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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9362854" data-attributes="member: 6877472">This is basically what I'm getting at.  Goblins aren't particularly stupid.  They might not have the social awareness of humans, but they are presented as being able to work together and with other creatures, such as Worgs.  While Goblins are small and weak, Hobgoblins and especially Bugbears are not.  These creatures traditionally have great stealth, and I wouldn't say being able to see at 60' (when a torch provides a mere 15' of light and perhaps 15' of dim light, depending on edition) is not a large advantage.This isn't a unique scenario in D&D, there are lots of reasons why humans shouldn't be as prominent as they are in most settings.  It's just the reasons why they are aren't very well explored, and this seems like a big one.  In our world, we're so accustomed to having light whenever we need it that I think a lot of people fail to realize exactly what a world limited by torchlight would be like, and often in D&D, we have our worlds function like the one we know- cities are well-lit, perhaps by lanterns, perhaps by continual flame spells.  People stay up at night and don't go to bed when the sun comes down.  Human cities are well-defended and well-guarded, with walls.Of course, the fact that many creatures exist who wouldn't give a toss about a wall, and not every settlement has these kinds of resources is often handwaved.  I've done it myself.So let me be clear, this isn't an attack on D&D-isms or how people play the game; I know the reason why humans are prominent- it largely comes down to the fact that the players are (most likely) humans and this gives them a starting point, a sense of the familiar.But if you do wish to explore the in-universe reasons for human dominance, there isn't really any justification given.  You could say "well, the gods" but every species has their own gods, humans aren't presented as being especially pious compared to other species, so there's no real reason to think that the human pantheons are stronger (there does tend to be more human gods than other pantheons, but there's no real reason for it in-universe; out of universe, it's simply because human cultures are more well-developed than those of other species, mostly because we create analogues of real-world cultures to seed our settings with).</blockquote>

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