How to make humans interesting?

Humans being the best at fighting in formation and working in large groups is one possibility. They're not as numerous as some other races but they're the best at taking advantage of their numbers.

Maybe domestication? Humans mastered horses and dogs centuries ago and they've been a massive help ever since, perhaps other races aren't as good at it.

D&D (and many other systems) have three physical stats and three mental stats. I'd say divide one of each across the three main races of your setting, whichever they may be.

For example, let's say the three dominant races of the setting are humans, elves and orcs. Elves are usually depicted as versatile and intelligent, so Dex and Int are their bonus stats. Orcs are usually strong but not too bright, and thanks to le Warcraft maymay they're wise dindus who are in touch with nature, so their bonus stats are Str and Wis. That leaves Con and Cha for humans. End result? Humans are resilient-ass motherfuckers. You know how we can heal minor cuts quite rapidly and if we break a bone, it actually heals to become stronger than before? Yeah... elves and orcs don't have that. They're also more likely to get sick than humans, who can eat and digest close to anything. As for Cha, well... let's say it explains why there are half-orcs and half-elves, but almost no half-orc-half-elves.

There, you've made humans interesting without going HFY and making all other races redundant. And you can do this with other races too. So if you replace the orcs with dwarves, then the dwarves become wise and resilient (Con and Wis), which means humans become the strong race (Str and Cha). If you choose to depict your elves as charismatic negotiators, this would mean humans in turn become the scholar-race (Con and Int or Str and Int, depending on whether you have orcs or dwarves).

Of course the non-main races could still exist, but they wouldn't be... you know, main races.

Wouldn't that mostly just make them tall versions of elves or faye, though?

You could also try reading up on human history, culture and psychology. Humans are quite interesting, and suddenly you start asking yourself why you should include other species when they obviously won't have the same depth of character as humans will without some Tolkien tier worldbuilding.

Read up on history.
Humans aren't monolithic. Without even going into more drastic racial differences, there can be great differences in the social/family structure, political organisation, and average personality traits even between closely-related populations.
Just look up Frisians or Auvergnats and compare them to their immediate neighbours, or compare Champa and Dai Viet.
Or read about the many historical differences within and between English, Scots, and Irish for starters, regarding clans–nuclear family, urbanism, civicness, etc.

Geography is also pretty damn important in a pre-modern setting, as it affects how connected a people can be, how much power a government may exert, how vulnerable an area is to invasion, and often it also correlates with inbreeding/outbreeding.
Fantasy also tends to tone down the cultural differences between elites and peasantry, while in history they often spoke different languages, different entertainment, had effectively different religions (with villages venerating local spirits and saints rather than delving into abstract religion), etc. Between villages there could also be considerable differences.

Humans are only boring and generic if you make them all modern urban lowland Whites with a centralised bureaucratic government.

Some stuff to get you started:
hbdchick.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/medieval-germanic-kindreds-and-the-ditmarsians/
theamericanconservative.com/articles/cousin-marriage-conundrum/
jaymans.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/the-cavaliers/
unz.com/gnxp/from-cattle-herders-to-tax-farmers/

There's also much that can be made of the effects Man had on environment, how he shaped many species like livestock, co-evolved with dogs in Eurasia, or created an environment where rats could thrive. If you setting has magic, invent a few less conventional animals, or stuff like fae and gnomes, and ponder how they would interact with humans and their settlements.

I know that feel. Unless you add magic to the mix to make fantasy races inherently different from humans in their interactions with magic, elves, orcs, dwarves, goblins etc. might as well all be replaced by different human races, adapted physiologically and culturally to different environments.

I have a hard time with humans

sometimes I let them go full anime with warrior skills

sometimes I just find myself making every single strong human non-human (turns out he's an undead, ancient dwarven ai, shit like that)

Some advice you're probably going to ignore.
Try not to spend too much time overthinking your setting, including stuff about races. Assuming you actually have a group to play with, chances are they won't notice or won't care nearly as much as you did. If they DO notice then the first place their minds will go if you make every race "like this but also different" is that you are trying way too hard.

Your setting exists to provide adventures for your players, so focus on hooks and elements that provide adventure for your players, not elements of the world that no one will appreciate or notice.
You aren't writing a novel.

Humans are the only race with a strong middle-class. No, seriously- if there's anything that would give human society a serious leg up on the longer-lived, more physically capable races, it's this. Hell, it's not as if it isn't an unproven theory. Look at the Black Plague and how it reshaped society. With so many labourers dead, those who once worked the fields and swept after the nobles could now demand a decent wage for their skills. The deaths of so many old scholars might have killed off their knowledge, but also their preconceptions, allowing new ideas to flourish, especially since the books in which vast amounts of knowledge were still stored yet remained.

So let's say a terrible plague swept the land. The elves managed to save themselves thanks to their magic and medical knowledge, the dwarves survived thanks to being too damn tough and stubborn to die, while the orcs simply outbred the plague. The human kingdoms, on the other hand, were ruined, but while the other races fought with themselves over now empty human lands, the humans managed a new renaissance in thought and progress. An elven servant would remain a servant the rest of his life, and so would his family, but a human peasant can become a noble, his son a wizard, his daughter a general.

How this translates to the systems you're using would of course, depend on said system. That being said, I definitely suggest humans having a wider breadth of skills and talents compared to the others. You know what you can expect from an elven wizard, but a human wizard might not be all that bad at swordfighting either. A dwarven warrior is the same as any other, but a human warrior might be the most eloquent motherfucker in the room.

I've started to physically wince whenever the furry at my table complains about humans being "boring" and less interesting than other species. He keeps claiming that it's "super easy" to put in other species in a setting.

Meanwhile, in reality your new species are not only going to be less interesting than humans because (let's be real now) you aren't going to be write Silmarillion in your setting notes. Furthermore, these less diverse, less interesting and less grounded species will actively interfere with your humans and pull them down in the same quagmire of mediocrity as well, turning them all into the British.

>dwarf
>all the same scottish alcoholic guy
>elf
>same poncy better-than-you mary sue
>half-orc
>unless they're trying to subvert it, always dumb fighter rape-child
>humans
>could be basically anything

>Not playing italian mafioso dwarves

>humans
>adopts the stereotype associated with their class

FTFY

Still better than only one stereotype
but seriously
>building your character around a class and not having an idea for a character and deciding what class it'd be
>using class systems at all
P L E B S

>All human fighters are gruff veterans who have seen some shit and are jaded as fuck
>All human wizards are old not!Merlin types who look down upon the martials and generally act like pompous asshats who proceed to fuck the campaign sideways
>All human thiefs are cocky robin hood types or CN greedy asshats who think that they're cheeky as they rob from their own party members.
>All human paladins are pious DEUS VULT shitters who use smite evil as an answer to every non-combat encounter.

The list goes on

The only variety that humans get is that they get to typecast themselves into more than one stereotype.

>tfw played with meek bookworm nerd type wizard who was only interested in seeing what he could create with magic total This Guy
>playing human rogue that's a naive street urchin, errs on the side of good but has had to do some unlawful things in his past, wants to get past it and help people that are in the position he was in
>paladin I played with was a bit more of a hippy type, maybe also somewhat naive in a way comes with being a hippy, really, turned to drugs after contact with an eldritch horror type thing
Had two human rogues in the party with the wizard and paladin though, absolutely fit those two stereotypes though. At any rate, as far as I've seen the non-human races don't really add much, apart from making distinguishing kingdoms easier and appeasing min-maxers (oh sweet I can take this for extra dex!) or special snowflakes (and I'm this big scaly dragon guy and I'm totally badass and can breathe fire!), who would otherwise dismiss humans as 'too boring'.

Warcraft
Humans are the cursed mutant midget descendants of big-ass vikings who were in turn cursed by even bigger minions of some abstract concept. Said vikings were sentient golems (majority, if not all of 'em, are now flesh and blood) made by ancient space-faring race of...people who look exactly like humans

Make humanity have as many ethnicity as other races.

and don't call them "Humans" call em by regions or continents

Make humans specialised at something for once, rather than being the "jack of all trades, master of none" they usually get in RPGs.

Could make them a race that is recovering from a decimated population from whatever or whomever wrecked them. Hell, there's usually only one human in a party anyways.

The aren't natives despite living there a long time, they're descended from colonists
from space

Grounding them heavily in religion and giving them them the only actual semblance of an afterlife works, However I always like when Human gods are the only ones bale to manifest their powers on the physical realm, giving them the upper hand in "Religious Crusades" and inquisitions.

...

>Extremely hardy, capable of surviving grievous wounds and growing tougher material on the site of injury afterwards
>Under conditions of extreme duress they can exert enough strength for their own muscles to tear off of their bones
>They fucking love war. They'll try to weaponize any new discovery or invention, most of their settlements are built around or in proximity to military fortifications and highly skilled warriors are practically a noble class of their own in the form of knighthoods and the such

Humans are the 'civilized' counterpart to orcs in my setting, just with plate-armor and manifest destiny.

I have a few things to separate them:

They have noble families, born with blue blood rather than red. No other race have monarchy for government. Blood magic are also potent with the blue blood. Nobility, status and wealth are open in character creation.
Human souls are made from nearby materials (all races have souls made from their patron god, but with different methods). This will have some minor benefit.
They are also the only race who can use starter xp to buy Drives, which are extraordinary attributes; Expertise (self drive/level substitute), Faith, Luck and Protagonism (plot armor, scene mod, + other story stuff).

I'll have to agree with the resilience posters. Humans are sturdy animals, and that could be put to show by having your other creatures not be able to heal a broken bone in a matter of weeks, or survive having their leg amputated

>Humans are sturdy animals
I could kill you with a stick

You can kill many things with a stick. I think people have killed lions and shit in times long past with sticks. And also each other, most likely.

>including orcs before dwarves
You did this just so humans could get con didn't you

This. Pay attention to real world even a little bit.

>le all humans settings are the best and anything with other races despite being a staple of fantasy is shit epik maymay

t. literal retard

He's right though. You make non-humans blunt and stupid stereotypes then bitch about them being blunt and stupid stereotypes. The vast majority of settings with bland elves also have bland humans. Yep your not England, not HRE, and not Italian city states are so clever and deep.

The main advantage of nonhumans imo is it lets you give races major mechanical differences. The setting will be good or bad regardless of races, the depth and effort are what make settings good.

>Anyone who disagrees with the Veeky Forums hivemind is a literal retard!!!!

Make them super-religious ancestor worshippers.

Dropping elves and dwarves and all that into your game just because Tolkien did it is retarded.

These guys are on the right track.

Of course, if you can get a bit more creative than "woodsy mary-sues" and "hairy scottish midget viking jews" go ahead.

This.
>Fey, titans, demons and angels created many forms of life, but human isn't among them
>This creature came from the stars, running from something vile, and found refuge in this world
>Upon the canvas which is human, the creators made new humanoids: titans made dwarves, fae made elves, etc

Not that guy, but I don't think anyone really just puts elves and dwarves in without thought. I personally don't use them, I prefer other races. For instance, lizard people or intelligent/playable monsters like hobgoblins or trolls. More interesting then a boring elf, but still nonhuman and opens up ideas for cultures and religions far from a human centered world.

Except if your setting is so bland that your elves are shit odds are your all human setting is also bland and shitty. Just because humans have had many different cultures doesn't mean you can't do the same for elves, dwarves, or orcs.

Magic and fantasy simply give you even more area to add interesting cultures instead of tree hippies, midget scotsmen, or holy roman empire with a different name.

>and opens up ideas for cultures and religions far from a human centered world

See? You have a reason right there.

Make them unable to use magic (or magic items that require attunement if 5e) and immune to Divination, Enchantment and Transmutation, Illusion and Abjuration magic, and Resistance to Evocation and Necromancy.

My Nehwon campaign is all humans.
Admittedly Lieber used almost entirely Earth-culture analogues, but I've managed to give them enough of a twist, and made the various NPCs colorful enough, that it's pretty fun.

Technically true, but tone down the strawmen, user.

If one can't be bothered with any flavour whatsoever, maybe they shouldn't be making a setting in the first place.
Just saying that maybe people shouldn't stick to stock tropes for their own sake, but rather have a reason to use them and bring in some original perspective while they're at it.

If you breathe life and character into them, it doesn't matter if your NPC's (or PC's) are Medieval analogues or not.
No amount of fluff or special abilities will make them interesting if you don't invest them with charm.

My point was that the whole "humans are so unique and everything else is bland" circlejerk is retarded. Different races allow you much mote diversity of culture especially races with radically different biologies than humans.

Environment and resources have the greatest effect on culture.
Of course if you can fly or breathe water, you have access to very different environments and resources, and creatures that can see in the dark would have a different relationship to nighttime, but otherwise not so much.

"Le Quirky" cultures really won't hold the interest of your players or enhance the game in any way.

Instead, make a half-dozen compelling NPCs.
That will actually be interesting and worthwhile. People do the former instead of the latter because generating boring fluff is easier for Aspies.

Living for hundreds of years certainly would change your culture. An elf who fought in the battle of hastings could still have been around to fight in the war of the roses. Imagine a warrior who had fought inliterally hundreds of battles, not to mention rulers, an empire with a king who rules for 500 years is going to be pretty stable and if that king is a gifted military leader his empire could get pretty fucking huge. Imagine if Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, or Genghis Khan lived until 700 years old. Now imagine if they all also led armies of soldiers with centuries of combat experience.

Courage and Knowledge are the bywords of the Vaulters.

Fuck that mary sue ass faction.

You don't.

Trying to force mankind into some sort of token style archetype completely undermines the point, humans don't have a gimmick because they are *us*, a neutral blank slate.

If you start giving the humans clearly define traits (something other than 'all-rounder') then they are for all narrative purposes not no longer 'us' they are just another type of 'them'.

This is why I always tie longevity to magical power, not race. Only the greatest elves outlive men. And the greatest men can outlive common elves.

Bonus to INT and CON.

Humans aren't particularly fast or strong, but we can take a brutal amount of punishment and we quite clearly have some knack for advanced thinking.

>Bonus to INT

if you use something because it is a 'fantasy staple', that probably explains why you have trouble 'making' humans interesting.

>Almost every setting Humans are dominant
>Stupid

Keep your Malaysian Coughing Moving Picture Girl in its folder mate, you're done here.

Go HUMANITY FUCK YEAH or go home.

Short lived, ambitious, bold, with balls of steel. Every other race should look at humans and be like "How the fuck do these absolute madmen accomplish so much in their short lives?". Kingdoms with institutions and architecture that last centuries. Heroic tales of long lost legends. Top it all off with the unpredictability of each human due to the lack of a "generic" human. Anything from a rich noble with moral standards to a dirty cutthroat.

That's it. You don't need to do anything else, and pretty much any setting that shows humans as something other than this is pretty shit. DM's who try to do something "original" with humans ALWAYS end up creating a setting that is lackluster and uninteresting.

This nigga gets it.

People always think about the setting first, and the character development second. The setting is rarely what makes something interesting, and most players will NEVER stick around for the setting. Players will, however, stick around for plot development and character development.

An interesting sounding setting or premise might catch people's attention, but it doesn't mean that the game is good. Good game play, player choice, plot and character development... these are things that separate a good DM from a bad one.

Anyone can make a "unique" or "eye-catching" setting/plot. But few can make a good game. Making a good game takes a lot more work than sitting down and thinking "how can I make my game unique?". Instead think "how can I make my game good?".

>Racial superiority wankery
>Smart

In my setting, humans are the only species that really bother with magic. They're also the most polytheistic species, you can see temples to multiple gods in basically any settlement.

Goblins are high int low wis types. They'll build shit out of rocks and scrap, but generally are too busy exploring or cave-diving or base jumping to discover metalwork. Goblins have no gods, which is part of the reason they get shit on so much.

Elves are allergic to magic and the gods but have their own weird paranormal shit they do. There's not enough of them to form a culture so they often end up as deranged man eating forest hermits because they can't walk onto holy ground and also they vomit up their lungs if someone tries to Cure Light Wounds them.

Always this.

Let me fix that title for you since humans tend to be interesting just by how many different cultures we have

>How to make humans boring

base them on yourself

I made my humans in my setting the boring generic people. And I mean that intentionally. When one of the Gods 'invented' humans, the rest quickly followed suite and made their own humans which explains all the human cultures and races in the world. But the whole point is that they are simple, boring, and 'easy' to make, hence why all the Gods could make them.

This user is right

Humans are extinct. The current races are descendants of humans.

Humans ARE boring.

For example, you get an elf and you turn him into a Fighter, you kinda stop to think "hmm, why exactly did this elf decide to be a Fighter instead of a Ranger or a Wizard.

You get a human Fighter though and all you have to look forward to is, "um, he's a jaded war veteran, he fought in a war, and uh, he's no-nonsense and takes any job for the money...um...and that's it."

>People are boring, they need to have snowflake affectations so I can bother to write around that instead

You are boring, that much is clear.
And likely unaware of it.

>Elves ARE boring.

>For example, you get an human and you turn him into a Wizard, you kinda stop to think "hmm, why exactly did this human decide to be a Wizard instead of a Ranger or a Fighter.

>You get a elf Wizard though and all you have to look forward to is, "um, he's naturally attuned to magic, he's naturally smart because of his long lifespan...um...and that's it."