Who prefers a human-centric campaign?

[Glyfair]

Using the very limited definition of "human-centric" campaign, no, I don't. I do like a campaign where humans are clearly a preferred race. Groups where parties consist of many different races, most quite far away from humans, don't excite me at all. Still, give me a part with 3 humans, a dwarf, an elf and a random odd race thrown in and I am at home.

Now, I have no problem with a campaign world where humans are the only race. I prefer that such campaigns don't have a forced racial difference where all the "humans" have different racial stats. KISS is my preference in this area.

 

[haakon1]

You seem to miss this part:
What part of "odd, out of place and human-centric parties are preferred" says "ban elves"?

"Ban" was an exaggeration. "Discouraged and perhaps penalized" would have been more accurate.

And I fully see it typically in threads that even talk about elves and dwarves. Would you like me to link you to such posts?

No, I don't want links to posts. I happy to stipulate that whatever you're saying people are posting about, they actually are posting about. I'm just not sure what you're saying. <shrug>

Also, to answer your question, yes I would prefer a setting with no traditional fantasy races. None. What. So. Ever. In fact, a setting with no humans would make me fairly happy.

Ah, so the poll's dichotomy between "nothing but humans v. kitchen sink cantina" is your intent, because the in-between Tolkienesque/default traditional D&D answer is one you're just not interested in?

Fair enough, but it's a poll that's difficult to answer for me and lot of others, since we like the in-between.

 

[Rechan]

What I want to see is how many want the Human-centric, Humans in Front and Center with demi-humans a small fringe minority and not all that important.

The degree of races' prevalence in a setting is a spectrum, with one extreme being human only or at least human centric, and at the other end the Cantina. My question: how many are on the Human-Centric end of the spectrum?

If folks like the in-between, then I would expect them to vote No.

If I started a poll saying "Do you prefer Strawberry icecream", with "Yes or No" as the answers, that doesn't mean that if you do not prefer strawberry, then you prefer Rocky Road; I just want to see how many prefer Strawberry over any other option.

 

[haakon1]

So Rechan is the Stormonu option ("I prefer human/near-human games with no more than ONE weird PC in the mix.") a Yes/humano-centric or No/diverse answer?

I think you're saying it's a "yes".

Which is fine with me, since I want the "Stormonu option" and I answered yes as my best guess as to the proper reply.

 

[Starfox]

I voted yes, since I like humanocentric settings and that was how the question was posed.I also like cantina settings if they are done right, tough.

 

[Votan]

Ah, so the poll's dichotomy between "nothing but humans v. kitchen sink cantina" is your intent, because the in-between Tolkienesque/default traditional D&D answer is one you're just not interested in?

I see Tolkeinesque as being somewhat human centered -- the other races are there and play an important historical role. But they are fading away as the new world of humans comes into being. So you can be an elf or a halfing but the major cultures are human (there seems to be one major dwarf and hobbit culture left at the beginning of LotR and only two elf cultures).

In contrast, there are at least a half dozen distinct human cultures described.

 

[Wombat]

Not only do I have no problem with the concept of humans-only or human-centric games, it has been the standard for me under most game systems over the last thirty-odd years of gaming.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm in the human-centric camp. One of the things I liked about 3E was the way the race mechanics encouraged parties of mostly human characters with maybe a couple nonhumans thrown in for flavoring.

In the effort to spruce up the races, 4E has IMO left humans a little too far behind. The extra feat isn't as valuable as it used to be, the extra skill has always been more flavorful than useful, and the versatility of a third at-will power doesn't really make up for the loss of a second +2 stat bonus and the lack of a racial encounter ability. I don't see nearly enough human characters. As a matter of fact, thinking back, I've seen only a couple human characters in all the 4E games I've been in (not counting the one campaign where the DM enforced a humans-only rule). The campaign I'm playing in right now contains not a single human in a five-player group; we've got a tiefling, a half-orc, an orc, an elf, and a dragonborn.

I think humans ought to have two floating +2 stat bonuses instead of just one. Stat bonuses loom large in race picks; if you're looking at playing a Charisma rogue, for example, the +2 Dex/Cha options (halfling and drow) are very tempting, and it's tough to turn down that +2 to your secondary stat and the cool-ass halfling or drow racial powers in exchange for the mediocre benefits of being human.

If humans got two +2 stat bonuses, then they would become the ideal "fallback" race for any given concept. Continuing the Charisma-rogue example, halfling and drow would still be quite competitive options, but if you didn't like the flavor of those options, you could always fall back on human without feeling like you lost out mechanically. And humans would be the go-to race for any concept requiring an oddball combination of stats.

 

[MortonStromgal]

I like it when there is a metagame reason (like stat bonuses) to have at leased 1/2 the party human. Because I like to play in worlds where 1/2 the people are human and I want the PCs to reflect the world to some extent.
I always thought Shadowrun 2e (More Metahumans Option) & 3e did this fairly well by making you give up one of your higher Priorities to be a non-human.

 

[coyote6]

I answered yes, since the question was worded, "Do you prefer or like..."

I like human-centric games -- cyberpunk, superheroes (mostly), modern special ops, etc. I don't necessarily prefer them, though. They'd probably be okay with elves, dragonborn, eloi, wookies, sidhe, or whatever, too, though. But I like them; ergo, the answer is "Yes".