Humans are the "versatile and adaptible" race

This has always annoyed me, since in order for any other races to get anywhere near humans in capability, society, technology, etc. they would have to have exhibited those same traits. In reality, it's just a way to prop humans up higher, since if they didn't have some super special ambiguously powerful advantage, they would be in most cases, grossly underpowered.

>Humans are the "Five fingers" race

>yet another human rogue that is only in it for the money or human paladin that worships ideals or yet another drunkard dwarf warrior who just wants to fight
The fact that you can't think outside of stereotypes is telling.

I guess the problem is that since we are the "baseline sapient" of our own reality, it's hard to imagine ourselves not being the baseline of other realities.

Even those who play insectoids or something still base themselves on human ideas, if only to counter them.

If not that then what else would you suggest to at least even the playing field with other races?

Says the idiot who thinks unusual races can't be played because "hurr, you're just playing a human with a funny hat."

Humans are always granted great stats just so people will bother playing them. The majority of the time players will choose non humans even though humans are mechanically the best, simply because they find humans boring.

Personally, I don't think humans are any more boring than any other race, since after session one people don't roleplay their race anyways and in the end they might as well be humans with different stats. Plus, every interesting person in our history was a human, save for the lizard people that run our government.

>>Humans are the "versatile and adaptible" race
>the other races are even remotely comparable to humans
Yeah, okay, nah, we're done here. If the other races aren't inhuman, along the lines of telepathic hivemind rocks or sentient shapeshifting biomass, then what's the fucking point of having them in the first place?
Just so you can shoehorn your favorite not!human culture, like not!Prussia and not!Japan? Then use the fucking human instead, you nig-nogger.

Players who play gnomes should neck themselves.

That's... technically gay.

Really? I've always been under the impression that the vast majority of people will always gravitate towards humans/elves or other human-likes by default regardless of anything else due to being easier to roleplay and relate.

How would you play the bug person? Like what kind of personality, etc

>people don't roleplay their race
Unless I'm playing a maniac or outcast, I attempt to roleplay my character's culture and motivations more than race. You know, roleplaying the character instead of a Dwarf.

I think the point is that if the only way you can make a creative character is by playing some funny looking monster, than you aren't being creative

>The majority of the time players will choose non humans
Several MMOs prove you wrong though.

We aren't talking about MMOs, friend.

There are actual statistics on player choices for those, pal.

That doesn't make wow a ttrpg

>>Humans are the "versatile and adaptible" race
Op. I agree with... All of that? Part of that? Some of that?

What are you posting exactly? More context.

Not him, but loving father is a good one. See pic related, he takes his grubkid (look at the jar) with him on adventures in space while spreading the good word of Our Lady of Death.

I have a lot of fun playing races when they're actually biologically different from humans, which I imagine gives them a very different perspective on things. Like how would having dark vision affect what an elf is afraid of? Are they more or less cautious for it? How does enhanced scent or hearing affect their interactions with other races? I actually had a lot of fun playing a ratfolk in pathfinder that reacted to when characters were scared or angry because they couldn't hide their fear-scent.

So, what would you make human's gimmick instead of adaptable?

Tool users: They get a racial bonus to the creation and use of magic items. The Lore being an elf will spend a couple human lifetimes attempting to get a single human's lifetime level mastery of building a magic sword, but they also have longer to pump out more magic swords of that quality.

Yeah but everything except humans can see in the dark so the humans should constantly be cowering in fear of nighttime attacks.

Dunno, endurance it's a big one, we are probably the animal on this planet with the best endurance. We also heal well and we are very long lived. We are also very social, and conflict and conflict solving comes easy to us.

Yeah that sure matches up with +2 don'tdie or +2 hitharder.

What's wrong with humans being versatile?

That's basically our thing.

Specialization is for insects.

It's basically +2 Use Magic Item and +2 crafting in practice. Like how elves are supposed to be exceptionally graceful but that's just a low end dex bonus.

Conniving sneak-thiefs. In any diplomacy we're always trying to gain for ourselves and the concessions are only there to coerce an agreement. We lie to ourselves, our families, and complete strangers, sometimes without even realizing it because it's such a habit.

Other races would be more inclined to state their intentions plainly and make themselves known.

Think about it this way.

The more specialized a creature is for a climate, the less chance of surviving in a different climate it has.

Humans are really unspecialized because we are built for toolmaking and traveling. This makes it so that we can fit in in all but the most inhospitible climates.

We are inherently versatile.

Huh... How would humans even exist when all other races can see in the dark? Elves don't even need to sleep. In any conflict between any two races, humans lose, period.

Close, we are only beaten by camels and ostriches as far as endurance goes.

Not really. We typically outbreed them.

Even if they attack at the night we can meet their armies 2:1

Yeah but you wouldn't even be able to see an approaching army. They don't need light to travel by. Once they get to where you are, you don't have time to organize. Plus orcs probably out breed even humans. No wonder humans hate everyone else. They're the underdog.

Race should only be a part of your character. Whether you are a human, a catperson, a fire elemental, or anything inbetween.

If you remove the race and any associated conflict/issues/traits, and your character is not compelling or interesting on strength of his personality, goals, beliefs, motivations, etc., then you have failed and made a flat caricature and not a real character.

IN OTHER NEWS, I am generally pissed off at Human being the "all-around" race famed for its adaptability. Usually said adaptability is poorly represented as well, making humans mechanically bad. DND in particular is guilty of this in most editions.

We typically also have the magic advantage.

We can pump out 3 subpar magicians for every elf wizard.

And there's something to be said about our intelligence. It's probably is what keeps us from dying to orcs.

You just need torches and night watchmen

One horn blown and the armies up

Yeah, most fantasy settings don't even take into account how unlikely it is for humans to even exist at all, they are there because you know, gotta have humans. Despite there being a very high chance they would be outcompeted or rendered extinct before they even reach medieval level.

So basically, humans have to be adaptable or else die out to them other races. It's a fight for them to even survive.

Yea but in the land of cliche a human can be far more interesting than an elf.

Humans typically have pirates, priests, paladins, wizards and thousands of different fighters.

Elves are typically forest warriors.

Plus if your character is defined by something other than his hobbies, motives and occupation you've made a bad character end of story.

It's typically why we use other forces like Minotaur mercenaries or really strong human mages.

We know money, and love to use it.

>fighting elven sorceress.
>She says that its my species fate to die.
"The only fate i believe in is that of Mankinds prosperous future and dominance of the galaxy, one which needs not be tempted, only proven to scum like you!"

>humans are boring
>you should play as what is essentially a pallet-swapped human, who stands upright, has oppositely digits and 4 or so limbs, then it would be a totally different experience
Are you suggesting I play a limbless, floating head with telekinetic powers?

>every race is just "humans, but [blank]"
The height of laziness.

I like 3.5 more than PF, but i swear to God, every game i join theres always that ONE (or in some cases more) asshole that plays some weird race or a monster race.
We have this asshole in my group who played a fairy, and he killed 4 innocent people for no reason because it apparently made sense for his character to do so. Im telling you, non-human players need to be watched. Core races, not so much, but the weird and beast races ones? Red fucking alert mate.

>floating head
>human style of a head-centric identity
You should play a foot with a tentacle that dies if there isn't a large body of mercury within 2 miles and communicates with pulses of beta radiation.

Yes, the thing however is that often fantasy/sci-fi outright paints it as mankind's super special power that no other race has or understands. Even though the other races mere existence would also depend on having that trait to get where they are.

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT WHAT DO YOU AUTISTS WANT. IF WE MAKE HUMANS GOOD AT SOMETHING WE'RE HAVING A HFY WANKFEST, IF WE MAKE THEM MEDIOCRE ITS CLICHE. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO BE A USELESS PIECE OF SHIT DOESN'T MEAN ALL OF HUMANITY IS. STOP TRYING TO DRAG US DOWN TO YOUR LEVEL AND ACCEPT HUMANS ARE EITHER GOOD AT SOMETHING, OR AVERAGE

We'll the other races seem pretty biologically adapted to the environment.

What use do they have changing their ways or adapting if they are made for the place they live at?

Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

Why do other races even need gimmicks? Shouldn't the act of sapience be enough to set them apart?

Well, yeah. We only have the entirety of human experience to draw on to build understandable alien characters, so in a setting that wants communication and cooperation between species everything else is just going to be a differently specialized human.

Simply put, unless your race can do something humans can't do.

They don't need to exist.

I don't even allow half-orcs at my table.

My race can suck like, 29 dicks at once and no human has ever done that but OP

>I'd rather play with a bug person
You mean a human bug. Because all fantasy races are just humans in disguise.

Why not just play a human that takes his unborn son on a jar around? He could also go around spreading the word of the Reaper. In fact, it would be a much more interesting character since there is room to learn what made him this way instead of "that's just how bug people are lol so randumb"

>it's not randumb if a human does it
Remove yourself from the genepool, as well as any of your line that you may have already added to it.

Its not randumb if he has a good reason for it.

Its not randumb if there is a reason behind it you moron

Don't you understand? This is the beauty of it all.
There are no correct answers, only autism as far as you can imagine.

Can it carry a piece of mercury with it in a fannypack-type thing? How quickly does it die if it steps outside the mercury area of effect?

>Humans are the "favorite of the gods" race

Nah I'm my setting humans really don't have a god.

The person who made them was an old dude(some kind of god) called the outsider.

He then left.

The other races have gods.

It's cooperation, really. The most successful animals are the most cooperative (ants are the most successful animals, humans are probably second).

We literally are built to be adaptive

Tool-using+Long distance running goes a long way

why can't elves be cooperative among themselves? Or goblins?

Literally cooperatation is a half of it.

The other half is the tools and long distance running

But you did point out how close elves and goblins are to humans, further proving their unnecessarity

>Human
>Fighter

Goblins are crafty as well.

We have more than one strength, and all are important to our survival, but the reason we dominate the world is our social prowess.

They can be cooperative, but how they can be social and also different from humans is a very difficult problem. The real reason there are different races in fantasy games is "Tolkien did it" which is a bad reason, imo.

youtube.com/watch?v=0xbSHn4Fbu4

Then why even have them?

If they are basically rubber forehead humans, why have them?

There's a quest thing on one of the other boards that is delving into elven psychology and physiology.

The first part of their lives leaves them sapient but not sentient, and their brains are unformed. The elves who chose to do so train them in magic, elven socialization, and basic magis by rote, training them over and over and over again for about 70-90 years, hardwiring their social nature and the fighting skills and the basics of magical techniques into their brains. When they become adults, their brains are fully formed and ready to learn and think normally. It requires a group of elves to teach elves to be elves and once they are elves, they can do whatever they like with the rest of their lives, absolute freedom to chose.

So our first mission is to kill Tolkein. After Tolkein is dead we can save TTRPG?

For the same reason shitheads talk about (((globalists))) instead of just saying jew

How do you intend to measure success? If you're going by number of individuals it's probably some bacteria.

It should be a variety of things, but ants are clearly dominant if you really start looking into it. They account for 15-20% of all terrestrial animal biomass and have been around for over 70 million years. Unless you make bad criteria you'll arrive at ants.

Evolution favors rapid-breeding and short-living critters.

An outcast, tries to hide from humans, probably smarter than most humans, if in a sci-fi setting (which I think bug people would make the most sense in) he could be a scientist that turned himself into a bug man. If he was human before, the conflict of having a human body vs your new imperfect one a la Genji from Overwatch but a bit less cliche is always good. Just don't make his race his entire personality because nobody wants to group with Kanye West.

I personally think having other races that are mostly normal members of society though they face some struggles (and have some benefits) based on the physical aspect of being their race is also good.

It also favors my dick.

Yet hilariously several D&D settings have the various races have their own patron god, or gods even, and yet no god watches out for Humanity specifically.

Except Zarus

Doesn't really answer the question, because what is "favoring"?

Source? According to this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_(ecology) they are completely dwarved by earthworms and also some other groups. And if we look at time of existence sharks for example exist for 420 millions years. Though this all is highly arbitrary as it depends on how narrowly we define the groups. E.g. do we compare ants with sharks, insects with fish, insects with sharks etc.?

>because what is "favoring"?
in the context of evolution, continued survival of the species.

Actually, Iomedae in Starfinder has been promoted to that position.

Why that happened, since she LOST their home planet, is still up in the air.

Looking into biomass, it seems like it's all full of bullshit. The estimate for earthworm biomass (or maybe population?) in that page is from fucking Darwin. Of course you're right, it would be a subjective judgement.

So then we'd have to go by time of existence of the species as a measure, in which case fast breeders would be complete shit because faster breeding also means the faster evolution into different species. This is the core of the problem.The term "species" doesn't matter. What evolution selects upon is the phentoype expression of genes. Species is not a meaningfull construct for measuring success on an evolutionary scale because a gene that caries on in a new species is successful even if the species doesn't continue to exist. Of course you could say "ok then we take newly evolved species into account as well, e.g. if a species evolve sinto a new one we add the time of existance of the new species to the old ones" but then the answer is trivial: The first organism ever is the most succesfull one and all others can't be measured as the point in time at which we begin to measure be completely arbitrary.

Humans are the only race crazy enough to become fucking liches.

Uh, baelnorns.

“Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature), provided it can create the required phylactery.

>Humans are the strong race!
>Suddenly most races are limited to being weaker than humans
>Humans are the smart race!
>Suddenly most races are limited to being less smart than humans
>Humans have the most endurance!
>Suddenly most races have to take a break after climbing the stairs
etc.
People who complain about this shit are the exact same kind of pretentious assholes that use the word 'tropey'. Diplomancer or adaptable humans are ideal.

what is dracolich, nigguh