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

[Kobold Avenger]

Brought up by the discovery that ancient Britons had dark skin and blue eyes, and in some novels do have Human ethnic groups with dark grey skin.

When thinking about a fantasy worlds there's obviously different ethnic groups from any of those on Earth, even if many of them are very similar to ones that exist in our world. But in terms of things like skin colour, hair colour and certain features how far should they differ from our Humans while still being considered Human?

Would it be the degree of mix and match features from our world, where there's conceivably people with mostly East Asian features that have naturally red or blonde hair.

Could it be to the degree of what you'd get in modern Humans who would dye their hairs in colours that don't naturally exist for Humans in our world.

Or could it go as far as skin colours like ash grey, light blue or green that no Human from our world has?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Given the half elves, half orcs, tieflings, aasimar, genasi, ect., running around a lot of D&D campaign worlds (not to mention that things like being a sorcerer or warlock can in effect alter your genetics) and how many of those races/classes have good charisma (equals good chance of spreading those genes), and I figure most humans in D&D campaign worlds have a little something extra in the family tree. It may not manifest as something mechanical (although I think it would be reasonable for it to do [and would solve a lot of design issues with races if it did]), but I could totally see shades of skin, eye color, and hair color that don't occur with regularity or at all (by nature) in our world in a D&D world (maybe even as a common feature).

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Thinking more on basic Human features, I assume all Humans without injuries, birth defects or significant mutations have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, a nose, a mouth and round ears. But could having 4 or 6 fingers on each hand be more common? Or even feathers for hair? Or does that fall in to being something else?

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Barsoom!

 

[Mercule]

One of the functions of having humans in D&D is to serve as a baseline against which to compare everything else. If actually doesn't matter as much whether D&D humans are real-world accurate, so much as that they meet player expectations of humans. With other races (elf, hobgoblin, aarakocra, myconid, etc.) I don't see much point in making humans inhuman, anyway. If you're going to do that, then just get rid of the non-human races and replace them with human ethnicities that have special traits.

That's not to say that individual humans can't have some oddity or even that you can't have a human ethnicity that has something specific to make it stand out for setting/story purposes (I'm thinking something like keep the tiefling history and stats, but make them look like humans with somewhat ruddy skin or some such). I just wouldn't do it for no purpose.

And, I certainly wouldn't do it to introduce some obscure bit of real-world realism. See Reality Is Unrealistic.

 

[Ed Laprade]

I let the players decide what their characters look like. Skin color is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Hair and/or eye color can get a bit exotic at times, though.

 

[Nevvur]

I would base my answer on the origin of humans in your setting.

If they were created magically by the gods alongside the other races, any variation is acceptable.

If they evolved from primates like on Earth, I would want to take evolutionary and genetic principles into consideration. There's an evolutionary advantage to fair skin for people living in environments with less sunlight - easier absorption of sunlight for vitamin D to grow strong bones. I'm not sure what the evolutionary advantage of dark hair color as a dominant trait is.

Sexual selection is also a driving force. For example, blond hair wasn't all that common in Scandinavia for most of its natural history. The theory I read is that people there started bleaching their hair to rid themselves of lice, and this came to be seen as a sign of cleanliness and suitability as a mate. People who were naturally fair-haired were naturally preferred as sexual partners, so it became a more common trait in the greater population.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I would base my answer on the origin of humans in your setting.

If they were created magically by the gods alongside the other races, any variation is acceptable.

If they evolved from primates like on Earth, I would want to take evolutionary and genetic principles into consideration.

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.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Every campaign world is diffetent, so it depends. I plan on giving humans fire breathing in my world

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[The Crimson Binome]

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.