First, I want to include ratfolk in my setting- but with a few caveats. I don't want them to be unclean monsters, I want them to be different from other ratfolk or beast races, and I do NOT want them to be oversexualized or so special and perfect and oppressed by others just because they're different.
How do I make them tolerable?
Secondly, I want to say something that I've wanted to say for a long time. Too many beastmen and beastfolk threads have been started in the name of fap and ended with a slew of "no, you" comments. Conversely, anyone who wants to introduce a race of animalistic people ends up either having the thread derailed by horny neckbeards, trolls, or both.
The best advice I can give you is "they are already integrated into normal society", treat them as mundane. Give them some vague origin story like they were humans that mutated thousands of years ago due to the blood of some rat-god spilling on them, then they bred and found their children all came to be the same. After generations... rat-kin were just kind of things that existed and nobody really thought too hard about it any more once the original generation of human-turned-rat died out.
So they just exist.
As for your latter question... there is no changing Veeky Forums. Live and learn to ignore idiots.
Thomas Nguyen
>How can we fix THAT?
We can't. Just make up a beastman culture you and your players enjoy and ignore autistic REEEEEEEEEing.
I too am upset you can't discuss more human-like catfolk without waifufags treating them as exotic pets. Luckily my players aren't faggots.
Levi Myers
Just show them at face value? 'They exist, it's a thing, deal with it yo' sort of thing. You could go into the cultural nuances and how they fit into society as a whole, but only if prompted to do so. No better way to make your players think you are injecting your obsessions into a game than being too eager about them and using any excuse to talk about them. As long as they aren't the only other race, it should work out fine.
As for your latter question, you're an idiot. Veeky Forums gonna Veeky Forums, it's a known nest of scum and xenophilia. If you don't like it, there's not a lot you can do about it save learning the patterns and avoiding them. For example: >PEOPLE ARE SEXUALISING BEASTFOLK IT MAKES ME MAD >Says OP, accompanying his rant with one of the most well known examples of sexualised beastfolk
Jaxon Collins
From a previous rat-themed thread:
>City is under attack from Dick-ass Drow raiders >Rats, pressured by the potential loss of their home, join the war to defend. >The Drow laugh this off and ignore them. >Rats, from years of hiding, scurrying, and having to pummel the occasional monster, are excellent at stealth, street fighting, and setting up ambushes. >Rats consistently manage to lure the Drow Raiding parties that get through the walls into always or sewers where there is either a human barricade with crossbow-men, bunch of Rats ready to shank them, or both. >Rat rogues are almost as good at stealth as Drow assassins and use their superior knowledge of the city to cut them off and prevent them from completing their mission, even capturing some alive. >The Drow are actually having a net loss as Dick-Ass Rat theives keep stealing all their stuff and sneaking into their camps and releasing the prisoners. >The Drow say "Fuck this shit" and go home with their metaphorical tails in between their legs, because they got beat by a bunch of mutant Sewer-dwelling beasts. >They Swear their undying hatred upon the Rats. >Rats are celebrated as heros and given places of honor amoungst the city.
Bentley James
Call them Mouse-Folk Problem Solved
Eli Ross
Fluff-wise? Honestly, there's a lot you can do. I got a post-apocalyptic setting where my (admittedly Burmecian + Nezumi-inspired) ratfolk are essentially a race of goodly aligned souls laboring towards the grand racial philosophy of "let's fix the world!" and generally being the closest thing the setting's got to paladins.
Pathfinder has ratfolk as peaceful traders and merchants who're just considered normal, if a little erratic, because every ratfolk is looking to try and become a respected elder.
Wicked Fantasy has ratfolk as the "noble gangster" race; they moved into the quarantined ghettos of various city-states during a horrific plague, made themselves comfortable whilst tending to the sick and dying, and now they reject all attempts to root them out. People willingly live alongside them because their culture is big on the "do unto others" creed, so ratfolk (rodduns, in-verse) take looking after the people who are depending on them Very Seriously.
Oliver Morales
>I don't want them to be unclean monsters
They already aren't. Rats are incredibly clean, social, intelligent, and empathetic animals. Le Skaven are a retarded meme, literally nothing like rats at all.
Julian Brown
In fairness Skaven are magical crack addicts.
Jordan Foster
Maybe, but they also made DOOMWHEELS. So there's that going for them.
