Why play human?

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Well

In my opinion Humans are the most powerful race, unless you're playing a class (like a Rogue) that benefits greatly from Darkvision. And to be honest, I'm glad that things are the way they are.

If one were to make a movie with an elf character they would be shockingly different than humans, if for no other reason than their insanely high life expectancy. I think the LoTR movies did a good job of portraying a race that lives for hundreds of years.

Yet , when I see elves played in D&D they are usually played as humans with pointy ears. Generally, races are taken for mechanical advantage, and then the roleplaying aspects are ignored -- they're just not the focus of the game.

If that's how things are , then I think it's best to give the best mechanical advantages to the humans. That way people who have no intention of roleplaying what it's like to be a member of an alien race don't have to feel compelled to pick one to get the best character.

Ken

 

[Shadowfoot]

By "many people" you mean like...you?

By many I mean a lot more than just me.

"History" can extend further back than a few hundred years. And even if you want to focus on "human history," where events from just the past century or even several decades are the major "history" shaping the campaign, why does having long-lived races prevent that? Just because they were alive when it happened doesn't mean they were invloved with, knew of, or very much cared about what the silly humans with their fruit fly-like longevity were killing themselves over this time.

It's fine to do that if the long-lived races are not player characters, but why would one switch from that mindset to caring about modern events?

EDIT: Wow, you've been on here for 7 years, and that was only your second post? Not trying to be mean about it, I just can't help but...wow.

Wow indeed.

 

[Jhaelen]

By "many people" you mean like...you?

^^ I'm pretty sure 'many' is supposed to mean 'many', and I agree.

For 'many' people first and only contact with elves and dwarves is 'The Lord of the Rings', so that's what defines people's initial view.

To generalize: First contact with something will always define your initial impression. And for some it can be difficult to overcome their initial conception.

E.g. one of my D&D players could never get used to the idea that elves in D&D are supposed to be smaller than humans. Good thing this changed in 4e

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Slight derail but ya know they are taller then humans in pathfinder now as well. Always have been in Golarion, which predates the rules a wee bit

 

[Particle_Man]

If you want to play a rogue that maxes out 15 skills from level 1, you have to be human (and take Rogue as favoured class, and get an 18 int and add your racial +2 to int to make it 20).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's fine to do that if the long-lived races are not player characters, but why would one switch from that mindset to caring about modern events?

Adventurers are usually very different from the "normal" members of their races. They tend to accept into their parties folks from other races despite racial enmities, they tend to amass an amount of wealth equal to many powerful lords, and yet instead of living in comfort and retiring, use it to buy bigger and stronger weapons to go risk their lives killing demons.

How a PC "switches" his mindset or becomes more aware of problems in the world, etc... that's up to the player when he decides his background.

And there are plenty of literary methods to make a whole race aware of AND care about stuff going on in the world, and yet have them not get involved or fail to do much if they try. If you live for 100s of years, why would you throw away all that lifespan trivially? Until whatever the big campaign problem is looks to personally affect elves, dwarves, or whoever, it's probably difficult for them to justify taking much action.

 

[Ryujin]

It's fine to do that if the long-lived races are not player characters, but why would one switch from that mindset to caring about modern events?

One very simple reason comes to mind: The fleeting world of humanity intrudes upon that of the long-lived races. The potential for destruction tends to get one's feet moving.

 

[Shadowfoot]

And there are plenty of literary methods to make a whole race aware of AND care about stuff going on in the world, and yet have them not get involved or fail to do much if they try. If you live for 100s of years, why would you throw away all that lifespan trivially? Until whatever the big campaign problem is looks to personally affect elves, dwarves, or whoever, it's probably difficult for them to justify taking much action.

That makes sense for those who live remote from humans, but what about settings where elves live in human cities? Are they "new" immigrants who have only been in human lands for the past 50 years?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

That makes sense for those who live remote from humans, but what about settings where elves live in human cities? Are they "new" immigrants who have only been in human lands for the past 50 years?

I don't know. If I come up with an explanation for it, will I then have to explain how things work in another type of setting, too? Ad nauseum until you "catch" me? If you're the DM, you rationalize it, and if you can't, or find the premise too stupid to believe, alter it to taste.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Well

To be honest, I haven't seen a setting where the logical results of races coexisting where one race lived so much longer than the others was really explored.

In a capitalistic society, the elves would own everything. That might be an interesting campaign setting -- capitalist elves vs communist humans!

Ken