Did half-giants get smarter suddenly?

[Malifaxis]

Guys, I don't even know why we're coming down so hard on HGs.

Today, I was sitting in the Sanctuary, and an elf walked in, and he didn't even TRY to steal my shit.
He should have been all over my diamond-studded steel dagger like a butchered demi-human on Belle Swan.

Did not meet my expectations of his role AT ALL.

I call you out, sir, for your lies!

[X-D]

Well, I know the elf that sold you the dagger, and well, it is made of stone painted silver and those are only quartz crystals, which is why I did not steal it, though now that I know you think it is real still, I will have to and we can sell it back to you again. Still, we are laughing and enjoying the 4 bricks of spice we could buy with what you paid.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Yes. Derailment successful!

I guess what I was trying to say (metaphorically?) is that this is just another thread of RP policing. There was another half-giant RP thread at least within the last year that I remember. At least that one was helpful, and not based off of an OP's complaint.

I also have come across a half-giant recently who I utterly hated. I just decided to leave him be and not play with him. When has a GDB thread that starts with "Why is everybody twinking?" ever been successful?

And, as X-D's response to my derailment demonstrated, maybe there's a reason?

We don't see (many) threads like:
Why do dwarves focuses suck?
Why would you use that word in your sdesc?
Dude, why is your hair that color?
That mutation is lame!!!
Too many F-me's, please stop, I'm late for sparring!

Because we assume that PCs are acting within some reason that may not be apparent to us. Personally, I've played a half-giant who had excellent grammar and vocabulary - because he was a BARD. A HG can be good at what he does. Everyone says they're beefy 9 year olds. Have you seen a 9 year old that can spell everything ever? Or one who totally rawks out guitar hero? Or can name the make and model of every car? We've seen all these things on TV and YouTube.

Maybe that guy's just playing a huge human. Or maybe he's in his element. I'm a HUGE fan of the idea of half-giant savants. I believe half-giants are probably more intuitive than most humans,  (Or at least close to.) and therefore could accel at certain things.

Or maybe someone's a twink.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Oh, forgot to add: the reason we don't see threads like the ones above is ALSO because we aren't threatened by those things.

Post count +1.

[Riev]

I just felt it necessary to make the point that Half-giants, as a race, are not and -should- not be compared to 9 year old human children.

Whether you "know some smart 9 year old" or "work with children" doesn't matter at all for a half-giant. Why? Because Half-giants are not human children. Human children may be "dumb" but they all have potential. A half-giant may only APPEAR more intelligent, but as a whole can never surpass a certain mental prowess.


Half-giants. Are not. 9 year old humans. Please, please stop using it as an excuse, point of reasoning, or Ginka-forbid a point of fact.

[Marshmellow]

So what, Riev?  His point still stands.  A HG bard has reason to have excellent grammar and know some big words.  They're good at memorizing the most bizarre things and imitating those things (often in the wrong place or at the wrong time).

[Kalai]

So what, Riev?  His point still stands.  A HG bard has reason to have excellent grammar and know some big words.  They're good at memorizing the most bizarre things and imitating those things (often in the wrong place or at the wrong time).

Oh yes. I seriously want to play/interact with/etc a half-giant bard now.

[Majikal]

Oh yes. I seriously want to play/interact with/etc a half-giant bard now.

IMO, most half-giants are already convinced their mission is to entertain the playerbase.

[Kalai]

Oh yes. I seriously want to play/interact with/etc a half-giant bard now.

IMO, most half-giants are already convinced their mission is to entertain the playerbase.

More singing would just add a whole new dimension, man.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Man, now I'm thinking about my old HG bard. I still believe he lives in the minds of few as a cult obscurity classic.

Best song released- the one about the time he was in the grey forest and wiped his ass with poison ivy-esque leaves.
Folks was rolling.

Best unreleased song - "Few have the balls of a Lyksae" - wrote as an apology for the time I accidentally insulted Lord Who-ever Lyksae's Inix's penis, stating that my mount had bigger junk than his mount -- THEN I realized he was a noble. (Not a big Tuluk player.)

Died between the completion, and the premier. I think I may retry this concept sometime.



But yeah, back to things. I'm really sick of the cookie cutter 9 year old (Note even 9, it's more like 5!) patterns of speech, behavior, thought. They're funny every now and then, but when that's your ENTIRE character concept, it gets old fast.

IMO, most half-giants are already convinced their mission is to entertain the playerbase.

This is far too true.

[najdorf]

HG's that i see around all the time are playing much more carefully and clever than they should be in my standards.

Keeping a HG as your ally or tool should not be extremely beneficial. There should be a drawback to balance the immense power they add to the team/organization, which i believe is lacking in today's HGs.

Example:
I heard about an animated HG, who by mistake bumped into a Lord Templar and cause him to fall into a spike-set chasm, ending his life.

[Fnord]

Example:
I heard about an animated HG, who by mistake bumped into a Lord Templar and cause him to fall into a spike-set chasm, ending his life.

Huh, wonder why a PC never tried this...

[Cindy42]

Well, I know the elf that sold you the dagger, and well, it is made of stone painted silver and those are only quartz crystals, which is why I did not steal it, though now that I know you think it is real still, I will have to and we can sell it back to you again. Still, we are laughing and enjoying the 4 bricks of spice we could buy with what you paid.

Oh man, WIN.

Yeah--- I've kept secrets from PCs before, enough so to confuse the hell out of them, and i'm pretty sure i remember a few times where i either thought or knew for a fact that someone was pulling one on me.

person A knew a certain language me and person B were talking in. person A knew how to listen to a conversation at another table like a master without being noticed. person B would not shut up at my table, about how badly they wanted person A's belongings. person A was kind enough to give us obvious signs that we were being owned before we began. they weren't even really required IC, and more than hinted strongly of OWN. those other times i'm not sure of... just make me sad. X) and impressed beyond my wildest dreams at the complexity of their conspiracies.

i really, really hope i don't meet PCs that good at screwing people in-game again. well my character does anyway; i as a RL person would be thrilled and honored.

[Cindy42]

Not to add wood to the fire but the same goes for dwarves and elves. Dwarves are stubborn, hairless, and focused. Elves are mistrusting, cunning, stealing scum.

At least in most instances.

Clearly, there are some situations where your HG should act a little more mature, and your dwarf should be paying better attention to some distraction, and your elf better keep his con-game in check. Like a giant monster chasing them across the Known or a sorcerer turning them into a bonfire.

Probably shouldn't post twice in a row... thought this was good to quote.
I avoid roles i know i couldn't possibly fit like a plague. this is why i tried an elf once, couldn't cut it--- never tried a full-blooded elf again.
eh, twice? i don't remember. forgive me my sins of the past!

[AreteX]

I truly wish I had the Karma to play a HG.

I might special-app one in the future.

I used to play as a Troll with an all Troll guild back in the day.  It was awesome.  I think I could pull off a good HG.  I have seen some half-giants that seem to do pretty well, but I cant watch them all the time or had much interaction.

Most of them just talk like caveman.

[Marshmellow]

I'd say that the best don't.

[Cindy42]

I once saw a HG who was hilarious in their stupidity.

good alternative for HG players with great wit if they really want to make us laugh.

[Cutthroat]

I once saw a HG who was hilarious in their stupidity.

good alternative for HG players with great wit if they really want to make us laugh.

I find a lot of half-giants tend to be comedic relief, but in my opinion it should be funny in the way "Kids Say the Darndest Things" was funny to people. The half-giants don't know exactly what they're talking about, and we're all Art Linkletter/Bill Cosby or the audience. I think that kind of play style is one legitimate play style of many.

[Armaddict]

I'm the opposite.  I hate half-giants that are obviously only there to try and make stupid funny.

[naatok]

Half-giants in Zalanthas are stupid......when comparing adults to adults of other primary races such as humans, elves, dwarves.
This doesn't mean that half-giants should always fall prey to a con, be unable to understand common, mundane speech, or be unable to count.

If you believe that not to be the case, try running con games in real-life on the intellectually challenged.
These are folks incapable of comprehending advanced mathematics, literature, mechanics, engineering, physics, etc., but they are not the 'hopelessly stupid' that humor at their expense would suggest.

When I was in college, I used to ride the city bus to class, and several people of the so-called mentally retarded community rode to work on the bus I took.  They were perfectly capable of understanding simple math, they could reason as well as any normal 10 year old child (which is quite well, I assure you), they could discuss sporting events, teams, players and their statistics, and more often than not they realized when someone was making humor at their expense, or attempting to con them.

I watched one fool get his ass kicked on the bus one day for trying to pull a con-type prank on one of these folks.

Half-giants in Zalanthas should probably be simplistic in their wants, desires, needs and interests.  I doubt very much that many (if any) would be discussing philosophy beyond a rudimentary level.  They could probably craft simple items as well as any human, but complex machines might be beyond their capabilities.  Their attention spans might be shorter than those of most other races, they might focus on simple comforts or items of simple functionality and/or beauty.  They would understand the value of a 'sid, but probably not understand the values of items they may want that they are not used to dealing with.  Whereas your human warrior might be able to extrapolate the net worth of, say, a Kadian fashioned silk dress, from what s/he knows of Kadian pricing, market memory and relative values of other things s/he knows of, a half-giant would probably focus on the aesthetic beauty of the dress and view it with the exact same value s/he views the most expensive thing s/he knows of.  If told that the dress is much more (or much less) in cost, a half-giant would probably be very suspicious and argue the point.

The idea that Half-giants should be ridiculously stupid is, in itself, ridiculous.  Such a creature simply could not compete and survive in societies dominated by "smarter" races, particularly in a world like Zalanthas, regardless of their strength and size.

[Drayab]

The idea that Half-giants should be ridiculously stupid is, in itself, ridiculous.  Such a creature simply could not compete and survive in societies dominated by "smarter" races, particularly in a world like Zalanthas, regardless of their strength and size.

However, possibly due to the magick which birthed half-giants, they are infamously stupid and have very low wisdoms.

Half-giants have no culture to speak of. Possessed of astounding degrees of curiosity and kindness (usually), half-giants very willingly adopt the customs of those nearby, and especially the customs of friends.

Half-giants are stupid. Half-giants survive because they are empathetic and because they are masters of mimicry. They are roleplayed poorly by people who can't grasp how a half-giant can learn to make a masterwork dagger and yet be infamously stupid as described in the docs. The key is mimicry. The hallmark of a well played half-giant is how well they incorporate mimicry into their roleplay. Some people take it too far: they think that since their sergeant was a cunning SOB that now they get to be one, too. Others never use it at all, and their half-giant is forever a caveman buffoon or maybe just an oversized human.

I think people are too caught up in how well they talk. I think a half giant can be played either way, so long as there is a reason for the way they talk. If you ask me, it should depend wholly on who their friends are. They should freely adopt their friends manner of speech.

It's a tough role, no doubt about it. Half-giant players have a thin line to walk.

[My 2 sids]

I tend to think of half-giants as our RL working animals.

They're mostly very eager and friendly, they try hard to "fit in".  The smart ones can learn (even specialize) -- but that learning is more in the form of tasks/tricks, rather than being able to apply gained wisdom (the way children eventually learn to do) 

[allieday1]

I do believe a HG in time of doing something over and over. And fact they maybe want to do that thing and become good at it can be smart about it. I really think it all depends on how the HG in game is taught and what they see over a period of time. So to the common Amos a HG who has worked on wagons for years would know a lot and would seem overly smart when talking about wagons,the fall back is and were the role play of HG is hard is because you can be smart on one thing but try not let yourself seem overly smart all all other things.

[Saellyn]

A half-giant might be incapable of ambushing someone as in, coming up with the idea on their own but they are perfectly capable of executing :

"Maxamos, stand over here behind this huge ass rock...a lone rider will come by soon and when he does...jump out from behind this big fucker and smash his fucking head in. Got it?"

"Okay boss."

What happens if they get the wrong guy ^^?

[Marauder Moe]

What happens if they get the wrong guy ^^?

Hilarity.