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| Lucas Graciano "Man the mortal; master of horses..." what a crock |
This is patently ridiculous.
- Elves are good at magic. That’s why human spell-books and prayers are written in elven.
- Dwarves are good at making stuff. That’s why human artifacts are dwarvencraft hand-me-downs.
- Orcs are good at fighting. That’s why most human wars are fought by orcish mercenaries.
Humans aren’t good at anything. We aren’t “good at endurance” or “versatile” or “plucky” or any of that horseshit. Humans are the weakest, shittiest fantasy race.
Let’s embrace that.
Human "Perks"
To clarify, we aren’t the MOST pathetic species to stand on two legs. We just don’t measure up to other fantasy races at all.
A large part of this is due to the fact that all of our unique strengths as a species (intelligence, language, social structure) are assumed to be the default for sentient fantasy races. If we took those traits away from elves or orcs, we wouldn’t recognize them as beings capable of interacting peacefully with human society.
That isn’t to say that being human is without upsides. Consider how most D&D campaigns take place in or adjacent to a mostly-human society; our home turf! The unique advantage of being human is that you are NOT another race—elf, dwarf, etc—in a cultural context where being “the other” can be dangerous.
This secret racial perk goes unexplored in most editions of D&D, perhaps because the casual ttrpg crowd doesn’t want to drag fantasy racism into their campaign. (Unless you choose to be a tiefling, half-orc, or similarly “dark” race.)
At the very least, it feels weird to write it out as a mechanical tradeoff: “okay, you can choose between darkvision and a cast-iron stomach, or immunity to racial discrimination”
So What?
If being human is an option in your games, don’t give them mechanical bonuses for being human. Use them for speedy character creation and nothing else.
If, as a player, you want a mechanical bonus for your species, then don’t be a human. (Their bonuses range from boring to min/max anyway. Might as well ignore them)
Better yet, no bonuses for race at all. Screw weapon proficiencies, darkvision, and the horse they rode in on; you’re just people on an adventure, some of whom happen to have bad accents. I feel like 5e is moving in this direction after Tasha’s (even if they wussed out of making it the default) and its a much more freeing space to play pretend in.
“But that’s unbalanced! Nobody will want to play as a human without incentive!”
Fine. Play an international coalition of fae pirates. Or assemble a gonzo fantasy Oceans 11. Or re-enact the Hobbit.
Or just play a human anyway, because you want to.
Everyone loves an underdog.
I feel more and more drawn towards "your species is mostly for appearance". There are some snazzy abilities, but I feel if they were rolled into backgrounds or something I'd prefer that. I know that kind of thing is everywhere, but one I saw and liked was Prismatic Wasteland's "anti-canon ancestries".
ReplyDeleteSide note, I've been employing a bunch of your 5e house rules in my game, I have the page bookmarked for reference in game. The blog is super inspiring, so many thanks!
You absolutely made my day just now! I have seen some stuff floating around about separating race from ancestry/culture and folding the latter into background, which seems like a fair approach; I'm just too lazy to write all that out :P
DeleteBy the way, I love your dungeon-making series. Keep up the good work :) I'd also love to know how some of the wilder house rules are treating your group, if you have a play report to share.
The dungeon making has been rather scatter brained, hope you gleaned something from it x)
DeleteI don't have a play report for the game. The ones I've used the most so far are the diceless advantage (though it hasn't come up much) and rolling group checks. My players aren't too bad with skill dogpiling, but there were a couple of times your way stopped everyone and the retainers (8 characters in total) from rolling perception or investigation checks.
The crit fails I've started using too, for players and monsters. I like the dynamic and unpredictable feel it brings, without worrying about reactions or abilities. Counter attack or leap out of the way because it's cool, not because your sheet says so.
I was considering using your initiative, but we use group initiative and I try not to hack apart the rules too often to avoid rebellions. And hit dice might be on the chopping block or some form or another.
Oh and I got rid of moving through allies being difficult terrain. And then later got rid of using grids completely in favour of zones. I love wargaming, feel like it bogs down rpgs a little though.
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