D&D General What are humans?

[Clint_L]

Compared to the other major peoples of the Material Plane, humans are...

Short-lived. Their lifespans are slightly shorter than those of halflings, much shorter than those of dwarves, and like the blink of an eye when compared to the (near) immortality of elves, which is related to...

There are many shorter lived sapient species, though. Why aren't goblins mostly running the show? Also, some of these assumptions really vary by setting. On Exandria, Elves are longer lived, often attaining several centuries, but nothing close to immortal. Even in AD&D elf lifespans were measure in hundreds of years, not thousands.

Ascendant. Whether due to their faster breeding cycle, a natural inclination towards expansiveness, or the workings of some divine plan, humankind are in the process of achieving dominion over the world, while the other peoples are in decline or will be imminently.

Again, this is setting dependent. There's no particular reason that humans should be ascendent, other than that has often been the case in fantasy novels and D&D settings. And the "other people in decline" trope comes mostly from Tolkien. It's not really still a thing in D&D, if you look at the descriptions of various species in the rules and settings.

Edit: sorry, just noticed that your avatar described you as a "Dungeon Master of Middle Earth." Sure, in that setting your observations are on point. That's not a D&D setting, though.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

One things humans can do beyond almost all other animals is smelling rain, or rather the chemical produced when water falls on dry soil.

Like the sharks smelling blood in the water is famous, but humans can smell petrichor way way beyond that level. Like, tens of thousands of times beyond that level kind of thing.

How that could translate into a mechanic I'm not sure, especially as survival mechanics got removed this edition. But being able to tell which direction rain fell in recently seems like a really unique species ability to have.

 

[Shardstone]

Compared to the other major peoples of the Material Plane, humans are...

Short-lived. Their lifespans are slightly shorter than those of halflings, much shorter than those of dwarves, and like the blink of an eye when compared to the (near) immortality of elves, which is related to...

Ascendant. Whether due to their faster breeding cycle, a natural inclination towards expansiveness, or the workings of some divine plan, humankind are in the process of achieving dominion over the world, while the other peoples are in decline or will be imminently.

I do like the idea that humans dominate their ecosystem in every setting. Even the setting where something like GIant's are on top, humans are still everywhere. It just makes being a human feel kind of ominous, which I like.

 

[Shardstone]

One things humans can do beyond almost all other animals is smelling rain, or rather the chemical produced when water falls on dry soil.

Like the sharks smelling blood in the water is famous, but humans can smell petrichor way way beyond that level. Like, thousands of times beyond that level kind of thing.

How that could translate into a mechanic I'm not sure, especially as survival mechanics got removed this edition. But being able to tell which direction rain fell in recently seems like a really unique species ability to have.

As a human, you can always find water unless in the most barren of wastelands. Not strictly true to IRL but for an adventurer human, would be interesting.

 

[Umbran]

Yeah, this certainly seems like a case study for unnatural selection. Supernatural selection?

It really depends on the underlying metaphysics you are choosing - it may not be a "selection" scenario at all.

I basically play all of my creatures as people, which means more or less like humans, because it's what I know. I try to take into account how their long life and great power might affect a dragon's perspective, or how the typical appetites plus lack of human empathy of a demon might affect theirs, or the warlike culture of duergar, etc., but ultimately I am largely confined to my human point of view.

Over the pandemic, I was invited to play in a game online. Recognizing that online play really isn't great for the level of social-interaction roleplay, I thought to create a character in which I could do a whole lot of internal roleplay to fill that gap. And trying to play a character with a distinctly different mindset from my own seemed like a way to accomplish the goal.

I looked around, and found some of the bits of description around Lizardfolk to be compelling. I doubled down on some of it, added some bits for myself, read a little bit on reptilian biology, and picked some elements to focus on. I know a lot of people say we "cannot" roleplay characters with alien mindsets, I think I did a decent job of building a bit of a profile that was consistent with a D&D adventuring lifestyle, but wasn't just "human, with scales". What it did take was more than the usual amount of explicit thought before deciding on actions, because my own immediate responses were distinctly primate in origin.


Unfortunately, that game folded quickly. I have a hope that someday, a game will crop up to give that concept more of a workout.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's just Halflings

Halflings mentally think adventuring or leaving home for long periods is weird. You have to force a normal Halfling to do it.

Sure, so all PC halflings are fighting against their instincts, or otherwise have no choice, to adventure. I could get behind that.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It really depends on the underlying metaphysics you are choosing - it may not be a "selection" scenario at all.



Over the pandemic, I was invited to play in a game online. Recognizing that online play really isn't great for the level of social-interaction roleplay, I thought to create a character in which I could do a whole lot of internal roleplay to fill that gap. And trying to play a character with a distinctly different mindset from my own seemed like a way to accomplish the goal.

I looked around, and found some of the bits of description around Lizardfolk to be compelling. I doubled down on some of it, added some bits for myself, read a little bit on reptilian biology, and picked some elements to focus on. I know a lot of people say we "cannot" roleplay characters with alien mindsets, I think I did a decent job of building a bit of a profile that was consistent with a D&D adventuring lifestyle, but wasn't just "human, with scales". What it did take was more than the usual amount of explicit thought before deciding on actions, because my own immediate responses were distinctly primate in origin.


Unfortunately, that game folded quickly. I have a hope that someday, a game will crop up to give that concept more of a workout.

elaborate on this as I wish to know

 

[Clint_L]

I don't think I'm very good at playing non-human perspectives. I try my best, but it quickly descends into stereotypes from World of Warcraft and stuff.

 

[Undrave]

Regardless of what we decide I really like the subtle 4e lore that the Human God that everybody forgot about is the one Asmodeus killed to ascend to god hood and the 9 Hells was formerly his domain.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Regardless of what we decide I really like the subtle 4e lore that the Human God that everybody forgot about is the one Asmodeus killed to ascend to god hood and the 9 Hells was formerly his domain.

yeah it is cool but I would make it more he ended up killing a small pantheon before it got a chance to get going