Say your about to run a campaign and all your players are playing non-humans. How would you go about depicting humans as an NPC race? And by that I don't mean "same as usual but you just can't play them LOL" but as if they were non dominant and uncommon, something that appears on an encounter chart like Orcs or Giants or Illithids. Something to be fought or negotiated with. An obstacle to be negotiated, in other words. What kind of society would they have? How would they behave? Friendly/Hostile/Neutral? How would your party interact with them, if applicable?
Basically I want to hear how you would write humans the same way we write about non humans. I already have an idea on how to do it, which I will reveal later if this thread generates interest, but I want to hear what you guys say first.
Bonus: Whats the best way to describe them without your players realizing that they are humans, and how long could you keep it up?
Refer to them as "featherless bipeds" and hope none are particularly well versed in philosophy
Luis Mitchell
Behold! A Man
Brandon Sullivan
>humans >not dominant uh uh uh i don't understand
Andrew Thomas
The one strength humans have over other races would either be our stubborn-ass resilience (not physical, but as a species), or our predisposition to trust each other more than other species. We're close-knit, essentially. If all human kingdoms were to fall and if humanity were to lose the knowledge of our various trades and inventions, we'd essentially undergo a state very much like the first few years after the Roman Empire fell. A Dark Age, but magnified. We'd go back to living in straw huts, if we weren't before, and we might even be forced to live in caves, or hollows (although theoretically, you could make a really cozy cave house if you wanted).
And that's only if we aren't reduced to a slave race, although I think you'd be more likely to see a glorious human revolt the longer that went on tho. We're pretty defiant, but SCARY good at adapting. There would eventually be a group of people who couldn't stand the shit and staged a coup to create a human civilization, and more than a few of the people who didn't help with the actual coup wouldn't complain about not being a slave/ second-class citizen anymore, I'm sure. My opinion is completely biased due to my species, of course, but I think that we'd probably be either Glorious Holy Empire, or "Meh, they're alright I guess" the longest, with relatively short periods of Untermensch and roving tribes status thrown in there. As for an NPC race, I'd say just make them intensely distrustful at worst, and jumpy/skeptical at best when they're vastly outnumbered by other races. [As for the players not knowing they are human, decribe them as fleshy pink masses, vaguely resembling the Glorious Lizardman Master Race in terms of appendages, but grotesque and smelly, and did that one just latch on to the other one's darker pink protrusion? And what the hell is the white fluid it's drinking? It smells weird. Stop that.]
Owen Ross
This is now a Diogenes thread
Isaiah Richardson
>something that appears on an encounter chart like Orcs or Giants or Illithids. Do you think this is something that doesn't happen?
Sebastian Diaz
> Plato was discoursing on his theory of ideas and, pointing to the cups on the table before him, said while there are many cups in > the world, there is only one ‘idea’ of a cup, and this cupness precedes the existence of all particular cups. >“I can see the cup on the table,”interrupted Diogenes, “but I can’t see the ‘cupness’.” >"That's because you have the eyes to see the cup," said Plato, "but", tapping his head with his forefinger, "you don't have the intellect > with which to comprehend ‘cupness’.” > Diogenes walked up to the table, examined a cup and, looking inside, asked, "Is it empty?" > Plato nodded. >“Where is the ‘emptiness’ which precedes this empty cup?” asked Diogenes. > Plato allowed himself a few moments to collect his thoughts, but Diogenes reached over and, tapping Plato's head with his finger, > said “I think you will find here is the ‘emptiness’.”
Connor Roberts
Ayyyyyy
Andrew Turner
One way you might do it is to think of prehistory, when there were literally multiple hominins in existence all walking around potentially interacting with each other simultaneously. I personally consider this more often than the stock fantasy interactions because the stock fantasy race dynamics are still reliant on a version of humanity that only exists in the context of humans being the sole (and/or dominant) sentient race, i.e. based on modern humans. So a better route may be to try and imagine humanoids like this, though not necessarily in the context of Pleistocene fauna. Every race is basically the sum of its adaptations now multiplied by cultural and technological advances. The idea of fundamentally *other* kinds of people walking around is a way more interesting concept than most settings allow it to be, because just getting to the present day is something of a feat in and of itself. Add in magic and deities and other influences and you've got a recipe for some very strange yet very familiar "others".
Ayden Price
Have them be seen as a cursed race bent on destruction which had to sealed off from the rest of the world by the greatest mages of the other races.
>(just outside the Vesuvius gate); 6641: Defecator, may everything turn out okay so that you can leave this place
Jack Martin
for got pic
Jace Cooper
Describe them as walking miserable piles of secrets
Mason Moore
>Humans as an NPC race
Which race of humans?
Angel Lopez
>but as if they were non dominant and uncommon, something that appears on an encounter chart like Orcs or Giants or Illithids. Something to be fought or negotiated with. An obstacle to be negotiated, in other words. So... like a race in a fantasy setting? I don't mean to be mean but if this is like a mind blowing concept you need to git gud at worldbuilding.
>Whats the best way to describe them without your players realizing that they are humans, and how long could you keep it up? Well, like if all the players were dwarves, or the game was in an area dominated by dwarves, just use whatever the dwarves call humans as their name and don't go into insane detail on the description. I always assume "goblin", "dwarf" and "elf" or similar names are either just the names in some specific in-setting language or are just being used by the DM so you don't have to give everyone a ten thousand page bestiary to understand the setting. For a bonus, invent new races of humans or use un-stereotypical clothing and speech descriptions for whatever race you're using.
As an aside, does anyone else give non-human races their own "races" like we would say IRL? I try to have several languages/cultures for each species, but I'm never sure if it's necessary to have visually distinct populations or subspecies.
>The one strength humans have over other races would either be our stubborn-ass resilience (not physical, but as a species), or our predisposition to trust each other more than other species >We're pretty defiant, but SCARY good at adapting Why would you assume we have these qualities more than other races? We easily be middle or low-tier in these attributes depending on the setting. It's totally relative to what other races populate the world.
Oliver Scott
The only problem with looking at this in a biological perspective is that it kills the logic of fantasy races. When you get down to it, the various typical races are not very different from one another relative to animals in general. The various hominids were distinct from one another, but they still competed for similar resources and habitat. Today, hominids (or the only ones left) live almost anywhere. And organized society as they're usually portrayed is going to be competing for good land to settle on and food sources, ignoring the most strict of dietary restrictions or anatomy there's no reason a lizardman or a dwarf couldn't make use of the resources humans or goblins make use of. The various races would mostly outcompete one another until at most a few are left, if not only one.
Sahelanthropus and Neanderthal went extinct because homo Sapiens was good enough to invade their habitat and one way or another thrive better than them. These "fundamentally different kinds of people" would need hyperspecific adaptations to their environment that another race couldn't get around technologically (or magically, as it could be here) to even have a chance of fitting into a totally separate niche than a close genetic relative.
Kevin Anderson
The...only one?
Ethan Brown
Nomads. 12-fingered, six-toed tribals that are covered in tattoos with an esoteric culture that underscores how inhumane it would be to play one of them in spite of the fact that they're you know, human, since "human" doesn't have to mean relatable. They don't even have to be immediately hostile, just performing a bunch of fey gestures on those who managed to encounter them by accident, perhaps stalking groups and caravans that take their interest or occasionally caught in the middle of hunting a great beast.
Nicholas Long
Doesn't it kind of go besides the thread's point to turn them into something so obviously not human?
Jace Perry
VIII.2 (in the basilica); 1812: Caesius faithfully loves M[…name lost]
For some reason this makes me quite sad
Brody Bennett
Tragic indeed, I hope that whoever they were, they're in a better place
Henry Cooper
Hebrews?
Isaac Cox
Shitposting is a art.
t. Spanish golden age """educated""" writers
Angel Rogers
Or you could have them have evolved independent societies in geographic isolation, which are already in competition within their species, so that when they meet another race some might be willing to take advantage of any alliance they could find. If there is a level of commerce and anything less than extreme xenophobia, and at least near-parity in military capabilities (power projection is hard remember).
Carter Jenkins
Just play engine heart with the goal of finding the last humans or some shit.
Connor Green
>Aufidius was here. >Goodbye Top kek
Joshua Brooks
Have the ones that the players run into be enclosed entirely in heavy armour, and have other NPCs refer to them as "the shelled ones" or "the metal golems", or some other euphemism that suggests they are something that can't be understood or reasoned with.
Brody Ross
Related.
Aiden Kelly
Give them traits that everyone can relate to, but overextend those traits until they sound fantastic.
>They don't trust people who are slightly different from themselves, but are facinated by people who are very different. >They like to do the same few things everyday. Intterupting their rituals might make them violent (or at least grouchy). At a young age they take to certain ideals, present information that conflicts, and they wail like mandrakes. >They think they are the only good aligned group of people in the whole realm. Other groups of Mundanians think this about themselves as well, but not about each other. >They have short names, and refer to each other by yet shorter names. They can't be bothered with remembering such things. >Sure it's kind of cute how many colors they come in... just don't mix them together. >If you eat something in one village that's good, don't expect the next to know, like, or even repect the recipe. It would be best if you never mention food of one village to the next, especially if they cook something entirely different that they call the same thing. I don't really understand this one myself.
Ethan Wilson
>Sahelanthropus and Neanderthal went extinct because homo Sapiens was good enough to invade their habitat and one way or another thrive better than them Sahelanthropus existing alongside Homo sapiens? What?
Liam Rivera
>Sahelanthropus and Neanderthal went extinct because homo Sapiens was good enough to invade their habitat and one way or another thrive better than them. If anything I'd think this makes the comparison more apt, since most fantasy races are generally depicted as being "older" and/or "in decline" compared to humans. Not ideal for every setting, of course, but if it ain't broke, etc.
Lincoln Brooks
>all your players are playing non-humans. Furry fest. Yiff in hell.
