Playing human

evi1r0n

Baron
So a lot of ideas and pet peeves have been expressed on the boards lately so I thought I would throw my hat in the ring.

I like being a human IG and OOG. I really don't like how humans are perceived OOG. When asking for a human race packet or something like that I was told that I was human so there wasn't much to know... Okay, so my character like's metal and is really into his XBOX 360? If humans are the most numerous race you would think that they'd have a very rich culture and backstory. All the other races have vast local and national race packets while (to my knowledge) humans have little to none.

Not every chapter has or can afford to put out a full player's guide so I feel humans are left in the dark about the world in some places. If not for constant question asking on my local board I wouldn't have known half of what I know. The players and staff were quick to answer any questions I had and were always super nice but not every player has as much time on their hands as I do. Skimming the forum's thousands of posts for info just isn't practical. The rulebook doesn't really contain that much about the setting.

Here's what sparked this: my friend who is debuting Friday is playing a MWE. She knows way more about the world than I ever did starting. I didn't give her a ton of setting info other than a brief rundown. She started asking me things that I had never heard of that weren't MWE related at all.

If characters IG want to view humans as boring and mundane then that's fine but I think we should treat all races equally OOG even if you would never play them. Just my opinions in rant form. Thanks for reading.
 
To be clear, it's not that humans are supposed to be the most abundant overall, just in the local setting. In theory, you should be making a human from that local setting, so that's the information you should have when starting. And that's typically what is supposed to go into a player's guide.

I haven't made a character of another race yet where the chapter it was created in actually had a race packet to provide me. My human had far more starting info.
 
Inaryn said:
I haven't made a character of another race yet where the chapter it was created in actually had a race packet to provide me. My human had far more starting info.

This is bad. I don't like reading this. It makes me unhappy.

At least these chapters should have provided you with the national race packet.
 
Fearless Leader said:
Inaryn said:
I haven't made a character of another race yet where the chapter it was created in actually had a race packet to provide me. My human had far more starting info.

This is bad. I don't like reading this. It makes me unhappy.

At least these chapters should have provided you with the national race packet.

Of the characters I made, I got the national packet at least from a staff once, and some conversation to go with it. It wasn't a local packet, but it was info, and they were working on re-writing their in game world at the time, so I think some slack is in order. ;) I mean, I've been playing since 2000. Staffs change and not everything manages to get handed around, or even is desired to be kept.

I've managed to get my hands on the national packet at least every time and just kind of winged it from there. *shrug* I have fun regardless and that's really what matters, neh?
 
Player's guides are important. You could always offer to help your chapter write one, or a larger one, including human history?

We actually run a lot of human plot in our game, and I believe Caldaria has as well. The money I'm given from players with human character's is no less green, after all.

I personally love playing a human, if for no other reason than this: no one can ever tell me I'm doing it wrong. Well, I suppose they can, but they can go to hell, because I'm great at it!

The great thing about playing a human, well there are several. One, I've already stated. Two, I can dress how ever I want, like ninja, a knight or a fry cook, and I'm never told "you don't dress like your race should dress." Three, I have the best racials in the game, what ever skills I spend my build on. Oh! And there are no skills (besides racials) that I can't buy, or for which I have to pay double.

A boring human character is a symptom of either a boring, lazy, or simply undecided player. Actually, humans, when you think about it, have more potential than other races to be interesting, since they never have to abide to any rules about always liking well built hammers or hating sunlight, or whatever, but they can feel that way about both those things!

I think it's a silly comment when people say "I get to play a human every day". No, goon, you get to BE a human every day, not play one. Playing a human involves slaying zombies in a swamp at three in the morning with nothing but the moonlight to reveal how many of your friends are lying dead on the ground, for instance. THAT'S playing a human (or any race for that matter), but you're not just being the same dude you are every day. Your human character can be whatever you want him or her to be. What the hell is boring about that?

Gary

PS. Okay, Brian Bender, I finally did it. I ranted on the boards about how awesome I think humans are.

HUMANS (and Scouts!, but that's a seperate rant) FOR THE WIN!!!
 
Our campaign is set in a human kingdom at Crossroads... they have a culture and history just like any other. And they're generally hateful, xenophobic, money-grubbing bastards as a race. Boring? Not likely.
 
Inaryn said:
To be clear, it's not that humans are supposed to be the most abundant overall, just in the local setting. In theory, you should be making a human from that local setting, so that's the information you should have when starting. And that's typically what is supposed to go into a player's guide.

There should be a race packet for Humans. You should not have to buy your race packet in the form of the players guide (I know this is not what your point was).
 
Gilwing said:
Inaryn said:
To be clear, it's not that humans are supposed to be the most abundant overall, just in the local setting. In theory, you should be making a human from that local setting, so that's the information you should have when starting. And that's typically what is supposed to go into a player's guide.

There should be a race packet for Humans. You should not have to buy your race packet in the form of the players guide (I know this is not what your point was).

Not every chapter charges money for their players guide.
 
Morganne said:
Our campaign is set in a human kingdom at Crossroads... they have a culture and history just like any other. And they're generally hateful, xenophobic, money-grubbing bastards as a race. Boring? Not likely.

Wait, are you talking humans or hoblings?

:D
 
Inaryn said:
Gilwing said:
Inaryn said:
To be clear, it's not that humans are supposed to be the most abundant overall, just in the local setting. In theory, you should be making a human from that local setting, so that's the information you should have when starting. And that's typically what is supposed to go into a player's guide.

There should be a race packet for Humans. You should not have to buy your race packet in the form of the players guide (I know this is not what your point was).

Not every chapter charges money for their players guide.

Nice, I did not know that.
 
First off, humans rock.

Second, do you consider gypsies humans? They have there own race packet/history, and can do the curse thing which is cute and fun...but they still are basicly humans that wears colorful cloths that like to bang tambourines
 
Luigie said:
First off, humans rock.

Second, do you consider gypsies humans? They have there own race packet/history, and can do the curse thing which is cute and fun...but they still are basicly humans that wears colorful cloths that like to bang tambourines

....and Barbarians are humans that wear fur.
 
You can ask for a race packet from another chapter (from the chapter you want the packet from) and play that character concept based on that race packet in another chapter.. just incorporate that into your character history.
 
Deadlands said:
I personally love playing a human, if for no other reason than this: no one can ever tell me I'm doing it wrong. Well, I suppose they can, but they can go to hell, because I'm great at it!

The great thing about playing a human, well there are several. One, I've already stated. Two, I can dress how ever I want, like ninja, a knight or a fry cook, and I'm never told "you don't dress like your race should dress."

This is actually incorrect. People (Marshal's and chapter owners alike) can tell you that you are playing your race wrong. Dress up with just a tinge too much fur in their opinion and you're "trying to disguise yourself as a barbarian"... speak with "too much accent" and they declare you are cheating by trying to pass yourself off as a gypsy.

Frankly, I think the severe lack of information on humans in the book is just lazy. The statement that "you are a human, so you know how to play one" doesn't fly because if I play a human who has a romanian history and a romanian accent then I'm told I'm cheating because there is a fantasy race called gypsy that uses accent as one of it's race defining features. If I play a character who speaks with a rastafarian accent... gyspy. Chinese? Gypsy. Mexican? Gypsy.

According to the rules, humans can't talk with an accent. Which I hope everyone knows is impossible... we all talk with an accent.

So the next thing is dress... you can't dress however you want. You can't dress brightly or gaudily because... gypsy. You can't dress in fur because... you got it. Barbarian.

You can't do all kinds of things that real humans in the real world do. So the statement "you are human, so you know how to play one" is false... Humans in the Alliance fantasy world are clearly not the same as humans from earth. Humans from earth can have an accent and dress in furs or wear stupid combinations of colors.

The fact of the matter is that the book should be revised to contain basic information on humans, humans should be listed in the race advantage/disadvantage list and they should be treated like a race in the game, just like every other race. They should be given a national race packet and local ones too.

If you think humans should be dressing and acting a certain way, (like 14th century England or whatever) then put that in your race packet.
 
Ive been told either an accent or slight furs/colors in costume are fine as long as its just one or the other. Im pretty sure we are all observant enough to know when someone playing actually has an oog accent anyway, mainly because Im very unobservant, especially when im in game, and I could tell.
 
I would just really like to see a little more thought put into humans. Considering how well thought out some of the other races are. It just seems a little unfair to treat humans like a default or punishment. I always liked the D&D way of making humans unique by being more adaptable. Make-up races are really hard for some people to play. The races that don't require make-up are personally unappealing to me. I really enjoy playing a human but the culture and story I have had to create myself. I even have other PCs from my human settlement but not every other player is an unemployed writer. :D
 
meltedwing said:
Deadlands said:
I personally love playing a human, if for no other reason than this: no one can ever tell me I'm doing it wrong. Well, I suppose they can, but they can go to hell, because I'm great at it!

The great thing about playing a human, well there are several. One, I've already stated. Two, I can dress how ever I want, like ninja, a knight or a fry cook, and I'm never told "you don't dress like your race should dress."

This is actually incorrect. People (Marshal's and chapter owners alike) can tell you that you are playing your race wrong. Dress up with just a tinge too much fur in their opinion and you're "trying to disguise yourself as a barbarian"... speak with "too much accent" and they declare you are cheating by trying to pass yourself off as a gypsy.

Frankly, I think the severe lack of information on humans in the book is just lazy. The statement that "you are a human, so you know how to play one" doesn't fly because if I play a human who has a romanian history and a romanian accent then I'm told I'm cheating because there is a fantasy race called gypsy that uses accent as one of it's race defining features. If I play a character who speaks with a rastafarian accent... gyspy. Chinese? Gypsy. Mexican? Gypsy.

According to the rules, humans can't talk with an accent. Which I hope everyone knows is impossible... we all talk with an accent.

So the next thing is dress... you can't dress however you want. You can't dress brightly or gaudily because... gypsy. You can't dress in fur because... you got it. Barbarian.

You can't do all kinds of things that real humans in the real world do. So the statement "you are human, so you know how to play one" is false... Humans in the Alliance fantasy world are clearly not the same as humans from earth. Humans from earth can have an accent and dress in furs or wear stupid combinations of colors.

The fact of the matter is that the book should be revised to contain basic information on humans, humans should be listed in the race advantage/disadvantage list and they should be treated like a race in the game, just like every other race. They should be given a national race packet and local ones too.

If you think humans should be dressing and acting a certain way, (like 14th century England or whatever) then put that in your race packet.


1) They can also tell you that you have poor taste in socks and should invest in mutual funds. If that is an owner or a marshal’s call in their own game, so be it. I've never seen someone told they are playing a human wrong. I wish I had, because that would actually be kind of funny. The theoretically accepted (though seldom if ever done) penalty for playing any other race incorrectly is getting told you have to play your character as a human.

If I'm too awesomely masculine and hairy should I be forced to race change into a barbarian? Because if that is the case...I should have been complemented years ago with the following statement: "Gary, sure, you COULD keep playing a human, but well, it's just that all of the marshal's got together and talked...You are really just too frigging manly to continue on with this charade. It's race change time, Gar-onan."

2) I totally agree with the assessment of laziness. We are wicked lazy.

3) Humans can talk with accents. As you said, we all have'em. You're just not suppose to talk with an accent and wear the flashy clothes, and so on. But honestly, this is sort of a chapter by chapter thing based more on norms than rules, because as you seemed to imply, accents are interpreted subjectively. I've had an accent for my character since day one and no one (that I'm aware of) ever thought I was a gypsy. I also wear all black most of the time, and that no doubt helps keep things clear.

We've had a lot of people on the east coast over the years that played humans who were sort of gypsy-ish or barbarian-ish, wearing bright clothes and fur. At worst it's taken the hand on the head "what race do I see?" question to clear it up, and within a couple hours everyone at the game knows what's what.

But of course, this wouldn't be a problem if gypsies and barbs were just considered humans by the rules, but when we ask around it seems that most people are content with the way it is. So no big deal, I guess.

Overall, I completely agree with you though. We definitely should spend time discussing the particular human cultures from game to game, and within games. It makes the game richer, and more fun for all.
 
If you look at a lot of the games these days, whether RPG, MMO or even LARP, humans are getting some love. D&D and WoW are familiar to most gamers and humans in both of those systems get some cool racial benefits. Personally, I've only very rarely played a human in an RPG and never in a LARP. Still, I'd love to see benefits for pure humans that give them a little something extra.
 
i think the benefit is no makeup in my pores when i get home.... :lol:. on a serious note I play a human and I am entirely okay with no racial plus or minus. -dawson
 
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