D&D General No Humans? (Well, the players... but that's it.)

[ezo]

even better!

If going for Sword and Sorcery, I'd avoid any classic races such as dwarves and elves that have become the standard for medieval fantasy.

I'd go with things like (for either PC or monster races):

Galatean -> Stone-like constructs with a society based around beauty and the arts.
Snake-men (or plain Yuan-ti) -> Rather human looking, but their tongue is a snake and is actually the part that controls the body
Heakaton -> Multi-armed half-giant, think Goro from Mortal Combats
Deva-> Ala 4e D&D
Garudan -> Antro-divine birds.
Rakshasa -> Shapeshifting (think changeling) feline fiend.
Salamandir -> Diminutive fire elementals, born alchemists and scholar.

LOL, I guess some of our ideas aren't very original.

We do have a "stone-creature", the cyclops, "a reptile-creature" and a few others.

This is why I assumed D&D as well. If we were playing something based on say Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo or either Looney Tunes or Walter Lantz animation, I would be fine with no humans.

Sorry for the confusion. As I posted upthread, the game was very-inspired by D&D to begin with, and I hope since D&D is the major RPG on the market, if D&D players are comfortable embracing a non-human game world, it might be worth pursuing.

 

[Greg K]

Even for a game like Humblewood or Crash Pandas?

Humblewood, I might play. Would have to know more about the setting (e.g. is it just anthropomorhic animals rather than also including elves, dragonborn, etc.) and be in the mood for anthromorphic animals (if that is the game).
Crash Pandas would be a no.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Why would humans build castles when the dominant species on the planet is a flying tank that terrifies all your soldiers by being visible to them and the landscape is dotted with preexisting underground complexes capable of supporting entire ecosystems bend on murdering non-denizens just begging for them to become the denizens of?

Yeah, I've always thought that in a world of fantasy that includes dragons and giants, the real-world-human technology of the castle wall would have never been a thing that developed. Not when there were all these monsters that could just fly or step over them. Humanoids would probably have gone with more solid-shape buildings with fewer openings such as pyramids, as they would be much more defensive in nature against those kinds of creatures. And then to add onto your point, those pyramids and such would probably be build over larger underground complexes as they would be even more defensible against the massive creatures on top of the land.

 

[payn]

We're debating between a world that once had humans, or one that never had them...?

Just have them never existing. Otherwise, folks will want to be the last human or the return of humans...

We started with humans, dwarves, elves, and some other common D&D races, but decided we wanted to move in a different direction, try to get away from the the humans in funny masks.

I think this was wise. There are a bazillion human, dorf, elf, etc... RPGs. I think not holding to any of them will help you stand out.

 

[Quartz]

Would you play in an RPG without human PCs or NPCs?

Sure. In my version of the Greyhawk setting I envision the big empire to the west of the Sea of Dust as being dragonborn.

 

[Schmoe]

I played TMNT and had a blast. I think maybe there were technically humans in that game (it was a long time ago), but it was a fringe option if it existed.

 

[MarkHawk]

No matter what race the character is designed to be, they are are still "just human" because the players are human. You can give seom approximation of a race but unless you are that race, or at least interact with the race, there is no way the character will be more than "human with a mask". Therein lies the issue with no human characters.

 

[Faolyn]

I don't get much of a choice--nobody at my table ever picks human unless there is literally no other choice. So at that point, sure, I'd say get rid of humans entirely in a game.

 

[Fanaelialae]

No matter what race the character is designed to be, they are are still "just human" because the players are human. You can give seom approximation of a race but unless you are that race, or at least interact with the race, there is no way the character will be more than "human with a mask". Therein lies the issue with no human characters.

By this reasoning, none of us can really RP an adventurer in a fantasy world. The character is clearly nothing more than an "ordinary modern person in a mask".

I enjoy the challenge of playing a race with an unusual outlook. Do I do a perfect job? Probably not. Do I have fun with it (and are the other folks at the table entertained by my portrayal)? Heck yeah!

 

[Clint_L]

By this reasoning, none of us can really RP an adventurer in a fantasy world. The character is clearly nothing more than an "ordinary modern person in a mask".

I enjoy the challenge of playing a race with an unusual outlook. Do I do a perfect job? Probably not. Do I have fun with it (and are the other folks at the table entertained by my portrayal)? Heck yeah!

Or to take it further, all alien characters in films or novels are just normal people in alien drag or whatever. Which is often true, but not always - we can all think of texts that go a long way towards expressing alien otherness.

I'll agree that most players, including myself, basically play their non-human characters as kitschy humans (dwarves are all drunken Scotsmen!), but I do think there are exceptions.