World Building, Are "humans" necessary?

[onetrikpony]

I've been musing on a setting (probably a low, dark fantasy setting) Where Humans don't exist as a race.

What I'm talking about is a world where all of the peoples have a racial template that modifies attributes, abilities and culture.

What are the Role/Narrative and Gaming implications of a setting where there is no 'baseline' race?

[Boomerang]

If there are human-like races that the players can relate to then I think the setting will be fine without humans.

[onetrikpony]

Thanks,
I think that's kind of my point. The traditional tolkein races are all pretty much humans from different cultures so I'm not sure why there are always Humans and Short/Tall/Pretty humans in most settings. This given that; in a fantasy setting the humans are also from a different culture from the players so why do they exist?

I only recently thought of this question and the answer that occured to me is; can you be be a "dwarf" (Short Human with +2 HT and darkvision), or an "elf" (Pretty human with +2 DX and a snotty attitude) if there is no "human" (No +Stats and no special vision abilities)?

Is it still interesting if everyone has pointy ears and everyone has some type of racial attribute bonus?

[Boomerang]

If you make your races interesting and also give a small point break (compared to the non existent humans) everyone should be happy regardless of whether they are more RP or tactically focused.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

Thanks,
I think that's kind of my point. The traditional tolkein races are all pretty much humans from different cultures so I'm not sure why there are always Humans and Short/Tall/Pretty humans in most settings. This given that; in a fantasy setting the humans are also from a different culture from the players so why do they exist?

...

Is it still interesting if everyone has pointy ears and everyone has some type of racial attribute bonus?

Just to play devil's advocate, the flip side of the same question is why have Humans and Short/Tall/Pretty humans when you can just have humans (some of whom will be short, tall, or pretty). Do pointy ears really add much of anything? I call it the mad libs race creation system: "Humans with [cosmetic feature] and +2 to [attribute], who universally share [attitude or philosophy]."

I've started to largely abandon that in favor of either human-only settings or settings with more radically different races. My current favored setting has humans, clockwork constructs, cat-folk based on humanoid civets, lizard-folk that are semi-humanoid at most, and (maybe, mind not made up) fae.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

I've been musing on a setting (probably a low, dark fantasy setting) Where Humans don't exist as a race.

What I'm talking about is a world where all of the peoples have a racial template that modifies attributes, abilities and culture.

What are the Role/Narrative and Gaming implications of a setting where there is no 'baseline' race?

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

Thanks,
I think that's kind of my point. The traditional tolkein races are all pretty much humans from different cultures so I'm not sure why there are always Humans and Short/Tall/Pretty humans in most settings. This given that; in a fantasy setting the humans are also from a different culture from the players so why do they exist?

I only recently thought of this question and the answer that occured to me is; can you be be a "dwarf" (Short Human with +2 HT and darkvision), or an "elf" (Pretty human with +2 DX and a snotty attitude) if there is no "human" (No +Stats and no special vision abilities)?

Is it still interesting if everyone has pointy ears and everyone has some type of racial attribute bonus?

One narrative and gaming implication is that you've got a lot more work to do as GM. With a "baseline human race" you usually have a "baseline human society" that serves as the general backdrop for the adventurers. You don't have to work out how that society works in great detail because they're human, like you. In the same way, you only need to work out one set of reactions to the "special snowflake" races - that of the humans.

With only the "special snowflake" races and the presumption that you're not going to pick a single race and use its society as the exclusive backdrop, you need to work out the societies for, at the least, the major "snowflake" races, say elves, dwarves and goblins, for example, and then you need to work out the reactions to all the other "special snowflakes" being played for each of those societies, and you need to have most of it figured out before you start the campaign in earnest. It's doable but I'm not sure the payoff is worth the effort.

[Whitestreak]

I wouldn't say that you need humans as such in a game, but you might need a base-line race.

A people whose typical ratings might be straight 10, to use GURPS as an example.

Other races might advantages/disadvantages as a racial norm, but that baseline would probably the predominate race on the planet.

[whswhs]

In my current fantasy campaign, there are seven humanoid races, one of which is called "humans." But that race aren't precisely *us*. They're more sexually dimorphic than we are, and more purely a Proud Warrior Race. And the baseline race are not humans, but nixies, who are 4' tall or thereabouts, amphibious, and river- or swamp-dwelling, but grow grain, drink beer, live in cities, and engage in trade. Note that I can't claim originality for this; it's a straight Tolkien trope!

[Bengt]

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

I've been musing on a setting (probably a low, dark fantasy setting) Where Humans don't exist as a race.

What I'm talking about is a world where all of the peoples have a racial template that modifies attributes, abilities and culture.

What are the Role/Narrative and Gaming implications of a setting where there is no 'baseline' race?

In quite a lot of games/settings the "humans" have racial bonuses, just like everyone else. So I don't see why a baseline race should be needed or required.

What is need is to have play options that appeal to your players, which perhaps, depending on their personalities, should include at least one that isn't too "other" in its description. I don't think the mechanics will matter to a lot of people as long as the narrative feel is right.

[simply Nathan]

IronClaw defines each player character species with different positive traits it has and different skills it excels in, with the same number of roughly equal-value traits between all species from mice through dragons. Humans aren't needed when there are numerous races available, all share most of the basic abilities humans would already have, and a bunch of the popular choices for animals humans tend to strongly identify with are available.

I sometimes wonder if I should bother having humans in my settings since I don't even care for them in real life.