Why must humans rule?

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

First came up with it because' date=' in furry fandom (yes, I'm one of *those* guys!) whenever you see the nohumans and humans together[/quote']

 

That's funny, because one of the first responses I thought of for this thread was to point out that in some setings like Usagi Yojimbo or Ironclaw, humans aren't in charge because there aren't any humans. Well, either that or everyone is human, depending on broadly you define "human". But I figured that anthropomorphic animals were not what people were actually talking about when they mentioned nonhuman races, so I didn't say anything.

 

I'd love to play in an Ironclaw style pbem game using either Fantasy Hero or d20 as the game system, but people into furries tend to prefer either free-form gaming (which just seems self-indulgent to me -- it's not really a role-playing game anymore), or straight-out smut (not my cup of tea), so I've not yet had the opportunity.

[GamePhil]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

In my experience with fantasy games, the humans are almost never in charge. They are in the majority, and perhaps are in charge of certain countries, but the Elves are older and wiser and blah blah blah, and the Dwarves build better and rule under the earth. Frequently other races do as well.

 

I actually ran a D&D game (this was in the not-fondly-remembered days when I couldn't get people to play Hero) in which the Elves were very much in charge, frankly because they were dinks. Basically, they behaved as if they owned the world and no one else was important. If they were not obeyed implicitely, they would do horrible things to those daring to disobey. They thought they were the best and the brightest and the wisest and that the world was in all ways their oyester.

 

In other words, they behaved like at least 50% of the PC elves I have ever seen. Bleh.

 

The PC's for the game, of course, opposed the hierarchy. It was quite cathartic.

[gewing]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Tall thin, stronger than any human, naturally sorcerors, and long-lived.

 

I keep wishing there was a worldbook for that.

 

In Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos and Khaavren novels, the Dragaerans (the people who run everything) are basically elves (tall, thin, extremely long-lived, some have pointed ears, etc.).

 

(OK it's fiction, not a game setting. But it has its earliest roots at the gaming table.)

[gewing]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Remember Matt's assinine elf? "tic toc, tic toc"....

 

for everyone else, the culture of the empire celebrated everyone's birthday iirc on the "new Year's day" The elf would come out of his dwelling and keep saying "tic toc, Tic toc" to the short lived humans.

 

The advantage to running a human-centric campaign is' date=' as was mentioned, that the players are human themselves. Certain non-human races are easy enough to play, given that they are really just humans with a few quirks and a slightly different cultural outlook. Playing an extremely non-human character becomes very difficult to carry off, though, if it can be done at all. A halfling, or a dwarf, or a [i']very young[/i] elf, sure. But a 6000 year old elf? Not likely. The whole "how do they live that long if they take risks" thing comes up, as well as the "how come they are only 100 points -just like the human in the party- if they've been doing this kind of thing for several millenia?" Even if they only go on an adventure only once every decade or two, and only earn an exp or two each time they do, they'd still be well over 500 point characters by the time they were that old

 

In my campaign world, I have limited the power of the elves by killing most of them in the back history, giving them a very low reproductive rate, and decreeing that the urge to seek adventure among them is just a phase that the young ones go through. Why the older, possibly thousand (or several thousand) point ones dont throw their weight around in the world is something that they know, but that I (even as GM) dont need to.

[Outsider]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Remember Matt's assinine elf? "tic toc, tic toc"....

 

for everyone else, the culture of the empire celebrated everyone's birthday iirc on the "new Year's day" The elf would come out of his dwelling and keep saying "tic toc, Tic toc" to the short lived humans.

 

 

Yeah, I remember him. Hardly the image of wisdom and lore usually associated with elves. Not a bad imitation of a certain brand of teenager, though.

 

His arrogance/overconfidence ended up getting him killed too, as I recall. He might have lived if he had friends around to distract the proto-dragon.

[Dog Soldier]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

I once tried to set up a campaign in which hyper-intelligent Wolves with psionics domesticated tool making pre-humans and bred them for various task the way humans bred dogs. It was to be a symbiotic relationship as Wolfkind lacked opposible thumbs though they were the Masters. It never got to far, couldn't get player interest up.

[gewing]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

yeah, using his boots of super speed to run at it so he was 50" or more ahead of us was... not wise. Poor proto dragon. Biting into the nice tender juicy elf and also getting the explosion potions he was carrying... Big John still had a fragment of the elf in his freezer so if he found the grail...

 

 

But the same elf was the one who saved our asses against the doppleganger that ripped John's arms and legs off...

 

 

Realistically your world was humans and the remains of the dwarves trying to keep the Bales from ruling the world. I still twitch when I think about some of the undead and some of the Bale's particular "quirks"

 

 

Yeah, I remember him. Hardly the image of wisdom and lore usually associated with elves. Not a bad imitation of a certain brand of teenager, though.

 

His arrogance/overconfidence ended up getting him killed too, as I recall. He might have lived if he had friends around to distract the proto-dragon.

[Outsider]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Ushay on the alesbay! That was pure theft from another game system's sourcebook

[gewing]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

You Know, I completely forgot about them. Good thing they weren't really that much like yours.

 

I played with writing John up under 5th Edition, I can't remember whether he can really match his starting easily.

 

Did you notice that the modifiers for increased size are VERY similar to your Fantasy Growth?

 

I think if I were to make John now, I might only give him a 15-18 dex, not the 20 I did originally.

 

 

 

Ushay on the alesbay! That was pure theft from another game system's sourcebook

[Outsider]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Yeah, I MUCH prefer the new system of just buying the appropriate stats to represent an oversize being, then taking a character limitation to reflect the downside of being so large.

[Spence]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

This strikes me as strange. I was working on a FH campaign were there were no non-humans at all. At least in the beginning. The overview had the kingdom embroiled in a distant war, similer to the Crusades. The majority of the Fighting Nobility and their retainers/armies are gone. The PC's are among those left behind to patrol the borders and maintain the peace. Of course being the PC's they get sent to BFE out on the border marches and it just so happens "things" are stirring across the river.

 

I had done something along this idea years ago with old D&D. Everyone had made their characters (humans all) and understood there was no magic. The Cleric was a Holy Warrior with prayers, but nothing would actually happen. We played for several sessions (very successful ones) against mundane threats and then I threw a few newly risen undead. The magic was returing you see. The Cleric's player had developed a very extensive and thought out repartee based on his "god" which he had gotten used to using as we played. Imagine his surprise when he invoked his god, and got an answer.

 

I was a great game. The players really didn't have any idea of what was around the corner. There was no "thats a 5HD Thingamagig, but my PC wouldn't know that so I won't buy up a lot of garlic" type playing. Instead they really were playing in the dark.

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

[it] was a great game. The players really didn't have any idea of what was around the corner.

 

It sounds like a fantastic game. I ran something along that line once, a number of years ago. The unfortunate thing is that you can't run that kind of game more than once with a given group of players. :/

[tkdguy]

Re: Why must humans rule?

 

Humans were the only sentient race in my last FH campaign. I just used the different cultural types of western Europe to differentiate them. Being a nonmagical world, priests didn't cast spells. However, many were quite active in politics and intrigue.