D&D 5E How much should Human features differ from Humans from Earth?

Nevvur · Feb 10, 2018

Kobold Avenger said:
I would say it's a combination of both with many races. In many cases the humanoid races did evolve from primates, and in some cases created their Gods through the power of belief. But the Gods themselves have been guiding the evolution and development of races. But it varies on many worlds.

Indeed. I should have been a little broader in my first statement. Let me amend it to say: if magic is involved in the creation or development of a species, any variation can be explained as magical in origin.

That doesn't mean humans can't naturally evolve pigmentation we don't normally see on Earth, at least given my layman's understanding of genetics and evolution. I don't actually know all the factors that drove humans to their modern pigmentations, so it's more a matter of me blindly accepting there is a reason in the real world, and then assuming that reason, whatever it is, also applies to my homebrew setting.

That said, it's more a matter of comfort with that model than a scientific argument for or against other variants in pigmentation.

aco175 · Feb 10, 2018

I wonder if some of our Earth historical concepts of elves, dwarves, and other fantasy-like cultures have a basis on different human traits. Say early traders from future Scandinavia came to future England or Canada and found humans different than them. These new people spoke and looked different. Whether they were that much different or legend grew over the years can help explain why these people called elf or dwarf looked or were given more aspects over time.

I agree with some of the others who have said that humans should have a baseline that the other races are based off of. I do not mind having some sub-races of human- similar to sub-races of all the others like elves and such. The only thought would be how much different can they be before they start crossing over to look like the other races.

Ancalagon · Feb 10, 2018

In my game, humans are twice as tall. But everything is twice as big, so my players haven't realized yet.

Iry · Feb 10, 2018

Saelorn said:
If humans aren't recognizable as humans, then there's no point in calling them humans. If your humans have blue skin, or feathers, then they aren't humans.

Ordinary humans can have blue or orange skin just because they ingested certain substances. Those substances might be common in certain culture groups, or the majority of the species. You don't really lose anything by making them a different color, though it certainly helps to have a compelling reason for the difference instead of changing the color 'just because'.

Ancalagon · Feb 10, 2018

Iry said:
Ordinary humans can have blue or orange skin just because they ingested certain substances. Those substances might be common in certain culture groups, or the majority of the species. You don't really lose anything by making them a different color, though it certainly helps to have a compelling reason for the difference instead of changing the color 'just because'.

Oh! Oh! Campaign idea!

Do you know what turns human blue? Eating silver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria

But these humans are hunted down by other humans, who smelt them for their silver content!!!

Now we know why Gargamel wanted to catch the smurfs...

monsmord · Feb 10, 2018

Our variation is driven by evolution and environmental influences. A fantasy world will have any number of other extraordinary factors, including magic and the likelihood of interbreeding with non-humans races. Anything goes, really.

I do agree with [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION] to a point - if the features go too far they wouldn't be human per se (wings, scales, extra limbs, etc.). And [MENTION=5100]Mercule[/MENTION]'s point about baseline abilities is spot on, at least in D&D and similar games. But odd coloration, facial feature sizes/shapes, height/weight - sure, why not?

If you do go the extraordinary route with features we'd classify as bizarre or inhuman here, just blame magic.

Kobold Avenger · Feb 10, 2018

When it comes to environmental factors and diet in a Fantasy world there's clearly things that simply don't exist in our world. The magic could certainly act as some sort of radiation in nature, that does different things from solar radiation. It's assumed that most suns/stars are the same, using D&D "science" most suns are probably giant conduits/generator of elements of Radiant/Positive Energy or Fire.

Iry · Feb 11, 2018

It just comes down to having a compelling reason. I always ask myself "What am I gaining by making this change?" Sometimes I'm gaining fun. Sometimes I'm gaining a great plot hook. If so, then those humans are definitely going to be blue and have feathers! But if I'm not gaining anything then I probably won't do it.

Eltab · Feb 11, 2018

If you want to set up your campaign world so certain ethnic groups are distinct and separate - maybe the nobility is all redheads but the commoners are brunettes - then go ahead.

But I've never made ethnicity an important part of a campaign. I can think of a lot of in-game stupid statements that lead to hurt feelings around the table, and not much advantage to it.

Mostly I would let the PCs describe their character and what he looks like.
If you want to get into more detail, you could put together some sort of table of possible features, and roll each randomly. You could get a person with Oriental eye-shape, a big beak of a nose, pale skin to the point that he fears sunburn (except at Winter Solstice), and small-boned. He will be just as playable as a character who is a "pure blooded" XYZ-group from IRL.

Sunseeker · Feb 11, 2018

Little. IMO. The more you differentiate humans in-game from IRL humans, the more you encroach on what makes other races fantastical. Though I suspect skin, hair and eye color variations would probably be tolerable, keep in mind that even these simple elements are all that separates humans from other fantasy races. These sorts of "humans with a little splash of something" are fine IMO in a high-magic type setting where interbreeding is common and acceptable. The blood of XYZ race has simply been passed down through the House of Teal such that the majority of their members have some sort of unusual blue/green pigmentation to their appearance, but they are otherwise biologically human. (In mechanical terms, they use Human stats, but have a wider range of racial options).

Stripped of their cultural baggage, Dwarves are just short, fat, hair humans. Elves are tall, skinny, pointy-eared humans. Halflings are literally just pint-sized humans. Orcs are angry, toothy humans. And do on and so forth.

If you're going to make humans look like a Bob Ross painting (all those pretty colors and not a lick of compositional sense!) then you're going to have to rely on cultural elements to define the other races, or make physical racial differences more extreme (see: video game races). If you choose the former, you're tying yourself to a type of setting many players may not find appealing due to the necessary complexity of cultural traditions. (in this case, we've got reverse-humans, who instead of being the "keep the blood pure", "scared of the monsters" types...they'll jump the bones of anything that moves, talking optional)