Do You Prefer to Play a Human PC When RPGing?

[BadMojo]

My pcs are human, at least untill they develop the Innsmouth look.

Ah, that's still mostly, kinda sort human. A couple of generations of breeding with people who don't have webbed fingers and toes will take care of that, no problem.

I don't prefer to play human characters, but they tend to be the only ones that actually survive in our long-term games.

Previous campaign (lasted years of real time) - human Monk eventually reincarnated as a kobold and later a gnome.

Current campaign - tiefling rogue (dead), elven fighter (dead), human barbarian sorcerer (alive and kickin' butt).

I've made a decision that the next game I play in I'll roll up either a halfling or dwarf character, just for a change of pace.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Hell yeah! The extra feat and skill point, and no favoured class, is golden!

QFT.

IMO, best LA 0 race is human. I'll play other races, but honestly, the last time I played a demi-human was right at the beginning of 3.0.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Why? Humans live about twice as long now as we use to in the middle ages, there is no indication that has effected our perception of time.

I'll have to disagree.

When human life expectencies were under 40 years, there was no concept that child labor could/should be outlawed or at least strictly regulated. Training in the military would have started when a person was about 12 or so. Marriageable age was about the same (actual marriages, not mere betrothals).

Now, most first world nations structure their societies in ways that extends the concept of childhood through the teen years, and some might even argue that it extends into the early twenties- if you're under age 25, you'll definitely have trouble doing things like renting a car (in the US, at least).

On the end of the life scale, we can expect perhaps 20-30 years retirement- unimaginable in the middle ages- and have to plan for that period by saving during our earning years. There are even afflictions that almost exclusively attack the over 50 bunch so they weren't even noticed until life expectancies topped that mark. Now, geriatric care accounts for the biggest single category of medical expenses in first world nations.

Now, expand that concept into a life span of 500 years (dwarves) or 1000 years (elves). A human's drive to earn a PHD by age 30 would seem ridiculous, especially since it comes with the sacrifice of other aspects of growth as a person- perhaps less exercise than is healthy, or being distanced from personal relations. An elf in a world of humans could accumulate the equivalent knowledge in 100 years, all while being fully capable of persuing everything life had to offer because he knows that at the young age of 130, he'd still have hundreds of years to use his knowledge professionally...and would actually be able to personally experience the acceleration of technological improvement.

A dwarf with access to modern banking could concievably amass a fortune belittling Bill Gates' simply by working steadily and saving at a modest rate, and allowing the power of compound interest to work in his favor. An investment at 3% will double in 24 years, so a $5000 savings account becomes $80,000 in 100 years, $1,280,000 in 200 years, and over 20 million in 300 years- that is all without additional deposits. And I can tell you now, I personally know investment bankers who have managed $5000 accounts at 20%+ interest rates for the past 20 years. IOW, who needs to burn yourself out to earn a dollar? Not Gimli!

Consider history. Today, historians and legal theorists try to divine the intent of the drafters of the US Constitution from what they wrote... What if they could actually talk to them about their intent? Or could talk to someone who did? What if that person was you?

 

[Sejs]

Unless the way I envision the character speaks to being a particular race, I'll default to human.

Partly because I don't feel I'm doing a non-human character proper justice if I just play it as a regular person but with wacky powers. An elf or a dwarf would have a different perspective and outlook than a human would. Ignoring that has me kicking myself after games from time to time. *shrug*

 

[Mr. Beef]

Of the character's I've played in D&D 3.0/3.5 I don't think I have played a human.

My first was a Half-Orc Barbarian, then there was The Elf Fighter, and right now I'm itchin' to play a Warforged Artificer in an Eberron game.

Just my 1/4 pound.

Mr. Beef

 

[EyeontheMountain]

In my campaigns races vary along limited lines. Races of ???? mostly, plus PHB.

For my characters, I like Humans for their versatilty. They can do wahttey want, and be who is a good fit forthe party, without all the bagage other races have.

My races history
Dwarves: Played a few, but not for long. Like em though
Elves: Please.
Half-elf: See above
Halfling: Played some, but it is hard to think of them as a serious race.
Gnomes: Have no concept of a gnome, never played
Half-orc: Too much of a stereotype, even when playing against sterotype.

Mostly human for me.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Unless something else is called for, I tend to stick with playing humans. I will occasionally venture into other races if it is a one-shot adventure or a mini-campaign. However, if the DM is planning on a long-term campaign, I can't recall any time where I did not play human.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I'm trying to play... other races. But that extra feat on 1st level is too invaluable, because it gives me more room to customize my character. Want to play Eberronian spoiled Heir? I'll take a Least Dragonmark... and no other feat? That's not good, so I default to human, because I can put in the slightly more fluffy feats (self-built concept > default racial concept).

If you would get two feats on first level, like in AU/AE (and house-ruled games), yes, then I tend to like non-humans.

 

[Aaron L]

Either humans or elves.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I used to play elves.... elves were cool and could multiclass, and did I mention that they were cool.

Then 3.5 came out and one of the first things I noticed was that there are sound mechanical reasons to play a human. So, I actually had to think about what kind of a character I wanted to play. And while I was thinking, I realized that, for the most part, I and everyone I know pretty much plays elves as snobby people with bows, dwarves as drunk greedy people with axes, and halflings as short people who may or may not be kender. This created a bit of a role-playing trap. If you play your elf/dwarf the same way everyone else does, you're just playing the stereotype. On the other hand, if you try to play against type, you end up playing a character without anything particularly elvish or dwarvish about them. Now you're really just playing a human with star trek makeup. So, forget the star trek makeup. I decided that, unless I saw a good reason (either mechanical or role-playing) for a character to be other than human, I'm going to play human characters. And I've played more human characters than anything else since I started playing 3.x