PDA

View Full Version : gameworld racist insults



Wulfen
2007-10-27, 07:50 PM
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

Dwarves = furfaces, furballs, flea catchers, flea traps,

Halflings = Shorties, bugs, (because you can step on them)

Kolbolds or other reptilian races call humaniods smoothskins, or scaleless

Orcs call others toothless or tuskless

and its so much fun as a DM to tell a player running the elf that the orcish insult he heard translates to "hey twig your mommas does flea catchers"

Nowhere Girl
2007-10-27, 08:38 PM
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" ...

Dwarves = Stunties, tubby ... deliberately call female dwarves "he" ...

Halflings = Kid, child, little girl, little boy, little one ...

Humans = Monkeys

Drow = Inkies

Irreverent Fool
2007-10-27, 08:49 PM
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.

Serpent Stare
2007-10-27, 09:01 PM
Oh, I'm good at this. Lemme see...

Troglodytes (might get called)- Newts, Stink-scales, toad-eater
(might call others) - Hotblooded, hairy

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.

Azerian Kelimon
2007-10-27, 09:05 PM
I've been thinking about possible insults for humans....

And after a while I've noticed something. In D&D, it's pretty goddang impossible to throw them a good insult.

Ryshan Ynrith
2007-10-27, 09:10 PM
"Mayfly", maybe? Humans live the shortest except for Orcs.

Riffington
2007-10-27, 09:13 PM
Warg Chow?

Serpent Stare
2007-10-27, 09:20 PM
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.

Citizen Joe
2007-10-27, 10:46 PM
Actually, 'halfling' IS an insult. It implies they are half a man or something.

BardicDuelist
2007-10-27, 10:59 PM
Halflings-Ammo

Humans-Rabbits

Dragons-Dinosaurs, Lizards

Guy_Whozevl
2007-10-27, 11:00 PM
Halfling/Gnome: 2-Foot Wonder; "Your Lowness"
True Dragon: Psudodragon
Dwarf: Beardy McBeerstein

Just a few I've heard of/used.

Overlord
2007-10-27, 11:03 PM
Although I don't condone cursing, this (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=850) is really a more realistic gameworld insult than most examples I've seen.

Randel
2007-10-27, 11:12 PM
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'.

SurlySeraph
2007-10-27, 11:16 PM
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

reorith
2007-10-27, 11:18 PM
this is probably relevant to your interests (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22010)

that being said, i have nothing more to contribute other than calling aasimars altar boys.

Green Bean
2007-10-27, 11:21 PM
this is probably relevant to your interests (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22010)

that being said, i have nothing more to contribute other than calling aasimars altar boys.

I've always been fond of "sucks to your ass-imar," myself.

reorith
2007-10-27, 11:28 PM
I've always been fond of "sucks to your ass-imar," myself.

lol nice one. my friends gnoll ranger/scout referred to them as fireflies.

Anxe
2007-10-27, 11:31 PM
Dwarves = Moles

† Dran †
2007-10-27, 11:35 PM
orc or any form of orc blood: Pig, pig nose, pig face, runt, mutt, dog

Elf: tree-lover, nature boy

dwarf: stunted one

Gnome: Hin, half-man

Hin: Gnome, half-man, it

Dragonmuncher
2007-10-27, 11:50 PM
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!)

AslanCross
2007-10-28, 01:30 AM
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.

Aasimar -- "glitter"

Nowhere Girl
2007-10-28, 01:48 AM
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

Belkarseviltwin
2007-10-28, 05:54 AM
In WFRP, the Dwarvish words for different races can also be used to describe buildings:
Human= Umgi ("manling")
Umgak= "shoddy, likely to fall down"

Elf= Elgi
Elgak= "flimsy"

Also, "fit for goblins" means unspeakably bad. "Not fit for goblins" means even worse!

Destro_Yersul
2007-10-28, 06:02 AM
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.

Malik
2007-10-28, 07:23 AM
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.

The Neoclassic
2007-10-28, 08:04 AM
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.

random11
2007-10-28, 08:53 AM
Actually, 'halfling' IS an insult. It implies they are half a man or something.

And demi-human is just as bad.

Also "dwarfs".
Is there any reason an entire race will call themselves "short people"?

Thanatos 51-50
2007-10-28, 09:16 AM
Wizards - Because we all know that they think they should be their own race - "Twinkletoes", "Flashbangs", "Pincushions"

Half-elves - "Half-breeds", "Shortears" (from elves)

Humans - "Pinkies"

mostlyharmful
2007-10-28, 09:31 AM
And demi-human is just as bad.

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?

random11
2007-10-28, 09:44 AM
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?

Glyde
2007-10-28, 09:47 AM
Using a dwarf's beard as an insult doesn't really work. You have to tell them that they're beardless, elf lovin' pixie folk.

That'd get a dwarf riled up.

mostlyharmful
2007-10-28, 09:53 AM
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?

Sounds very suitably medieval mentallity to me. Think about it in terms of national and religious stereotypes, and the names that got associated with them. Just because group A is going to object to the name group B assigns them doesn't really matter to the insular, xenophobic or arrogant group B

Citizen Joe
2007-10-28, 10:06 AM
Elf: Splinternuts...
Think about it.

Swooper
2007-10-28, 11:11 AM
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)
Gnomes are proud of their noses. If you REALLY want to insult a gnome, call him 'small nose' (and then run like hell).

alexi
2007-10-28, 11:32 AM
And demi-human is just as bad.

Also "dwarfs".
Is there any reason an entire race will call themselves "short people"?

I'm pretty sure that the term dwarf was first used in mythology to refer to a group (race) of creatures, then migrated to being used as a term for short people.

Darkantra
2007-10-28, 12:02 PM
I'm pretty sure that the term dwarf was first used in mythology to refer to a group (race) of creatures, then migrated to being used as a term for short people.

I know that in Norse mythology dwarves were created from maggots or larvae by Odin and then turned into his forgeloving people. So if you're running an earth-like campaign or a viking one, maggot is the way to go for racism.

If a dwarf ever has his beard burned of (very possible with the number of fire spells and effects in D&D) refer to them as "The beardless wonder".

Warforged can easily call everyone else Meatbags.

Renrik
2007-10-28, 01:27 PM
Goblinoids call humans pinkies and oilies.

Humans call goblinoids gobbos and greenskins

Humans: Naked Apes, a variety of other terms based on individual ethnicity, most of which are based on realworld insults, which are so much more colorful than fantasy insults, and which I shall not post.

Elves: Fairies, Tree-monkeys, Long-ears, tree-f***er, a variety of homophobic remarks, etc.

Dwarves: Stubby, footstool, dishrags, a variety of racist remarks drawn from real-world ones based on the Irish, Scottish, and Scandanavians, depending on how dwarves are in your campain.

Gnomes: Gnomes. That's bad enough.

Orcs and goblinoids: Greenskins, gobbos, snotlings, tusk-face, cave rats, one-eyes or cyclops (for orcs who follow Gruumsh), etc.

Enzario
2007-10-28, 02:04 PM
In DnD you don't need to say anything to be racist. Just put up a sign that says "You must be this tall to ride."

The Neoclassic
2007-10-28, 02:11 PM
Gnomes are proud of their noses. If you REALLY want to insult a gnome, call him 'small nose' (and then run like hell).

Point taken. I think this brings up an important distinction actually- amongst themselves, humans might refer to gnomes as "big noses" but to insult a gnome, they'd call him "small nose."

Oh, and, by the way- gnomes are awesome. :smallyuk:

golentan
2009-07-25, 02:05 AM
Simplest and most obvious for humans?

Wrinkly Jailbait.:smallyuk:

I need some mindsoap.

Belobog
2009-07-25, 02:33 AM
Simplest and most obvious for humans?

Wrinkly Jailbait.:smallyuk:

I need some mindsoap.

Thread Necromancy's kind of frowned upon around here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1.

Just a helpful note.

golentan
2009-07-25, 11:51 AM
Oh good lord, I didn't check the date of the last post. I apologize.

Huh. It was appearing on the front page. Sorry.

waterpenguin43
2009-07-25, 01:12 PM
Drow: Spiderman, Drowminatrix.
Human: Racewhore.
Elf: Pointy-eared pissbucket, feyslut.
Orc: Underbite-for-brains, Axehead.
Gnome: Tinkering midget.
Halfling: Toadstool, dogfeat.
Ixixachitl: Capeface.
Gnoll: Fido, woofster.
Sahuagin: Sharkfood.
Oops, thread necromancy.

Random832
2009-07-25, 01:21 PM
I saw this thread on the first page several days ago and it was three pages long - did some posts get lost or something?

TheLibrarian
2009-07-25, 01:49 PM
It lost a page when it was ressurected.

Andraste
2009-07-25, 02:53 PM
I made a new thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6577049#post6577049), since this one's almost two years old.

dragonfan6490
2009-07-25, 03:02 PM
Human: Regdar
Dwarf: Tordek
Elf: Mialee
Halfling: Lidda
Gnome: Nebin

Basically, my group figured out that the names of the characters in the PHB are in fact insult names to the rest of the race. We had a good roleplaying encounter where we called the Dwarf Tordek and he got very angry and charged us with his axe.

Lots of fun in that game.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-07-25, 03:52 PM
Here are some classic insults from my favorite D&D based game, Neverwinter Nights 2:

Tiefling: Thief, cursed one, demon wench, rat child, goat girl, tail for brains, skinny bull
Dwarf: Mossbreath, fat-bellied little knee high.

Stumpy isn't gonna work.

"You're not tryin'! That's not an insult, it's a nickname. We Ironfists call our own children "Stumpy!"

Innis Cabal
2009-07-25, 03:54 PM
"If half a man is a cripple, whats half an elf"

ondonaflash
2009-07-25, 04:09 PM
Elf: Splinternuts...
Think about it.

Screw subtlety, just call them tree****ers

fetfet
2009-08-11, 02:45 PM
Gnome to Human: Hey human! You're too big to see your own feet!
Human to Gnome: ... what is this bearded 4-year old talking about?

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-08-11, 02:55 PM
I used to play Vanguard with a roommate back in the day. She and I would seriously RP a 'friendship' based on martial trust and racial contempt. My human would call her elf a keebler, moss chewer, and assorted slang not suitable for this board. In turn, she's shoot back terms such as dirt monkey, bald ape, and equally offensive terms as my own. We'd get so caught up in the rp that the other players (who didn't know we lived together) seriously thought we were fighting OOCly. It was a riot.

sofawall
2009-08-11, 02:57 PM
Oh good lord, I didn't check the date of the last post. I apologize.

Huh. It was appearing on the front page. Sorry.

Happened to me earlier as well.

valadil
2009-08-11, 03:00 PM
Actually, 'halfling' IS an insult. It implies they are half a man or something.

I've always been fond of halflings who assume that they're of a normal size and refer to everyone else as "doublings."

ArchaeologyHat
2009-08-11, 03:19 PM
Elves - Flappies/Flappy, Alternatively [Elf Flavour] Flappies ie. Wood Flappies.
Anything taller than a Gnome/Halfling - Long-legs

Captain Six
2009-08-11, 04:25 PM
Why would humans be called apes or monkeys? None of the other races are any less monkey like, their designs were all based on humans anyway.

Human insults would probably go off the aesthetic neutrality of the race. Say; baselines, rough(draft)s, neuts... Maybe even some insane-themed nicknames (wackos, nutjobs...) to races who are used to the "Always X" alignment rules and find human's moral implacability frustrating and suspicious.

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-08-11, 04:39 PM
I forget her exact IC reasoning for it, but it pretty much came back to the implication that humans evolved from a basic primate form whereas elves where lovingly hand-crafted by the gods. Hence elven superiority (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreBetter).

edit: Keep in mind, this was all just banter used in role-play for two characters that lovingly hated each other. It doesn't need to make sense for it to be fun. :smalltongue:

Clementx
2009-08-11, 06:35 PM
One I came up for use by Lizardfolk and other reptilian creatures against other humanoids: Titsucker. If you hatched out of a nice, neat egg, nothing is more disgusting that lapping up goo extruded by another member of your race. They use Mammal when being condescending but not vulgar.

Susano-wo
2009-08-11, 06:49 PM
My favorite halfling insult: Dirt Gnome. (a reference to the halfling's antecedent, the Hobbit, who, as least in some areas of the Shire, lived in holes carved in the sides of hills)

Also, it was mentioned regarding warfroged, but yes, for any non-organic, we have a lovely array of insults from combining flesh, meat, bag, and sack.
^ ^