Forums » RP Discussion » Playing believable nonhuman characters

How can you convincingly show how different they are from humans?



Edit: All my personal birb questions have been laid to rest! But if you still want to weigh in with general tips on playing any kind of nonhuman character, that would still be nice.

I recommend looking up videos of mated birds. They do a sort of beak nibble thing that's probably actually affectionate grooming.

Or just skip the concept of kissing and use other displays of affection.

Depending on the nature of the beak, kissing may be out of the question, but not nuzzling and grooming with it.

But when dealing with non-human traits, you're on the right track by focusing on observed behaviors from other creatures. The idea here is to consider thought process that would make different behaviors make sense to the character. For example, if a creature is supposed to be extra violent, it can be because other forms of problem solving are either alien to it or just completely unknown or uncomfortable.

If the character is SUPER affection to everyone, it might be because it comes from a species that survives off of forming huge groups where trust is easily formed, and so on, and so forth.

Thank you @Novalyyn and @ConanBell for the responses!

It might have to come to that, sadly. I just really like kissing, though. I guess I still have a Disney princess view of romance deep down inside.

True, always a good guideline to have!

---

Maybe a bit more context... I've been walking around trying to imagine I'm a 6 foot tall bird who lives in a human city (that's her setting).

To be honest, I was hoping someone had a kind of manual or a premade character questionnaire. I've never written any kind of anthropomorphic animal before. What's it like walking on paws or claws, in a setting that accepts both humans and nonhumans? Any websites or reading material you'd recommend? What questions do I need to ask myself to make an avian character (and act like one in a way that won't be too distracting in an RP that contains a mix of species)?

Truly anthropomorphic animals run the gamut from being completely human with weird-heads to being half-feral creatures with weak grasps on language.

There is no codified formula for such things, as any attempt to do so would end up rejected by sizable numbers of people for any number of subjective reasons.

Now, as for what would be annoying to RP with, your mileage will vary. I have a cat boy named Ratchter who some people love playing with, while others find him far too abrasive and uncooperative.

Now your "higher frame-rate" thing seems really interesting. I once had a game where someone took on the power and senses of my djinyanna, Taffy, only to discover that her obsession with foods and sweets and kissing people all step from hyper-sensitive perceptions that constantly pull her attention toward such things. Focusing on things that are not that proved very tiring at first.

Therefore, I say embrace these things as much as you feel you can have fun with. From there, it's simply a matter of finding a partner who is also intrigued to play with you.

I don't usually roleplay anthropomorphic characters (my only experience is with a kenku/crow-person from D&D), but I have some thoughts on your questions anyways.

- Her talons would definitely click on the floor. My uncle's a falconer, and when his red tailed hawk hears people come into the shed attached to her enclosure she comes running to scratch at the door. She sounds like a fast little dog lmao. I don't think it would hurt your character to move like that, per se, but it wouldn't be as comfortable as flying. She'd still need to perch on things shaped like branches periodically to prevent her feet from getting injured or deformed.

- Birds are really slight under all those feathers. They're also very maneuverable, so she could probably even fit through doors smaller than herself. Different bird, but here's a video of a goshawk flying through small gaps. Same with owls.



- I like the idea of her perching on the arms and backs of chairs and refusing to use them properly. If it was a flimsier chair, maybe sitting on it with her knees up to her chest in a sort of awkward bird crouch, if that makes sense. I don't have any interior decor ideas though lmao

- I don't think it'd be annoying for her to perceive the world just a little bit faster than humans; it just means she'd notice more minute details and generally be more observant. Eagles in particular can also see much farther away than humans, as well as in colour, even into the ultraviolet range. So I guess her world would just be sharper and brighter?

Hope that was helpful in any way.

You know... I think it'd make sense in a setting we're anthro animals with weird feet are a normal thing that specialized shoes would probably exist to help, like maybe a sandal designed to replicated perching. Unless still using those feet to grip would be a common thing, in which case... lots of, uh, foot sanitizer stations? Or foot gloves?

I'm probably overthinking things.

@Connanbell
I was hoping there would be, but I'm starting to see now that there's so much variety it would be hard to make a one-size-fits-all tutorial.

Nice. That certainly is interesting! I like how you had a kind of perceptual reason behind things that people generally just take for granted as "quirks".

---

@Yersinia
Okay, I just need to ask: What kind of fabulous, mystical fantasy world did you step out of?! You can read runes like a wizard and your uncle is a falconer?

Your post was a thing of beauty. I never would have thought to look for something like the goshawk flight video, but seeing it just made things make so much sense for me and answered so many questions I didn't know I had. And I love that image of the hawk running towards your uncle like a little dog. So adorable.

I'd go through your points one by one, but really, the gist is that they were all super helpful. Thank you!

---

@Novalyyyn
Yass, overthinker buddies!

A sandal designed to replicate perching would be magnificent! I personally have a problem with shoes myself, since I have wide feet. What more for nonhumans? And this is exactly the kind of thing I would lose hours thinking about too.

*high-five!*

Lots of thanks to everyone who replied! You really helped me wrap my head around things. I'm closing this thread for myself and all my birb questions, since most of them were answered, plus the creator of my character's race just cleared up a lot of concerns I had.

But if you want to share tips about any kind of nonhuman character though, that would still be nice!

Sandals with comically high arches are a very good visual.

Ah, he's my most (and only) interesting relative. Thanks for the fun fact about priests, though, I'm going to think about that forever now lmao

There is a reason I like science fiction more than fantasy, and it's the same reason it's also more difficult to write (I think) it's because in sci fi everything must be justified, everything has an explanation. In what we call hard sci fi it directly follows the laws of science as we know it, and soft sci fi makes it's own rules of science (whether wildly different or just a little) but still follows it's own rules of justification.

The point I try to make here is that if you make an alien and have a plausible explanation for everything it does and is, I think it would make it that much more believable

Hope that was helpful.