Only one demi-human race: which one?

[Stormborn]

Dwarves would be my first choice for most settings, making humans the magical race and dwarves the technological one.

However, I voted Other just to be different: Warforged. OK, I know they may not fit the catagory requirments (demi-human is an artifact term from older editions and basically means "humanoid", right?) but I think could provide the most interesting setting. You could run it any number of ways. Go BSG and have the warforged be antagonistic creations that have rebelled against their makers. Play them as a race of constructs who have no knowledge of who made them, but have creation forges that make a certain number every year, or magical only when one "dies", that live in their own cities. Make them a new race created by a powerful and secretive band of wizards. Change the flavor and make them more clockwork. Let them be the creation of a race of dwarves that is long since dead. Could be intersting.

 

[BOZ]

i don't necessarily like elves the best, but i figure if there's got to be only one, i'd say make 'em elves. after that, i'd add dwarves, then halflings, then gnomes, then half-orcs.

but really, i'm always one for more options, so i wouldn't cut any of 'em out.

 

[Desdichado]

None of the above. It sounds too much like "only humans, only we chickened out at the last minute and gave you one more option."

Also, as Umbran said. Too much depends on what you do with the race rather than simply what race it is.

 

[Masquerade]

I voted other: orcs.

It reminds me of Warcraft 1, and the atmosphere of just the humans vs. the orcs could work.

I voted half-orc for approximately the same reason.

 

[the Jester]

Odd as it might sound: Gnomes.

They're close enough to cover both the dwarf and elf mythological niches, more or less.

They're highly magical, borderline feylike. Make magic mostly (or originally) their bag which they then later taught to humans, etc.

It'd require a bit of public image work, but it could definitely be done and well.

QFT.

I voted gnomes as well.

 

[Deekin]

Other: Dromites from XPH. Because your game needs more cute, charismatic bug-people.

 

[Geoffrey]

I prefer to have no demi-human PCs at all. Given the choices, I would choose half-orcs since they seem to be the least Tolkienesque and the least fey of the standard races. I prefer dark campaigns with demon-summoning, poison, and assassination. Half-orcs fit in better with those sorts of things than do the other non-human PC races.

 

[Crothian]

No humans, only Kobolds!!

 

[Nikroecyst]

Viva la Kobold,

 

[Particle_Man]

Halflings, since they seem closer to how dwarves were portrayed in a King Arthur setting I would riff on if there were only humans and one other race.