D&D 5E My players want Human Centric

[Sunseeker]

I've never really seen a player play a demi-human as anything more than a human with one exaggerated stereotypical trait. which is part of why I wouldn't mind an all human world.

But that's kind of what they are. That's kind of what they've always been. I wrote a rather long blog about this a while ago but there's a reason that elves are arrogant hippie tree-huggers and a dwarves are dirty greedy gods of crafting. It's because these things are relatable. If you go too far out of the box to make an entity "alien" then you will be unable to relate to it, even Cthulhu has relatable human traits, even a relatable humanoid form! Things that people can't relate to, they don't like, so yeah it's fine if you want to make the unrelatable, inhuman alien the bad guy. But you can't make them a race that people are expected to play or to understand or even hold a casual conversation with. We know how being long lived, being in tune with nature, and all those "elvish" things look on a human, so we stick some pointy ears on those ideas and call it an elf. We know how being greedy, dirty, drunk and a good craftman looks, so we stick a bear on that and call it a dwarf.

I think some people (not you persay) have unrealistic expectations for demi-humans being too "demi" and less human. The demi-human races really can't be too inhuman, not even from a writing standpoint but from a biological one. They all have a more-or-less human form, two arms, two legs, two ears, two eyes, one head, one heart, etc... They all have more-or-less the same sensory perceptions, sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing, some are better or worse at some of those things. Living in trees or underground aren't concepts that humans are unfamiliar with. So at best demi-humans really can't be anything more than "humans with a twist" because they all experience reality in the same way, they all utilize their limbs and sensory organs in the same fashion, dwarves don't walk on their hands and elves don't smell with the ears.

Frankly I would probably find it worse role-playing if someone were to play their elf or dwarf up in too existential of a manner. I think playing a "human with a twist" is really just giving that player a little bit easier time in creating their character concept. Sure, you can play "humans with a twist" and still be human, but you have to invent that twist on your own. If you're going to say the MountainMen from Mountlandia are "tough warriors with big beards who like to drink a lot" and codify MountainMen as a race, I think that does a disservice to the idea of humanity being so impressively flexible.

 

[Jago]

I've heard the "Humanity, #&@! Yeah!" bit as a joke many times before (there is, in fact, a hilarious bit somewhere of what other species would think of "terrifying humans" considering all the weird biological aspects of ourselves), but I've honestly never seen it like OP has posited. I've never had someone vehemently state Humanity's "superiority" over other fantasy races, or insisted that things could not be otherwise.

Strangely enough, most games I've played in person (especially when it comes to Star Wars) leads to many people choosing anything other than Human, eventually leading to the Pathfinder Game where we only played races out of the Advanced Race Guide because we wanted to be the single most uncommon adventuring party ever.

But honestly, the "Humans must rule!" ideal is ... well, to me, not ideal. Most settings, from what I've seen, generally portray Humans as the "Up-And-Comers". We're usually the newest/youngest race and we even get our own Hat to wear (usually something along the lines of like "Ambitious" or "Adventurous"). With that said, it's really odd to hear someone completely abhorrent to the idea of "There were empires before humanity."

Like ... Most fantasy and sci-fi works actually rely upon that trope. Look at Mass Effect. Look at Eberron. Half of the fun for portraying humanity in those settings is that we are not the most powerful/ancient/wise/etc.: we're trying to forge our place and show "Hey, we can do things too!"

The only time I've ever run something where Humanity was dominant was a very 1800s setting that focused on the fact that we kinda drove all the other races to the fringes of the world or basically to extinction, to the point where Elves and Dwarves were much how we treat them: fantastical creatures that nobody sees. Whether or not they were still around was actually a matter of debate and believing in Elves was treated like believing in a fairy tale or something similarly childish, even though these other races 100% featured in the history of the world. So even with making humanity the all-powerful race, the other races were still featured in the plot and focused in the background, to the point where upon finally meeting an Elf, one of the PCs broke down and cried in emotion at finally being vindicated that yes, they are real.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Don't forget the Scottish accents for dwarves!

I will say it’s very nice when a player puts some thought into how their race affects their character, aside from just being a collection of stat bonuses and abilities. I don’t need deep method acting or anything like that, but a Warforged should feel different from a human.

I've never really seen a player play a demi-human as anything more than a human with one exaggerated stereotypical trait. which is part of why I wouldn't mind an all human world.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Nah, my whole group rarely plays humans. Not for any mechanical reason, we just find them boring. Unless a setting has some really cool culture. I'm building a setting where humans come from the south, there are no white humans, and the region the game is set in has fairly few humans. Demo probably around 20% of the population, at most. Everyone is stoked.

Ive never grokked the whole "humans are more relatable" thing. The other races are all bipedal social animals that use tools, how much more relatable do you need? I don't find white or male characters automatically more relatable than characters that aren't either. :shrug: idk, I'm glad that isn't a thing I have to deals with at my table.

Anyway, my group is all sick of the human-centric settings. It's tired. Even in worlds like Eberron, which we adore, I shift demographics a bit, and in most of the five nations, humans are like white folks in California. Still the majority, but not by much. Breland, Humans are only the majority in the sense that they outnumber every other individual group, but only make up ~40% of the total population. Breland is special, though, bc Sharn. In sharn, it's mostly non humans.
I think my whole group would just say no to a human only game, if one of the DMs proposed one.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But that's kind of what they are.
snip

Frankly I would probably find it worse role-playing if someone were to play their elf or dwarf up in too existential of a manner. I think playing a "human with a twist" is really just giving that player a little bit easier time in creating their character concept. Sure, you can play "humans with a twist" and still be human, but you have to invent that twist on your own. If you're going to say the MountainMen from Mountlandia are "tough warriors with big beards who like to drink a lot" and codify MountainMen as a race, I think that does a disservice to the idea of humanity being so impressively flexible.

How dare you besmirch the good name of my people, you scandalous rake! Mountlandia is a proud nation, with a rich history! Why, soon as I finish me beer, you'll see.

Damn right. Soon as I finish me beer.

 

[Sunseeker]

How dare you besmirch the good name of my people, you scandalous rake! Mountlandia is a proud nation, with a rich history! Why, soon as I finish me beer, you'll see.

Damn right. Soon as I finish me beer.

It's be nice if there were a way to codify races without resorting to stereotypical traits, but it might be less engaging to codify the Northern Elves as tending to have strong nationalistic identities and preferring autocratic systems of government as opposed to the Dwarves of the South s who don't believe in the concept of laws, property ownership or religion. That just doesn't quite hook readers as much as "hippy tree lover" or "bearded axe-happy drunkard".

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

We have been running a human-centric campaign for a while.

There is one non-human race, and currently they're a hostile force. As such, every character has been a human.

Humans with Elf/Halfling/Dwarf/Half-Orc/Gnome/Warforged/etc racials & abilities..
..but they all look - and are considered - to be one race, the human race.

Elves are lithe humans with a knack for SCIENCE! (magic), Half-Orcs are heavy-set humans with a knack for violence, Dwarves are short stout humans with a knack for masonry and mining, and so on.

Dark Vision is explained as normal human trait, with actual Humans having very poor 'night' vision/sense.

The warforged is, essentially, a steampunk cyborg.

All good so far!

 

[Quartz]

I don't see why you're not jumping at this. No more choosing the race to fit the class. No more, "Oh look, you're playing a paladin (or bard) and your race is half-elf." Now you can add an air of mystery to the standard races. Elves, dwarves, etc are spoken of in terms of fear and wonder. The PCs will have to adventure to even see one.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

That just doesn't quite hook readers as much as "hippy tree lover" or "bearded axe-happy drunkard".

Depends heavily upon the reader.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's be nice if there were a way to codify races without resorting to stereotypical traits, but it might be less engaging to codify the Northern Elves as tending to have strong nationalistic identities and preferring autocratic systems of government as opposed to the Dwarves of the South s who don't believe in the concept of laws, property ownership or religion. That just doesn't quite hook readers as much as "hippy tree lover" or "bearded axe-happy drunkard".

I disagree. I think you're selling readers short. I've read a lot of fantasy, and fairly little of it relies on anything near the level of stereotyping that, say, Salvatore does.