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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6193324" data-attributes="member: 2067">Human evolutions that made us awesome in the Real World:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Ranged Combat: "Oh those are nice claws you have there, and powerful trunks, and big horns, and I'm just going to stay over here and throw sharp things at you really hard. With about a dozen of my buddies."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Imagining the Future: "When the crocodile kills a hippo, there's a lot left over, and then next month, the crocodile doesn't have anything to eat. I've got an idea: when I kill a hippo I'm going to KEEP IT ALL, so that in a month, I can still eat this same hippo."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Recording the Past: "So, my grandfather tells the story of how when he was a kid, his grandfather taught him how to remove poison from a snakebite. Because of that, I fear no snakebite today."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Altruism and Kinship: "If you're going to attack me, tiger, you better finish the job because if I escape, and I survive, I will be nursed back to health by all my family and friends, and we will come looking for you, and your children, and your children's children, and we will tell stories about your wickedness, and all of your kind will be wiped off the face of this planet forever. Who will nurse you back to health when you flee from the spears of me and all my sons and daughters, oh great and powerful tiger?"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Empathy and Domestication: "I don't have great smell -- I can't track you over shifting sands or through deep water. I'll loose the trail. But I have made an ally with these dogs, and THEY can smell you, and together, we will all eat of your flesh tonight."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Education and Curiosity: "I wonder what this tastes like? What happens when I keep this fruit in this bucket for five years? How is fire formed, and how can I use that to make my life easier?"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Hyper-omnivory: "If it grows or scurries or even if it doesn't, we are going to put it in our mouths and see if we can't make it into parts of us."</li> </ul>Part of the thing with that is that we expect all fantasy races to have these abilities that have made humans unusual in the real world -- humans invented the idea of shooting things at prey and each other in the real world, but what's a fantasy elf without a bow? Humans are social to an extreme rarely seen in the natural world, but what's a fantasy orc without a horde? I'm okay with humans being the Mario. It's a necessary role and makes them all-around useful in every kind of game or campaign, while allowing the more fantastic races to stand out.As an alternative, I've occasionally gone with humans as The Face. We're the sexy ones. Dwarves are gruff, elves are aloof, halflings are shy, but humans...stupid sexy humans....we talk with anyone, domesticate anything, mate first and ask questions later, and aren't afraid to say "hi!" and find common ground with whatever squamous horror just shlick'd through the portal from beyond the stars. In that kind of game, a CHA bonus makes some sense.But really that's just two versions of possibility. Customization is our friend, here!</blockquote>

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