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Settings where humans not dominant
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<blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 4203873" data-attributes="member: 13892"><p>A bit of a rant is forthcoming. I apologize, though this touches on one of my biggest pet peeves in game/setting design. Probably <em>the</em> biggest one, actually. . . </p><p></p><p>Several D&D settings <em>say</em> that humans are dominant, though they do a poor job of living up to that claim. For example, Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft are both good examples of settings where demi-humans and supernatural creatures are just as commonplace as (if not moreso than) humans, despite claims to the contrary in the sourcebooks themselves. </p><p></p><p>How likely is is that you'll <em>not</em> run into several demi-humans or other 'monstrous' races during the course of a given FR or Ravenloft official adventure, novel, or video game? Not very likely at all. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of a single such product that isn't brimming with multiple examples of both. The truth is that dem-humans and monsters are the bread and butter of both settings, despite claims of being about humanity. </p><p></p><p>It's easy to manufacture figures (i.e., population percentages) that name humans as a setting's dominant race, though if countless reams of published setting detail don't back those figures up, they're absolutely worthless. To be fair, not all D&D settings suffer from this discrepancy (e.g., Greyhawk is, for example, primarily populated by humans and the source material never strays far from that claim), nor is the issue unique to D&D (several older White Wolf products also suffer from the same failure to support cited population figures in actual practice). </p><p></p><p>All the same, being promised one thing and then having mountains of supplements fly in the face of that thing, utterly failing to back it up is a <em>huge</em> pet peeve of mine. If designers say that some setting is human-centric or tell me that monsters and demi-humans are rare, I full well expect them to back that up. I suppose that's why I like Harnworld so much, as it is one of the few fantasy settings I've read that makes these claims and then <em>consistently</em> adheres to them for the entire duration of the product line. </p><p></p><p>Okay, now that I have that off my chest. . . </p><p></p><p>Overtly non-human settings (i.e., settings that boast a significant non-human population <em>and</em> proudly advertise this fact) are not commonplace. The default setting of Palladium Fantasy 1e certainly qualifies (it has huge swaths of the world teeming with entire cultures of changelings, dragons, dwarves, elves, troglodytes, wolfen, etc), as do settings such as Jorune and Talislanta (where standard human-ish races are a distinct minority). For d20 material, I believe that Spiros Blaak, qualifies (IIRC, most of its denizens are were-creatures).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jdrakeh, post: 4203873, member: 13892"] A bit of a rant is forthcoming. I apologize, though this touches on one of my biggest pet peeves in game/setting design. Probably [i]the[/i] biggest one, actually. . . Several D&D settings [i]say[/i] that humans are dominant, though they do a poor job of living up to that claim. For example, Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft are both good examples of settings where demi-humans and supernatural creatures are just as commonplace as (if not moreso than) humans, despite claims to the contrary in the sourcebooks themselves. How likely is is that you'll [I]not[/I] run into several demi-humans or other 'monstrous' races during the course of a given FR or Ravenloft official adventure, novel, or video game? Not very likely at all. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of a single such product that isn't brimming with multiple examples of both. The truth is that dem-humans and monsters are the bread and butter of both settings, despite claims of being about humanity. It's easy to manufacture figures (i.e., population percentages) that name humans as a setting's dominant race, though if countless reams of published setting detail don't back those figures up, they're absolutely worthless. To be fair, not all D&D settings suffer from this discrepancy (e.g., Greyhawk is, for example, primarily populated by humans and the source material never strays far from that claim), nor is the issue unique to D&D (several older White Wolf products also suffer from the same failure to support cited population figures in actual practice). All the same, being promised one thing and then having mountains of supplements fly in the face of that thing, utterly failing to back it up is a [i]huge[/i] pet peeve of mine. If designers say that some setting is human-centric or tell me that monsters and demi-humans are rare, I full well expect them to back that up. I suppose that's why I like Harnworld so much, as it is one of the few fantasy settings I've read that makes these claims and then [I]consistently[/I] adheres to them for the entire duration of the product line. Okay, now that I have that off my chest. . . Overtly non-human settings (i.e., settings that boast a significant non-human population [I]and[/I] proudly advertise this fact) are not commonplace. The default setting of Palladium Fantasy 1e certainly qualifies (it has huge swaths of the world teeming with entire cultures of changelings, dragons, dwarves, elves, troglodytes, wolfen, etc), as do settings such as Jorune and Talislanta (where standard human-ish races are a distinct minority). For d20 material, I believe that Spiros Blaak, qualifies (IIRC, most of its denizens are were-creatures). [/QUOTE]
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