Our humans are different.

[the_david]

I didn't want to hijack the Alternate Creature Interpretations thread, so I made a new thread. Here's a quick excerpt:

I once considered turning goblinoids, orcs and even some giants into one species. The differences between members of the same race would be explained by random mutations as they'd mutate more quickly or frequently than other races. Members of the same tribe are likely to share some mutations, like size. Some mutations appear less frequent, like having an extra head. (Ettins.)
The twist is that humans are members of the same species. They are the product of a breeding experiment which got rid of most of the chaotic mutations.

That is probably the best way to integrate humans into a fantasy setting where they aren't just "default" I have ever seen.

I had a campaign where each generation of giants became smaller, less magical and shorter lived than the last. The reason humans don't habe a creator god is they are the descendants of this chain, which also slows in effect with each generation.

The reason heroes from ancient times were depicted as stronger and more magical is because they were, going all the way back to the Titan ancestors.

I was wondering if there are any other ways to make humans more interesting.

And to be honest, I like Tvtyrant's idea a lot better than mine.

[Trask]

I draw on a lot of historical sources for worldbuilding, and I basically made humans closely resemble the Indo-European Aryanic peoples of the Neolithic. They exemplify a lot of what we think of for humans in d&d, chivalric and strong, with a propensity for spreading out far and wide and being very prolific. Also many godly archetypes of d&d are based on the Indo-European divine archetypes. Germanic, Norse, Celtic, Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian gods and goddesses are all part of the greater Indo-European pantheon.

So in game terms I make my humans adept with horses and boats, really pushing their innate drive to explore. They believe in divinities that express themselves through natural events or concepts, and they are definitely inclined towards conquest but also they have a propensity to adopt the cultures of those they conquer.

In my world, halfling represent a sort of neolithic farmer equivalent to the aryanic humans. The indo european tales from the european settlers of those people have a common mythological story about short, dark, mysterious and magical peoples who were driven off the land. These are the peoples who erected mighty stonehenge and other megalithic structures, and so the halflings fill that role as a mostly agrarian, sedentary people conquered by horse riding humans who pour over the borders.

Eventually of course humans and halflings develop a sort of accord and hash out a codependent society, which is honestly pretty close to how i imagine halflings and humans exist in your standard d&d setting anyways.

To me humans are the proto adventurers of the setting, an innate desire to travel, conquer, and find glory sends humans far and wide and adopting all sorts of trades, but leaves them with the weakness of losing themselves to a foreign culture or going too far in their quest for power.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I've said this before, but my humans are artificial. Created by high elves (masters of the arcane) out of hobgoblins (which themselves are really goblins infused with a tribe's energy) by combining elven soul fragments with the (sterile, unstable) hobgoblins in order to produce a race of fast-breeding "goblins" without some of the limitations. It worked.

In response (or simultaneously, no one's quite sure), the wood elves created orcs in much the same way, except by overlaying animal (especially porcine) souls into people (forcibly transforming them).

All of this happened several thousand years ago and so only Leviathan (who remembers everything) remembers any of the details.

Humans, as artificial constructs on a mutable base, serve as the base species for most of the "human-adjacent" creatures except elves and dwarves. All the "anthropomorphic animal" races, all the plane-touched (genasi, aasimar, tieflings), and especially the dragonborn. It's also why humans, orcs, and elves are interfertile. They share fragments of the same souls.

Now, humans are the ones that discovered/developed theurgy. Without the natural arcane talent of the high elves or the natural shamanistic talent of the wood elves (and without the runic expertise of the dwarves), they needed a power source. So they (in much the same way as wizardry and shamanism were "enabled", using an ancient artifact that alters reality in exchange for a mortal existence) wished that the gods would answer prayers.

As a result, humans are known as "the devout ones" and have the most-well-developed divine magic. Dwarves make great theologians, but they're too apt to argue the fine points. Elves are too snobbish, and orcs inherited more of the shamanistic bent. So humans (and halflings) are the ones that devote themselves to the gods and receive power from it.

[lunaticfringe]

In the world I'm working on now Humans are a hybridization of Orcs & Elves bred as slaves & food by the Aberration Overlords (don't have a name for them yet). Elves & Orcs were their nastiest opponents and neither species were ideal slave stock. Initially Humans were to be a soldier unit but the first generations lacked the aggression of their progenitor species (the failed bred for war bit is basically the story of the Saarloos Wolfhound). They did respond well to commands and were quite tasty so they got put into production.

(This is all in the analog of this world's classical era, Humanity is quite adept at violence in the current age)

Basically I wanted an explanation for why humans can breed with Orcs & Elves easily and why the Half Races can create stable populations.

Natural Orc/Elf hybrids require an Orc Mother & Elf Father, are sterile, and are plagued by health problems so there is no real stable population of them. The Aberrations had to do a bit of tinkering to get the mix right.

[Bohandas]

The "humans" are actually about 70% human, 30% miscellaneous. And the 30% miscellaneous is where the bonus feat and bonus skill points come from

[Lacuna Caster]

I was wondering if there are any other ways to make humans more interesting.

Well, I had some rough ideas for a sci-fi setting where humans are not the 'default', based on what seems to make us distinctive within earth's ecology- Sexual Dimorph, Arboreal Origins, Human See Human Do. So humans are the "nimble and dextrous" species who are good at copying ideas and technologies but vulnerable to contagious memes and tribalism, with a mild degree of gender specialisation for combat/diplomacy and tension between polyamory and pair-bonding. As opposed to, say, species that are naturally solitary, evolved from some xeno elephant-critter, or are naturally hermaphroditic/clonal.

[Lacuna Caster]

So, uh, that bad, huh?

Well, if we're getting into sci-fi territory, there's always the radical gene-modification option where humans adapt to a bunch of off-planet environments by growing gills or gliding membranes or CO2/perchlorate tolerance, et cetera. So all the kooky green bug-eyed creatures from mars are just heavily adapted human populations.

[Max_Killjoy]

Nope, not at bad at all.

Anything that defies or breaks two of the most worn-out and useless notions in speculative fiction is starting off on the right foot with me.

Those notions are:
* that humans are the median or default, and all other intelligent species are defined at least in part by how they're different from humans.
* that non-human intelligent species in fiction exist for a specific narrative purpose, to explore some specific aspect or exaggeration of "humanity".

[jqavins]

The physical and game-mechanical characteristics of humans, orcs, elves, halflings, and dwarves are basically the same as in the standard D&D rules, except that humans don't have the bonus feat and other compensations for being too plain. The basic "racial personalities" and roles in the world filled by orcs, elves, halflings, and dwarves are also similar: orcs are conquerers, dwarves are miners and builders, elves are insular and magical, and halflings are pastoral. (None of these characterizations is absolute; not all farming is done by halflings, not all fighting is done by orcs, and so on. But the finest construction is done by dwarves and many dwarves trade their services for what the other races do better than they. And likewise with the others.)

All of these four races keep and use human slaves. Escaped slaves occasionally form groups for mutual defense against recapture, occasionally hiding and fighting off slavers long enough to form tribes, but these rarely last more than a generation or two before being (re)captured. Wild humans are all but extinct; when captured they may be tamed or broken into new slaves, and individuals that can't be are either killed outright or kept as caged breeding stock.

Halfbreeds arise as one would imagine, elves and orcs having the greatest ability to make them for reasons that nobody understands (and nobody cares). These are are reviled by the superior races, some disposed of at birth, others made slaves like their slave parents. They are likewise looked down on by the more "civilized" slave humans, i.e. those that fully accept their station. No one loves a halfbreed except, maybe, its slave parent (who is almost always its mother).

[Jackaccount]

Humans are nothing but especially fleshy constructs, the product of a joint attempt by the elder races to bolster their falling populations. This explains both humanity's unnatural fecundity across species lines, as well as their uncanny resemblance to most other sentient species. The creation of a human is met with the slaying of a lesser creature, as their artificial origins bestows souls that must be bolstered lest the child perish.

[Paleomancer]

And to be honest, I like Tvtyrant's idea a lot better than mine.

Interestingly, that's more or less how World of Warcraft claims Azerothian humans came into being, was as small, weak, fleshy versions of frost giant-like beings. The Curse of Flesh, I believe. The other interesting one is hat Elves were all once Trolls mutated by exposure to intense magic, which makes the whole Troll-Elf conflict in Wow quite interesting and disturbing all at once.

Possibility: Humans are actually the unwitting harbingers of a deadly extraplanar force of eldritch star horrors. Canonically in D&D, humans multiply quickly, they are considered inordinately tasty by a variety of monsters and undead, they can interbreed with almost as many things as can dragons, they have a weird way of insinuating and adapting themselves to a wide range of environments, and they are disproportionately prone to being religious zealots/power-mad mages/deranged cultists, as compared to other sapient species. It seems evident that humans are bio-artificial beings used as scouts and data collectors by unknown horrors, who then become vessels for far more terrible beings that masquerade as "wizards," "clerics," "rogues," "clerics," the ever-dreaded "bards," and other so-called "adventurers" to harvest and feed upon pain and suffering in their quest to assimilate this new realm .

[MercuryAlloy]

In my world main natives for Limbo are proteans with wide set of shapes each. The most powerful of them who called unthinkable could turn into literally everything, including spell, whole plane of existence, illusion, dream and anything that could or couldn't exist.

So all humankind, their thoughts and souls are just one of unthinkable proteans, who think that this form is funny and good to hide from Bad Big Lawful Primus and his mordrons, who try to find him and wipe out of reality once every 17 years.

It is the Fifth and forgotten protean.
Other three include First and sealed, Second and destroyed and Forth and sleeping.

[Xania]

Mine are boring, and like so many others already did, they are also created, by gnomes in this case.
There are something like the yahoos from Gulliver's Travels that could be what gnomes used as a base or they could be humans that evolved backwards, just like the originals, humans don't like neither of both options anyway.

[the_david]

In my world main natives for Limbo are proteans with wide set of shapes each. The most powerful of them who called unthinkable could turn into literally everything, including spell, whole plane of existence, illusion, dream and anything that could or couldn't exist.

So all humankind, their thoughts and souls are just one of unthinkable proteans, who think that this form is funny and good to hide from Bad Big Lawful Primus and his mordrons, who try to find him and wipe out of reality once every 17 years.

It is the Fifth and forgotten protean.
Other three include First and sealed, Second and destroyed and Forth and sleeping.

Okay, you win. That's not just a great origin for humans, it's also a great setup for a campaign.

[MercuryAlloy]

Okay, you win. That's not just a great origin for humans, it's also a great setup for a campaign.

Thank you)

[Bohandas]

In my world main natives for Limbo are proteans with wide set of shapes each. The most powerful of them who called unthinkable could turn into literally everything, including spell, whole plane of existence, illusion, dream and anything that could or couldn't exist.

So all humankind, their thoughts and souls are just one of unthinkable proteans, who think that this form is funny and good to hide from Bad Big Lawful Primus and his mordrons, who try to find him and wipe out of reality once every 17 years.

It is the Fifth and forgotten protean.
Other three include First and sealed, Second and destroyed and Forth and sleeping.

what about #3?

[MercuryAlloy]

what about #3?

There is no #3. It don't need to exist. It is a chaos.

[jqavins]

Huh? I suppose that means something to you. And I suppose that's what matters.

If it's don't exist, then how is it third? If "chaos" being an countable noun then is anything real? Mongor not understand.

[MercuryAlloy]

Huh? I suppose that means something to you. And I suppose that's what matters.

If it's don't exist, then how is it third? If "chaos" being an countable noun then is anything real? Mongor not understand.

In my word existence of 5th is unknown for most being including characters. For them exist only 1st (who is imprisoned), 2nd (who is dead) and 4th (who is slept).
The absence of 3rd number in a row should to suggest that there is one more unthinkable protean. But because you have lots of spells and power that can give you answer searching of 3rd becomes easy and even raises question why no one try to use augury or commune and ask "Did #3 exist?". But if Forgotten protean has number 5, the answer "there is no 3rd" is absolute true and on the other hand players still know that something here is unclear. So their numbers is a kind of joke.

If you don't satisfied with this answer, you can say, that #3 turns into oblivion about himself and even may forgot about his own existence or maybe #3 is simply more transcendental than anyone can imagine and he is in a shape of all chaos of the word or shape of Far realm. You also can said that #3 is a protean who don't exist yet, but as was said by seers some strong soul of chaos will became the unthinkable protean, replace 2nd and it is the last event in the future anybody can see. Or just imagine your own story for 3rd.

I also sorry for countable chaos, English isn't my native.

[ahyangyi]

I'm not sure whether the complete lack of human fits this question.

The setting is MtG's Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.

The central and ubiquitous race of the setting is elves, with kithkin (read: gnomes), boggarts (read: goblins), merrow (read: merfolks), flamekin (read: fire genasi) and giants filling the mana colors and forming the "core races".

In Lorwyn, elves are sort of lawful evil in an otherwise idyllic (read: chaotic good) world, while in Shadowmoor, the alignments kinds of reverse, with elves being the more heroic faction.

Anyway, it turns out that you can get a fairly normal kitchen sink fantasy setting with every morality and sword and different flavors of magic in, but also with something other than humans in the center.

[Eldan]

I'm tempted to someday run something that steals a bit from Dresden Files (and a bit of Tolkien), but even more exaggerated: humans are spiritually unique.

Meaning that they are the only mortal creature.
Humans have souls, that move on after they die. All other creatures either vanish or have some kind of reincarnation/reformation.
Humans can break even the most solemn vow casually, without losing their power, or being immediately struck dead by whatever they swore by. Scary stuff. Some humans even lie.
Humans enter homes uninvited.
Humans don't have a defined fate or nature. They can just change.

[Nifft]

Humans don't have a defined fate or nature. They can just change.

... and all other races descended from former humans who changed into mythical archetypes?

[Eldan]

Might be. Or there just aren't any.

But yeah, I've had elves as changelings before. Fey spirits implanted into human bodies.

[Sizzlefoot]

Possibility: Humans are actually the unwitting harbingers of a deadly extraplanar force of eldritch star horrors. Canonically in D&D, humans multiply quickly, they are considered inordinately tasty by a variety of monsters and undead, they can interbreed with almost as many things as can dragons, they have a weird way of insinuating and adapting themselves to a wide range of environments, and they are disproportionately prone to being religious zealots/power-mad mages/deranged cultists, as compared to other sapient species. It seems evident that humans are bio-artificial beings used as scouts and data collectors by unknown horrors, who then become vessels for far more terrible beings that masquerade as "wizards," "clerics," "rogues," "clerics," the ever-dreaded "bards," and other so-called "adventurers" to harvest and feed upon pain and suffering in their quest to assimilate this new realm .

Did you mean to include "clerics" twice, or was that a typo?

EDIT: I suppose I should include my take on humans, too, just to contribute. My humans are the "elder" race. They are a median by which other races are measured, but only because the other races were created from human soulstuff. Merfolk were made by the sea god by mixing the souls of his beloved children with those of humans; the goddess of war created orcs from humans imbued with battle-lust; elves are humans magically bound to fey spirits, etc.

[Tornadofyr]

In my setting, Humans have only been in the world for 50 years. Before then, they were Vikings from a version of Earth with active gods and magic. The Human gods have no names, but are clearly the norse gods. Thor is called Thunder, Loki is Trickery, Odin is Old Man Wisdom

[jqavins]

Did you mean to include "clerics" twice, or was that a typo?

EDIT: I suppose I should include my take on humans, too, just to contribute. My humans are the "elder" race. They are a median by which other races are measured, but only because the other races were created from human soulstuff. Merfolk were made by the sea god by mixing the souls of his beloved children with those of humans; the goddess of war created orcs from humans imbued with battle-lust; elves are humans magically bound to fey spirits, etc.

Similar to mine above, except for those few I say are different homonid species. Merfolk would be a great example of my "fey touched".

In my setting, Humans have only been in the world for 50 years. Before then, they were Vikings from a version of Earth with active gods and magic. The Human gods have no names, but are clearly the norse gods. Thor is called Thunder, Loki is Trickery, Odin is Old Man Wisdom

Old Man Wisdom, that Old Man Wisdom.
He must know sumthin' but he don't say nuthin'.
That Old Man Wisdom, he just keeps wandrin' along.

[Aniikinis]

In most settings where I have humans*, I have them be the "almost uncivilized race". But when I do have them, they're usually the race that the other "civilized" races view with disdain but with some respect along the vein of: If they weren't so good at building cities and coordinating massive wars, they'd be no better than those damn dirty orcs. They're also genetic cousins of orcs and the races of goblinoids, being the jack of all trades, master of none of that side of the genetic tree without having the goblinoid subtype from a long time of genetic drift and magic-based interbreeding with elves, gnomes, halflings, and dwarves. As well as some secretive eugenic campaigns from the elves and dwarves.


*I much prefer monstrous races and will gladly switch out humans for another barely-civilized race. EX: Gnolls, Lizardfolk of the tribal variety, lamia (both types), Lupin, etc.

[raygun goth]

Humans are pretty interesting already. Haven't yet found the moment where I've had to put nonhumans in anything other than a player wanting to play a different species, which I don't see very often.

Though. In my main setting, humans are the most magically powerful, most enduring of the sophont species. They can outrun, outlast, and out-cast just about anything else. But this is the same setting that has a sentient language, demon space fungus viruses, man-sized rotifers, and culture-powered shadow monsters as potential options.

[Excession]

Halflings don't have cities, they wouldn't spend that long in one place. They sail, ride, or walk forever, always going somewhere new. Or running from something.

Dwarfs don't have cities, the mines, forges, and greenhouses can only support so many, and the seam will run out in a decade anyway.

Elves don't have cities, they'd go all hive-mind again and punch another hole in reality. Look at what happened to the Feywild.

Humans though, they have cities. Huge sticking piles of humanity, all living in each other pockets, yet barely acknowledging each others' existence. Thousands upon uncountable thousands of them, yet each one only really knows a handful of others. And somehow this all works, they build, they breed, they spread like wildfire. It's probably the Gods' fault, somehow.

[Knaight]

Humans are no different than they ever were - it's the context around them that changed, where the things that make humans special when compared to other real world animals are allowed to remain a bit more intact.

Humans are smart. The various long lived races are able to keep up with humans due to experience, but only barely and the moment they're in a genuinely new situation humans are just categorically better. Humans have truly impressive endurance, one of few species able to run for hours and the only humanoid remotely capable of it. Pursuit hunting isn't much practiced anymore, but humans at least can do it, fairly uniquely. Humans are almost alone in being able to throw well, and handle projectiles. They can both modulate a tension weapon and throw things; orcs can throw but can't use a bow or similar, elves can use a bow or similar but can't throw, dwarves can do neither. Humans heal well, capable of recovering from broken bones and other severe trauma, even without healing magic.

Humans are also the one species involved in pushing back against technological stasis, inventing new tools and learning to use them, spreading them around, slowed mostly by the resistance to change put forth by the rest of the humanoids.