>Humans are most numerous and adaptable of all the races. In fact, it’s their ability to adapt to their environment that’s allowed them to spread far and wide across the world, inhabiting lands alongside all the other races and making new homes for themselves in the harshest environments. Whereas there are a number of traits closely associated with the other races, humans aren’t as easily pigeonholed.
My favorite trope!
It's useful to stuff humans in every corner and crack of the world.
(almost) Everybody has a fundamental understanding about human interactions and social structures,
therefor using it as a state line and comparing all the fantasy races to humans gives players a better understanding of the world.
>>46518800
I'm actually creating a custom science-fiction setting where this isn't true just because of my annoyance with HFY. Matter of fact, in the setting, humanity doesn't even have their own galactic empire but have been subsumed into another one specifically because of that empire's need of their specialized trait.
>humans get extra xp, bonus feat equivalent or more options in a game
Rather then explain why humans are everywhere, I just had everyone found everywhere.
Not-China has a population of Elves living on the mountains, Halflings can be found where ever land can be easily farmed, Goblin Romans and Huns, Kumihos can be found holding tea parties with Hulders when they aren't helping the Not-Vikings in their raids so they can collect some fresh livers.
Why should elves be restricted to just a handful of hidden forests?
>>46518942
how do you feel about humans getting extra luck?
>>46518800
And how does this not fit with the current world we live in?
>>46519295
Well, in the current world we live in, humans are the least adaptable of all the sapient species on the planet. Not a single sapient species is found in fewer environments than humans are.
>>46519295
It's just annoying how humans always write very human-centric descriptions of their own race. Treating themselves as the "normal" race while everyone else is special or weird.
I know they're the main producers and players of these games but it comes off as... ignorant of others.
>>46519372
>Treating themselves as the "normal" race while everyone else is special or weird.
Uh.
But that's true by necessity.
You are a human. You understand human culture and human reasoning. What humans do seems normal (to a degree) in your eyes. Humans are the normal race by default, because you are human.
>>46519156
Okay in a game with meta resources like wh40k rpgs or shadowrun.
Kinda meh if it is in setting lore as just a straight up fact.
>>46519372
What do you mean when you say they are the "main" producers and players? They are the ONLY producers and players. Dwarves and elves aren't real anon. Do you not think you are human?
When you say it's "ignorant of others" what others do you even mean? Please don't say you're some otherkin bullshit.
>humans are the shrewd negotiator race
>>46519365
>Well, in the current world we live in, humans are the least adaptable of all the sapient species on the planet. Not a single sapient species is found in fewer environments than humans are.
Uh.....
>>46520517
>>46519400
>>46519365
>>46520621
>joking
Then why weren't you funny?
>>46520574
>tfw making humans stand out in a way that isn't done to death requires making /all/ the other races severely deficient in a single aspect of thought or capability that anything inhabiting the world alongside humans simply ought to have
>>46520633
If I knew that then you wouldn't be asking.
>>46520621
I mean, I could get behind this sense of humor if it was a "lol-fantasy-real-modern-times-GO" thread. Like, playing at a necromancer trying to work out a contract with a local hospital for parts, but this was a thread about game design. Maybe try starting that kind of thread?
>>46519295
It doesn't fit because the world we live in doesn't have other sapient species.
Many fantasy species would be more adaptable than humans, because they're literally humans with extra abilities. In fact, they often have superior intelligence, which is precisely what makes us adaptable. There's no reason why elves, which are just humans but faster, more dexterous, smarter, and longer-lived, wouldn't be found all over the world.
Same goes for other shit like that. They're humans, but better.
>>46520780
>There's no reason why elves, which are just humans but faster, more dexterous, smarter, and longer-lived, wouldn't be found all over the world.
Lower reproduction rates.
>>46520656
Well, one way to make them more socially apt is to make them at just the right place, physically, to be appealing to everyone.
To dwarves and gnomes, humans are just about tall enough to look imposing and trigger the desire for a physically powerful mate, but they're not think and willowy like elves or overly tall like orcs. To elves, they're more heavily built in a way that would be considered exotic, without being grossly muscled like an orc. To orcs, they're smaller and cuter, but not TOO small like a dorf or too willowy like an elf.
>>46519365
>Well, in the current world we live in, humans are the least adaptable of all the sapient species on the planet. Not a single sapient species is found in fewer environments than humans are.
Dare I ask, but, what point of reference are you actually using? By what measurement are you using to reach such a conclusion?
>>46520879
The fact that we're the only sapient species on our planet.
>inb4 confusion between the definitions of sentient and sapient
>>46520799
Why?
Seriously, what reason would a species exactly like humans in almost all aspects, except better in a few, have for reproducing slower? And even if they reproduce at less than half the rate of humans, their longevity would make their populations huge anyway.
I mean, Tolkien has a reason for elves in Middle Earth not being everywhere. They're not there as conquerors or really as settlers even, and they're getting ready to go home, where they ARE everywhere.
Stuff like "low birth rates" feels artificial. It feels like an excuse thrown in to justify a nonsensical status quo.
>>46520780
>doesn't have other sapient species.
You know that there is really strong arguments that Whales and Dolphins are sapient.
This issue with Sapience is there is no strict definition with specific points to be met so many arguments about sapience just runs around in circles as the goalposts get dragged this way and that.
>>46520925
>Why?
Because they live long lives. Longevity and birthrate are inversely proportional.
>>46520949
Sure, okay.
There are no known sapient species with the same tool-making abilities as us.
>>46520905
then by default wouldn't we be the MOST adaptable sapient species?although you COULD, in theory, use other, now extinct, species of Hominids as a point of comparison.
>>46520984
That just makes us the most successful and most adaptable because we're the ones that are actually alive and he's still wrong.
>>46520925
You're looking at it like a retard. They don't "reproduce slower". They reproduce as fast as they can. But their mating process, the process to carry to term and then actual birth takes longer relative to human births due to the extra complexity.
I mean, why not ask why humans don't regularly produce twins or triplets, or even more, to survive? Humans do it on accident, but dogs give birth to 7 or 8 at a time. Why do humans reproduce slower than dogs?
Why do you suck so much dick?
>>46520984
>although you COULD, in theory, use other, now extinct, species of Hominids as a point of comparison.
Those extinct hominids are the real reason humans are always the most adaptable species in fictional settings; every sapient species we have thus far encountered is/has been less adaptable than we are/were, and in the case of those hominids our superior adaptability allowed us to survive when they went extinct.
>>46520977
Advancement and birthrate are inversely proportional.
Western society doesn't lack babbies in comparison to, say, Africa, because we live longer. We have better preventatives, less reasons to produce children, and more things to do other than producing children.
Elves being long-lived doesn't mean they've invented the pill.
So what would be a decent niche for humans to fill in a fantasy setting? I was thinking about making mine the tinkerer race, like some versions of gnomes or goblins.
>humans are the invading aliens
>>46521051
Thisn isn't about technology, this is about the fact that (at least among mammals) longer lived species produce less offspring than short lived ones. Mice typically have dozens of offspring in their short lives, elephants rarely have even 10.
>>46521022
>and he's still wrong.
Wait, who's still wrong?
You can't just claim that something is the worst at something if you don't have SOME other example that is demonstrated to be better at it.
If you have no other point of reference then it is assumed to either be the best or at least set as a benchmark for comparison.
I'm sorry but your misanthropy is simply juvenile in this particular context.
>>46520980
>no known sapient species with the same
>>46520949
>as the goalposts get dragged this way and that.
It kind of confuses me that you shift the goal posts despite the fact that Dolphins would support your point as they are found all over earth's oceansas well. except where it's too cold or deep to survive.
>>46521026
That's not how that works.
Humans don't actually have the longest gestations in nature. A more complex brain doesn't necessarily mean a longer gestation - fucking elephants can have a gestation period of over twenty months. It's the mother's metabolism compared to the MASS of the child being produced that matters more than anything else.
>>46521043
Neanderthals are believed to have been much better adapted all around.
We just ate less.
Literally we survived not because we were better adapted to our environments but simply because we didn't need as much food.
>>46521090
What am I looking at?I can't reverse image search on my phone
>>46521217
First, I'm going to need to see some sources on that claim. Second, needing less food is an adaptation, anon, and clearly it allowed us to outcompete the neanderthals.
>>46521186
But it also doesn't necessarily mean that the birth won't have a longer gestation either if the child is more complex. Humans may not have the longest gestation in nature, but 9 months is pretty long in general to produce a SINGLE creature. I would also argue that making a large-mass creature like an elephant or whale by default is more complex in general. I'm not talking about just straight up intelligence here, I'm talking about complexity in formation of the creature.
Don't forget, Elves are often categorized as being part fey, infused with nature and magic. To make a body capable of doing that alone must be insanely complex.
>>46518800
>humans
>not cockroaches
Anon, please.
>>46519365
Not a single Sapient species is found in more environments than we are either.
>>46521217
>Neanderthals are believed to have been much better adapted all around.
no... just no, everything you have said is factually incorrect.
while certainly a hardier species able to take a beating better than us, they were not as smart as us, But besides that, they were closer to being on-par with Humans.
Second, Neanderthals didn't go extinct because they ate more, we don't know why they went extinct, that's been something baffling anthropologists for years.
>>46521252
Or less complex.
I mean, fey magic is generally "lol whatever, it's magic, a wizard did it." Magic in fiction generally circumvents and greases the laws of nature, making what's difficult or impossible possible, not the other way around.
I could see elves taking longer to gestate, though, but not by much. Other animals with more robust physiques come out quicker than us, and while elves usually have an INT boost, it doesn't seem enough of one that their brains are ridiculously more complex. They generally think the same way we do. Barring some kind of mystical reason like not enough elf energy in the universe, I would imagine them gestating for 11-12 months.
>>46521228
Terra Formars
>>46521267
cockroaches are too stupid to count.figuratively AND literally
>>46521360
We're pretty confident that it had something to do with the ice age coming to an end as well as modern humans appearing in their territory and outbreeding them in both senses of the word.
>>46518912
Sounds pretty boring, I'd just roll whatever you call space elves, and don't pretend you don't have space elves
>>46521373
What about cranium cockroaches?
I mean, like cranium rats, only roaches.
>>46521228
Terra Formars. Some bloodthirsty Chinese Ayys slaughtering innocent (almost) martian roaches.
>>46521267
This anon gets it.
>>46521370
>Or less complex.
If magic was less complex, we wouldn't need years of schooling and a special, in-born talent for it in order to learn how to bend and shape reality, or even just to ACCESS teh ability to do so.
>>46521370
Gestation isn't the entire reason elves would have lower birthrates though. When long lived creatures reproduce quickly and don't have high pre-adulthood casualties, overpopulation invariably results. You need look no further than our own species to see that.
>>46521371
is that that stupid manga that people sometimes post here with the beetles that were hyper-evolved into giant black men even though they have no valid reason to look that way when evolved?
>>46521383
As I guy who plays in that setting under that anon, I can tell you with a smug, satisfied smile that there are no space elves in his setting.
>>46521413
There are lots of beings in fantasy that are magical without all that effort, though. You're talking about your average human wizard learning to access magic, whereas elves are just magical beings.
>>46521379
except there's that 5000-year overlap,
even in the stone-age it doesn't take that long to out-compete a species.
>>46521420
This is true.
It can take time for evolution to catch up in that area, though. Which is something you can also see in our current situation.
>>46521466
I said we were outbreeding them in BOTH senses of the term, didn't I? We weren't bashing each other over the head, in fact we probably cooperated and worked together quite often, hence why Asians and Caucasians are 3% Neanderthal and Sub-Saharans blacks are not.
>>46521413
We need years of schooling to understand the innermost intricacies physics, or biology. Doesn't mean nature has a problem producing phenomena related to either.
>>46521478
>fantasy
>evolution
Pick one. Corellon made in the elves, and in his wisdom he arbitrarily decided that, by hook or by crook, they would have low birth rates so that they wouldn't overpopulate.
>>46521426
>even though they have no valid reason to look that way when evolved
They have. The legacy of Ancient Aliens.
>>46518800
>shitposting about human adaptability on the Internet
>>46518800
>not playing an all-human campaign
>>46521459
>>46521523
A lot of stories won't even begin teaching said human unless that human has a latent magical ability, which is a rare trait to begin with. Otherwise, magic is always presented as a complex, scientific like formula which other generally superior creatures have natural access to. And many of those magical creatures are in fact, quite rare, which leads credence to the idea that magic slows down the gesticulation period.
Examples:
-Dragons
-Elves
-Feys (Dryad, Nymphs, Fairies)
-Unicorns
-Gnomes
-Dragonborn
Races that quickly produce that are NOT commonly associated with magic
-Dwarves
-Halflings
-Orcs/Half-orcs/Quarter-Orcs
-Goblins
-Kobolds
-Basic animals
Etc
All of these creatures are produced en masse.
>>46521595
>dwarfs
>reproduce quickly
>>46521548
>every fantasy setting id D&D 3.5
That's a fine enough excuse in high fantasy settings where the gods are demonstrable, though, sure.
>>46521608
Dwarves are far more common in fantasy stories than elves.In my opinion.
>>46521556
>They have. The legacy of Ancient Aliens.
well that only makes this whole premise seem even more stupid.
I have gone from having no interest in this comic to wanting nothing to do with it.
>>46521629
>every fantasy setting id D&D 3.5
Do we ever even talk about settings where the fantasy races weren't just created by the gods, but actually evolved? Do such settings even exist outside of homebrew?
>>46521595
This implies that random human babies that have magical talent will take several months extra to gestate, maybe even almost a year extra if you're going with SUPER long elvish pregnancies due to magic.
While that's actually kinda cool and I wouldn't be adverse to it, you best be willing to include it if that's how you're explaining low elf birthrates. Otherwise the setting becomes inconsistent.
>>46518800
I'm guilty of this but I also gave humans a bonus to health and stamina, and resistance to diseases and poisons to reflect this.
>>46521656
There are loads of setting where the gods are either unconfirmed or not mentioned at all.
Nearly every single MtG plane has no gods, for example.
>>46519365
Ur dum.
>>46521713
>Nearly every single MtG plane has no gods, for example.
The setting of MtG is fucking cancer, though. I'm surprised anyone talks about it.
>>46521426
yes, but there is implied along the manga that something or somebody might have interfere with their evolution
>>46521736
It fluctuates in quality like anything of its kind.
It's honestly a great deal better than something like FR, though, if only because there's a few things in there that aren't totally uninteresting.
Its problem, really, is that WotC have never bothered to go into real detail regarding its worlds. They're often very good ideas, with little further development. Zendikar, Mirrodin, etc etc...
>>46521736
Zendikar would be an amazing campaign setting, so long as you're willing to fill in some blanks and ignore the metaplot.
>>46521456
>no space elves
>>46520925
You're a fucking moron. Holy shit.
>>46521791
I'm not terribly familiar with FR, but from what I've heard about it it sounds like a mediocre/decent blank slate, and isn't that what you want out of a campaign setting?
>>46521810
Deal with it, nerd.
>>46521655
What a tough customer. It's too cute for a macho man like you anyway.
Elves have fewer children because they are biologically descended from deer, not from primates, and retain the oestrus that deer have, but it only occurs once every 20 years or something.
There you go, problem solved.
On the original topic, this is why I typically go for one-race settings, to avoid this kind of shitty racial stereotyping stuff. Weak design if you ask me.
>>46521875
It's just extremely uninteresting. It has all the trappings of generic in precisely the way that makes them unappealing. There's no thematic or atmospheric consistency to it.
I'm sure it's fine if you're okay with extremely uncreative generic fantasy as your setting, but I honestly find it almost cringeworthy. It's not even generic in the Tolkiensian sense... it's... it's like the perfect example of settings that take Tolkiensian tropes and apply only the most shallow aspects of them. It's generic D&D fantasy incarnate.
>>46518912
HFN is just as annoying as HFY
>>46522214
>it's like the perfect example of settings that take Tolkiensian tropes and apply only the most shallow aspects of them.
Are they shallow in a way that lets you inject more depth to suit your needs at your leisure? Because that will make or break a shallow setting for me.
>>46521854
Or you're just not engaging your brain.
Elves aren't significantly more complex than humans to the extent where their gestation should take more than two or three months longer. They're essentially the same beings, but with longer lifespans, which implies a more efficient metabolism, which actually makes gestation SHORTER (if were combined with longer gestation, the children would come out more fully developed... which isn't something you're obliged not to include, I guess if you don't want to).
Save divine intervention or a culture-wide practice of extreme self-control (totally things that you can go for in a fantasy setting, there's no problems with these), there's no real logical reason why elves would reproduce significantly slower than us.
>>46522281
I don't think so, no.
Everything is VERY detailed. Just not in an interesting way. I mean, you can obviously add or take things out - you can do that with any setting. You'd have to do a lot if nipping and tucking to make FR interesting, IMO.
>>46518800
Eh for dnd i homebrew the human race as +1 to cha, knowing common and one other language.
Then subraces give you bonuses:
Plainsman +2 Str and prof with simple weapons, shields and shortswords.
Highlander +2 Wis and +1Hp per character level.
Coastdweller +2 Dex and swim speed of 25ft.
>>46522396
Huh. Well, I already pledged myself to GREYHAWK FOR LIFE, so no loss for me.
>>46522235
Actually, it's worse.
HFN is the product of pessimistic faggots
HFY is, at its worst, shitty fanwank
>>46521608
They do, but they also spend most of their time hidden underground and also get their forts wipped out by horrible monsters on the regular
>>46522433
Greyhawk has less silliness layered on top of silliness.
I will admit to disliking most standard 'high fantasy' settings, though. They just feel... cluttered. For example, they tend to have these immense grab-bag cosmologies that feel like artificial attempts to include everything a bunch of writers can think of and players might want to meet. Like, there's a huge pantheon of deities, but they're not really set up into groups worshiped by different people, and there's no hierarchy to them, as there is in RL pantheons, because then players might feel bad about not worshiping the 'highest' god (yeah, I'm aware there's an overgod in FR, but he's not relevant and is just a vague force only three or four people even know about). Then you've got angels, who just serve all gods? Or some nebulous concept of good? And then demons, who are similarly servants/products of nebulous forces of chaos/evil?
It's all overly inclusive in terms of ideas and way too spread thin. These settings don't feel real to me. They look and feel like game settings... which is exactly what you don't want a game setting to feel like, because that's not immersive.
>having elves breed at all
>not making them a limited stock created at the dawn of time and slowly dying off bit by bit until the entire population is dead
>>46522443
You forget, HFY is often thinly-veiled xenophobia or political bias against real life groups disguised as fiction about killing elves/gnomes/aliens/whatever.
>>46522575
>Like, there's a huge pantheon of deities, but they're not really set up into groups worshiped by different people, and there's no hierarchy to them, as there is in RL pantheons, because then players might feel bad about not worshiping the 'highest' god
I hear you, but at the same time I would think that many real polytheists tended to worship one deity more than others because that deity's domain is a big part of their lives. What's really missing is that when you worship one member of he pantheon you worship them all (though I think we can blame deities of opposing alignments existing within the same pantheon for that), and the tendency to worship certain members of the pantheon that aren't your main deity when their domain is relevant (for instance, praying to Poseidon when going on a sea journey even when Apollo is your homeboy).
>>46522608
Not really.
The last "humans are whites, aliens are minorities' fiction I saw was Avatar, which was strictly HFN
Unless you have some example I'm forgetting
>>46522608
>HFY
>where a United humanity no longer held back by racial, religious or ideological hatred does cool shit
>racist
Mate. It's basically jerking off, but you're being a cunt.
>>46522608
That's retarded. People are inclined to root for their home team. And humanity is the most universal home team of all. There's also no requirement for cheering for humanity's success to involve hating or wanting xenos to fail, unless a specific case of a war between the two comes up but that still doesn't require hate. And the only people that'll be using it as bias against real life groups are going to be people are going to be people like /pol/ where everything they talk about has to be about real life and /pol/ things. And unless you want to argue the majority of people that cheer for humans are all /pol/They're not.
Plenty of them also like xeno waifus and shit, they just like cheering for humans.
>>46522685
>>46522685
>>46522685
Most HFY literature has the solid, dependable humans fighting and often annihilating a fantasy/sci-fi race with the exaggerated traits of some RL group the author doesn't like, generally through ambiguous human spirit or some kind of weird tenacity that apparently no other intelligent race has access to.
Sometimes it's haughty, intellectual aliens being humbled, representing the intelligensia the author feels frustrated with. Sometimes it's woodland-dwelling, druidic elves, who the author presents as ineffective caricatures of political groups they disagree with, characterizing them as soft and impractical and easily defeated. Sometimes it's a mixture of the two.
Occasionally, a HFY story will be about something cool about us, like our ability for compassion, or our curiosity, but it's rare.
And this by the way is all dwarfed by mountains of "lol we're so badass we breath poison and our biome is super hostile we must be amazing, the aliens are just AMAZED at how hardcore we are."
>>46522678
>I hear you, but at the same time I would think that many real polytheists tended to worship one deity more than others because that deity's domain is a big part of their lives.
Oh, definitely.
But in stuff like FR they're just totally unrelated to each other, which is pretty much what you describe further on in your post. And they're worshiped almost universally - the gods of a nation, for example, and the way they worship them, don't give you any particular insight about that nation, because those gods are worshiped everywhere in the same way.
>>46523206
To be clear, I'm not talking about, I dunno, Independence Day here.
I'm talking specifically about the terrible HFY writefaggotry written on this site.
>>46523371
Okay.
Sure, that's a fairer point.
But still.
Avatar is exactly what you're talking about, in terms of thinly veiled bias against disliked political groups.
And it is one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
And then you have shit like Star Trek and like you said, Independence Day, which are usually multi-ethnic teams of humans with a variety of skills teaming up to protect humanity.
We can search through the dregs of the internet for shitty, unproduced fanfiction for both sides.
But when it comes to shit people actually see in mass droves, that's what their seeing.
And that's what they're reacting to.
>>46523540
Sure. I wouldn't really call any of that stuff HFY in the sense I know, it though. Star Trek is usually about cool stuff like logic and reason, not human ruthlessness shitting all over other species.
HFY as a term originating in /tg/ generally means "fuck that hippie chick that wouldn't date me in college, I'm going to write a story where she's an elf and her whole race gets raped by burly relatable human men. Serves her right."
>>46523316
I think the Elder Scrolls or Warhammer Fantasy give better depictions of how this should 'realistically' work.
Even Bretonnian knights with their whole 'muh laydeee' thing will give Mannan some attention before a sea voyage.
>>46523644
Y'know what.
I just thought of something.
GATE is pretty HFY while having a lot of political xenophobia about how Japanese Culture Best Culture.
So there you go. Although seeing as I'm not Japanese, I don't know what political group Ancient fantasy Romans represent.
>>46523822
WHFB is an extremely well-crafted fantasy setting. It shits all over stuff like Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, etc.
Too bad it's fucking dead and being worn as a second skin by a newer setting even shittier than anything WotC has ever produced.
>>46523999
Well the RPG can still be used by anybody pretty easily and you can explore the setting more there than you can in the wargame anyway.
I go full Tolkien with my settings and make the elves better at everything.
>>46524125
Well that makes sense in a full tolkien world. They are minor angels without free will who have to fuck off when humans come around.
>>46519668
In most Warhammer 40k RPs you're just playing humans anyways, unless it's Rogue Trader where nobody gives a shit.
So that's not really a fair comparison.
>>46521217
Also because we didn't feel like fucking the other hominids aside from the direct ancestors of Black People.
>>46523206
Another Semi type of HFY that i dislike Is soft sci-fi bashing, where hard sci-fi crushes soft sci-fi, X-wings and other star fighters are zapped from light-seconds away and the Death Star is gutted with a single relativistic kill vehicle.
>>46520633
>>46520670
Because >>46519372 comes off as sounding like a whiny tumblrina, which was probably the joke, but when it comes to tumblrinas it's impossible to be enough of a parody so that everyone knows you're joking, unless you're very skilled at putting sarcasm into text. Because those kinds of people are already as exaggerated as can be.
>>46525268
>but when it comes to tumblrinas it's impossible to be enough of a parody so that everyone knows you're joking,
I believe the short-hand for what you are describing is a "Poe", i.e. a person who makes fun of idiots by pretending to be one. The same problem also applies because it's impossible to tell a poe from an actual idiot without the poe admitting that he is a poe.
>>46518912
Would you believe my GM is using a setting with the exact identical premise?
We nuked ourselves back to the middle ages in WW3, then we were uplifted an made into a protectorate by an intergalactic theocracy.
Humans are not the smartest or the most charismatic or the most resilient or any of that "we breathe rocket fuel and never ever surrender" bullshit, we don't even have the novelty value of being the youngest race, instead turns out we have the greatest psionic potential of any known race but we never realized because we didn't have the technology to awaken it.Also, the focus of the united earth government is western europe since USA, china and Russia turned each other into radioactive craters.
>ITT: I have no idea what HFY is
This wouldn't be a problem if people didn't give other races or species the advantages we take for granted. For instance, go feed your dog chocolate and see what happens. Jokes aside this should come up even more in scifi where our quirks and biology can be an advantage on one world and a disadvantage on another.
>>46518800
You are more than likely writing a game or piece of fiction with a human audience in mind. Therefore, they will always use humans as the baseline.
>>46526528
Too bad in typical HFY people forget the 'disadvantage on another' part, and humans are portrayed as perfect killing machines that can slap a hundred alien shocktroopers to death with their dick.
>>46521595
>dwarves
>not associated with magic
Moron
>>46521360
Neanderthals were smarter then Cro-Magnun humans.
In fact, people with the most neanderthal DNA tend to be highly intelligent.
>>46518800
My humans aren't any more adaptable than anyone else. As the youngest race in the world, they simply have more "life force" than any other race, driving them to succeed where others have faltered and prove themselves.
>>46527082
>As the youngest race
Yaaaaaaaaaawn
>Humans have the least brute strength, but are also the smartest, and have the biggest dicks
>Chimpanzees are the jack of all trades get along with everybody faction. between gorillas and humans in intelligence, as well as strength and penis size.
>Gorillas possess monstrous strength but have the least intelligence of the 3 main Apes. They are rumored to have very small peepees.
monkeys and bonobos are too small to be playable imo, and baboons are always evil.
>>46527253
>baboons
>always evil
>not chimps
Chimps are devious fucking assholes who are drow tier scheming pricks.
Baboons just do it for the booty.
>>46520780
Elves are usually frail and retarded though.
(Meaning that they tend to have pants-on-head level retarded cultures in most settings.)
>>46526629
Yeah, it's really nonsensical that we would be powerful everywhere. It could certainly be true in the right environments but then for every place where you have that there's another where you need an ugly pressure suit / exoskeleton just to perform normally and you'll still feel like absolute shit.
I think that's why for the most part, the idea of inborn greatness, at least on the non-intellectual side of things, would die in the consciousness of most spacefaring species. It becomes more and more apparent that everyone is just a product of whatever mudball they crawled out of. Breathing oxygen or having four testicles sure as hell wasn't what got anyone to escape the atmosphere. The body is just the vessel to the mind, the only thing that really matters once you've left that rock. In the end who cares if humans have super strength on this one planet or species B can eat XYZ. They're both instantly torn apart by the chaos of most celestial bodies and on some other world humans are weak as piss or species B dies from just a taste of XYZ. After all, you're going out into a vast emptiness that your body was never meant to deal with and the only reason you're out there is because you're working around those flaws. Space can be a very humbling thing.
>>46527040
>Cro-Magnun
Cro-Magnun never existed, never did.
>In fact, people with the most neanderthal DNA tend to be highly intelligent.
I'm going to go ahead and call "bullshit" on that.
>>46527325
Baboons are always evil because they steal. Even if they are good they get the evil alignment tag.
>>46527325
>scheming
You give them too much credit. They're just total assholes and will tear your arm off for looking at them wrong (because that's what they do to other chimps to reduce sexual competition)
>>46527562
>Baboons are always evil because they steal
So do chimps
>>46527716
They totally scheme. Chimpanzee troupes have all sorts of Machiavellan power plays when it comes to taking down the Alpha or eating his babies while he's not looking
>>46519365
I get it!
>>46527764
Makaveli in this
illuminati, all through your body
he blow's like a twelve gauge shotty
>>46518800
If you want to go by what makes us stand out in real life
>we have excellent stamina, very few animals are capable of keeping up with us over the long term
>we're smart (well, compared to the other animals of earth)
>we have high tier eyesight
>we're weak but very dexterous. The position where our muscles attach to our joints gives them fine control but reduced leverage and therefore reduced strength
>>46519365
Took me a second. Nice.
>tfw came up with great origin story for humans
>tfw humans are the ones that live in secluded areas like elves
>>46527844
The act of throwing things and hitting our targets is also something more or less unique to humans. Sure a chimp can throw something but with nowhere near the same amount of coordination and they're just aiming for a general area and praying it hits.
>>46527971
Do tell.
>>46525992
Please tell me that we're psychic space knights.
>>46528331
Psychic space catholic knights, with holy orders and all.
>This thread
So then, what IS a good special power or features of humans in fantasy games?
>>46528406
Bonuses or advantages related to constitution and dexterity if we're going physical. Which is kind of a weird mix of bonuses but it's the most "realistic". Intellect can work too if some races are smarter than others. The other, and more realistic, route is to nerf other races so that humans have some things unique to them. That sounds like a cop out but it's really not because with races like elves and dwarves you're basically giving them all our convenient adoptions with extra goodies.
Or make it environment/context specific for everyone like >>46526528
If applicable.
This is admittedly hard to pull off as it requires some knowledge or biology, chemistry, etc. and it can get too simulationist real fast, but you can always abstract it real broadly in game mechanic terms.
>>46528538
Oh one last thing. You can always just involve magic and have various flavors of different races. Humans don't need to be earth humans after all. Take Elder Scrolls for example. You have humans that can take blasts of frost like nothing or send out waves of calming aura once a day because that's just what men in TES can do. They're not completely mundane because their world isn't.
>>46523644
t. Optoma HD26
>>>/spacebattles/
>>46528331
>>46528382
As in, the catholic church literally resurrected the old military orders like the Templars and the Knight of the HolySepulchre and uses them as its personal army.
>>46523644
>"fuck that hippie chick that wouldn't date me in college, I'm going to write a story where she's an elf and her whole race gets raped by burly relatable human men. Serves her right."
It really wasn't it was a term that mutated out of the "Humans are [insert Scifi Hat here]" threads which always had 40kids turn the gimmick of the thread into FUG YEAR SPESS WOR writefaggotry and also a reaction to movies or books like Avatar where people decided to play into the image of humans it created and rolling with it.
>>46528406
Well, if you just ignore the intellect for a while and compare humans to other species on earth it turns out that we are really good at long distance running. As in ridiculously good. So much so that for most of our history it was probably a more stand out trait than our intelligence.
It's probably the fact that most fantasy and sci fi writers tend to be more enginners and historians than biologists and anthropologists that we almost never see this trait actually used. I still find it a bit weird how many settings can be so well detailed and yet so horribly researched.
>>46524875
Goddamnit I hate pompous hard scifi faggots.
>>46518942
When there are Drow, Elves, and Tieflings for any edgelord who wants to be a Special snowflake; Kobolds, Halflings, and Goblins for anyone who wants to make others laugh; and Orcs, Minotaurs, and Dwarves when people just wanna wreck some shit and be all noble about it; you have to give your players some sort of incentive to have them play their own race, especially when some of them find them just boring and plain.
>>46528974
To be fair we had less and less use for it ourselves as our civilizations grew. You can still represent it mechanically in lower tech settings with a health, endurance, movement, con bonus, or some equivalent though.
>>46529017
That can usually be avoided if you don't turn humans into The Humans. That goes for every race of course. The Elder Scrolls did a good job with this. There are people who don't like the idea of playing a human but love the idea of playing a Nord for instance.
>>46529062
If by with developed civilization you mean somewhere in the future when no soldier travels on foot anymore. I would say that being able to quickly travel long distances on foot is very relevant to pretty much any non sci fi setting. I mean unless we are talking about higher intellect or magic, which is hard to determine since we lack real world reference, what other trait would be better or more relevant?
>>46525992
Interesting.
In mine, humanity got absorbed into a hive mind/ infectious race called the Zevrass. In the setting, most of the dominant galactic powers are humanoid and are racist against non-humanoids.
The Zevrass slipped under the radar because they were mostly infecting the non-humanoid races. However, they grew too big and didn't have the military power to fight off all the other races. So they infected humanity and use them as their diplomats and poster children. Humans exist to legitimize the Zevrass's conquests and give them a friendly face.
>>46529442
I meant more if it's a modern or scifi setting you've got vehicles and don't really need to push yourself too far which means the advantage is never pushed to its limits. For the most part I agree with you. It would be more profound if the other races definitely didn't have this advantage and needed to rest from long walks that don't even cover the distance a human can reach. It would explain why humans are everywhere in some settings.
>>46529476
Gay
>>46523206
>"the aliens are just AMAZED at how hardcore we are."
Hey guys, do you want to read my new greentext? It is about how a group of aliens who are way more technologically advanced than us have their asses handed back to them by stuff we do normally!
They have all these cool weapons and armor but we can run them through with our tail. Our freaking TAILS!
And you know how it is, at worst, bothersome when we move into the vacuum of space and we can be there for a while? Well, they need, like, specialized suits to withstand it or they go poof!
They use an incredibly limited range of radiation for visual data input, they call anything beyond ultraviolet and Infrared "Darkness". They can't even detect pheromones and other smells on gases. Lol!
The best part, you see our blood? The thing that we need to live? Well, to them and their machinery it is, like, an ultra-powerful solvent! Our blood!
In my story, they found a baby and are completely taken by surprise by our method of reproduction. Y'know, the thing that is completely normal for us? What a bunch of pansies!
Oh! And when you do something other than mauling someone to death they go apeshit! (literally) Some intelligent race they are!
Just wait until they find out the shit we've been dealing with before them and what our homeplanet looks like. They call it, like, a "deathworld"! And it is JUST the place we live in! Lol!
>>46529476
What do you mean by absorbed?
>>46520656
Or you just make humans slightly more so on that trait than they actually are, and other races slightly less so than humans are. Remember, 10 Int is normal, 12 Int is smarter than average but not a genius.
>>46530052
>implying we don't need more Xenomorphs Fuck Yeah! stories
How about humans become irrelevant but are the galactic equivalent of a top tier first world country. Tourism is our thing.
>>46530189
>Implying every Xenomorph story is not a XFY! story in which humans have to sacrifice a lot to just survive against a race that only does what it does
>Impying the original alien movie is not a retelling with some variations of Rambo with the "bad guys" as the focus and with a "bad ending" for Alien Stallone
Die Hard in a spaceship.
With Alien Willis
What i want to know, is (Aside of bad writing, because that's a given and a valid criticism) what is so wrong about a setting were humans are the alien monster?
What is about that particular concept that is irredimible for some people? Isn't it as bad as "Humans are the underdog and yet they win" concept?
>>46530268
>aliens talking about earth on their tellusian electroculture imageboards
>aliens phoning in with their hyperspace broadbands and trying to figure out how to get past the sad panda
>>46530268
Like in Men in Black?
>>46530422
Yes except we're aware of them and space opera capable. We just found getting on our soapboxes every now and then and carving out a niche for money is better than being relevant.Just like western europe.
>>46530379
>What i want to know, is (Aside of bad writing, because that's a given and a valid criticism) what is so wrong about a setting were humans are the alien monster?
My problem with it is it usually devolves into a 'lel humans r so great' circlejerk. I've seen okay HFY stories done but humans never, ever lose for fairly arbitrary reasons in the greentexts.
>>46530379
People don't like it if it gets too self-fellating or it uses personality traits for broad generalizations. Which is what most HFY stories from /tg/ like that do. Done right you shouldn't know that the monster in question was human until the end or something like that.
>>46518800
I like to think that human adaptability it's a boon at all but a curse. Every race has its place and function, and against the wear and tear of time they endeavor to maintain status quo. They're guardians and care takers, preservers, healers, and paragons of the natural order. Like cells or organs or organelles in the organic structures of the world, they each serve a specialized function in maintaining the macro lifeform that is the planet. Then in come these human shits with their force of change, and virulance, persistance, and adaptability. Mankind's triumph over the old world isn't a victory for progress, it's a slow march toward world death at the hands of slow slow infectious rot. The various races are the struggling bodily systems of an ancient dying cosmic being.
>>46529476
Fun. So, does that mean humans are technically a separate government or are they mind-slaves of the Zevrass? Are they capable of independent thought or do they love their new masters with all possible thoughts?My setting (the one you linked from) has them as a separate puppet government under a species that might as well be the card-carrying Bad Guys(tm) for all science fiction universes.
>>46530581
You could take any mammal species from the ecosystem
ANY mammal species and i guarantee you that the world, as a whole, won't care.
Heck, take any bird and reptile too
The world ecosystem can work with insects alone, and considering that bugs have short lifespans and, therefore, are quick to adapt to their enviroment (as a species) they will make up to the disappearance of any tetrapod insectivore before complete collapse.
Adaptability is no more of a curse to the planet than being a tetrapod is.
>>46530469
Fair enough, HFY! treats humans as the monster of a sci-fi flick and as such should not be invincible.
>>46530493
I always read those kind of greens as "I found this human in the war that kept on fighting after recieving 10 kinetic impact shots. Humans are scary!". More of a stereotype aliens have of us than reality.
An
>All asians are good at math
Kind of deal
But, as long as the story is about individuals then having them be exceptional should be considered okay, as long as we don't tread into suspension of disbelief-territory here. So i understand your point.
I am now imagining Alien as a group of space elves from a low gravity world finding a stasis pod of a human space marine (Marine as soldier, not a 40k). Adding some John Carter of Mars for good measure.
I can't remember where I read it
Maybe 1d4chan
It was this great HFY story about how fucking bewildered the aliens were at human diversity. That we have a large arry of language, of culture, skin color, religion, ext
In the story the aliens had more or less 'exterminated' all forms of differences on their race. And in that realized that they were monsters.
I don't know, I really liked that.
>>46518912
>humanity doesn't even have their own galactic empire but have been subsumed into another one specifically because of that empire's need of their specialized trait.
What specialized trait is that, then?
>>46530135
>>46530689
The Zevrass are kinda weird as far as hive mind races go. They're kinda like Zerg in that they can infect others and link them to the hive mind. However, each Zevrass technically as an independent will, but their bodies and minds have been so altered that they cannot conceive of ever being separated from it. A Zevrass disconnected from the hive mind will likely enter a state of withdrawal and catatonia.
There are 6 races (including humanity) that make up the Zevrass, each serving a different purpose. Each race is considered equals and all 6 have a Queen that represents them. The Queens make all the decision making for the Zevrass species. They are also the most free thinking of the Zevrass, although the infection process makes it so they cannot even think of the idea of turning against their fellow queens or the species as a whole.
Each Queen is chosen from the species as being the exemplary of that race's role. So the human Queen is like a Tyrion or Frank Underwood level political schemer and charmer.
>>46531289
Interesting, is humanity better under their alien overlords? Or is it a shit existence?
What about the other races?
>>46531438
>>46531438
Humanity is generally better off. We got infected in the 21st century before we got any major space travel or stuff like that. The Zevrass basically uplifted us as a species.
I don't have the names for the other species worked out yet, but here are the others and their queens:
1. There is a species of drider like people who function as the biological scientists of the Zevrass. Basically, they make genetic modifications to species induced into the hive mind and any adaptions needed. Their Queen, Vel'tonap, designs the bodies of new Queens when they get induced.
2. There is the brood mothers, who function to continuously create new Zevrass. They are able to birth any member of the Zevrass species. They also act as medics, as they are able to spray regenerative material. Their Queen, Viraxis, is able to recreate any Queens who are slain (There are actually more than 6 species in the Zevrass, but their queens were killed as they were around pre-Viraxis. The original Zevrass species is actually unknown)
3. There is a race of kaiju who function as the main warriors of the Zevrass race. They are kinda like the kaiju in Pacific Rim, in that they have many different sub-species, but share common traits. Their Queen, Ultranos, is the leading military commander of the Zevrass.
4. There is a race of rodent like aliens who are the engineers of the Zevrass. They create all the weapons, space ships, etc. They are also capable of storing forms of energy within their body, such as plasma or electricity, and releasing them as attacks, making them serve as supporting soldiers. Their Queen, Fichnyo, is the chief engineer of the Zevrass.
>>46531663
5. Their is a race of blob like aliens who serve as the spies and infiltrators of the Zevrass. They are able to shape shift their bodies into any form and copy appearances, voices, etc. Their Queen, Amorpha, is the spy master of the Zevrass
6. And finally, humanity are the diplomats and political officers of the Zevrass. They exist to put on a positive image for the Zevrass to the other species, handle any diplomatic incidents, and legitimize any of their wars with political scheming. Their Queen, Regina, is basically like a mix between a Public Relations executive and political schemer, always setting up deals and betrayals to keep the other species distracted while improving the Zevrass's image in the galaxy.
Like I said, a lot of this is still work in progress and I still have a lot to do before the setting is fully ready.
>>46531696
What about the other species? The ones outside the Zevs?
How have the humans changed physically since the joining?
>>46531289
>each Zevrass technically as an independent will
>The Queens make all the decision making for the Zevrass species
>They are also the most free thinking of the Zevrass
> the infection process makes it so they cannot even think of the idea of turning against their fellow queens or the species as a whole
Kinda self-contradictory.
>>46531663
>>46531696
Also - I can't make out if the Queens are ultimately political leaders or supreme specialists.
Both makes it one insane technocracy.
>>46531941
Maybe he means you can have your own thoughts but can't always act on them? Or you're being influenced anyway?
>>46532000
>Maybe he means you can have your own thoughts but can't always act on them
That's called schitzophrenia. I guess that an alien race of highly functional schitzophrenics is possible, but that would be quite far away from any sort of free will.
>>46531993
They're kinda both. They are the leaders but are also the most exemplary of their race's skill set.
>>46531941
Queens are the leaders and make all the command decision, but the other Zevrass can carry out those orders as they see fit. Being an infected member of the Zevrass doesn't rob someone of their personality and turn them into a mindless drone like, say, the Zerg.
Basically, it's a monarchy. The queens are always the leaders and tell the Zevrass what to do, but don't physically control their subjects completely. They'll tell them, "Go capture this base" and let them decide how to do it, for example. Again, kinda hard to explain.
>>46532000
>>46532074
The Zevrass can have their own thoughts save for thoughts that have to do with betraying the race. They physically cannot conceive of it and are completely happy serving the queens and being a member of the species.
>>46532675
>They're kinda both.
So, it's a technocracy.
>Queens are the leaders and make all the command decision, but the other Zevrass can carry out those orders as they see fit
So, they do not actually make all the decision making, as population is free to deny their arbitrary rule and form their own administrations? I mean, you could allow for free-thinking and yet entirely submissive aliens, but you included humans there as well, yo.
>They are completely happy serving the queens and being a member of the species
>Being an infected member of the Zevrass doesn't rob someone of their personality and turn them into a mindless drone
Again - kinda self-contradictory, unless Zevrass are living in a perfect utopia (which they don't, as they need engineers for dealing with the nature's challenges and soldiers and diplomats for dealing with outside threats). Existence in a competitive context that requires engineers, soldiers and diplomats implies inclusion of fundamental conflicts. Such conflicts can always be resolved in a multitude of ways, each of them protecting different interests. Meanwhile, existence of free personality and will implies a multitude of such interests in different stratas of Zevrass society. They can't all be different individual beings and at the same time remain die-hard collectivists that put the interests of their society infinitely above their own, as the latter is just an interpretation of said "mindless drones".
And even if they are all perfect loyalists - if they are still different and diverse in their personalities and behavior, they can have different ideas on what makes best for their society, and that can vastly differ from the politics of the technocratic council. Unless they:
A. Are not different at all, which means that they indeed are mindless drones.
B. Have all of their differences and conflicting opinions forcibly suppressed, which means that they indeed are mindless drones.
Humans are the pink tide
>>46533059
Yeah, looking it up, I think you pretty much got it. It's a technocrcy with perfectly loyal citizens.
I think what I meant is that the Zevrass population isn't AS mindless as other hive mind races like the Tyranids. I like to think of it as how the cerebrates were to the Overmind in Starcraft, if that makes sense. Able to have their own thoughts and feelings, but unquestionably loyal.
>>46526333
Humanity, F^ck Yeah
>>46533982
You can swear on the internet, anon.
>>46533859
'kay then.
>>46518912
>because of that empire's need of their specialized trait.
Which is...? What, their ability to be humongous faggots?
>>46534000
>You can swear on the ineternet, anon.
Not on this Christian imageboard.
>>46534261
>Not reading the thread
I fucking posted this dude.
>>46529476
>>46518912
You mean what basically happened in Mass Effect?
Would humans being the endurance and con based race make sense?
I know how endurance in the animal kingdom is thanks to the whole bipedal design and so it doesn't make biological sense for a human to be able to work more hours a day than an elf or whatever, but as a trait, it'd make humans industrious, hard working, but also still slower than elves, weaker than orcs, but more than just some middle ground generic race.
>>46535579
Well there is more to it than just a bipedal design. But con and endurance as stats are not usually very good ways to represent this. Being good at long distance running doesn't really help you stay awake and such.
I would probably say that humans work best as nomad. So any traits you would give a nomadic species would be a good fit for humans.
Humans are cooks. They can eat and prepare fantastically exotic dishes and they can and will eat anything. They're like two legged goats, except they also have a good idea about what foods other races like and are happy to whip those up.
The human food supply chain is whatever the fuck is available to eat. They'll eat bamboo shoots or tree bark or insects or even each other like wild goddamn animals. They go to outrageous lengths to graft fruit trees or get spices or make food that takes days to prepare.
Everyone likes to eat, but humans make rituals around their food. They have special foods for holidays. They eschew practical food solutions for tasty ones. They even sometimes use food as part of sex.
Sure, they're not the smartest, or the fastest, or the strongest, but they're the fullest.
>>46521360
Actually, Neanderthals may have been more intelligent than Sapiens, but they were more aggressive and therefore less prone to cooperative ventures.
>>46536299
I would totally play that setting.
>>46524772
I was just pointing out that human characters in those games usually have minimum fate points at the xenos max amounts for char gen. Some humans can start with 5 while Tau usually scrape by with 1 and the same with orks.
>>46523206
>Occasionally, a HFY story will be about something cool about us, like our ability for compassion, or our curiosity, but it's rare.
These are the fucking worst ones. It implies the aliens have less or no capacity for compassion or curiosity, despite these being basic necessities for such things as "having a functional society" and "building spaceships," not to mention the idea of humans being "emotionally superior" to aliens is the most ambiguous shit you could possibly write.
Don't tell a story about how your humans are better "people," because every trait you can think of that "people" could possibly exhibit, humans can and probably have exhibited. Tell stories about how they're better animals, because how humans are excellent (or at least better than average) compared to other animals is something that we know to be true. We know what traits (aside from intelligence) set us apart from other animals, we don't need to arbitrarily dictate things to be true of humans but not of others.
>>46536439
there is no archaeological or anthropological proof of what you are saying, it sounds more likely to be something someone made up.
why? well what I have heard, is this claim is not based on any real hard evidence but rather a thinly veiled excuse to support white-supremacy, you do see it right? the implication being "white people are superior to all other races cuz we got neanderthal DNA in our blood" All evidence leans toward Neanderthals lagging slightly behind Humans in the intelligence department, the evidence being the utter lack of complex tool kits at Neanderthal sites as opposed to Human sites from similar periods.
>>46537589
I am not a fan of those stories either, but to play meme's advocate who says aliens would have all of those traits? Maybe they've one but not the other. Or neither, but something in its place. They aren't humans or from earth. There's no reason to assume they'd think like us or feel as we feel. Our emotions are just a cocktail of chemicals being processed by a brain after all. Not that those stories do it right. You'd need to make it non-Space Opera and the aliens very alien for it to work. In the end the alien narrator might not understand compassion but learns to appreciate it in its own alien way as something that exists within humans just as humans may do the same for the aliens.
On the animal thing it's a good idea but the fun of HFY is giving humans a hat. Hats as in space opera there's the Sexy race, the Proud Warriors, Not-Vulcans, Precursors, and The Jews. You get the idea. So what would humanity's hat be? If such a space opera setting were to happen humanity would have a hat whether we liked it or not.
>But anon!
You say
>Those are broad generalizations and stereotypes!
Exactly, and the aliens would have broad generalizations and stereotypes for us. HFY is hoping they're positive, memes, grudging respect, or a cool hat like Proud Warrior Race. Which is why the narrator is often an alien.
That aside, most of it slowly turned into awful My First Space Fight Fanfiction Ever by Anon (which deserves the hate for being overdone, unfun(ny), and unironic wank) until that's all that remains but I feel like when people get mad over the broad tropes applied to humanity they're overlooking the fun cheesy bit outlined earlier. That's right, no one is (usually) being serious when they're talking about breathing rocket fuel. It's low brow because it's intentionally emulating the lowest form of science fantasy (sorry Space Opera fans). It's like people forgot it was a meme or something. Ah well, 40kids killed it anyway. We're just beating a dead horse.
>>46538157
You make a fair point. It helps that humanity's most significant trait (after intelligence and ability to form societies, both of which any aliens will need to have in order to into space without external influence) is their incredible endurance and resistance to bodily damage and pain, setting humans up to be a species of John McClanes, which is my favorite character archtype.
>>46518800
>all the humans in your setting of choice are niggers
How would it play out?
>>46536299
we space meshi now
>>46539012
WAS
>>46537885
Everyone on the planet ended up getting some Neanderthal DNA except for a few pockets of Africa and inner Australia. It's not just a "white person" thing.
>>46520905
>The fact that we're the only sapient species on our planet.
Many other apes (such as chimps and gorillas), as well as crows, parrots and some whales can all be considered sapient. They're smart enough to have a clear concept of self as an individual, can formulate complex thoughts, and are even able to communicate complex concepts.
>>46520925
>>46521026
Really, elves having a low birthrate compared to humans would actually be pretty unrelated to their population growth rate. They might have children much more rarely than humans, but they live for a very long time and, since they in most cases pretty much stop aging when they hit adulthood, would presumably remain capable of breeding for most of that time. Over time that would add up, and once you have enough elves their population growth rate might even outpace humans, as humans remain able to breed for comparatively short time and have a much higher turnover rate due to short lifespan.
>>46518800
>Humans are excellent pastry chefs, and known across the world as skilled punsters
>Gnomes are most numerous and adaptable of all the races. In fact, it’s their ability to adapt to their environment that’s allowed them to spread far and wide across the world, inhabiting lands alongside all the other races and making new homes for themselves in the harshest environments. Whereas there are a number of traits closely associated with the other races, gnomes aren’t as easily pigeonholed.
>>46521370
12 months is how long elven gestation is supposed to take in Tolkien's work. Pretty sure the number wasn't chosen based on information on elven biology, but because the elves count their age from conception rather than birth, and making it take exactly one year from conception to birth made things easier for bookkeeping.
The only cases I can really think of elves having super-long gestation period is 40k Eldar, where it takes an unspecified number of years (but Eldar are supposed to be biologically very complex and also innately psychic, which probably requires more time for their brains to develop).
Also the Book of Erotic Fantasy for DnD, where elven pregnancy is mentioned to last around 3 years, I think, but that's an unofficial splatbook and is contradicted by one of the official books that goes into some detail about elven biology and culture (where it's mentioned that elven pregnancy takes about as long as a human one).
>>46540180
SHIT
>>46524875
To be fair, if those things would exist in the same setting, it would result in X-wings getting downed by point-defense.
X-wings only work because the setting was built to accommodate them (they wanted cool space dogfights, so they had to ahve space fighters, and therefore using space-fighters has to be a viable tactic). In a more realistic setting, any space-fighters would run into problems with point-defence (seriously, you have kilometer-long star destroyers, but you can't afford to fit them with enough small guns to shoot any fighters trying to bomb you?), or just fall prey to the fact that you get a much cheaper and more effective fighting vehicle if you remove all the unnecessary weight caused by putting a dude inside it an fitting him with lfie support to keep him alive, and instead just have the thing be remotely operated or fully automatic. Even better, screw the idea of a space-fighter carrying missiles, and just make a bigger missile that doesn't need a space-fighter.
>>46520799
I want this meme to die.
>>46529017
It makes sense for humans to be the average race, if for no other reason than the fact that we would naturally compare other races to humans (ie. "elves are faster than humans, but not as touch, orcs are stronger than humans but not as smart"), and the extra skills/feat lets them be more versitile, which plays into the average statline by making humans suitable for any class.
But it's a bit weird when the extra feat is usually far better than the abilities other races (at least the ones without level adjustment) get, making humans pretty much better at everything, including the stuff other races are supposed to be better at.
>>46540958
I think of gnomes as only existing where there are big allies to protect them and where they can make themselves useful. They might have towns with 100% gnome populations but if you look on the map you'll see there's a human city between them and the places where trouble might roam.
>>46540128
HELL YEAH
FIRE UP THOSE GRILLS
>>46541203
AND
>>46536299
DUDE ORIGINAL LMAO
>>46542145
So, basically jews?
>>46543913
>>46542145
More proof Dwarves should absorb gnomes desu
>>46542145
I think something like this would work better with halflings than gnomes. Halfling and human communities are integrated, with the former being the majority of farmers and those that handle domestic matters for the society and humans forming the armies, guard, and other things that are helped by their larger size and strength.It also solves a personal problem I have with halflings not being distinct enough from humans by making them just share a culture instead of being so similar but separate for no reason.
