Never quite undestood why people wont play human

[huginn]

I never quite understood why someone will say well I am human in rl so I wont play a human in game or humans are boring.
If they find humans boring is it the fault of the race or lack of imagination on the the player ?

[Nifft]

I never quite understood why someone will say well I am human in rl so I wont play a human in game or humans are boring.
If they find humans boring is it the fault of the race or lack of imagination on the the player ?

If you've done something twelve times, and now you want to do a different thing, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

If you grew up rich, and you want to play someone who is very poor, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

If you can walk, and you want to play someone who can fly, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

[War_lord]

Humans don't have darkvision, and DMs can be jerks when magical aging and ghosts come up.

[KillianHawkeye]

You see... the thing about escapism is that it works a lot better when you're pretending to be something that's unlike your normal self. Ideally, as different as possible.

[Slipperychicken]

The word "human" doesn't cause a fun visual image to pop into their heads.

I almost always play humans, but I can still see where they're coming from. It's a fantasy universe, you're told you can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. If you're choosing to roleplay in a fantasy universe with an understanding of what that means, chances are you don't want something relatable ("human" might make you think about your rent payment, or that one guy at work who shouts in every meeting), you might want to be something crazy, cool, really farther out there, feel like a part of this mystical wonderland instead of a normal person passing through on his way back to the office.

[Fiery Diamond]

Another simple answer is exoticism.

But yeah, I usually play humans.

[Satinavian]

The humans and their culture are pretty much always what is most similar to our regular real world experience and thus the least interesting to explore part of a setting.

[Mastikator]

If you've done something twelve times, and now you want to do a different thing, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

...yes?

There are 7 billion variations of human characters in the real world. Each one with a rich backstory and inner life. If you can't come up with an interesting and different 13th character without making their ears pointy then you absolutely definitely lack imagination.

I'd take it one step further and say 99% of all of the non-humans characters I've seen played could have been human and would have been more original for it, not less.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

You see... the thing about escapism is that it works a lot better when you're pretending to be something that's unlike your normal self. Ideally, as different as possible.

And the game offers you the possibility. You can be any of dozens of species, yet over half your games you play as the least interesting of them, the ones you already know well. Why are you wasting so many opportunities?

The fact that humans are typically, or at least in d&d, the only race that isn't pidgeonholed both by strict mechanical (dis)advantages and flavor text only makes it a bigger challenge. I should be able to get something out of the 95% of the characters that I don't use enough.

[The Insanity]

Never quite understood why people would play human (well, that's not exactly true, I know it's for the feat).

[Anymage]

In theory, it's interesting to look at things from another perspective. This works best in a game where everybody is the same sort of nonhuman, and where their nonhuman traits are well codified by rules. Whatever else they may have going for them, white wolf games have been interesting for this perspective.

In practice, a few issues. When you have race glut like D&D has, it's hard to give a decent amount of thought to any particular one of them. In fact, even many of the basic PHB ones are just lightly touched on instead of getting a properly deep dive. In that case, race is just another bunch of modifiers on your playing piece. And given how humans are generally the generalist race, it's hard for a generalist benefit to be as tempting as a specialist's benefit that happens to match your specialization.

If it bugs you, though, I recommend doing what I do. Allow people to play whatever race they like mechanically, keeping all traits they can justify, while being skinned as normal humans with ears and lifespans to match. You get to tighten your theme around a group that could more easily have histories together, instead of having to justify why this cosmopolitan group all met and decided to run together. And they get the cool powers they want.

[Satinavian]

I'd take it one step further and say 99% of all of the non-humans characters I've seen played could have been human and would have been more original for it, not less.

Maybe.

And 99% of human SCs would have worked as elves or dwarfes or whatever and also been more original for that (as in : not being a race stereotype).

So why should that be a reason to choose humans ?


Seriously what is this with wanting players to choose humans instead of what they like ?

[Kaptin Keen]

As a GM, I've seen two things:

People who roll - say - an elf, then roleplay it like a human, or
People who roll an elf, then just roleplay if very, very poorly.

That's my sole reason why people should play humans. We just have a lot greater familarity with human mannerisms and so on - even bad roleplayers can play humans decently. But I've honest never really seen a well-played un-human.

[Mastikator]

Maybe.

And 99% of human SCs would have worked as elves or dwarfes or whatever and also been more original for that (as in : not being a race stereotype).

So why should that be a reason to choose humans ?


Seriously what is this with wanting players to choose humans instead of what they like ?

If you play an elf as a human in a setting were elves aren't just humans with pointy ears then your character is detached from the setting. It makes them harder to relate to, it worsens the roleplaying experience for the other players and puts a cap on the depth you can play at. If everyone is just doing a race/class/alignment combo of themselves then it doesn't matter but if you're actually playing a character and not an archetype then it does matter.

[IronMike]

You see... the thing about escapism is that it works a lot better when you're pretending to be something that's unlike your normal self. Ideally, as different as possible.

I'm human IRL but not a monk. Not even close. My human monk PC is my escapism.

[Eldan]

Honestly, that question, in the end, sounds to me a bit like "Why would you play a wizard? You could play a fighter*! There's many kinds of people who fight in real life, they wouldn't all be the same!"

Different people want different things from their escapism.

*And that's not to mean that fighter is a boring concept**. It's just the concept that exists in real life.

**well, I think it is, personally, but that's a matter of taste.

[Mastikator]

Honestly, that question, in the end, sounds to me a bit like "Why would you play a wizard? You could play a fighter*! There's many kinds of people who fight in real life, they wouldn't all be the same!"

Different people want different things from their escapism.

*And that's not to mean that fighter is a boring concept**. It's just the concept that exists in real life.

**well, I think it is, personally, but that's a matter of taste.

Kind of depends on what you mean by fighter, a fighter in the D&D sense will quickly reach super hero power levels.

[KillianHawkeye]

I'm human IRL but not a monk. Not even close. My human monk PC is my escapism.

And that's totally fine, but different people will naturally have different preferences on how much of a difference is the right amount.

[huginn]

If you've done something twelve times, and now you want to do a different thing, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

If you grew up rich, and you want to play someone who is very poor, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

If you can walk, and you want to play someone who can fly, is that likely to be because of a lack of imagination?

When someone never played a human and refuses to play a human only because humans are somehow boring then yes I would consider the possibility that they lack imagination.

I meet great role players and I meet bad role players and based on personal experience its usually the bad ones who say humans are boring

[Max_Killjoy]

Because they have to play a human being for hours on end, most days of the week, most weeks of the year, for a lifetime?

[pwykersotz]

When someone never played a human and refuses to play a human only because humans are somehow boring then yes I would consider the possibility that they lack imagination.

I meet great role players and I meet bad role players and based on personal experience its usually the bad ones who say humans are boring

My personal experience also aligns with this, though it is not 100%. Personal taste is a thing, after all.

[Xuc Xac]

When someone never played a human and refuses to play a human only because humans are somehow boring then yes I would consider the possibility that they lack imagination.

I meet great role players and I meet bad role players and based on personal experience its usually the bad ones who say humans are boring

And then when they play a non-human, they don't give them any personality because they think "being a dwarf/elf/whatever" is a substitute.

[Bohandas]

there's also the issue that the traits for humans in D&D are kind of an asspull

[KillianHawkeye]

When someone never played a human and refuses to play a human only because humans are somehow boring then yes I would consider the possibility that they lack imagination.

Isn't this kind of like saying that you have a friend who never eats vanilla ice cream, refuses to eat vanilla ice cream because they think vanilla is boring, and then complaining that they lack taste?

I know that there are some people who really like vanilla, but with so many flavors available it seems weird for anyone to have a problem with someone not liking a particular one. Especially vanilla!

I mean, I don't have any problem with eating a plain cheese pizza, but I certainly wouldn't ever buy one if a pizza with actual toppings was available.

If you were complaining about a person who never eats vanilla ice cream or plain cheese pizza, I'd say the problem is definitely on your end and not with the person who has a preference which you unreasonably disagree with. And to be honest, I don't see how your actual argument is substantially different from that.

Maybe instead, you could try accepting that people try to avoid things that are boring?

[Mastikator]

Isn't this kind of like saying that you have a friend who never eats vanilla ice cream, refuses to eat vanilla ice cream because they think vanilla is boring, and then complaining that they lack taste?

There are more kinds of people than there are flavors of ice cream, by an order of magnitude that makes this comparison meaningless.

That said, giving your character pointy ears or green skin or hairy feet isn't going to make them less boring. It's 100% of how you create their character and 0% how you stat them out.

[Satinavian]

That said, giving your character pointy ears or green skin or hairy feet isn't going to make them less boring. It's 100% of how you create their character and 0% how you stat them out.

Sure.

But that is not actually a reason to not use the pointy ears, green skin or hairy feet.

[Lord Raziere]

Sure.

But that is not actually a reason to not use the pointy ears, green skin or hairy feet.

Ok.

Do I care? No. I don't care what reason you have to try and make me stop playing these things. I want to play them. Stop bothering people about their playstyle choices.

[Max_Killjoy]

Ok.

Do I care? No. I don't care what reason you have to try and make me stop playing these things. I want to play them. Stop bothering people about their playstyle choices.

I think Satinavian was saying that it's not a reason to not play them -- so kinda agreeing with your position.

[Lord Raziere]

I think Satinavian was saying that it's not a reason to not play them -- so kinda agreeing with your position.

Oh, I didn't see the NOT in there. Derp.

[An Enemy Spy]

Because people have their own preferences of how they like their characters to be. Personally, I like playing as halflings. Is this because I find humans too realistic? Nope, I just like halflings and that's all there is to it.