The Minority of Humanity

[pawsplay]

My groups gravitate toward about 50% human.

 

[jonathan swift]

My group tends to default to mostly human as well. Mainly because we mainly play homebrews that have humans as the only sentient humanoid race.

 

[Clavis]

...no-one wants to stay at the Brimstone Bed & Breakfast.

Cheers, -- N

I would. Just saying.

 

[Clavis]

3. Gnomes ought to be the dominant species

They already are. Just don't tell our secret Gnomish overlords I let you in on the secret!

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Humans tend to be the majority in my games. Dunno why, that's just how it works out.

 

[Awakened]

Hi
When I'm on the player side of the table, I find I do tend to play characters other than human. I believe its because when I play I want to escape from myself for a time and be something different, though not completely alien. Elves, dwarves, halflings etc. are different enough from me and other real world people to be exciting, but close enough to human to be relatable.
Thanks.

Great analysis. I think this may subconciously motivate the drive towards playing elves, dwarves etc. for a great many players.

 

[Clavis]

My current campaign's PCs are:
2 male Half Elves
1 female Gnome
1 male Halfling
1 female Human.

The adventuring group is totally unrepresentative of the demographic or political situation of the campaign world, which is dominated both ways by humans. I like them playing primarily non-humans, however, because it allows me to have racism as a recurring theme and source of adventure ideas. The humans of my world defeated the other races centuries ago. The Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes live primarily on Indian reservation-like freeholds within human nations. In cities they often occupy segregated neighborhoods. Races like goblins, hobgoblins, and the like are either wild marauders or slaves.

Humans stereotype elves as over-sexed, impious (my elves are pantheists), unreliable, and lazy. Dwarves are seen as boring, greedy, stodgy and stubborn. Gnomes are considered tricky, and are rumored to be engaged in conspiracies to economically control humans. Halflings are considered rustic, gullible and ignorant. The PCs run into these stereotypes constantly, and dealing with the world as outsiders provides lots of good role-playing. In fact, I began the campaign with the PCs watching as a racist comedy was staged.

An yes, the non-humans get called things like "a credit to their race", and are told things like "some of my best friends are Elves."

 

[HelloChristian]

How about you? What is your experience with this and why do you think this is? Or, have almost all your PCs been human as most campaign groups are said to be?

This has been my experience, too, and I think it's a good example of why settings that feature humano-centric feudal governents are silly. In a fantasy setting, there are LOTS of sentient races that can easily act as a check to the expansion of humanity. Hooray for the Points of Lights concept in 4e.

 

[The Green Adam]

1. There is no inherent reason why races as distinct as gnomes and elfs should want to together to eradicate humans than they would work with humans to eradicate dwarfs. So really a straight us and them split between humans and non-humans isn't really valid in a world with multiple distinct races as its more us vs them and them and them which means humans are not necessarily a minority (nor are they necessarily a majority)

I wasn't advocating it so much as asking if anyone used that thinking in their respective universes. I was actually pointing it out because some have put forth just such of view in regards to Humans beating down on Elves or other non-humans.

2. I've always embraced the human adaptability argument as to why humans are successful. Lets compare humans dwarfs and elfs.

Elfs on the other hand are hugely mutable. Upon entering a new environmnet they do not adapt as humans do nor do they endure like dwarfs, instead Elfs 'evolve' in less than a couple of generations an entirely new species has developed to live in the particular environmental niche. It is a viable strategy in a magical world but does not lend itself to species consistency and loyalty

I love this explaination of why there are different 'kinds' of Elves. It actually goes a long way toward working out the development of the Elves of my campaign. They were originally from Arcadia, the Realm of Faerie, yet forced to live here over time they became the Elves we know. The Sylvan/Wood Elves for example are descended from some kind of Nature Spirit creature.

3. Gnomes ought to be the dominant species

I thought they were but fell like Rome because of their excessive vices.

AD

 

[The Green Adam]

This has been my experience, too, and I think it's a good example of why settings that feature humano-centric feudal governents are silly. In a fantasy setting, there are LOTS of sentient races that can easily act as a check to the expansion of humanity. Hooray for the Points of Lights concept in 4e.

I completely agree. I think in D&D we tend to imagine a human-centric world because 1) we assume Humans outnumber or out-adapt most other species and 2) D&D is based on folklore, myth and other human centered literary fiction. In sci-fi its a little trickier. Nothing bugged the geek in me more then the line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country where the Federation is referred to as a "Humans only club" by one of the Klingons. The Klingons may have their opinions of the UFP but how can they, after a century of fighting this enemy, still not understand its thinking. I always thought of the Klingons disliking the Federation because of its policy of multispecies cooperation. The Klingons would believe any species that needs another to assist it is weak. Meanwhile the beings of the UFP believe that each species in the Federation has its own abilities, advantages and disadvantages and combining their efforts makes a more effective whole.

Back to topic but with a relation to the statement above, this is also how my players think of their parties/groups. Someone wants to be the tough and strong one who can protect the team (Andorian, Dwarf, Wookie), while another handles problem solving (Vulcan, Elf, Bith) and another handles the dirty work (Orion, Halfling, Rodian). When a player in my group is more interested in the class/job then personal special abilities or they want to be more 'jack-of-all-trades' they choose to be Human.

Anyone every play a campaign with no human PCs? Outside of Gamma World (all mutants) I think I did run a D&D game many years ago where all the humans died on an adventure and the players of those characters rolled up non-humans to replace them. The end result was 3 Elves, 2 Dwarves and a Halfling.

Anyone else?

AD