A game world without dwarves, elves, etc.?

[Buttercup]

My current campaign world has no elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes or orcs.

The only playable race is human. There are also a minotaur race, a lizard people race, a shapeshifter race and a mysterious race of flying humanoids that no one in living memory has seen. The players half believe that they're mythological.

I don't really miss the other races, especially the elves and gnomes, which will never darken my table, ever. My players have inadvertantly planes-hopped once, and will probably end up doing it again soon. When they do, they might find other races, just not elves and gnomes.

In the online game I used to run, the elves had all mysteriously disappeared 500 years ago, leaving behind thousands of half-elf slaves. These half-elves were given their own country and all half-elves in the world were automatically welcome there as citizens. They tended to have a bit of a chip on their collective shoulder about their past, and all refused to do unskilled manual labor, since it reminded them of their slave past. Instead they were artists, skilled craftsmen, scholars and adventurers. All the unskilled manual labor in their kingdom was performed by "guest workers" or by magic.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

I have and it wasn't; all that difficult for me but then again I do try and run a very humanocentric game anyways.
ken

 

[Dark Eternal]

With one exception, the Wheel of Time campaign setting is entirely human. And the one exception isn't any typical standard race, but a unique race - the Ogier - with their own culture and society that has some elements from more typical fantasy fare. IMHO, it's the best non-D&D setting for fantasy role-playing out there. But I'm heavily biased - I've read most of Robert Jordan's novels at least half a dozen times now, and a couple of them, more like ten times.




As for an original campaign setting, the one I posted about in the Original Campaign Worlds thread has no dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, orcs or goblins. The only non human PC races (among the living, anyways) are the Ardant - a kind of ancient sorcerous race that has long had ties and treaties with demons - and the Syrhidhyn, a spider-like race of predators who have more in common with the Thri-kreen than any other D&D race.

Edit: Truncated sig.

 

[med stud]

My campaign have no playable non-humans. I made them so foreign in their thinking that it would be very hard to play them, and if played, they wouldnt be very fun to play.

Elves IMC: Dont need to sleep or eat, and are immune to natural cold and heat. Their only ambition is to watch beatiful nature and sleep around with each others. They have no need to commit themselves with others and have no empathy. Their very cheap habits make fighting very unnecessary, and they always avoid other races when on their territory. Elves make bad adventurers, to say the least.

Dwarves IMC: Live for the community, and the thing that make dwarves tick is to create and/or behold beautiful crafted things, like metal works and gems. Their habit of being very rich makes them constantly under siege from others though, so dwarven warriors are many and skilled. They dont fall in love with others, and are really uninterrested in power and private property. That is, lousy adventurers there too.

Halflings and gnomes: Dont exist.

Orcs: Extremely into private property and power, and never commits themselves to something or someone if it doesnt pay off. The only trace of emotional bonding is between parents and children, but it is still very weak. A son is good for making his father more powerful, a daughter is good for breeding grandsons and as trading property with other orcs. Orcs can be adventurers, but their backstabbing nature make them very poor team mates.

 

[Greybar]

My campaign storyline is currently set in a region that is essentially human. We recently brought in a new player and I let him know that 99% of the people around there are human. Playing a non-human (primarily through half-breeds) was possible but would carry a social costs.

Elsewhere in the world the "classic" races exist, but this storyline is all about humans at least on the "good" side. The "other" side has a lot of demonic and demi-human stuff going on.

John

 

[Dark Eternal]

Oh - I almost forgot to mention our new campaign. It's not absent dwarves and elves and such, but those races have been so isolated that there'd been no contact between them for centuries. The DM has only allowed two of us to play non-humans (1 elf, and my character - the dwarf) - and even then, only to players who have enough experience with the races in question that we practically specialize in them.

It's interesting playing a dwarf who thinks that all elves are high-level magicians, and who only just last session saw a live goblin for the first time.

Of course, the party's ranger has him thinking that trees are sentient creatures...

*grins*

 

[Arnwyn]

Have any of you run a D&D campaign where dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, etc. do not exist? Just out of curiosity. It would seem like a good change of pace and surroundings, but would take away a lot of what makes D&D unique.

Never, nor would I ever run and/or play in one. Of course, my group seems to thrive on stereotypical campaigns. (And in my personal opinion, it's "avant-garde" and a fad nowadays to dump the standard races. Whatever.)

Edit: Spelling.

 

[Merlion]

Yea I kind of agree with Arn myself. Like thats one of the things I'm not crazy about with Arcana Unearthed...although it does have some races I think I will like. But I like elves and gnomes and aasimar and halflings and whatnot.
Of course this is probably simliar to the results of the racial polls that were posted a while back...most people aparently play almost exclusively humans..

 

[blackshirt5]

Agreement with arn and Merlion here. Although I might include some additional races(orcs are playable IMC, for example), or change the standard ones, I wouldn't just drop them from the setting.

AU looks interesting, but I probably won't play in the setting or run it. I'll lift stuff from it to use in my own homebrew.

 

[Merlion]

I will be getting the book and I probably will play in it if the opotunity arises but yea I would miss the standard races..my ideal would be able to play AU without its implied setting, but with its races AND most of the standard DnD races.
Anyway getting back on topic...to each their own and all...and there is a lot of fantasy literature where humans are basicaly the only sentient race or at least where humans and the other races arent integrated as they are in standard DnD. But I'd find it rather limiting to be restricted to one race...and certain DnD races are pretty basic to fantasy...Elves and Dwarves especialy spring to mind