I'm insulted by how humans are depicted in D&D.

[Oryan77]

So, people find just about anything to get upset over in RPGs. I've seen RPG targeted politically correct rants about sexual orientation, gender roles, religious views, cultural taboos, and even down to the artwork.

I've never cared to give much thought to this stuff because frankly, I find these sort of topics silly in regards to people just playing a game.

But I've been writing up a handful of NPCs in the past couple of days and something has finally struck a nerve with me that I would like to rant about:

Common!

I'm human, and you know what? I'm sick and tired of being treated as average and common in D&D. Why does every single other race, including numbskulls like Kobolds & Goblins, get their own language? Sure, they share it with a select few other races, but their language has a name that represents what they are. My Human PC doesn't even get the respect to have his language called Human. He's disrespected to the point where his language is named after what society thinks of him, not the type of blood running through his veins.

Did you stop to think about how so many other nonhuman races automatically speak common? My human has to learn to speak their language and they get mine for free? Even an Otyugh speaks my language! It only takes a 5 intelligence for a poop eating creature to learn my language? They live underground. Shouldn't they speak terran or undercommon? Or is it politically incorrect for a poop eating monster to speak those more sophisticated languages?

Yeah, yer gonna say, "Well in [some random setting] the humans speak a dialect of common and it has its own name. Let me guess, those Humans are not "common" humans though, right? They are special in some way. Like, maybe they are from some tribal area in the jungle? Or some Eastern region that's considered "exotic"? Or they come from some wastelands down below where the culture is unusually different than what us common humans are used to? That's even more insulting.

Why are humans considered to be in everyone's business and all over the place like pests? If the other races live so much longer, shouldn't the world be overpopulated by their kind? There's a family on TV with 19 kids and those parents are barely pushing 50. As long lived as elves are, I'd think they would have 10 times that many kids running around the world.

Has anyone realized that we don't even get ability score modifiers for crying out loud? Or if we do get them, it's half of what the other guys get and they can be placed anywhere. We're not known to be great at anything, we're just "ok" at "whatever". That's how bland we are.

I don't even think humans get a racial deity in core D&D. Dwarves have Moradin, Elves have Corellon Larethian, Halflings get Yondalla, etc, etc. But Humans have Pelor or St. Cuthbert, the gods that everyone else gets to claim to be a worshiper of as long as they are the right class.

This is an issue that I seriously think needs to be addressed in 5e. It's disrespecting and degrading. I don't see how a company with a customer base consisting of almost 100% humans can constantly get away with depicting the human race like this over & over again.

 

[Foxwarrior]

The phrase is "multiplying like rabbits", not "multiplying like galapagos tortoises". Extremely short-lived races like Humans should do the overpopulating.

 

[timASW]

I agree, common should not exist. There should be distinct human languages by region, some regions very, very small and none of them should be free to non-humans.

 

[tuxgeo]

Languages become common across geographic regions by being actively spread there. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread ancient Greek in the ancient world; the conquests of the Roman Empire spread Latin some centuries later. The 15th through the 19th Centuries saw the spread of Spanish and Portugese in the New World (and in Asia). The 17th through the 20th Centuries saw the spread of English in the New World and in Africa and Asia and Australia. That's a lot of pushing; and it takes such pushing to make a small, regional language become the new "Common."

Today, such spread is caused more by economics and trade than by forceful conquest, but the same principle applies: your race has to spread your language (and get others to use it) in order for it to become common.

Based on that, I disagree that having others speak your language is in any way demeaning to a race.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As I recall, "Common" was originally described as kind of a trade/pidgin language that all of the races created, not as a description of a true language that everyone in the world speaks.

Alternatively, it could be seen as a language like Greek, Latin, French, German and now English: one that has been spread because it is used in commerce, diplomacy, engineering, science, etc., and as a result, has become one of the most common second languages around.

 

[delericho]

Language barriers are a PITA. Even where other races speak other languages, most DMs will still assume they speak Common also, simply to avoid the session screeching to a halt. Honestly, it's probably better this way.

Oh, and incidentally, in Golarion humans have several regional dialects (the one I recall off the top of my head is Taldane; there are others). And everyone has a regional dialect - it's not a matter of "Let me guess, those Humans are not "common" humans though, right? They are special in some way. Like, maybe they are from some tribal area in the jungle? Or some Eastern region that's considered "exotic"? Or they come from some wastelands down below where the culture is unusually different than what us common humans are used to?"

 

[Dioltach]

Speaking for myself, I'm common as muck.

But I agree with what others have said: I've always regarded "Common" as a lingua franca, or at least the most widely prevalent language in the area. In my current Wild West campaign, that's US English. Pretty much everybody speaks enough of it to get by, even Native Americans and first-generation immigrants whose first language is something else entirely.

 

[Dethklok]

Doubleplus agree with the original article. Humans would be far better with a specific culture and language, even if it were merely a reflection of some existing or historical culture. Medieval Europeans would have had only one god for Lawful Good clerics and regarded elves as soulless pagans (as per the King of Elfland's Daughter); Vikings would have a pagan maritime culture and lots of skills favoring arctic survival; and the Athenian Greeks would need their own race-unique Philosopher class. Then when you consider the Vietnamese, Egyptian, Mayan, and everything else interesting and unique to look at in history and anthroplogy, it really does become clear just how blandly "common" humans are in D&D.

 

[jonesy]

I've never considered Common a human language. It's a trade language created for that purpose, like Danny said.

And not to sound facetious, but what sort of campaigns have you been playing where humans only get common for free? There's almost always a language that the character knows from her background that is her mother tongue, other than common.

 

[Jhaelen]

Oh, and incidentally, in Golarion humans have several regional dialects (the one I recall off the top of my head is Taldane; there are others). And everyone has a regional dialect

Well, I did the same in my Greyhawk campaign. Every human pc received a culture/region-specific language in addition to Common for free. It only makes sense. Human npcs often didn't speak Common or if they did, very badly. It definitely enhances roleplaying.

Language barriers are a PITA.

Well, that's one reason for the existence of the 'Common' language. Another is the (almost) complete removal of setting-specific details from D&D core rule books. Without a setting you don't have different regions or cultures, and the default human is indeed 'common'. If you don't like the default, choose (or create) a setting that treats humans differently.

I like to mention the Earthdawn rpg for doing things differently (although it does have an implied setting, so they can do this easily): Dwarves are the (culturally) dominant race, so 'common' is derived from their language. Humans are just one among several other intelligent species (elves, trolls, orcs, etc.). Their most notable feature is similar to one in D&D, though: they're the most adaptable and flexible.