AFGNCAAP
First Post
You can easily pull off a humans-only style game, but cultures are the key. Characters races allow for the characters to stand out somehow from one another; cultures allow the same thing.
The standard PHB human works great for a cosmopolitan human or a human of mixed heritage---not really part of 1 culture or another. However, cultures with a strong identity would have certain perks & limits to them. At the least, this could be resolved much in the manner as the "clan" humans from OA---certain skills are deemed as class skills, while their favored class changes from "any" to a specific class. At most, this could include attribute modifiers, skill bonuses, or perhaps even a unique ability or 2 (such as low-light vision or the like).
I have 2 recommendations:
*If you go the pure-human route, make sure to create either cultural modifiers for at least 5+ dominant cultures IYC, or perhaps go with the Origins concept from the d20 Pulp Heroes mini-game in Dungeon #90. This way, the players may feel that their characters stand out from one another instead of being "just a bunch of humans."
*Another idea is to modify the above concept; create a few human variant races, perhaps. Maybe a culture consisting only of Small-sized humans (perhaps the entire people have a unique type of dwarfism as a dominant, regular trait in their gene pool); maybe something akin to the Nehwonian Ghouls, humans who are virtually transparent (& nearly invisible) with the exception of their skeletons; etc.
You could also allow races with human blood---half-elves, half-orcs, & spirit folk, for example. However, these characters should be allowed sparingly, & not without a lot of justification/good backstory by the player---perhaps the half-orc fighter was the result of a mad wizard's breeding program to create his own super-soldiers for his own private army; perhaps the magic-rich elven blood is the source for the half-elf's sorcerer's unique arcane power; etc.
Well, that's all I can think of. Hope this helps some.
The standard PHB human works great for a cosmopolitan human or a human of mixed heritage---not really part of 1 culture or another. However, cultures with a strong identity would have certain perks & limits to them. At the least, this could be resolved much in the manner as the "clan" humans from OA---certain skills are deemed as class skills, while their favored class changes from "any" to a specific class. At most, this could include attribute modifiers, skill bonuses, or perhaps even a unique ability or 2 (such as low-light vision or the like).
I have 2 recommendations:
*If you go the pure-human route, make sure to create either cultural modifiers for at least 5+ dominant cultures IYC, or perhaps go with the Origins concept from the d20 Pulp Heroes mini-game in Dungeon #90. This way, the players may feel that their characters stand out from one another instead of being "just a bunch of humans."
*Another idea is to modify the above concept; create a few human variant races, perhaps. Maybe a culture consisting only of Small-sized humans (perhaps the entire people have a unique type of dwarfism as a dominant, regular trait in their gene pool); maybe something akin to the Nehwonian Ghouls, humans who are virtually transparent (& nearly invisible) with the exception of their skeletons; etc.
You could also allow races with human blood---half-elves, half-orcs, & spirit folk, for example. However, these characters should be allowed sparingly, & not without a lot of justification/good backstory by the player---perhaps the half-orc fighter was the result of a mad wizard's breeding program to create his own super-soldiers for his own private army; perhaps the magic-rich elven blood is the source for the half-elf's sorcerer's unique arcane power; etc.
Well, that's all I can think of. Hope this helps some.
) Gnomes....uhm what's a gnome? 
Halfings are more known but doesn't mean that they are all that welcome. Half orcs...well outside of the Plains, no many but there are a few. Otherwise it humans versus the titanspawn...
