Maybe you aren't intending to defend this game design choice, but it very much comes across as though you are with the way you've worded things previously. A discussion of how we speak and how things come across isn'' really a major part of this dialogue so I'll spoiler it out below, but do take a look through, please; I'll say in advance, it's intended in a friendly and good-natured way, because I feel as thought there's a legitimate issue of communication and speaking past one another here, and I don't want to fall into an argument based on a misunderstanding.
This is a conversation about what our characters
can or
cannot say
To NPCs.
You said that I could still threaten the person in question, just not with the 'drow' lines; the drow lines that have nothing whatsoever to do in any way with being a drow, and are just generally threatening, and which we're in agreement everyone should be able to say if anyone can... the point being that in game right now,
that is not true. That halfling
Cannot tell shadow to step off with her back-handed insults. ONLY a "Racially Evil Drow(tm)" is ALLOWED to make that threat. That's the problem; no-one else is allowed to tell her to step off at that point, at all.
It
IS because of your race in this case, and
Purely because of your race that you can't; another character can, and this character can't, and the defining reason for the difference, the mechanical explanation for the difference, is
RACE. It seems that we genuinely do agree that it shouldn't be - but it also comes off in your talk as though you're still trying to claim that it's not a distinction based on race and race alone, when the pure and simple fact of the game right now is that, undeniably in the mechanics, that is exactly what it is - a racial block to a completely mundane normal dialogue choice.
I am heartened that we do at least seem to be on the same page for agreeing that such lines shouldn't be. Despite the back and forth, it sounds like we're actually agreeing on that score at least.
Moving on,
i just dont see any reason to create mess with including them to elves as sub-race, since they are sooooooooooooo different from every single other elves. o_O
Putting one branch of the elven people off on its own, as a separate race, as though they were not part of the elven people, and then giving them sub-races of their own, that are not racially distinct groups but only socially and culturally distinct, yet still calling it a racial distinction... THAT is a mess. THAT is awkward and counter-intuitive. Putting a branch of the elven people in next to the other branches of the elven people, under the race of elves, is explicitly not a mess, nor confusing. It is exactly what one would expect, and the way it should be.
The rest has very little bearing on the actual conversation, but I'm putting it here because it seems like it may be an issue of communication more than anything else. As I said at the top, this is intended in a friendly manner.
==
But you are still completely able to threaten "cretin" ... not just with the same words, and those words you mentioned are used only by Evil Drow,
That reads as you saying that only these 'racially evil drow' could want to threaten a person at this particular juncture, and reaffirming the game's design choice to enforce that; You've back-tracked that now, and I can accept that there may be a slight communication and language barrier here, that's making us speak past each other at times. I'm sorry for my part in that, if I've contributed, but the way you spoke first in your previous post very solidly came across as you defending it, even if you didn't mean to.
It doesn't help when you say things like:
NO Halfling will ever be scarry, when he will talking about how they do think in Menzoberranzan.
and
Since no matter if you like it or not, some races are simply more scary than the others.
Those things come across very strongly as you supporting and defending locking mundane dialogue behind race. If that's not your intention, that's still how it comes across when you say things like that (the former more than the later).
You now say:
I didnt want to claim that Drow are not elves (that would be truly foolish
),
But whether it's language or communication barriers creating confusion or not, saying this:
“Im sory, but i DO want Drow to be separate racially from elves … Since they are.”
Looks very much like you are wanting to say that Drow are racially distinct from elves; that elves are one thing and that drow are another; that elves exist, and have various branches of their people, and that Drow exist are are not either of those things.
That is certainly a nice story ... But unless he had it tatooed on his face, how exactly should anyone who is talking to him know that?
No matter how badass your halfling is, when he meets someone new, its simply just a halfling ...
He may of course try to intimidate anyone, just as anyone else should have that option ... but you cant possibly expect your enemies to know your history, unless you take that time and tell them.
That's certainly a nice strawman you're pointing your lance at over the hill over there, far away from the conversation and unrelated to any part of it.
I'm not sure why you've decided to go on this particular tangent, no-one is implying that anyone should know anything about our characters. That's not even been a part of the conversation at all. You're not adding anything to the discussion with this argument against something that no-one said in the first place; I have to guess that you believe that this was what was being spoken about in some manner: for my own curiosity, what led you to feeling as though this was something that was being discussed?
Society is made up of members of your race, their behavior is the behavior that your surroundings will expect from you ... and not on the basis of what you have experienced (ie background) but on the basis of what they see at first sight (ie race)
Social culture and race are not the same thing, in any way. They never have been, and they never will be. There's a lot of overlap, sure, but they aren't the same. The society you grow up in may be composed primarily of members of your own race... or it might not be. Racial culture and known trends or stereotypes exist, certainly, and that creates various expectations that people may have upon meeting your characters. That determines how they might talk to you at first... but it has no bearing whatsoever on what you as a character should be allowed to say to them. Again, you're pointing at something that is not at all what we're talking about here, in any way, and hasn't been. This conversation has not been about what others say to you... it's been about what you can say to others.
