How would you feel about a setting where humans are the only racial option?

[Celebrim]

I'm happy to play anything that a DM has thoughtfully crafted.

However, as a DM, it's not really my personal preference because my love of Science Fiction also gives a me a great love for The Alien as an vehicle for exploring the issue of what it means to be Human and as such I really wouldn't want to give up non-human characters.

However, I would like to see just one published setting that really highlights non-humans as alien, sets up the constrasts of the experience of that race with the experience of being humanity, and builds some depth into itself. Too often I see races used purely as mechanical options created to fill mechanical niches or which are merely 'Personality as Race' tropes having no real depth or which are merely shallow Star Trek style 'Humans with Different Bumps On Their Foreheads' and no real exploratory value beyond the assumption that everything which is intelligent and not a monster is also human. Or worse, even the monsters are merely human along with such once avant garde but not seriously over done tropes as 'humans are the real monsters'.

At the same time though, the race has to be accessible enough that a human can actually relate to it. It's a tough balance, and I've never seen a setting really pull it off (though obviously, I'm trying to do it in my homebrew).

 

[Dykstrav]

Yeah, there'll be varieties of humans. Here's a brief idea of what I'm talking about: the different nationalities of humans that I've worked up so far.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

If the setting and story are interesting, I don't need demihumans. (And I rarely play humans if there are other races available.)

 

[Celebrim]

Dykstrav: Human ethnic groups have a rich tradition in D&D, going all the way back to Greyhawk.

 

[Stormonu]

For non-D&D games, I don't have a problem with this. I've played in the likes of 7th sea, L5R (base rules), Pendragon and many others where the only race was human.

However, for bog-standard D&D, or a D&D campaign world, I'd be looking for a way to insert non-human races to play. I can't explain why, it would just bug me.

 

[Sunseeker]

As long as you make that clear to your players up front, I don't have a problem with playing a human.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

For non-D&D games, I don't have a problem with this. I've played in the likes of 7th sea, L5R (base rules), Pendragon and many others where the only race was human.

However, for bog-standard D&D, or a D&D campaign world, I'd be looking for a way to insert non-human races to play. I can't explain why, it would just bug me.

I'm the same way. It doesn't bother me in L5R or 7th Sea but in D&D I keep looking longingly at the plethora of options and wish they all were included.

 

[Elf Witch]

I think it would be a fun change of pace. After playing so long I enjoy finding things that are not the same as everything else. A world of only humans or only dwarves are any single race would be different enough to for me to find it interesting.

 

[the Jester]

Would you play in a humans-only setting? Why or why not?

Sure, and in fact in a book I've written the first draft of, one of the conceits is that "elf" and "dwarf" and so forth are just what certain tribes or nations of folk call certain other tribes or nations, but they're all (probably) just different tribes of the same species; at the least, they can interbreed (and maintain healthy fertility).

 

[JamesonCourage]

I've run games where it's human-only in D&D before, and I do it in my RPG quite often. No complaints from my players, usually. If there are complaints, we address them. But it's usually more of a "I had this idea in mind" than a "that doesn't sound fun", and we can always work something out. Having a variety of humans helps, so I support you doing that. As always, play what you like