The Weird is a category of Western epistemology. For something to be Weird, it must be intruder, it must refuse the easy categories of its eye, and for that it must be a threat. The monstrous is the extension of it.
The Weird in TTRPGs, therefore, is something that is outside the human. The Weird is uneasily contrasted with the Gonzo, and positioned as something that can only be achieved from a point of view that’s rooted, usually, in the mundane, or what was passed into mundaneity by the standardization of fantasy, the so-called Vanilla. It therefore can only exist through an act of reduction, by which the Weird and monstrous acts as excess beyond the lines. This is perfectly fine.
Time and again I see people discussing whether monsters, spells and such should be standardized, or if they should be Weird, with the idea that the Weird is more sophisticated in some manner. The implicit position that I sometimes feel is that, by standardizing monsters, spells and the supernatural, by “reducing” them, they are leaving their rightful place of excess towards a place of normalization. A place that, it seems to me, is destined for humans under this paradigm.
So using human antagonists, human contexts and etc. beyond serving the role of offering players an intelligible way into the game (we are all humans), serves the double function of keeping the non-human Weird. This implies, at least to me, the idea that humans themselves are not weird enough.
Here I use “weird”, lowercase. Humans are very weird. Have you talked to one? Have you seen our works? Have you listened to yourself late at night? Humans are very weird, incapable of holding to their own categories, surprising and mad and rational and passionate. I don’t think we often appreciate enough how weird humans are. Certainly we are doing a disservice to human antagonists and human contexts when we privilege them with the goal of keeping the Weird as excess, therefore in practice privileging the Weird as the cherry.
One of the fun things about reading human history is to see as a small piece of information upheaves all categories you were employing until then, and the manner that instead of seeing contradiction synthesize into a new ordained system you just see larger contradictions enveloping each other. A lot of weirdness upon weirdness.
Besides thinking about how to use humans in order to keep what’s non-human Weird, we can think about how to use humans in order to keep everything lowercase weird, because human weirdness is charming, surprising and passionate. “Why would I use an orc when I can use a human?” is a multifaceted question that can imply both “why would I use something Weird for the role of a mere human” and “why would I use Weird when I can use weird?” I think both Weird and weird have their place in the same campaign, and the low-key weird of humanity is very comfortable. Don’t use humans to keep monsters special, use humans because people are bizarre.
Instead of thinking of a monster that was once a human and turned into a giant bird, we can think about a community of humans who learned to fly by dressing in robes made of peacock feathers, and it’s their weird humanity that allow them flight instead of becoming part of the Weird.
So yeah, humans are weird. Maybe we can make our bestiaries more about weird humans, but just humans.
Roll to Doubt