you know what really grinds my gears?

Ive died to bad half giant rp.
Staff asked me if I wanted to complain after one of them.
I didn't because I figured Half giants are dumb.

Unless it's been changed in the years since, there used to be a ton of HG AoD and Legion NPCs sporting sergeant+ insignia and a couple examples among the Merchant Houses. I wasn't referring to PCs, if you were curious as to where exactly I had seen them.

I remember specifically hearing about the founding of some historical/NPC mercenary company where a half-giant captain was involved among the 'founding fathers' as it were, and there's a HG NPC in the Byn with a high rank.

It's not a matter about prestige. It's whether even a half-giant with exceptional wisdom has the ability to not be a retarded stereotype. If not, then I don't see why they're even allowed as PCs, except for people who get a hardon from high strength. If they're just meant to be dumbass stereotypes with all essentially having the same personality (within only a very few tiny degrees of difference before the witch hunt begins), then maybe they should just be reserved for NPCs. Their main reason for existence seems to be flooding Allanak and Tuluk with large cadres of half-giant shock troops, anyways, for templars to have follow them around.

There's nothing particularly redeeming about half-giant RP - to the extent of RP they're allowed to have - and those that dig half-giants I suspect, just dig the strength stat more.

Personally, I think it should be within a half-giant's mental capacity to be a sergeant/drill sergeant type, and even for an ancient, hoary old giant to even be in a real semi-leadership position. If a half-giant has spent his entire life (sixty+ years) serving in a mercenary company, there's no reason he might not have a place in the 'war room' or bellow orders during battle. But that would be if they were meant to be realized as actual, (albeit somewhat limited) characters in any kind of meaningful story.

Make them karma 6 or such if need be, but at least make them worth playing - for  a reason besides the strength stat, which attracts a certain subset of men who find having the highest strength in a room pleasurable, even in a virtual environment.

By the time I stopped playing Arm I was ready to murder every half-giant I heard respond to everything with a shit-eating grin and "Yup". But that, according to the GDB, is the paragon of half-giant RP.

Yeah, that's been changed for sure, and rightly so. There are no half-giants above corporal level, and rightly so, as ar as I'm concerned.

As for them all having the same personality.. I think that is mostly due to the limitations of Arm's RP than due to people being lazy. Half-giants are imitative above all else. A half-giant who hangs out among people curing meat all day is going to have a very different personality than a half-giant who works with a stickup crew does. I just think that it's really hard for many people to stick around other PC's long enough to really adapt and mimic their behaviors/mannerisms very well, for the sheer reasons of timezones/playtimes/whatever getting in the way.

Or I could be wrong. It seems more likely to me that half-giants just are hard, however.

That goes for everyone, though.

That's what I meant.

I think some people would complain about power-emoting mindbenders forcing them to feel things their character wouldn't feel. And some people would love it and RP it to the hilt. But no matter what you do - or not do - you're going to get people complaining about it.