Setting with no humans (or other fantasy races)

[mhacdebhandia]

Telling people you're playing D&D campaign- or any other RPG that does have humans in its default setting- and then tell them there are no humans? They might feel that there has been a bait-and-switch.

There's no bait-and-switch, of course, if you say "I want to run a game of D&D with no humans."

 

[MortalPlague]

That's silly, if you ask me. If they never play humans, what does it matter if they're there or not?

The presence of humans indicates a certain world style which is familiar to a lot of people. Those who compulsively play elves, for instance, might be doing it for the relationship with humanity. They might enjoy playing the elder race, always looking down their nose at the short-lived humans. Or they may enjoy playing dwarves, shaking their heads at the hastiness of humans (and their weaker drinking skills). Sometimes it's the race relationships that make a given race fun to play.

 

[Aeolius]

Telling people you're playing D&D campaign- or any other RPG that does have humans in its default setting- and then tell them there are no humans? They might feel that there has been a bait-and-switch.

Undersea game... bait... ::snicker::

No more so than a D&D game where the DM hates elves or another core race, I suppose. But I agree, a campaign's deviations from "standard D&D" should be spelled out up front.

 

[Mircoles]

It's far from a new idea, but the game systems that have attempted it, have faded into obscurity.

Darksun is likely the best example of how to go about it. Take the typical fantasy world and races, then twink them in ways that people don't expect.

As far as no humans go, removing them removes the human perspective and seeing as we're human, the human perspective is really the only we can relate to.

Downsizing them and making them a minority race would likely work, because the human perspective is still there. The humans just mostly aren't, because there are so few of them.

 

[Elphilm]

It is my recollection from talking with Troy that the original races appeared throughout the first book of the Prism Pentad.

Thank you, that's really interesting. I'm not saying that the first draft would have necessarily been better, but it would definitely have highlighted the utterly alien nature of Athas if bazraags, the nikaal and the rest would have been presented as default player character options.

 

[Ferret]

I hadn't thought about placing anthropomorphic characters in this category, as anthropomorphism is quite literally the practice of attributing human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings. The characters of Bunnies & Burrows, Mouse Guard, Iron Claw, et al. don't look like humans, but in all other regards, they very much are human.

As awesome as mouse guard is (I AM CRAB-WISE!) it is humans masquerading as mice.

I think that for a lot of people (myself included, to some extent), "fantasy" means elves, dwarves, hobbits and humans plus magic plus monsters.

For some, I suspect that a setting lacking those elements (or most of them) feels more like sci-fi or something. Not saying it's not possible to pull it off (see examples given!), but I think that's what you're up against. Depends on the players!

I am looking for more like Science Fantasy. So this is good.

The difference is, though, that people probably know going into a Mouse Guard campaign that there are no humans.

Telling people you're playing D&D campaign- or any other RPG that does have humans in its default setting- and then tell them there are no humans? They might feel that there has been a bait-and-switch.

I'm not going to be making it a 'humans have been removed' thing. It'll be a whole new setting.

It is my recollection from talking with Troy that the original races appeared throughout the first book of the Prism Pentad. I recall that the Bazraags (became half-giants in the redesign), Nikaals (became elves in the redesign), Tareks (became mul in the redesign), and Jozhals (not sure what was substituted for them). There were others but I was never told. I have suspicions that gith were in the proposal.

What 'are' all those races?

 

[Elphilm]

What 'are' all those races?

The short descriptions detailing a number of Athasian creatures here might be helpful.

 

[BlightCrawler]

How do people think would react/use a setting with no standard fantasy races, are there any other settings out there with this theme?

The setting I'm planning features two humanoid/human like races, and a fairly alien one.

The reason is I want a fresh start, sort of how Elves and Eldarin were split up, to separate high and wood elves.

What do people think?

It certainly would wipe away any preconceptions and give you a clean slate to establish new impressions.

It also wipes away any preconceptions and gives new players very little to latch onto.

From the title, I thought of Mouseguard, where the players are all mice in a medieval setting presented like a fantasy setting. They fight off owls and snakes instead of dragons and trolls.

You'd want some sort of hook that gets people interested, because weird and alien isn't going to get you far on its own. Unless this is something for your own group, then you can just bribe them with pizza or something.

 

[Andor]

I hadn't thought about placing anthropomorphic characters in this category, as anthropomorphism is quite literally the practice of attributing human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings. The characters of Bunnies & Burrows, Mouse Guard, Iron Claw, et al. don't look like humans, but in all other regards, they very much are human.

By that token no PC race qualifies as non-human. Anthropormorphic literally means 'man-shaped'. All the standard D&D are (very) anthropomorphic by that standard. It also has a common usage secondary meaning of possessing human like traits, but even by that standard all standard PC races are pretty damm humanlike, or at least scottish.

It's worth noting that a hypothetical race that possessed no human traits would be essentially unplayable since a human could not successfully put himself into the role of such a creature.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Since 1998, my campaigns have been predominantly devoid of core races available as options for PCs. Granted, since 1998 my campaigns have been set primarily underwater. PCs must have a natural swim speed and be able to breathe underwater without the use of magic. Mind you, aquatic elves are always an option.

I've also done this, though not for anywhere near as long. Also, no elves in my underwater campaign. No equivalents to anything standard fantasy (well, D&D fantasy, that is). Except for one humanoid race, anyway. But even that would be a stretch.

And, I've been working on a setting recently, that has no humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, gnomes, etc. It's a planet that's predominantly harsh wasteland, with strange entities peopling the surface and subterranean depths, where there is (noticeably mobile) life at all. Of course, you could have humans land on this planet, or get there via a portal, or however else. I just. . . wouldn't want to be them.