine until he offers some sort of solution.
Recently I started a campaign where I straight up banned elves and humans from the setting. None of my players really complained but I got the impression some of them were disappointed. I think this was a mistake for both parties. I should've paid more attention to what my players felt about my setting and they should have complained more openly to get me to let them play what they wanted (I would have BTW, even if only one of them had a problem).
I still don't know if any of them truly objected or were just mildly annoyed at having to re-assess their intended backstories. We're now mid-campaign and there's little room to go back but I kind of regret not having that open dialogue.

Temperjoke
2016-06-09, 01:54 PM
While doing your best voice impression of Antonio Banderas.

I hope the game he'll be in has some sort of swashbuckler class; maybe some sort of bard will suffice if not.

Absol197
2016-06-09, 04:50 PM
While doing your best voice impression of Antonio Banderas.

I have, no joke, played a character that was so directly inspired by Banderas's Puss-in-Boots it's not even funny.

In fact, it was in a game much like the one the OP is describing: a serious game that was nominally restricted to standard races.

He was also one of the most unique and inspiring characters our group has had, and is still looked upon by us as the sterling standard by which characters should be measured.

How is this possible? I made the character well. I may have started with a visual/mechanical concept that was a blatant ripoff (anthropomorphic cat Swashbuckler/Rogue), but I wrote his story well and played him straight. I created the background of his entire race, and their religion, culture, and history, with all its triumphs and flaws. I have it a way to exist in the world naturally without staining credulity, and I gave the character similar virtues and downsides, and stuck to his spirit the entire game.

And now? Whenever people in my group watch Shrek movies and Puss shows up, one of the first things they say is, "Oh, man, I miss Mensharr! That guy was awesome!"

What the OP wants is entirely possible, you just have to work at it. It requires two things: the player being honest and straightforward, and the GM trusting the player to do right by their campaign world.

I could post the backstory here if people want to read it. I just get annoyed when people dismiss things like this out of hand.

Crake
2016-06-09, 11:23 PM
Here's some serious advice: Whine until you get your way.
Or at least an acceptable compromise.
You let your friend do what ws fun for him when you were running the campaign, now it's his turn. Yeah, if your willing you can do all the things other people on this thread have suggested and compromise with yourself but I think it will probably work out better for all if you just talk to him and whine until he offers some sort of solution.

I disagree with this sentiment, the DM runs the game just as much for himself as he does for the players. As such, he is well within his rights to set limitations and set expectations for his players to follow. If the players don't want to conform to those rules, they are more than welcome to not play. You don't get to say "because I let you do this thing in this game, you should let me do this thing in your game", it doesn't work like that. If you didn't like the idea of him playing a deep gnome in your game, you should have said so, not let him play one just so he'd owe you one for the next game.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-09, 11:33 PM
Here's some serious advice: Whine until you get your way.

Protip: This is how you lose friends.
Protip: This is how you get a reputation as the guy nobody wants to hang out with.

brainface
2016-06-10, 02:01 AM
I think I'd cancel the game if someone came to play D&D at my house dressed as a cat. I think I'd spend the next four hours in the shower instead.

Yeahhhhh, I'd definitely leave if I showed up to a D&d game and someone was dressed as a cat?

And come back with like, a keg and plastic viking helmet, because two can play at that game big guy.

goto124
2016-06-10, 09:09 PM
Yeahhhhh, I'd definitely leave if I showed up to a D&d game and someone was dressed as a cat?

And come back with like, a keg and plastic viking helmet, because two can play at that game big guy.

This game is now a LARP.

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-11, 12:52 PM
Yeahhhhh, I'd definitely leave if I showed up to a D&d game and someone was dressed as a cat?

This would be pretty hard where I live, since people showing up with furry stuff isn't exactly all that uncommon.

2D8HP
2016-06-11, 08:46 PM
This would be pretty hard where I live, since people showing up with furry stuff isn't exactly all that uncommon.????
You must live in a very interesting place.

MrStabby
2016-06-13, 08:57 AM
This would be pretty hard where I live, since people showing up with furry stuff isn't exactly all that uncommon.

Are we talking fur coats and fur lined clothing here? or stuffed animals or what?

I think I feel like the cat, just before curiosity killed it.

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-13, 10:27 AM
Are we talking fur coats and fur lined clothing here? or stuffed animals or what?

I mean stuff associated with furries. I live in San Francisco, so seeing that is more common then seeing actual fur unless its a tail.

Knaight
2016-06-13, 06:02 PM
I mean stuff associated with furries. I live in San Francisco, so seeing that is more common then seeing actual fur unless its a tail.

What's the bar here? If it's just something like ear-headbands, then it doesn't really count (particularly given that actual fur doesn't).

2D8HP
2016-06-13, 06:24 PM
Yeahhhhh, I'd definitely leave if I showed up to a D&D game and someone was dressed as a cat?


This would be pretty hard where I live, since people showing up with furry stuff isn't exactly all that uncommon.


????
You must live in a very interesting place.


I mean stuff associated with furries. I live in San Francisco, so seeing that is more common then seeing actual fur unless its a tail.LOL.
I work in and for The "City and County of San Francisco"! I never noticed "Furries"
Another sign of how unperceptive I am!

Xero
2016-06-13, 06:32 PM
Well, according to this races survey (dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/july-survey), cat people are one of the most wanted/popular race. So, there's that I guess.

The Glyphstone
2016-06-13, 06:53 PM
LOL.
I work in and for The "City and County of San Francisco"! I never noticed "Furries"
Another sign of how unperceptive I am!

Most of them probably don't wear their accessories to work.

Douche
2016-06-14, 01:20 PM
Guys I don't know why you're calling me a furry. I said it was not sexual. Please don't imply that it is.

The Glyphstone
2016-06-14, 01:22 PM
Guys I don't know why you're calling me a furry. I said it was not sexual. Please don't imply that it is.

Only a very small percentage of furries have anything sexual about them. Your expressed motivations, assuming they're authentic, are textbook definition for a 'regular' furry type person. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, this metaphor goes very weird places very fast.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-14, 01:37 PM
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, this metaphor goes very weird places very fast.

You mean Duckburg?

Red Fel
2016-06-14, 01:39 PM
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, this metaphor goes very weird places very fast.

Was that a reference? Because if it was original, it was a little bit brilliant, and I say that as someone who is incredibly brilliant.


You mean Duckburg?

And the hits keep coming.

The Glyphstone
2016-06-14, 03:28 PM
It was a reference to the metaphor in question, but nothing intentional beyond that. What do you even call a bird-furry anyways? A feathery?

BWR
2016-06-14, 03:44 PM
It was a reference to the metaphor in question, but nothing intentional beyond that. What do you even call a bird-furry anyways? A feathery?

That or a downy. Featherduster?

Siosilvar
2016-06-15, 01:46 AM
From what I've seen, just "avian". Which is pretty boring IMO.

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-15, 01:02 PM
Guys I don't know why you're calling me a furry. I said it was not sexual. Please don't imply that it is.

I've known others who aren't into it like that call it that. I have no idea what other terms would even be.

Templarkommando
2016-06-17, 12:20 PM
I'm going to assume that this is a serious thread, though my own judgment cries out otherwise.

1. Find a way to explain that cat-based characters can be serious. Find similar characters from fantasy settings that are done seriously and explain that you want to do a character like one of these. You could be similar to a Khajit from Elder Scrolls, or you could be like a Rakshasa from any number of D&D settings.

2. You could try to come to an agreement with your DM. If you get a few sessions into the campaign and the cat-person concept just isn't working on the level that the DM requires, you promise to roll something else.

3. Attempt to achieve your goal from an in-game role play approach. Maybe your character is from a society that values cat-like qualities and reveres them.. it worked for Ancient Egypt. Maybe their mode of dress reflects the way that cats look. Maybe your character is a traveler from some other plane that is accidentally stuck on the prime-material.

4. Find a way to use the rules to achieve your goal. One that has been mentioned is to play a druid which can already be various animals as part of its class features.

5. This is sort of a general application. If your GM wants a serious setting and you want to play in that setting, you should be dedicated to telling the same sort of serious story that your GM wants to tell. If you can't agree with that, it may be that your RP philosophy is simply too different from your GM's. If you decide to go ahead and play in this GM's game, you do so at your own peril. The best way to work in this situation is to be a character that is dedicated to helping tell a compelling story with the GM rather than telling your own dissonant story. The reason that this works well is that it shows your GM that you can play a heroic sort of character with the implication that any other characters that you want to play would also be as heroic.

lunaticfringe
2016-06-18, 08:22 PM
Don't break the rule, just ask if you can play a cat-man that is the horrific result of an experiment. He's adventuring to find a way to reverse the fluffiness forced upon him. He didn't ask for this!

...I think this was a Gargoyles episode, actually.

Or his mother was an adventurer who was cursed to birth monsters/mutant/freaks by a hag/Lich/Magic BBEG. He was the result but remove curse magic doesn't work on him because his mother was the one cursed. Mechanically you'd be a core race.

I did this tho be a goatman in a game who was mechanically just a wood elf.

Edit: also Lightfoot Halfling Thief Rogues w/ Athletics Proficiency make excellent super intelligent monkey characters

neonagash
2016-06-19, 12:13 AM
Despite my personal loathing for all things feline there is one way I could be convinced to break my creation rules which have always included no cat anythings....

If a cute, apparently single girl comes to the game I bend over backwards for her. This would include indulging cat tendencies and dress.

However if a guy or fugly chick showed up that way I would chase them out with a squirt gun. Specifically the water gun for the lolz.

Knaight
2016-06-19, 02:07 AM
Despite my personal loathing for all things feline there is one way I could be convinced to break my creation rules which have always included no cat anythings....

If a cute, apparently single girl comes to the game I bend over backwards for her. This would include indulging cat tendencies and dress.

However if a guy or fugly chick showed up that way I would chase them out with a squirt gun. Specifically the water gun for the lolz.

Aaaaand now I know where that gamer stereotype comes from.

Herobizkit
2016-06-19, 04:56 AM
"You'll make a nice rug, cat!"

"Khajit has wares if you have coin."

Siosilvar
2016-06-19, 09:56 PM
Despite my personal loathing for all things feline there is one way I could be convinced to break my creation rules which have always included no cat anythings....

If a cute, apparently single girl comes to the game I bend over backwards for her. This would include indulging cat tendencies and dress.

However if a guy or fugly chick showed up that way I would chase them out with a squirt gun. Specifically the water gun for the lolz.

Blech, remind me never to show up at a game hosted by you.

neonagash
2016-06-19, 10:53 PM
Blech, remind me never to show up at a game hosted by you.

Do you generally show up to meet strangers for the first time as a furry? Cause if so....stop. your weirding people out.

I have a firm house rule that when you start weirding people out you have to stop or leave. Its served me pretty well for 33 years and I don't plan to change it.

Siosilvar
2016-06-20, 11:52 AM
Do you generally show up to meet strangers for the first time as a furry? Cause if so....stop. your weirding people out.

I have a firm house rule that when you start weirding people out you have to stop or leave. Its served me pretty well for 33 years and I don't plan to change it.

No, don't turn this on me. You're weirding people out when you use the game as a vehicle to objectify women.

JNAProductions
2016-06-20, 11:57 AM
Sio, it's not worth your time. Just let it be, and don't play with Neon. If you need to, add him to your ignore list.

Aliquid
2016-06-20, 12:44 PM
If I'm playing a Star Trek game Klingon might be fine but a wookie certainly won't be. Some Star Wars games probably have room for a wookie, but probably none have room for a Klingon.
On the serious side of the conversation... this is all that needs to be said.

After that comment, all that was needed was a continuation of jokes and mock-advice. The debate should have ended.

Siosilvar
2016-06-20, 01:07 PM
Sio, it's not worth your time. Just let it be, and don't play with Neon. If you need to, add him to your ignore list.

You're not helping. I'll decide for myself what's worth my time and not, thank you.

LibraryOgre
2016-06-20, 01:10 PM
The Mod Wonder: Let's move back to the discussion of playing a cat person, not other people's personalities.

JNAProductions
2016-06-20, 01:18 PM
You're not helping. I'll decide for myself what's worth my time and not, thank you.

My apologies.

On topic, I think I might have said this already, but it's polite to listen to your DM's request for core only. Make your case, prove that cat-people can be serious, but if he still says no... Well, either don't play, or play by his rules.

Max_Killjoy
2016-06-20, 01:29 PM
My suggestion would be to find a campaign wherein the GM is happy to have cat-person PCs.

Of course, this entire thread has more than a whiff of troll-smell about it.

Psyren
2016-06-20, 01:30 PM
Assuming the OP is being serious (of which I'm not totally convinced, but whatever)...

I second the posters saying show your GM more serious/hardcore examples of cat-people in action. Magic the Gathering is a good place for this, e.g. the race of embattled catfolk that inhabit Mirrodin.

But showing up in ears and a tail will probably undermine your cause.

Aotrs Commander
2016-06-20, 07:49 PM
To, as many other learned posters have done, take this at face value one might ask why the DM doesn't want catfolk in his world.

It may be he expects peole to use it as an excuse to frack about and be a disruptive jerk. It may be he had very carefully planned his campaign world with the races and doesn't want to add any extraneous races he feels are "gimmicky." Or he may simply have a pathological hatred for anthropamorphic-humanoid animals (e.g., me1), in which case, you're kinda frack out of luck.



1Which can be 95% attributed to Rocket Raccoon being run as a back-up strip in the UK Marvel Transformers comic in the 1980s.

sengmeng
2016-06-20, 09:46 PM
Guys I don't know why you're calling me a furry. I said it was not sexual. Please don't imply that it is.

Make sure you reassure your DM over and over again that you don't want to play a cat person for sexual reasons. That should help.

FocusWolf413
2016-06-20, 11:17 PM
...living out my fantasies.

And I would be good at roleplaying a cat. I have been reading up on a lot of cat person forums and stuff so I know how to be a real animal, if ya know what I mean.

Are you a furry?

2D8HP
2016-06-23, 05:05 PM
....living out my fantasies.

And I would be good at roleplaying a cat. I have been reading up on a lot of cat person forums and stuff so I know how to be a real animal, if ya know what I mean.


Are you a furry?
My best guess is that the O.P.'s "handle" (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?124447-Douche) says it all.
:smallwink:

bulbaquil
2016-06-23, 05:29 PM
To, as many other learned posters have done, take this at face value one might ask why the DM doesn't want catfolk in his world.

It may be he expects peole to use it as an excuse to frack about and be a disruptive jerk. It may be he had very carefully planned his campaign world with the races and doesn't want to add any extraneous races he feels are "gimmicky."

The way it works for me, at least, is:

- (1.) I as the GM allow you to play a catfolk.
- (2.) From (1.), we can infer that there is at least one catfolk in my campaign setting.
- Because there is a catfolk in the setting, that must imply either that (3a) said catfolk is native to the setting, or (3b) said catfolk has gotten here through some other means (interstellar, intertemporal, interplanar, intermultiversal).
- (3a) implies that catfolk are a thing that exists in my setting, and therefore that they must have some sort of homeland, history, etc., etc. If I have already developed the campaign setting, have not accounted for the existence of catfolk therein, and am not interested in running a "collaborative worldbuilding" game, this can potentially be disruptive.
- (3b) implies that an event has transpired to bring a catfolk to this setting that ordinarily has no catfolk. Such an event having transpired means either that (3b-1) such an event could happen again, or (3b-2) such an event is a one-time-only thing that cannot happen again.
- If (3b-1), it implies potential future interference from whatever caused that event. If the catfolk got here from another planet, that implies interplanetary travel is possible (even if it isn't for the medieval peasants in Startsville). If the catfolk is a genetic experiment from the future, that implies both that time travel and genetic engineering are possible, even if the technology doesn't currently exist to make it possible now. This can potentially be disruptive.
- If (3b-2), it means I as the GM have to come up with a contrived way of explaining why this was a one-time-only thing and can't be repeated, which is likely to involve something on the order of "the gods say so" or "it occurred because of an obscure physical law involving the age of the universe happening to reach a critical value" or something like that. This can potentially break suspension of disbelief and/or be disruptive.

goto124
2016-06-23, 09:47 PM
- If (3b-2), it means I as the GM have to come up with a contrived way of explaining why this was a one-time-only thing and can't be repeated, which is likely to involve something on the order of "the gods say so" or "it occurred because of an obscure physical law involving the age of the universe happening to reach a critical value" or something like that. This can potentially break suspension of disbelief and/or be disruptive.

Didn't a couple of posters above manage to come up with such explanations?

Douche
2016-06-28, 03:57 PM
So I took some ideas from this thread.

I had my girlfriend show up to a few games through our meetup group in disguise. We pretended that we didn't know each other and she used her wily charm to get the DM to allow her to play as a catgirl.

Then she came to a few sessions and acted normally. After a few weeks, she started to "skip" sessions, and I said I would play her character for her.

Then she stopped coming altogether, and I said I would just drop my character, as I preferred to play the catgirl character.

Now I am a catgirl. Everything worked out in the end. Thanks giants!

ComaVision
2016-06-28, 04:02 PM
So I took some ideas from this thread.

I had my girlfriend show up to a few games through our meetup group in disguise. We pretended that we didn't know each other and she used her wily charm to get the DM to allow her to play as a catgirl.

Then she came to a few sessions and acted normally. After a few weeks, she started to "skip" sessions, and I said I would play her character for her.

Then she stopped coming altogether, and I said I would just drop my character, as I preferred to play the catgirl character.

Now I am a catgirl. Everything worked out in the end. Thanks giants!

That's a lot of creative plotting for three weeks! Your group must get together a lot.

Mr.Moron
2016-06-28, 05:02 PM
{{scrubbed}}

2D8HP
2016-06-28, 07:32 PM
Now I am a catgirl. Everything worked out in the end. Thanks giants!Too funny. Please start more threads with more "real life" quandaries @Douche. :smallwink:

The Fury
2016-06-29, 11:57 AM
Funny. My DM was willing to let me play a catgirl but not a crazy cat lady, which is what I really wanted.

Belac93
2016-06-29, 12:23 PM
Funny. My DM was willing to let me play a catgirl but not a crazy cat lady, which is what I really wanted.
Well, now I want to play a druid/warlock/ranger for a bunch of pet cats.

So I took some ideas from this thread.

I had my girlfriend show up to a few games through our meetup group in disguise. We pretended that we didn't know each other and she used her wily charm to get the DM to allow her to play as a catgirl.

Then she came to a few sessions and acted normally. After a few weeks, she started to "skip" sessions, and I said I would play her character for her.

Then she stopped coming altogether, and I said I would just drop my character, as I preferred to play the catgirl character.

Now I am a catgirl. Everything worked out in the end. Thanks giants!

Oh. My. God. This made me laugh so hard, that is an awesome idea. Nice.