How important are humans in a campaign world?

[Buttercup]

It depends on the world. For generic D&D, set in Greyhawk or the Realms, I think you need humans. But who knows what sort of cool homebrew someone out there could think up that might not require humans at all.

 

[nopantsyet]

I don't think humans need to be dominant, but since we're all human, their presence helps the other races stand out more because you can emphasize the differences. That said, the PCs in my game are all human, and the only other base race they have encountered so far is halflings. The reason for this is that's it's a dark, gritty setting and the absence of the "wonderous" races helps accent the bleakness of the world.

 

[Ace]

Well since I don't use non human PC's in my world except under duress from the players I have to vote "Other"

Frankly I can do without Dwarves, Elves and that lot

I find them trite. YMMV of course and if you like em more power to you

 

[Desdichado]

My answer was kinda a cop-out. I voted that it depended on the campaign setting, which is true, but I'd never run a campaign setting without humans, I don't think. In fact, I'm more likely to shed other races and make humans more prominent rather than less so.

 

[Axeboy]

Back in the olden days (1 and 2e), I was about the only one in my group that regularly played humans. I liked them because they didn't really have all of the nifty advantages of the other races (other than dual classing: 4 levels of fighter with weapon specialization, then mage, baby--lots of hp and emergency fighting ability, and you didn't really miss the 8000 XP).

These days, I actually play a more balanced set--to me, humans are now the best of the races (from a munchkin POV).

We did run a short campaign with no humans (well, no PC humans, anyway): most of the world was dominated by beholders that were working on some Secret Project. The beholders would move in, conquer a region, then send all of the inhabitants to another city; the campaign began in a (formerly) human city, so no humans were allowed. It was pretty nifty, and we didn't miss the humans at all.