What Measure Is A Non Human
Basic Information
A common morality trope is for certain kinds of non-humans to not have the same moral status as humans, so that killing/destroying one is not nearly as bad as killing a human. The same values dissonance can often extend to matters of what (or who…) constitutes food and magical supplies.
The distinction is usually based on sentience and emotion, with other recurring examples including the following:
- Mecha Mooks
- Monster of the week
- Clones, parallel universe duplicates and the like, provided the original (or at least one copy, who will then be treated as the original) survives.
- Vampires.
- Robots.
- Some Half Human Hybrids.
- Villains whose inhumanity is revealed as a Tomato Surprise.
- Evil people (even humans).
- Races that are Always Chaotic Evil.
- Faceless Goons
See also Mooks, What Measure Is A Non Cute, What Measure Is A Non Super.
Sources
Bibliography
Game and Story Use
- You probably need to have acceptable targets if you want to have regular action without getting characters bogged down in considering the morality of their actions. These acceptable targets had better be of a kind for which this is traditional, or your players and you may end up feeling disgusted.
page revision: 9, last edited: 12 May 2020 15:05