Have you run or played a all human game?

[Sir cryosin]

The thought came across my mind about running a all human game. What I thought about doing is just reskining the races as different, ethnic groups of humans then sub races are different clans.

What are ya'll thoughts, opinions and experiences with this.

[mephnick]

I'd say it would be fine. 90% of the groups I've played with or ran for you couldn't tell the difference between an elf character or human character anyway, unless I specifically called it out as a DM. Players don't act different so you might as well just all be humans. I that case I'd ignore subraces (since the races will now be your subrace) and give everyone the relevant fixed +2 and a floating +1 to put anywhere.

[DarkKnightJin]

The game I'm currently in has 4 human characters.. and 1 human looking Dragonborn.

It's a homebrew Half-Dragon. Mostly since I wasn't aware there was a Half-Dragon template already.

Still, our party of 5 'humans' is pretty versatile so far.

Can't wait to see what the DM's gonna toss at us over thr course of the campaign. We just started last Sunday.

[KorvinStarmast]

Have you run or played a all human game? Yes.

It only lasted 9 sessions since the group broke up due to time and RL issues, but it was a heck of a lot faster play than the other games. We had 5 people
1 Warlock
1 Barbarian
1 Rogue
1 Paladin
1 War Cleric
(We all chose to go Vhuman as a group. This was unusual, since the previous time we'd gotten a group together the ones who played human all took the +1 to all stats.) My Ranger was of course an archer ... Sharpshooter is a neat feat.

The Warlock took the AB and the devil's invocation at 2d level, but we only now and again got any benefit from that with his sneaking about and scouting. We used light cantrips on various equipment to provide light. We didn't surprise many enemies underground, needless to say.

Enjoyed the heck out of it. Wish it had not broken up. Our Warlock player was a very clever guy. (GOO). Our rogue player was a gal with remarkable luck with the dice. I think it would have gone well since the five of us have known each other for some years, but there ya go: RL happens.

[Byke]

Yes.

It only lasted 9 sessions since the group broke up due to time and RL issues, but it was a heck of a lot faster play than the other games. We had 5 people
1 Warlock
1 Barbarian
1 Rogue
1 Paladin
1 War Cleric
(We all chose to go Vhuman as a group. This was unusual, since the previous time we'd gotten a group together the ones who played human all took the +1 to all stats.) My Ranger was of course an archer ... Sharpshooter is a neat feat.

The Warlock took the AB and the devil's invocation at 2d level, but we only now and again got any benefit from that with his sneaking about and scouting. We used light cantrips on various equipment to provide light. We didn't surprise many enemies underground, needless to say.

Enjoyed the heck out of it. Wish it had not broken up. Our Warlock player was a very clever guy. (GOO). Our rogue player was a gal with remarkable luck with the dice. I think it would have gone well since the five of us have known each other for some years, but there ya go: RL happens.

*sigh* I wish I'm usually the only human player in my group....it's always 2 halflings, 1 half-elf and half-orc/dwarf.

[Sigreid]

Nope. Everyone I play with does their own thing.

[mephnick]

*sigh* I wish I'm usually the only human player in my group....it's always 2 halflings, 1 half-elf and half-orc/dwarf.

I usually have at least 2-3 half elves because they're completely unbalanced. I might ban them...

[KorvinStarmast]

I usually have at least 2-3 half elves because they're completely unbalanced. They are a feature, not a bug. I disagree with this "unbalanced" term. (See Mountain Dwarf, see free cantrips for high elves, see class spells for Drow and Tiefling ...)

[Drayelock]

My own homebrewed world mostly comprises of humans and so everybody in my group is a human. It is about as low fantasy as you can get in DnD. While Elves and Dwarves do exist they are fairly rare and stick to their own kind, wary of outsiders (especially humans). So some adventures may take place in Dwarf-dominated cities but it has far less a cosmopolitan feel than a xenophobic one which I find fun at the table though certainly not everyone would!

For those games not in my world I have never been in an all-human group, just a majority-human one.

I think running an all-human group can certainly be fun and allow you to focus on the strangeness of monsters or other sentient races. Orcs seem less monstrous and alien when you have a Dragonborn and Tiefling in your party. If you've already accepted dragon-people and devil-people, why not bestial raiders?

This is not to say the trope of Humans, Elves, Dwarves is not fun either, it just allows you to put an emphasis on something else.

[Tanarii]

Yup. Including all standard humans. Also games with a token non-human, such as one elf.

[Findulidas]

Nope. It can also be a major hassle if you get such blantant racism between humans themselves and somebody gets upset.

[Waterdeep Merch]

I'm gearing up for one. There's a single exception in the party, but at the start of the story even she doesn't know she's half-elven.

The entire party's going to be fighters with a single exception, too (a rogue, different player than the half-elf).

I think what's important is to have a good reason for narrowing player options, especially considering the context it gives the story and gameplay. I'm dealing almost exclusively with fighters because it's a game about chivalry and will involve knightly combat. Almost no one's allowed to be anything but human because fae and monsters are supposed to be alien and terrifying.

It's important to create your restrictions to reinforce the themes and gameplay of your campaign, not the other way around. Consider how different the themes and feel of an all-human game would be compared to a standard D&D game. Try bringing those into the foreground. The lack of options should feel like a feature, not a bug.