Ragitsu

Did I miss something?  Realised I had not seen a 3000 wordpost in a while and his profile shows his last visit in early April.
 
Would hate to think I had read my last Duke post... 😞
 
Doc

That is one of the "Animal Lords" from Planescape.
 
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I've had recruiters show me samples of how AI can "improve" my resume, and it was full of errors. It listed skills I don't have, cities I'm nowhere close to (and I'm not willing to relocate). I sent in corrections, which only led to another set of mistakes. I unsubscribed from the service.
 
If AI can produce such a flawed resume, I shudder to think what it could do with a police report.

The first thing that springs to mind is... the herd of sheep that one party drove before them in Tomb of Horrors.  They're expendable and stupid and that's all they need to be.  There are also loose movie parallels, such as Escape From New York or Hunger Games.  Look at how easily people treat each other as subhumans, imagine how cruel they could be with actual nonhumans.
 
Alternatively, as you mentioned, there might be political reasons why people from another species/culture could succeed in an alien environment, specifically because of their cluelessness--like in Shogun, Dances With Wolves, or Last Samurai, in which the foreigner becomes a useful pawn in the struggle between warring factions.  This would be harder to GM, but not impossible.
 
Otherwise it's difficult to think of ways in which humans might be superior when Tolkien elves exist.  In my own setting elves are relatively frail, physically, and burned by iron, so if there were some kind of postapocalyptic Mad Max junkyard lying around they might want to outsource its exploration to some dumb expendable humans.

Are they, though?

Wife or miniature wargaming hobby: pick one, for you cannot have both.

*chooses the horse*

It is not up to entertainment - and one based around entirely fictional realms, to boot - to coddle the impressionable and educate the ignorant; that is why parents and schools exist. Escapism makes for poor tuition. A person who cannot differentiate between goblins and real-life breathing and bleeding human beings is saddled with a problem that goes beyond the scope of a rectangular piece of wood adorned with countless Cheeto stains.
 
From attempting to placate the fundamentally religious to quelling the fundamentally sensitive, D&D kowtowing has never been a net positive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcalounger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromaticity#/media/File:PlanckianLocus.png

tkdguy, is your favorite frozen treat a Barley Man (TM) Butter Bar?
 
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I playtested this scenario the other day. I had to change a few things to make it viable. The shrews were all 1 hit point creatures, but they automatically got initiative in round 1 and got +1 to initiative rolls after that, as per Basic D&D rules. A successful hit by a shrew prompted a save vs death by the target, where failure meant the target lost his/her attack that round (instead of running away in fear). No gigantic shrew as per the MMO, but that's in the works. The victory condition was that the first to get 10 kills won the contest (50 extra xp); I think I'll allow 20 rounds and everyone who gets 10 kills succeeds in the quest. But the first one who completes it still gets a bonus. Shoes will give 1d4+2 damage. Boots for the biggest shrew get 2d4. Strength modifiers apply.

From MMO to TTRPG: This quest is available during the Spring Festival:
 
 
Amd it just so happens that the giant shrew has been included since the early editions of D&D
 
OSE Version
 
d20 Version
 
Maybe I'll recreate this quest in my next game set in Middle-earth. BTW I really suck at this quest, so I avoid it like the plague.

Every so often, Lady Luck favors us with a smile (oftentimes a modest display, at best, yet still worth cherishing); I was fortunate enough to chance upon this piece of tabletop gaming history. A similar specimen turned up on the electronic bay, oh...a little under two years ago. Nowadays, even (original) 2e products are increasingly beyond the reach of casual collectors thanks to exorbitant premiums; if you have had your eye on something, carpe diem before you find yourself busting out your third kidney.
 
Speaking of which, has anyone here ever played in or ran campaigns wholly focused on ruins far removed from civilization? Alternatively, a campaign that wasn't entirely confined to exploring the remnants of a lost age, but which still involved a substantial chunk (say, forty percent or greater of the total duration) of discovery throughout long abandoned ancient structures also counts. The idea is to keep player characters away from a fortified base of support while simultaneously denying them easy resupplying of provisions. NPCs willing to engage in civilized discourse - or perhaps trade - are few and far between; friendly personalities are in the minority, while the majority is decidedly neutral in disposition (naturally, vipers lurk in their midst).
 
P.S. Recommendations for relevant modules are welcome!

Every so often, Lady Luck favors us with a smile (oftentimes a modest display, at best, yet still worth cherishing); I was fortunate enough to chance upon this piece of tabletop gaming history. A similar specimen turned up on the electronic bay, oh...a little under two years ago. Nowadays, even (original) 2e products are increasingly beyond the reach of casual collectors thanks to exorbitant premiums; if you have had your eye on something, carpe diem before you find yourself busting out your third kidney.
 
Speaking of which, has anyone here ever played in or ran campaigns wholly focused on ruins far removed from civilization? Alternatively, a campaign that wasn't entirely confined to exploring the remnants of a lost age, but which still involved a substantial chunk (say, forty percent or greater of the total duration) of discovery throughout long abandoned ancient structures also counts. The idea is to keep player characters away from a fortified base of support while simultaneously denying them easy resupplying of provisions. NPCs willing to engage in civilized discourse - or perhaps trade - are few and far between; friendly personalities are in the minority, while the majority is decidedly neutral in disposition (naturally, vipers lurk in their midst).
 
P.S. Recommendations for relevant modules are welcome!