D&D 5E Humans Only

[Greg K]

For my purposes, it doesn't solve the "PCs are mundane and they are exploring wonder and horror" aspect.

I think that you will have to define what you mean by mundane. My biggest complaint with the article is that Rich did not include rural and urban environments. Beyond that complaint, I only have minor quibbles with a specific feature of one or two environmental and, if i wanted mundane (as in non magical), I would omit Mageocracy and Theocracy. (edit: now, if you don't have the environments in your setting, or in your case, you have a specific culture in mind, I can see how his article does not work, but my reply was actually to a specific poster and not your original post specifically).
As for exploring wonder and horror, that to me, is just setting the characters out into the world. However, you might have something else in mind.

 

[jgsugden]

...*Also, I have come to HATE darkvision in D&D and one benefit of an all human campaign is that it goes away.

Depending upon the nature of your frustration with Darkvision, you might consider adding in some alternative vision types to shake things up. For example, I added Low Light Vision (treat dim as bright, and add an extra dim zone that you treat as dim), Infravision (you can switch your vision to night goggle vision - no range limit on it), and Ultravision (primarily used by underdark races to create light sources only they can see, and arcanists to conceal magical markings).

 

[Dave Goff]

Right this very moment, I'm sitting in an airbnb our group got for 4 days so that we could finally meet in person for the first time in more than a year.

This Human-only campaign was supposed to be a one-shot and turned out to be one of our favorite games and has been running for 2 years.

It's a great game. The game depends on the people, not the rules.

 

[Yaarel]

In a Human-only campaign, I prefer the Variant Human, so the feat choice can help distinguish one player character from an other.

Thematic settings tend to be awesome. D&D is a palette. What one removes is as important as what one does add. It is all about the setting and its feel that the table wants to evoke.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If it was a DM I trusted, with players I liked, sure! I don't know that it'd be my favorite thing in the world to play (If someone said we can do a human-only or a dwarf- or tiefling- only campaign, I'd probably pick one of the other two), but I don't think having to play in a human-only campaign would damage my fun or my character concept.

 

[Yaarel]

Personally, I dont mind Darkvision. And I tend to ignore light radius. Either it is dark for everyone, dim for everyone, or bright for everyone. Each character handles that as theys able.

Something I find interesting in concept is "shadowvision", which is to see clearly in dim light among shadows, but to have penalty in either bright daylight or total darkness. This seems appropriate for nocturnal creatures.

 

[Marc_C]

My last 5e campaign had humans only. All PCs were siblings of the same Baron. The players had no problem with it once I explained to central idea.

 

[Steampunkette]

Personally, I dont mind Darkvision. And I tend to ignore lighting radius. Either it is dark for everyone, dim for everyone, or bright for everyone. Each character handles that as theys able.

Something I find interesting in concept is "shadowvision", which is to see clearly in dim light among shadows, but to have penalty in either bright daylight or total darkness. This seems appropriate for nocturnal creatures.

Might be better for Crepuscular rather than Nocturnal.

Which is a -fun- word that so few people use. It needs more use!

Owls are not just Nocturnal. They are -Crepuscular-!

 

[Yaarel]

Might be better for Crepuscular rather than Nocturnal.

Which is a -fun- word that so few people use. It needs more use!

Owls are not just Nocturnal. They are -Crepuscular-!

During the night, I figure moonlight is dim light. For this, I would probably count starlight too. But twilight is also dim.

In flavor, I treat the Wood Elf as nocturnal, and would be fine if shadowvision was their vision. For me, I would be fine if High Elf had normal human "dayvision".

 

[Reynard]

Depending upon the nature of your frustration with Darkvision, you might consider adding in some alternative vision types to shake things up. For example, I added Low Light Vision (treat dim as bright, and add an extra dim zone that you treat as dim), Infravision (you can switch your vision to night goggle vision - no range limit on it), and Ultravision (primarily used by underdark races to create light sources only they can see, and arcanists to conceal magical markings).

Darkness is a key component to threat in fantasy, and PCs having inherent abilities that bypass it is a real problem for me. Plus, it is a huge pain to remember and adjudicate correctly when different PCs have different kinds of vision. And finally, nothing made me hate darkvision quite like the introduction of the gloomstalker ranger.