D&D General What are humans?

[Xeviat]

Game systems often get away with making humans generic. D&D has traditionally made their feature "adaptable" and just given them more of what everyone else already gets. A5E gave humans some unique features, which really helps them stand out. I'm curious about discussing humans from a worldbuilding perspective.

What about humans is unique to our species and what's just a function of our intelligence? What would other intelligent humanoids not share with us? Compared to other animals on Earth, physically we have high endurance, we sweat, and we can throw things. But what functions of our intelligence could be unique and not shared by other intelligent lineages?

Would all intelligent humanoid species end up with the same technologies, or are some things uniquely human? What if the propensity to personify animals was uniquely human, and thus animal domestication was uniquely human? Or are D&D humanoid species just too similar to end up drastically different?

 

[Vaalingrade]

As presented in the last few editions, Humans are a species of action-seeking Vin Diesels out to adventure the crap out of the planet they literally have no place *zero creator gods to steal land for them like elves or drunk Daddy gods bent on ruining their lives over the aforementioned theft like the orcs) in despite being the plurality of sapient existence somehow.

Unlike the Earth human species we call 'Halfling'.

 

[Tonguez]

its all about family

It has been posited that Homo Sapiens succeeded over other lineages (Neanderthals) due to having a greater level of Social Cohesion and Social Intelligence and thus were more actively sharing and caring. Maybe its our fundamental need to associate with 'family' that gives us such capacity to learn (extra skill?), adapt (extra feat) and innovate (?).

In Orcs and Giants we see that social relationships are mediated by aggression and dominance, Dwarfs by adherence to tradition (and alcohol) and perhaps Elfs relationships are fundamentally selfish and even competitive.

What that means for Human mechanics though I'm not sure

 

[Celebrim]

With a sample size of one, it's really impossible to answer those questions. It really just comes down to what narrative the writer wants to believe about themselves.

Intelligence is something that we are not really understanding but I feel like we are on the cusp of understanding, and the result of that understanding is the realization that we aren't intelligent. In fact, I think we are proving general intelligence doesn't really exist, or at least we have no example of it. We are finding out that there are a few things we are intelligent about - like throwing a ball - and a lot of things we are unintelligent about like statistics and non-linear math. As dumb as we are turning out to be, it's amazing we got this far. But, it's likely that any other intelligent species "out there" would be similarly dumb, but perhaps not in the same ways. Perhaps they would understand statistics but for example be completely tone deaf and unmusical.

But we really don't know anything.

 

[James Gasik]

its all about family

It has been posited that Homo Sapiens succeeded over other lineages (Neanderthals) due to having a greater level of Social Cohesion and Social Intelligence and thus were more actively sharing and caring. Maybe its our fundamental need to associate with 'family' that gives us such capacity to learn (extra skill?), adapt (extra feat) and innovate (?).

In Orcs and Giants we see that social relationships are mediated by aggression and dominance, Dwarfs by adherence to tradition (and alcohol) and perhaps Elfs relationships are fundamentally selfish and even competitive.

What that means for Human mechanics though I'm not sure

If Humans in D&D are Earth Humans, they should have bonuses to Con (we evolved to be persistence hunters) and Charisma (for reasons mentioned). Instead they're some kind of weird super ambitious everyman that is the major race in most settings because, uh...Tolkien, I guess?

 

[TwoSix]

A miserable little pile of secrets?

 

[MNblockhead]

Humans are shards of the god/gods who created these realities, who exist so that the gods/god can witness their creations, and have a means of relating to their creations as one of their creations. All other species are creations of gods who are also creations of the creator god/gods. These species will go to created afterlives in these realities set aside for them, but while the human soul may also go to a created afterlife to experience that as well, eventually human souls will be re-integrated into the god or gods of creation, only to have new beings generated to inhabit new created realities.

This is why humans feel generic. This is why they are so adaptable and subject to less strong species-based stereotypes. In addition to their shorter lives than many other intelligent species, this is also why they tend to be more driven to explore.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

My concept for generalized humanity, in contrast to other species options like elves, dwarves, dragonborn, etc. is:

Wanderlust.

One of the things that seems to have distinguished homo sapiens sapiens from our neighbor subspecies like neanderthalensis and denisova is that our populations wandered. A lot. Sailing across the horizon simply because there was a horizon to sail across, even though that was often a dangerous or lethal proposition. Some anthropologists and paleontologists even think this is part of what made anatomically modern humans succeed so well.

Humans are also excellent persistence hunters, have a ferociously strong pack-bonding instinct (seriously, we'll personify damn near anything), and frequently see so many patterns in nature we may as well have a species-wide case of apophenia.

So, I'd make "Wanderfolk" represent these characteristics. Greater endurance (perhaps a resistance to Exhaustion or similar mechanics), an easier time using diplomacy and insight in ways that relate to other species, and superior investigation skills with a slight propensity to see more than is really there (e.g., perhaps a 1/SR advantage on Perception, but worse consequences for failure, or partially wrong/mixed fact-and-fancy answers even on a success if you roll doubles.)

I'm fine with preserving the "get a bonus feat" thing, as that's a perfectly reasonable choice and dovetails at least a little with the above.

By comparison, dragonborn, who develop more quickly than humans and thus lead longer adult lives, and who have to spend far less time, y'know, worrying about pregnancy and such? They're much more about building grand and tall, rather than seeing what lies beyond the horizon. They have far less pack-bonding and far more friend-(or foe)-making interest (both are gregarious but for different reasons), and dragonborn are physically stronger and heal faster, but don't have the hours-on-end endurance humans do. Clan and legacy are everything to the typical dragonborn, while most humans are rather more individualistic; not that there aren't exceptions, of course, but these are the general trends.

 

[Minigiant]

My concept for generalized humanity, in contrast to other species options like elves, dwarves, dragonborn, etc. is:

Wanderlust.

One of the things that seems to have distinguished homo sapiens sapiens from our neighbor subspecies like neanderthalensis and denisova is that our populations wandered. A lot. Sailing across the horizon simply because there was a horizon to sail across, even though that was often a dangerous or lethal proposition. Some anthropologists and paleontologists even think this is part of what made anatomically modern humans succeed so well.

Humans are also excellent persistence hunters, have a ferociously strong pack-bonding instinct (seriously, we'll personify damn near anything), and frequently see so many patterns in nature we may as well have a species-wide case of apophenia.

So, I'd make "Wanderfolk" represent these characteristics. Greater endurance (perhaps a resistance to Exhaustion or similar mechanics), an easier time using diplomacy and insight in ways that relate to other species, and superior investigation skills with a slight propensity to see more than is really there (e.g., perhaps a 1/SR advantage on Perception, but worse consequences for failure, or partially wrong/mixed fact-and-fancy answers even on a success if you roll doubles.)

I'm fine with preserving the "get a bonus feat" thing, as that's a perfectly reasonable choice and dovetails at least a little with the above.

By comparison, dragonborn, who develop more quickly than humans and thus lead longer adult lives, and who have to spend far less time, y'know, worrying about pregnancy and such? They're much more about building grand and tall, rather than seeing what lies beyond the horizon. They have far less pack-bonding and far more friend-(or foe)-making interest (both are gregarious but for different reasons), and dragonborn are physically stronger and heal faster, but don't have the hours-on-end endurance humans do. Clan and legacy are everything to the typical dragonborn, while most humans are rather more individualistic; not that there aren't exceptions, of course, but these are the general trends.

Wanderlust
Individual Specialization
Family

 

[Bohandas]

its all about family

It has been posited that Homo Sapiens succeeded over other lineages (Neanderthals) due to having a greater level of Social Cohesion and Social Intelligence and thus were more actively sharing and caring. Maybe its our fundamental need to associate with 'family' that gives us such capacity to learn (extra skill?), adapt (extra feat) and innovate (?).

More receptive to memetic programming would be the aspect of social cohesion that causes an extra skills and feat, not sharing and caring.

As a side note IIRC the other thing that was key to early human dominance (although not specifically over other hominids in this case) was stubbornnes, particularly in the field of hunting big game with terminator-like implacibility

EDIT:
As pertains to a fantasy setting I'd go with a different route. What's the same about tieflings, changelings, aasimir, and genasi? They're all part human and part something else. Clearly in D&D terms humans are the race that shags everything. And the implication that most have a mixed and partly supernatural lineage is the source of the motly assortment of individual extra talents