The Quintessential Human

[Messageboard Golem]

To many players, a human character is an ideal eidolon or avatar. It allows escapism while simultaneously letting you see yourself in your character’s situation. There is no need to adopt an alien mindset or try to roleplay a person who lives by non-human values. Humans are and always have been the easy choice of race. On account of their versatility, they have unfairly been seen as essentially bland and uninteresting. It is not necessary to detail humans in the game world, because everyone already knows all about them. What is there to say about humans, the opt-out choice of character race, the race that offers nothing in the way of racial features but the increased versatility of additional skill points and bonus feats?

As it happens, there is one heck of a lot left to say. In this volume, we will be looking at the rich diversity of human life in the fantasy world, drawing upon examples found both in the history of the real world and in our folklore and legends. Humans are not bland templates waiting to be individualised but a people of extraordinary resource, inventiveness and adaptability. They are set apart from the other races by the intensity and richness of their lives, which are altogether too brief. Mortality is their curse and yet a peculiar blessing, as the finiteness of their lives is what makes them meaningful. Longer-lived races are prone to ennui and a lack of motivational energy, while humans can truly appreciate the value of a sensory pleasure, the love of a mate or the thrill of adventure. Everything is the sweeter for them, because they know they might never live to see another morning.

The Collector’s Series is a range of class and racial sourcebooks from Mongoose Publishing, all designed to widen greatly a player’s options for his character within the d20 games system. Slotting seamlessly into any fantasy-based campaign, each will give a comprehensive guide to one class or race within the game, allowing both players and Games Masters the chance to present old character types in a completely new way without overpowering or unbalancing the game as a whole. The Collector’s Series will not necessarily allow players to create a better character, but they will be able to do a lot more than they ever thought possible before.

This book breaks completely new ground, daring to look at a race most would perhaps have considered unworthy of serious examination – the humble human. Lacking the exotic appeal of a non-human race, with their promise of other cultures and mores to roleplay, the human has been left untouched until now. There is much more to learn than many players had imagined.

Humans are not all created alike. Character concepts, backgrounds, new uses for old skills, tricks and feats all lend colour and originality to a human character. Their nature is explored in depth, with particular attention given to their desire to perpetuate themselves, defying mortality by leaving successors and heirs behind. As well as dealing with the essence of human beings, their adaptability and pioneer spirit, we will be looking at what happens after they have adapted to a given environment. An extensive section on human cultures broadens the idea of what a ‘human’ can be, far beyond the traditional ‘just a normal, boring person’ idea of a human character. It is our hope that with the help of this sourcebook, more of the true nature of humanity, with all its flaws and virtues, can pass into and enrich your campaign.

 

[John Cooper]

The Quintessential Human
By Adrian Bott
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 4022
128 pages, $21.95

The 22nd book in the "Collector Series," The Quintessential Human does for humans what others in the series have done for just about every other player character race and class: provide a bunch of new feats, spells, Character Concepts, and Prestige Classes geared for the group in question. I have to admit that the main reason I picked up this book was curiosity: what in the world could possible be said about humans - even fantasy humans - that wasn't already common knowledge?

Fortunately, the second reason I picked up this book - the strength of the author, Adrian Bott (who's been quite the busy little game designer of late, what with the recent publication of Encyclopaedia Arcane: Tomes and Libraries, The Book of Strongholds and Dynasties, Encyclopaedia Arcane: Components and Foci, and Encyclopaedia Arcane: Sovereign Magic, as well as the upcoming Quintessential Rogue II and Book of Adventuring) - took care of the first reason rather handily. I have to hand it to him: Adrian did a great job at a rather difficult task - namely, making interesting optional rules for human PCs in a fantasy RPG.

The cover is standard for the "Collector Series" - fake leather cover, inside and out. The interior artwork this time around consists of 44 black-and-white pictures by 6 different artists. At least four pieces of artwork are "reruns," having been published in previous books (pages 8, 9, 47, and 91), but at least they were placed in pages where they fit the subject well. Overall, the art is pretty average - there are some well-done pieces and some below-average ones, but nothing exceptionally fantastic or appallingly bad. (Check out the female Giant-Slayer on page 17, though - her legs are way out of proportion!) There are three bits of "nudity," but as one is a pregnant woman seen from the side (with shadows and her arms strategically placed to hide the important bits), one is a topless woman with her back turned, and one is a naked baby, nothing should be deemed too offensive by the standards and practices folks. (I will point out that that pregnant lady on page 105 looks pissed, though--don't anybody mess with her!) Finally, one of the pieces of artwork showing new equipment has a picture of a raft labeled as a covered wagon, even though it should be labeled a barge (although it doesn't match the description of a barge - it's really just a simple raft, like Tom Sawyer would use). The covered wagon right next to it is also labeled a covered wagon, so the artist got that one right.

The book is laid out pretty much to the "Collector Series" standard, with a slight alteration at the end in replacing the usual "Stronghold" section with a "Dynasties" section dealing with having and raising children. Here's the full layout:

• Introduction: explaining the "Collector Series" and what this book seeks to do
• Character Concepts: 9 character backstories, many in this case taken from popular folk tales, giving you a roleplaying concept for your character as well as an advantage and disadvantage
• The Prestige Human: 8 Prestige Classes specifically geared toward humans
• Tricks of the Humans: (A David Letterman fan might have succumbed to the temptation to call this chapter "Stupid Human Tricks") cool stuff humans can sometimes do, like pushing an ability (game mechanics to simulate occurrences like a mother lifting a toppled wagon off of her child even though normally she wouldn't have anywhere near the strength to do so), clinging to life, and a bunch of new uses for old skills
• Human Feats: 15 new feats specifically geared toward humans (although many could easily be used by members of other races as well)
• Tools of the Humans: new weapons (including agricultural tools as weapons for those peasant uprisings) and equipment often used by humans
• Human Cultures: kind of like a second character concept for your PC, this time based on what area of the world he was raised in - the 13 options here include such cultures as a crime family, desert nomad, jungle dweller, seafarer, plainsman, and urban sophisticate
• Dynasties: why humans have children, playing your own character's children, rules on pregnancies, childrearing and adventuring, and a section on magic including the Life domain and 7 new spells
• The Limits of Mortality: rules for having ghost companions (one of the new human feats you can choose for your character)
• Designer's Notes: why (and how) Adrian wrote this book
• Index: a one-page index so you can find things easier
• Character Sheet: a 4-page character sheet for your human PC

There were a few things that got past the proofreader (Ben Hesketh) and editor (Richard Neale) - mostly the smaller stuff like not knowing the difference between "affect" and "effect," a carriage return in the middle of a line, and the occasional typo changing "has" into "as" and "nor" into "not" - but overall it looks like they both did a pretty good job with this book. (Hmm, this was the same pair that did such a lousy job on Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 - maybe they learned their lesson?) The worst mistake is on page 12, where a lengthy sentence - "If the Games Master wants to have a truly Hollywood feel to the proceedings, it can be ruled that a person of opposite alignment and contrary goals to the character came through the rift at the same time as he did and the character must track him down and stop his fiendish plans; the classic example being the Cop who chases the Crook into the other world." - shows up at the end of two paragraphs in a row. I also noticed five different instances (pages 18, 27, 37, 87, and 92) where reference was made to the "Beast" creature type - which, of course, no longer exists under the 3.5 rules. (And while we're on that subject, there's one mention - on page 68 - of the old "Pick Pocket" skill, which is now "Sleight of Hand.") All in all, though, not too bad.

The Character Concepts and Prestige Classes were all pretty well thought out, although it did seem weird to me that several of them (Cunning Lad, Displaced One, Farm Boy) give an odd-numbered modifier to an ability score. There's nothing really wrong with that, but it does go against the grain of established practice in the d20 world: usually, ability modifiers are always an even number (so as to discourage min-maxing, I suppose). Many (in fact most) of the Cultures did the same thing.

I really liked the idea of the Displaced One - a human from historical times, up to and including the present day, falling through a dimensional rift (or whatever) and ending up in the game world. It's a great concept, and Adrian covered just about all the bases except one: nowhere does he say anything about languages. Should it just be assumed that the "Common tongue" of the game world just happens to be the language spoken by the Displaced One (in my case, for instance, English), or should the Displaced One start out unable to communicate with anyone else until he can gain a language proficiency? The former is much easier; the latter is more "realistic," although it seems like it would be bothersome to play through.

I also liked the fact that the Daredevil Prestige Class has 2 different possible skill requirements. Since humans are such a versatile bunch, it only makes sense that there would often be different ways to achieve the same goal.

Pushing an ability is a great idea, and Adrian did a great job designing the mechanics to go along with the concept. I like the way that it's tied in to helping others, not just yourself. The new feats and spells are pretty cool (I especially like the concept of the ghost companion), with some effort into making them interesting, useful, and balanced. I found the bit on agricultural weapons a bit dull, but it's useful information and there's really not all that much that can be done to make fighting with hoes and rakes all that exciting. I also like the overall theme of "stubbornness" linked with so many of the human rules throughout the book; we are, after all, quite a stubborn race.

I'm a bit of two minds about the Cultures chapter. I applaud Adrian's choice to define cultures in broad, geographical locations rather than along "racial" lines (nobody's going to be pleased with racial modifiers of playing an Asian as opposed to, say, a Caucasian or a Latino; that's just asking for trouble!), and I think he did a great job defining the 13 cultures he used in the book. However, I'm a bit leery of some of the advantages and disadvantages. Besides the "odd number" syndrome I mentioned earlier, there's the whole point that humans don't have racial modifiers (as elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. do) for a reason: they get a bonus feat at 1st level and an extra skill point at every level as their "racial bonus." I have to wonder whether gaining a +1 "cultural" bonus to Strength (using the Northerner culture as an example) is really fair for a human PC, even with the corresponding -1 to Charisma. Not that they don't balance each other out (in all cases but one, the ability bonuses are balanced by ability penalties, and the exception is where you actually give up one more point than you gain), just that it seems like humans are "creeping into nonhuman territory" by doing so. Maybe that's why in most cases the Culture modifiers to ability scores are +1/-1, to make them "weaker" than nonhuman modifiers; I'm not sure. Still, it seems odd; maybe it would feel more "fair" if a human PC using the Culture modifiers had to give up his extra skill points/bonus 1st-level feat for being a human in exchange, especially since most of the Cultures also grant specific skill bonuses (like the desert nomad's +2 to Ride checks). In any case, this is all optional material, and not all humans need to take a Culture as part of character creation.

A couple of final bits of nitpickiness: There's a curse of infertility spell mentioned on page 104 that doesn't appear in the book, but I'd be willing to bet that the spell was just renamed barrenness. On the other hand, there's a magic item called a girdle of fecundity that doesn't appear under any name in the book. Of course, it's pretty easy to guess what it does, especially with the fruitful blessing spell laying the groundwork as it were. (Odds are that spell is required to make a girdle of fecundity.) Still, it's always nice when everything mentioned in a given book actually shows up there, under the correct name.

The Quintessential Human is by no means the best book in the "Collector Series" that I've seen, but it's an interesting stab at an area that to my knowledge has never been tackled before, and it's got some pretty good stuff mixed in with the ho-hum pitchforks and garden hoes. All in all, it's above average; not by a whole lot, but by enough to bump it out of a "3 (Average)" rating and into a low "4 (Good)." Nice job overall, Adrian!