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Rather than thread-jacking, I decided to put up a thread of my own. This simple poll made me remember a question I've been wandering myself for a long while:

In a game/setting/world of fantasy where you could do/play pretty much anything you want (either in Fantasy or Sci-Fi), why do people choose to play normal, plain humans?

It really isn't that I think it is a bad idea or such, it's just that I sincerely don't really understand it. For me, I find the image of 40k to be fantastic as it completely defies the laws of physics and realism as we know them. Because of this, it kind of feels like a waste of potential not to take it to an extreme or to act out a fantasy (NO, not that kind of fantasy (well, ok, some probably do)). This might be worded poorly, but I'm having a hard time thinking up the most clear way of conveying my thoughts.

I can understand why different factions/races appeal to different people, as these different people have preferences. The image of Eldar (and to a lesser degree general elves) appeal to me because I like the hyper-intelligence and the inherit impossibility of describing them/their culture with our simple human minds. I guess that in my mind they really are superior to mere humans.

I can kind of understand Imperial Guard, the image of planet sized space ships and enormous artillery batteries does sound nice. But with games like D&D... not so much (other than they may level quicker or some other technicality), these are just... humans...

Can anyone explain to me why they (or others) play humans?
(Again, my apologies if my wording is confusing. I too only possess a human brain... )

Humans are easier to relate to than dwarves, elves, klingons, and half-orcs.

Also: A GOOD RPG is about the setting and storyline. The race of your character is secondary.

Because in a universe o daemons, supermen, Space Elves, and unstopable aliens, being a man in a t-shirt and armed wit a flashlight is so cool - very starship troopers

I've thought about the 'relating-to'. But if you are going to pretend to be a axe/lasergun wielding warrior, why not go the extra mile and upgrade to a gene-seed injected supersoldier?

Maybe I think about it differently, maybe I think to much into it. (I'm leaning towards the latter)

[edited for minor spelling]

I sorta agree with the OP, the unusual, non-human part of fantasy games (and 40k) is what makes them interesting to me. I mean, I see boring old humans every day, I dont want to be encountering them all over again in a hobby that lets me explore a world outside of my own!

I would assume because not only are they relateable, but in the Futuristic Grimdark setting, the thought of humans standing against the horrors of the Warp/Xenos etc. is pretty cool.

Just because your playing a human doesnt mean its necessarily dull or boring..

You are probably roleplaying a badass of his people, who is respected and a leader!!!

I dont play humans but that doesnt mean they cant be roleplayed.

In D&D I mostly play humans, as I find it as interesting about how they react to what is around them as the things around them.

I played different D&D campaigns for about 20 years and I always played humans when I wasn't GMing. The main reason was because I didn't want to be a mini maxer who just picked a race with better stats then played them exactly like a human, which is what most people in my gaming group seemed to do.

For me, it often has to do with my humanist mind set as well as the fact that I love stories which essentially revolve around "Human weak, enemies strong, Human fights bitterly to last breath." Something of an underdog support, really.

I love abstract races. Having DMed 95% of my roleplaying career, it's really not hard for me to get behind something from a different culture or society or with different physical attributes. The little mannerisms are what appeal to me most in fantasy races (if a fly landed on a human, he's probably swipe at it and scare it away, if it landed on an elf he might precisely catch it and release it a few feet away from him, a gnome might wriggle his nose to make it go away, a goblin would probably not care or might try to eat it XD). I really like aberrations and I like the idea of mutated humans a lot as well. Like the majority of posts, I think most people just relate to human more easily, especially with the western "We're right, let's 'civilize' the savages!" mentality.

@minsc: I don't like how other races are defined in contrast to humans. "Elves are like humans except..." I'd much rather have "Elves have the following qualities..." I don't think humans should be disproportionately strong or weak compared to what's around them, things should just... exist how they are and interact

Its because people are closet xenophobes. Clearly they play humans because they fear the alien, and want to maintain human superiority over them.

When I played RPGs I played whatever species, race or gender I wanted to.

I played more white human male characters overall, (I am a white human male) but that's partly because of playing games like Call Of Cthulhu where you can't be non-human anyway.

Crazythang almost always plays a human (giant guy who smashes stuff) in whatever rpg we happen to be playing, but he's starting to break that mold. I on the other hand always play dwarves and honestly am not trying to mix it up on race, but i usually play a different class everytime i play. It seems to be more out of preference than anyother deep rooted psychological issue (maybe i'm playing dwarves because i can't grow a beard, hmmmm...)

In all games, humans are the most versatile race. They are neither very strong or weak in specific aspects.

Aliens or fantasy races just take a human aspect and enhance it ( Ogres: strength and weight / Elves: intelligence and speed)

Thus, humans can be taken for more tasks.

Humans by nature revere our own human sprit, ingenuity, and potential for greatness. There is a reason that we love classic tales like Beowulf, The Iliad, etc. and why concepts like the IG or Starship troopers have followings.

The idea of tales of humans rising to be great heros despite their limitations (especially in comparison to monsters, gods, etc.) speak to a universal human desire to see ourselves as having potential for greatness and heroic qualities. As individuals we relate to these sorts of universal human motivations, and also live vicariously through these human hero's exploits. We are never going to do what our heros do (usually), but we like to imagine we could, after all we are both humans...

Sci-fi/fantasy is just an extension of this. In a vast universe filled with advanced technology, great powers, gods, aliens and all manner of strange and powerful things the idea of humans surviving, thriving and becoming heroes in spite of what surrounds and opposes them is simply anther extension of human self-worship and desire for greatness. As a race we do not except limitations on our potential, and our literature and play reflect this fact.

Sure I could play a vastly powerful super-alien with advanced tech who has every advantage, but it's more heroic and interesting (and surely more relatable) to be the lowly human grunt that survives and rises to hero status by besting such aliens and a generally hostile universe.

In most (but not all) fantasy/sci-fi settings, humans are the dominant species. (Yes, I know that there are exceptions. But this holds true for the majority.)

Playing a human in an RPG (especially the majority of D&D settings) makes sense. A human can blend in, be part of the crowd. Be accepted. I see players frequently want to play something crazy..."Look at me! I'm a half-ogre half-demon with six levels of barbarian and fourteen levels of paladin! Nyaaaaah!"...and then get disappointed when people aren't in awe of them. Whenever you are in a D&D world (Greyhawk, Raveloft, Forgotten Realms) the humans control the majority of the world. Non human characters suffer from ostracism, conspicuousness, and the brunt of the xenophobia that is inherent in nearly all fantasy races. (Not just humans.)

If everyone is special, no one is. By the same token, if everyone plays some non-typical race, then it just becomes standard (and therefore boring). I usually see what the rest of my group is doing before I make my character. If two or three other people are making elves/orcs/dwarves/whatever, I roll up a human. If most of the players are humans, I might throw in a dwarf or a gnome or something. I try and do my part to keep more than half the group humans. Since at least two of the core gamers that I run with also share this philosophy, our groups tend to be pretty human heavy (much like the population of the worlds that the games are set in...) and I think it tends to work pretty well.

There is nothing that says a human can't be just as interesting as an orc, or a dwarf. It's all in the character you play. As far as I am concerned, once barbarians, mages, and paladins got into the mix, everybody became pretty damn unlike the world I live in.

Like in most stories, the main character is one that people can identify with.

In most sci-fi games I've seen the human races are more popular then the non human races. It's easy to see your imperial guardsman, with similar weapons to what you know and say "Ah, I can see it from his point of view" rather then an alien who comes from a completely different culture and identify with that.

For example, in most RPG's I've seen most people of European decent, generally play someone of European decent (there are exceptions yes) because it's easy to see the world through the eyes of someone you are more familiar with.

Enginseer wrote:In a game/setting/world of fantasy where you could do/play pretty much anything you want (either in Fantasy or Sci-Fi), why do people choose to play normal, plain humans?

In 40k, I have huge numbers of Space Elfs, and power-armored supermen, so having some "regular" humans is a nice change of pace.

When I got into 40k, I chose IG because no one else around here did. That and I like the whole "gung-ho, let's go get em, lads" theme that a lot of their fluff has goin on.

And I'd give my opinion as to why people tend to choose human, or human-like, races/characters but I'd just be beatin the horse at this point.

Humans in a fantasy setting help to ground the whole thing in reality.
Without them, it can get cartoony pretty quick.

It depends. When it comes to RPGs, I think that the race of your character shouldn't really matter, unless it happens to be plot important (IE a xenophobic society or whatever), and humans are often used as the "baseline" jack of all trades race. As for 40k, I love the idea of Guard because, well...

In this corner we have the Tyranids, alien planet-eating monstrosities!
In this corner we have the Eldar, ancient aliens whose civilization was ancient before The Emprah was born!
In this corner we have the Space Marines, once-human genetically-engineered killing machines!
And in this corner, we have the Imperial Guard, the regular old humans. But you know what? They've got enough reserves and enough tanks that they're gonna feth you up anyway!

The idea of regular old humans in this massive fustercluck of super powerful aliens and warp beings and who knows what is both amusing and badass. That's also why the idea of Veteran Squads appeals to me - they're not only regular old humans, but against all odds they've survived more than a couple battles.

Personally I think humans have more otions...when's the last time you heard of a short stocky elf or a tallerish dwarve thats kind of a weakling? Humans are dynamic they can be the Anti-hero or a killer with a conscience, or just pure good or evil. Too many of the others are all to often put into either the light or dark catagory. That's why I like humans and orks they live in the middle. And they're under dogs.

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys!

I get that reasons range from "crazy enough as it is" to "relatable" to latent xenophobia. It also dawned on me that most people in the real world have trouble enough relating to the culture of a different country. Let alone that anyone would be able to relate to an actual alien.

I do agree with Cannerus that in many settings most races are (sadly) defined as human; but green and +2 STR or; taller and +2 DEX. But since they all have 2 legs, 2 arms, a head with 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth, it shouldn't really come as a surprise.

When it comes to RPGs....

CT GAMER wrote:Sure I could play a vastly powerful super-alien with advanced tech who has every advantage, but it's more heroic and interesting (and surely more relatable) to be the lowly human grunt that survives and rises to hero status by besting such aliens and a generally hostile universe.

...and...

Jimsolo wrote:If everyone is special, no one is. By the same token, if everyone plays some non-typical race, then it just becomes standard (and therefore boring).

...pretty much sum up my thoughts.

I don't play any human armies for miniatures games, but IG is a strong contender for a future army along similar lines. I will likely never play a SM army for that exact reason. Likewise, I am only interested in Brettonians if I would make a peasant-heavy army... but I probably won't bother.

Enginser wrote:It also dawned on me that most people in the real world have trouble enough relating to the culture of a different country. Let alone that anyone would be able to relate to an actual alien.

I would be very cautious about any theory that links a superficial gaming choice for "let's pretend" or "toy soldiers" to a player's qualities as a real person.

JOHIRA wrote:I would be very cautious about any theory that links a superficial gaming choice for "let's pretend" or "toy soldiers" to a player's qualities as a real person.

I understand why you say this, but I wouldn't dream about comparing IG players to xenophobic bigots.

That said, my comment was much more on a superficial level; perhaps I misuse the word "relate" (English isn't my first language, perhaps "empathize" is more appropriate), but what I meant was that there is a very large difference between "relating to" and "accepting" (in a very friendly manner). I have friends of various backgrounds, some of which vastly different from mine.
One of my best friends is a devout Christian [can be replaced with anything else]. I don't really understand why, but it's not for me (or anyone) to question. I just accept is as his choice (as it is just my choice to not be one). In this sense, I think I do not relate (or empathize) to/with him, but we are still very good friends.

But, baseline, you are right. My comment was perhaps reading far to much in to it.

At least, my original curiosity has been generously fulfilled. Thanks all!

For me it's even simpler than being able to relate to basic humans. Apart from the Imperial Guard, every other army is more or less monstrous. Marines are jihadist fanatics, eldar are proud xenophobes, orks belligerent loonies, tyranids a vast horde of ever-hungry mouths, etc. Even though the Guard are a savage, insane organization that throws away millions of lives like cattle, they're as close to good guys as the setting allows.

Game mechanics can also play a roll in race choices.

In most RPG systems, humans are the joe-average. No penalties or bonuses for playing them. While little Johnny picked a Dwarf for his fighter to gain a bonus to his constitution score, little Timmy might not want the penalty to his Dexterity score, so he stayed with human.


In some RPG systems, there are advantages to playing humans.

In HackMaster, humans can attain any level in any class. Also, only Humans can be monks or paladins in HackMaster.

In 3E D&D, Humans got a bonus feat and bonus skills instead of stat adjustments and infravision.

Hackmaster is 1E warmed over, so you should play an Elf.

Off-Topic: Elves are very popular in Hackmaster, as are Humans and half elves. that's probably the top 3 races.

I REALY enjoyed playing my Dwarven Cleric, though. Poison? Bah. I drink that stuff like booze...