Do people of color play RPGs?

[cyst13]

As a GM, I try to do different voices and accents as much as possible. Accents are restricting, though. When you are speaking in a different accent than your normal voice, you have to concentrate on it. To both concentrate on the accent AND develop individual personality quirks through phrasing and inflection is doubly difficult. Most of my games take place in historical time periods. If I did, say, Italian accents for all the NPCs, they'd end up sounding pretty similar. Usually I pick the most flamboyant of the PCs and give him the accent. That leaves me room to develop the other PCs in my normal voice.

A bit off topic, I heartily recommend doing character voices whether as a GM or player. It is the single most effective and visceral way to get across to the others in the game that you are some one else when you are speaking. You never have to announce "My guy says..."; they just hear the voice and they know. I've played in otherwise fine games in which the GM speaks every character in his own voice and it's always left me on the outside, unable to suspend disbelief enough to accept the NPCs as anything more than game constructs.

While there may be some potential for offense, honest communication of intent is key here. Most gamers are neither professional actors nor writers. We are ad-libbing characters who are often nothing like our real selves. And we're doing it without any script. To expect a game to treat people of foreign cultures as accurately and respectfully as a good novel or film is simply unrealistic. RPGs are by nature like broad cartoons, even the serious ones. But that's not a very good reason to ignore the challenge of portraying people from other cultures. At least not in my book.

[palehorse]

One of my current group is Mexican; back in the day I gamed with black and Asian players as well.

For us, at least, the social stigmata that seems to accompany gaming isn't really an issue; we're all thorough computer geeks, having worked for the same ISP together (some of us at a couple of them, thanks to buyouts and layoffs...), and we're pretty much all flag-waving card-carrying geeks as it is.

[megaplayboy]

my current gaming circle comprises 5 black guys, 1 latino, 2 white guys, and one teenage white girl.
I have found a reasonable diversity in my area gaming-wise, and the only issue in the history of the group tended to involve a few white male gamers who were (possibly) uncomfortable with the "ethnic mix" of the group.

As a white guy, I have RPed a black vigilante PC who was very streetwise, but basically spoke using slang sparingly. no real negative feedback from my group.
Currently I am playing a private eye of "indeterminate ethnicity"(running joke--it's impossible to tell his specific ancestry just by looking).

[Captain Obvious]

I consulted with him on how a follower of "Classic" ISlam ... would react to the presence of supers in their community, or to being a super himself. His insights were quite interesting

And you're going to leave it at that? What did he have to say that was so interesting?

[Vondy]

Questions for the African Americans, Philipinos and other people of color who responded: When you play human characters, do you specify that the PC is of your own race? Do you ignore that aspect? Have you ever played White characters, whether to fit in with a White group or just because you wanted to? In fantasy games, have you been attracted to playing non-human characters? Did real-life race considerations play into this decision?

Well, I will answer for the two members of my group I noted as they don't post here and I have both observed them in play and discussed some of these issues with them.

The african american generally plays "black" characters, though many of his characters have been racially parve (i.e. he never mentioned a specific race and it never came up as an issue in play). I did have a discussion with him about his portrayal of the first few black characters he had in my game because - frankly - it caught me off guard. The characters were a parody of the stereotypical african american as seen on television with a heavy twist of undercover brother (right down to watermelon and fried chicken and "the man" references). I asked him point blank about it when we were alone and he told me he wanted to play a black character, but didn't feel comfortable about it in a group of mostly white thirty-somethings (most of us are a decade or more older than he is). It wasn't that he thought anyone in the group had problems with black people, but that he was concerned we might feel he was making race an issue if he played a serious black character. I told him he should knock himself out and if anyone had a problem with it to refer them to me. No one did. He's also told me, since then, that he's more comfortable "playing characters closer to home." Almost all of his DnD characters (I don't do DnD, but a couple of my guys including him do DnD together) are non-humans.

My native american player is all over the map. In fact, I only rememver them playing a native american character once in the 13 years I've gamed with them. Some of the characters, such as low-tech nomadic wood elves and whatnot, are interesting parallels (and they've pointed out the parallels), but its not a major thing with them. This player is also the one player in our group who goes transexual from time to time. We have a pretty hard rule that people play characters of their own sex (we've had some major characterization issues going both ways), but this player does very well with it. If I have one player where I'm not sure what I'm going to get its this one.

[BNakagawa]

Speaking in the broader Ethnic sense, I know RPGs are popular in Japan (I have lived there and been in Japanese gaming stores, but never actually played due the language barrier) and (this may shock some people) Brazil!

The Brazilians, being social people, I understand. The Japanese still surprise me a little, since I would have thought computer RPGs would have long outstripped their desire to play pen and paper games, such as is happening here.

Rob

http://ptgptb.org/0020/japan2.html
is a link to an article which agrees with a friend and former GM of mine who has gone off to Japan to teach. They both say that RPGs (TRPGs there) are not very popular, compared to here (the USA).

I spend a fair amount of time surfing Japanese websites, more often than not, if a person is talking about their RPG character, it's for Ragnarok online (MMORPG), not sword world or d20.

[KawangaKid]

Questions for the African Americans, Philipinos and other people of color who responded: When you play human characters, do you specify that the PC is of your own race? Do you ignore that aspect? Have you ever played White characters, whether to fit in with a White group or just because you wanted to? In fantasy games, have you been attracted to playing non-human characters? Did real-life race considerations play into this decision?

Also, to the guy who grew up gaming D&D in the Philipines, did your group, consciously or not, adapt the European basis of the game to fit in with Philipino culture (eg. social structure, folklore, personal dynamics)?

When playing human characters here in the Philippines, most of the Filipinos do specify the race/nationality even if they're playing Filipinos. This is done either explicitly ("I'm an Irish-American dude.") or through not-so-subtle clues ("My character's name is Seamus O'Hara.")

As for non-human characters... the coolness or munchkin factor tends to be the deciding element there.

As far as adapting the European basis of a game... I'm not too clear on what the question means. So I'll answer the two interpretations that come to me:

• Did we use an RPG in a Philippine setting?
  Yes, I run a Champions game with the heroes based in Metro Manila for example. Almost any RPG set on "Earth" as we know it gets this treatment at one time or another.
• Did we use an RPG in a Psuedo-Philippine setting (only the names change)?
  Yes, usually but usually only in Fantasy settings. For example, we're currently converting our home-brew game for the Hinirang setting into D20 using the Unearthed Arcana stuff.

Naturally, most games in the Philippines take on the cultural aspects of the country - in-jokes, slang, names and cultural perspectives - color every gaming session. Even when the GMs and Players attempt to alter or bar those those aspects from impacting the game (limiting the language to English only or pure Tagalog, for example).

However, I think that anyone from outside the Philippines who joins one of the local game sessions would have little difficulty finding his or her "gaming legs" in the group (especially if the group uses English all throughout and keeps the in-jokes to a minimum).

By the way, when referred to as a "race" we're known as Filipinos with an F. Don't ask me why. It's what America taught us when it took over the Philippines and reworked our educational system way back when we were "Little Brown Brothers".

[cyst13]

That's probably because Americans can't spell worth a lick. Just read our Internet posts.

Your replies were excellent and highly enlightening. What I'd specifically meant about the D&D question was that the elements of the game (elves, dwarves, quadrapedal dragons, etc.) are based on north European mythology. Did you adapt the game at all to include elements of Filipino mythology? Admittedly, I know nothing of Filipino mythology, if there even is such a thing, so perhaps this question is irrelevant.

[Killer Shrike]

Hmm...

Ive had gamers of hispanic and asian decent in my groups in the past, but Ive never actually gamed with a black RPG-er. Ive had casual black friends in the past, as a kid, in the Marines, and in the commercial sector. Race isnt an issue for me, I take people as individuals, not stereotypes. I just havent encountered many black gamers.

I did play 40k with a guy for a while who was Puerto Rican but looked black; he also practiced Couperia (sp), the Brazilian dancing martial art, and had an eclectic taste in music -- great guy, I think he grew up in New York IIRC. I also work with a black guy now named Remelus Bowden who is a computer gamer. I havent played anything with him, since he likes the sports and racing games and I prefer twitch, RPG, and RTS games, but we talk computer games shop at least. He's from Mississipi and actually goes by Remus, which suprised me a bit, but he's a web developer and they tend to be a bit odd anyway .



The hispanic players were when I was in the Marines; two were from Texas, one was from California (I was stationed at Pendleton, which is why I live in San Diego )

One of the Texan hispanics was Emilio Martinez IIRC; his wife Dawn was white and in my unit at the time (I MEF G2). They played in a Champions game for a while before they had their first baby and had to quit due to time.

The other Texan was Rene Garcia. I met him a few years later when I was at 1st Intel Company. He played computer games hard core and got into Warhammer 40k.

The Californian was a guy we just called Paco. I dont know if that was his real name or what, but thats how he introduced himself; "Paco."; "Paco?"; "Just Paco, hommes". Funny guy; he played up a shtick similar to Paul Rodriguez and was hilarious when he got going. Anyway, he played 40k, Rifts, and D&D IIRC. I played 40k with him a few times, not being into Rifts or D&D at that point in time.

The asian players were mostly from California -- one was of Thai descent but was raised in San Diego from toddler-hood. One of the most fun people Ive ever met. Another was of Philipino descent on his mother side, his father was former Navy. He grew up in one of the L.A. burbs. Another was my ex-wife who is Vietnamese, coming over to the US during the last extraction from VN in 75 or 76 and growing up in Florida (high school sweetheart and all of that). Another Asian was half-Japanese, son of a former service member, grew up in Kansas if I remember correctly before moving to Florida to live with his grandparent. Finally another Asian was Korean, he was adopted by a US family as an infant and grew up in Florida (kind of an odd coincidence there -- we met at Pendleton in the Corps and hit it off immediately. Turned out he had gone to a high school on the east coast of Florida that my Lacrosse team from a school on the gulf coast had often played against in -- he played soccer however ).

The Thai, Tarnicorn "Ed" Sulaeo played MTG, and Champions -- his character was "Fade", a high-speed teleporter. Lot of fun. Famous for his cheesy MTG decks, such as his dreaded ELF deck.

The half-Phillipino was Billy (cant remember his last name) -- his character was a mentalist named Simon IIRC. Sadly Billy had a lot of problems and committed suicide a few months after I met him so his character didnt see much play and I cant remember much about him. Very talented guy, just had a lot of issues; it was a real shame he couldnt take it anymore.

My ex played a variety of characters, but in D&D and Champions. She wasnt very good at it, but some of her characters were memorable.

The Korean was Mike (cant remember his last name either. Must be getting old). He played MTG -- got me into the game actually back when Arabian Nights was out.

The half-Japanese guy was named Tony Guarena, or Gerina, or something like that. I played Vampire tM with him briefly. I think he had Brujah character that he was way to into. He wasnt in my regular group -- when I was in highschool he was part of another group that hung out at a local game store normally, and for a while there was a by-invitation-only session on Friday Nights run by the store owner. I played in it for a few weeks, but my ex-wife (then my girlfriend) started complaining about me not being around on Friday nights to go out with her, so I quit the group.

[Captain Obvious]

Hey, Kawanga Kid, that Hinirang site looks pretty cool, but I can't get any of the Literature links to work!

[Rene]

Speaking in the broader Ethnic sense, I know RPGs are popular in Japan (I have lived there and been in Japanese gaming stores, but never actually played due the language barrier) and (this may shock some people) Brazil!

Hi there.

Okay, why do you think this may shock some people? Are you refering to the inane stereotype that Brazilians live in the jungle and have samba and soccer as their only entertainment?

I don't want to come across as an "angry patriot", actually I don't find this offensive, I find it hilarious. The city I live in is as big and polluted and frenetic as New York, I hate samba (I'm a rock fan myself) and the only sport I ever showed some aptitude for is basketball. I confess, I've been completely culturally conquered by the devilish Americans.

And yes, RPGs are extraordinarily popular here.

As for the subject matter of the thread... Brazil isn't like the US, racial identity isn't so strong here (for once, we've had much more miscigination than the US). So a middle-class black will probably have the same tastes as a middle-class white, and will naturally join in this hobby of the middle-class that is RPG. They're still less numerous than white players, mostly because there are fewer middle-class blacks than whites.

When we play fantasy games, the mythology we use is your basic European fantasy thing (sometimes we do something more Nipponic too, samurai and stuff). Brazilian Indian folklore is seen as alien by most Brazilians.

But when we play modern setting games (superhero or WoD), about 50% of the time they're set in Brazil, 50% in the US.

[UltraRob]

http://ptgptb.org/0020/japan2.html
is a link to an article which agrees with a friend and former GM of mine who has gone off to Japan to teach. They both say that RPGs (TRPGs there) are not very popular, compared to here (the USA).

I spend a fair amount of time surfing Japanese websites, more often than not, if a person is talking about their RPG character, it's for Ragnarok online (MMORPG), not sword world or d20.

Well, things might have changed, but when I lived in the city of Matsuyama on Shikoku in the late '90s, there were RPGs available in at least 5 stores I knew offhand, and I walked into an actual gaming room once with people playing some RPG I didn't recognise that was part of one of the stores. Most of the local used bookstores would have a few homegrown RPG books around too, and these were our RPGs, not the video game kind. (I even sent some of them back to my friends in Canada, the Gundam RPGs to be precise.)
I just wish my Japanese had been good enough to join in at the gaming room I'd found...I just looked around a while and then left because I couldn't really contribute.
As well, two years ago in Tokyo my friend snagged me a copy of GURPS:Biotech in English I'd been looking for as a travel gift, and he was a little lost gaijin over there who couldn't find a speciality shop if it hit him. (I should ask him where he got it, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Kinokuniya in Shinjuku.) GURPS claims to have sold a lot of RPGs in Japan as well over on their site.
I did notice your friend was talking about the Tokyo scene, maybe things are different once you get outside of the big cities. As well, it has been 7 years since I was there, and maybe what I was seeing was the tale end of the TRPG boom your friend talked about which hadn't died off yet in the smaller cities. Both are possible, I have heard fan culture is a little different outside of Tokyo in general...weird stuff like anime fan culture being driven by men in Tokyo and Women outside of Tokyo, which I got to see firsthand at local conventions when I lived there.
In any case, in the end, Video Game RPGs rule the roost in Japan, I will never argue that point with anyone.

Rob

[UltraRob]

Hi there.

Okay, why do you think this may shock some people? Are you refering to the inane stereotype that Brazilians live in the jungle and have samba and soccer as their only entertainment?

That would be the one.
Actually, I was pretty shocked when I heard it, not because of the stereotype mentioned above, but because I always associated gaming as a North American and European hobby. Having one of my friends tell me about gaming sales in Brazil blew my mind at the time when I heard it a few years back.
Actually, I was extremely glad to hear it. The more gamers out there, the better! Especially HEROs!
And for the record, these days I associate Brazil with Heavy Metal, not Samba. ^_-

Rob

[Kirby]

Okay, why do you think this may shock some people? Are you refering to the inane stereotype that Brazilians live in the jungle and have samba and soccer as their only entertainment?

Hee hee. I suppose I am fortunate in already having the above knowledge. I had been subscribed to a Ravenloft mailing list (D&D) for several years and one thing I recall is that everytime a new product came out, most of the Brazilians (as long with various Europeaners) would ask for some basic information about the products since it took so long for new material to arrive "south of the border." I always knew there were devout Brazilian Ravenloft fans, now I'm glad to hear that there are Champions fans in Brazil as well.

Take care!

[KawangaKid]

That's probably because Americans can't spell worth a lick. Just read our Internet posts.

Your replies were excellent and highly enlightening. What I'd specifically meant about the D&D question was that the elements of the game (elves, dwarves, quadrapedal dragons, etc.) are based on north European mythology. Did you adapt the game at all to include elements of Filipino mythology? Admittedly, I know nothing of Filipino mythology, if there even is such a thing, so perhaps this question is irrelevant.

Actually, very few have actually done that except in modern day "supernatural" games. Some have done that in their home brews, but its rare...

Coming up with stats for Filipino creatures is both simple and difficult. While there are some unique creatures, quite a number of them parallel the "fey" creatures of English/Irish legends. And you almost never "defeat" these creatures physically - you outwit 'em. Or just survive 'em. Like the various "white lady" ghosts that haunt all the older parts of the city... and a lot of the newer ones too. Too many places in the Metro that were battlegrounds.

As for the uniques: we have Tikbalangs (body of a tall man, head of a horse) which are interesting considering all the horses of this country were brought in by foreigners (the Spaniards mostly), we have Manananggals (woman who separates from the lower half of her body at night and sprouts bat wings to feed on human beings and on children still in the womb of the mother). Hid that last one for the sensitive folks among you.

Demons are demons, and there's a rumored tradition of demon summoners in the Philippines... but they do things the Saker way: summon the demon and defeat it in combat (physical / mental / spiritual) so you can get its powers. If you're incapable of those types of combat, good luck.

And Gods? Well, we've got the old pantheon that few know about except Bathala. His name's been taken to refer to the Roman Catholic or Christian god these days, but he used to be the head diety of a pantheon very similar to the Norse one. Only other one I know of is Malyari (god of strength).