Do fantasy rpgs actually need humans???

[xBlackWolfx]

A common complaint you see is that humans in rpgs (like D&D) aren't actually special like the other races you can choose. They're just average in everything, nothing really unique about them. No specialty, nothing.

So why bother to include humans? Its supposed to be a fantasy world, why not just say that humans don't exist here? Yeah, I know, in most settings real animals exist alongside the typical fantasy creatures. But personally, I kinda don't like that.

Anyway, why include humans if there's nothing really special about them? I mean, really, how many people actually play human characters anyway? On the NWN server I used to roleplay on, most people were actually elves I think. Yeah, there were a few human players, but honestly I think the dark elf population was actually higher than the human population on that server. Heck, I think they were about as common as dwarves. Even halflings seemed to be more numerous. I think the only thing they really outnumbered were half-orcs, and a few odd custom races like hobgoblins and such.

[JNAProductions]

To answer the question: No, they don't.

But it can make the game more fun. So just ask your group-do they want humans to be a thing? Or not?

[TheYell]

I think their general purpose is a baseline. Now you could have a different baseline in your campaign. For instance, if you got deep underground then humanoids are by no means the norm or average.

[Milo v3]

I've played (and ran) settings and RPG's that didn't have humans.

[Gideon Falcon]

No, not at all. Case in point, Pony campaigns.

[Steward]

Not really. Most of the other races are just humans plus or minus an attribute. (Humans with +2 Dex = elf, +2 Str = orc, -4 feet = halfling, etc.) No race is actually needed for this process you can just include the races that the DM and players specifically want without having to make any rule changes or do too much redesign.

[Telonius]

You can certainly have a fantasy world without humans. My Little Pony has already been mentioned; Redwall would be another. Why do some fantasy worlds include them? Sometimes it helps to connect to the world to the reader; it's an aide to the reader's imagination. I can easily imagine myself (in my own body) walking around interacting with things in Middle Earth. It takes a little more doing to imagine myself as a big-eyed pastel pony with a mark on my rump. Totally possible to do, but it asks a little more of the audience.

[Knaight]

Absolutely not. A few examples have already been listed, but there's the commercially successful Mouseguard that really emphasizes it. With that said, it comes down to what is being done - there are types of fantasy that needs humans, types that absolutely can't have them, types where having non-human species in PC roles is generally ill fitting, so on and so forth.

[Mechalich]

The designer of any fantasy world is a human. Unless they are both incredibly careful and incredibly talented, they will utilize human mindset assumptions during the design process and the world probably won't work without humans or it will force some other race into the 'human' role and they'll just be humans in funny suits doing human things with different stats. This matters the most for multi-species worlds - modeling the relationships between multiple sapient species in a not-absurd way without a human baseline is an incredible challenge that has very rarely been done well.

Now something like Pony campaigns or Redwall aren't quite the same, those are universes that have been re-template in a funny way but there's still effectively a 'human' core group it's just masquerading as something else.

Now at the operative murderhobo level of the average D&D campaign none of this may matter, but as a serious fantasy design consideration, a human baseline or at the very least a human perspective is highly important.

[Concrete]

I personally prefer playing humans. And seeing as most other races are simply humans with a specific racial "hat", I don't really see the point of playing them. Any differences between them and humans are often only mechanical, or so small that they are pretty much still human anyways.

And anyways, if most of the playable races are still humanoid, is there really any reason not to include them?

[Tzi]

I took that same observation but went in the opposite direction, Do you need anything OTHER THAN Humans?

The main reason Elves, Dwarves, Halflings are special is primarily because in a typical setting Race=Culture=Custom=Unique. Every race is somewhat of a mono-culture, monoglot, ect.

For example when I made my humans only setting. My friend INSISTED on playing "Lizardfolk," because they talk to the Spiritworld and humans don't. I informed him that a tribe of humans in this setting can and does do that. He found it hard to figure out that basically everything that is unique about D&D races is basically something that can easily become a cultural trait of a tribe of humans.

Humans are "not unique," because their uniqueness has been watered down to make the pointy eared humans, short humans, red eyed underground spider worshiping humans, ect all unique.

[Milo v3]

I took that same observation but went in the opposite direction, Do you need anything OTHER THAN Humans?

Admittedly, this is why when you make races they need to be different enough from humans to justify it. There are times when humans don't fit for something, but in many settings other races are just their for options when it comes to stats.

[nikkoli]

In my setting race is kinda meh. Short of being one of the demon possessed races or something like a void yai oni like one of my players is, race doesn't matter to most standard NPC people. It more or less sets up where you could reasonably be from.
But I agree with both arguments. Like Tzi said humans can have litteraly any culture, which looking across the world has happened for the past, idk, existence of humanity
But in a fantasy world I can see that humans seem so bland compared to everything else because we are human, who wouldnt want to be something else for a little while every now and again?

[AtlasSniperman]

I think you need to really think about the definition of a human in RPG worlds. For the most part;
They like to drink
They like to smoke
They like to eat
And when they eat it's 'til they choke
They like to fight
They like to steal
They like to lie and cheat
And then pretend it's real

They'll turn it up and get it real loud
They like to dive right off the stage into the crowd
They want it all, then want some more
And when it's gone, it's gone and then they'll start a war

[Tzi]

I think you need to really think about the definition of a human in RPG worlds. For the most part;
They like to drink
They like to smoke
They like to eat
And when they eat it's 'til they choke
They like to fight
They like to steal
They like to lie and cheat
And then pretend it's real

They'll turn it up and get it real loud
They like to dive right off the stage into the crowd
They want it all, then want some more
And when it's gone, it's gone and then they'll start a war

In my last world with multiple races I wrote Humans as being "One with nature," or after a violent struggle with Elves they determined generally that Humans, not Elves, were closer to nature as "Humans live in nature, humans are nature, Humans fight with nature, struggle, battle and try to survive. Elves have the comfort of ancient powers and magic to keep nature civilized, placid, sculpted to their whims."

[MoleMage]

My preferred answer to the blandness of humans is to give humans their own hat. All other races have things that they are better at, relative to humans, which makes humans (treated as the norm, or the jack-of-all trades race) feel unspecial. So make humans better at something than all other races (at the cost of some of their jack-of-all options). This allows you to retain the relatability of having the human race in the game without them becoming bland by comparison.

For example, in a custom setting I have, I have eight primary races: Gnolls are the fastest, Jechoes (reptilian jungle natives) the most graceful, Gremlins (mammalian tinkerers) the smartest, Orcs the strongest, Eirki (social arthropods) have the strongest magical and non-magical senses, Gaarga (essentially anthropomorphic badgers) are the toughest, Kituks (aquatic arthropods) are the most willful and are natural magi, and to top it off, humans are the most charismatic. The racial hat of humans then becomes their ability to ingratiate themselves to anyone, and they also make for a natural pick for the face of the party just as Orcs are a natural pick for the Warrior, Gaarga for the Tank, or Jechoes for the Archer. I even pulled out the skill versatility commonly assigned to humans and gave it to Gremlins instead, giving humans bonuses to specific social skills.

So in my opinion the problem isn't that humans are getting into my fantasy world, the problem is that humans do not receive the attention and definition that allows other races to stand apart. Remedy that and you may find them more fun to incorporate.

[infinitum3d]

I prefer to play humans because that allows me to get more into character. The character is me, a regular old human, but with armor, magic, feats, etc. I try keep my character as much like myself as possible because, yes it is a fantasy world, but I like realism in my fantasy.

[Caruff]

I like humans, and almost always play one, so I'm biased a bit.
The campaign setting I'm currently both playing and DMing in is human only, we just came up with some house rules to make characters as varied as we want. We also use flaws, traits, and backgrounds (like in Forgotten Realms or d20 Modern) to make every single human character highly individualized.

[Thematthew]

The primary advantage that having humans gives you is that it gives people something to relate to better. Some people just don't want to try to figure out why their pointy-eared human who lives forever would leave home for adventures, and that's honestly okay.

Humans aren't exactly necessary, they're just approachable.

[Gemhammer&Sons]

Do they need any fantasy race? Why not everyone be a human? or Ducks or Smurfs for that matter.

[Debihuman]

Fantasy RPGs do not necessarily need humans. However, I think the further afield you get from "human" the harder it is to identify with the character. It's a lot easier to play a human or demihuman (elf, gnome, halfling, etc.). The less identifiably human your character is, the less intuitive it is to play. Over time that goes away, but initially it can be harder to play.

My brother-in-law played a blue boggart in an AD&D game that I ran years ago. NPCs thought he was a cute little blue monkey and would offer to buy him. Eventually, he was kidnapped and put in a zoo in my lead-in to Castle Greyhawk (yes the pun dungeon). He ended up using his shield as a surfboard to defeat the minionions of Set. Good times. That never would have been possible with a human character.

However, in a all non-human world a lot can change. If there are no humans, what does civilization look like? The realm of faerie is a typical go-to because it's something we all recognize. It's fun to play Fey (good and evil ones). I think at one time I created Cannibal fairies for a Fairy Meat game.

Imagine how Devils would change if there no humans to corrupt? Would they ever have fallen if Humans hadn't been created?

You can do a furry campaign where all talking animals take the place of humans. Mouseguard, Fursona, and even Savage Species has rules for anthropomorphic animals but they have hands and are in Human size ranges, more like Disney's Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Speaking of which, there's a whole podcast dedicated to gaming in a Disney universe that I've been listening to http://gameabledisneypodcast.tumblr.com if anyone is interested. It's niche but I enjoyed it.

I think it's less of a matter of need and far more a matter of want. Some people prefer to play humans and others want to avoid them. There's room for all at the gaming table.

Debby

[gtwucla]

Admittedly, this is why when you make races they need to be different enough from humans to justify it. There are times when humans don't fit for something, but in many settings other races are just their for options when it comes to stats.

Even then a human culture can be just about anything. They could be totally alien and still be human. They could also be slightly larger or smaller, accounting for statistical differences. If we're really getting into it different races need to have a different make up, like phasing bodies, having multiple limbs, or just basically doing something a human being physically can't do.

With that said, the question, 'Why would you need any other races other than human?' is completely valid. But so is, why not?

[Milo v3]

If we're really getting into it different races need to have a different make up, like phasing bodies, having multiple limbs, or just basically doing something a human being physically can't do.
Yes, this is what I meant by justification. For example, in one setting a race were seven foot tall psionic spiders with additional legs pointing upwards since the plane it was native to had subjective gravity and the ability to produce tiny males as labour by expending psychic energy. While another race in the setting were giant birds with two tails that each end in a mass of tentacles who that assimilate biology of creatures they feed upon.

[Bohandas]

A common complaint you see is that humans in rpgs (like D&D) aren't actually special like the other races you can choose. They're just average in everything, nothing really unique about them. No specialty, nothing.

So why bother to include humans? Its supposed to be a fantasy world, why not just say that humans don't exist here? Yeah, I know, in most settings real animals exist alongside the typical fantasy creatures. But personally, I kinda don't like that.


The more pressing problem I think is that they always seem to have such unrealistically disproportionate influence; which makes the incongruity and lack of necessity stand out.

Short answer response to the main question though, no, they're not needed.


Imagine how Devils would change if there no humans to corrupt? Would they ever have fallen if Humans hadn't been created?

The Baatezu are after the spuls of all sentient beings. And the reason why they fell, according to Fiendish Codex 2, is basically because of a literal instance of that thing Nietzsche said ("He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.")