Setting with humans only (that is, all races as humans)

[Wepwawet]

I'm planning on creating a new setting based on the Seven Citadels series (some info). I read it some 15 years ago, and now I'm reading it again after finding the books at my parents' house.
I'd like to hear some comments and suggestions on these points:

The first thing I want to do is eliminate all PC races and treat them all as humans. I mean, any player can pick whatever race he wants and use it as normal, but physically they all look like humans with slight differences. For example, Shifters are hairier humans, halflings are shorter humans, Tieflings are humans with red or black eyes with very small horns on his head, etc.
Basically there's only bloodlines (when mixed you only manifest one of them).
It's easy and ok, right?
Another thing, one of the players must be a Deva, as they're the rulers, descendants of the god Zeldin. Is it reasonable to impose this?

Secondly, they have to get seven keys from seven immortal wizards. I think the wizards should be at least high-paragon level. So, I'm not sure about how the PCs should get the keys. Intrigue/skill challenges? Fighting them? (players start at 1st level)

 

[Gort]

Another thing, one of the players must be a Deva, as they're the rulers, descendants of the god Zeldin. Is it reasonable to impose this?

Depends, really. I usually find that there's at least one person who, when characters are being created, has no clear idea what they want to play and are happy to "make whatever the party needs". Get that guy to be your Deva.

On the other hand, if everyone knows what they want to play, just give one guy a bunch of dreams of his past lives, visions of being Zeldin, that kind of thing. Ping, instant Deva. I'm sure that player wouldn't mind if you chucked the deva racial power his way on top of his other powers, too.

 

[DonAdam]

If you're starting a new campaign, impose any ex ante restrictions you like. The only thing that I find needs to be handled lightly are changes mid-campaign, because players have based expectations on the previous rules.

 

[arscott]

I feel like the concept of reskinning races into some form of human inherently dumb. Really, there's no difference between playing a "dwarf-like human" and a dwarf, and I can't really wrap my mind around something like a "dragonborn-like human".

There's nothing wrong with straight-up disallowing non-human races. D&D represents humans in a flexible enough manner that you've really got all your bases covered without needing the extra races, and you can choose to ignore racial prerequisites on feats or abilities on a case-by-case basis.

 

[Hairfoot]

Well, if you want to get Tolkien-ish about it, halflings ARE shorter humans.

 

[Herobizkit]

In the Iron Kingdoms sourcebook, as well as the Blue Rose campaign setting (and iirc also the Northern Crown setting book), each area of the world has its own particular "type" of Humans with their own adjustments for their region. Seafaring folk might get +2 dex and Int but -2 to Cha and get skill focus (sailor) as a bonus feat... Desert folk bight get +2 con and wis but -2 to dex and get Track as a bonus feat...

In short, you could easily re-skin all of the races to be "human". Each region gets their own stat adjustments, a handful of "cross-class" skills that count as class skills (I'm not sure how that flies in 4e), and maybe 1 or 2 relevant bonus feats. Maybe some humans get low light vision, others have a resistance to sleep (or enchantments in general), or some have dragon blood... it's your world.

As to requiring a PC be a Deva, I would vote against this tack. Players have a habit of resenting other PC's who appear to be a "DM's pet" and responsible for 90% of the story arcs. Now... as mentioned above, having a PC have dreams about being a Deva would certainly be the way to go. In fact, have all of the players have dreams that come true on occasion. And in very important dreams, have each of the PC's have the SAME dream. This can be fun for players and the DM if, at random points in the game, you hand notes to every player - some are just for fun, others have the dream, and keep them guessing "who's got the button".

 

[Wepwawet]

I don't want to disallow anything. There's always a way to fit a weird race or class into the story. I just want all races to be more human-like.

About the Deva thing, he's not going to be the main character.

The things is, most of the characters are half brothers, sons of the Emperor. But some have a stronger royal/divine blood, which makes them Princes of the Godborn (probably because their mother was a queen). The others are just Lords (usually sons/daughters of concubines).
PCs with weirder races are just foreign princes/princesses married to the royal family, or servants.

Deva would be a perfect fit because of that otherworldly nature, but Eladrin could work (or even some other race with enough creativity)

 

[Herobizkit]

I guess one could argue that all the races are already human-like.

Elves/Eladrin are tall, thin humans with pointy ears.
Warforged are human-shaped machines.
Dwarves and halflings are short, stout humanoids with big bellies and/or beards.
Tieflings are humans with horns (you can replace the cloven hooves if you want).
... and Humans are, well, humans, and you could STILL have the same number of "regional" humans with enough variety.

You could steal the inspiration for Tieflings/Aasimars from the Forgotten Realms and have a "blooded" race for every element, and if you check out some back issues of Dragon magazine, they have Planetouched for the quasi-elemental planes (ice, smoke, magma, ooze) plus one each for the Lawful and Chaotic alignments.

Lastly, you can tweak everything to yur heart's content by giving players Bloodlines as described in the Unearthed Arcana and found on The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document) :: d20srd.org.

 

[Andor]

Plus from a high school biology standpoint both orcs and elves are humans since they can produce viable crossbreeds. (Presumably an orc/elf pairing would also be viable. Probably just gives you a regular human with self-esteem issues.)

Although Athsian Dwarves are not human since Muls are sterile. I don't know if any other D&D setting addresses dwarf/human crosses.

Where in Tolkein do you get halflings as short humans? I don't recall anything to imply that...

... Although it is worth noting that the 3e style athletic Halflings are not all that different from some human pygmy groups.

At any rate it souds like a fun game. Good luck!

 

[Wik]

... Although it is worth noting that the 3e style athletic Halflings are not all that different from some human pygmy groups.

The anthropologist in me is cringing, here.

Pygmies aren't really as short as a lot of people would like to believe. I don't really see the similarities between 3e halflings and pygmies at all, I'm afraid.

That being said, I like your analysis on "humanity" in D&D - technically, elves and orcs ARE humans! I love it. Makes me think of shadowrun. And that's a good thing.