Castle Paradox

Shaede · **Tuck in your shirt.** Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 107

*pops out of nowhere*

It's very interesting when you compare the various systems that incorporate multiple races into the game how they place human in comparison.

It's already been noted, but the basis of all thought is human thought (as far as game design is concerned). Often times this results in the human representing everything we see ourselves capable of, where as other races merely give and take in certain aspects. These ranges of skills, though, are limited to our understanding of what is capable to be skilled in. Thus it takes a very creative mind to balance the human in a world that contains skills and activities that do not exist in our own human dominated existance.

Dungeons and Dragons has already been mentioned, but it's a great example of this psychology at work. Humans represent in the D&D world the vast range of skills and adaptation the human race is known for (by the designers). The other races (such as elves, halflings, and dwarves) then are merely exagerrated aspects of mankind. Each of these races holds no true uniqueness to themselves that wasn't based upon our own race. They are merely shorter, taller, longer living, or better at specific human sense such as sight or hearing at the cost of another aspect or aspects of mankind.

To avoid the human race from becoming a template for all other life, one must creatively invent other abilities or senses that humans do not possess, such as ones possessed by another known or imagined animal. Humans live in a world of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. But not all life possesses the same selection. Cats, for example, hold a glad near the back of their mouth that acts as a receptor. Trying to imagine such a sense for a human is impossible, as even our scientific equipment is built only to enhance the senses we already have. What new information do cats recieve that we do not? It's theorized that the glad acts in somewhat the same way of an ant's, which are able to pick up tiny chemical or hormone trails using a sense that human beings are not capable of reproducing.

In the end I believe that humans have vastly remained a template for the other lifeforms that inhabit the realms of fantasy because our realms of fantasy are a very human place to be, shaped and expressed exclusively through the human mind. Most players of such fantasy games would likely not feel as comfortable or enjoy as much playing a being in which percieved existance in a way humans could not truly ever understand. Thus, instead, you end up picking traits that humans already possess and imagine yourself using them beyond the normal scope of ability (at the cost of another aspect you might not value as much).

The human remains the center of the scope of imagination, the template of all our understanding, in the realm of human fantasy. I have come to accept it as the seed of good stories and the beginning of an enjoyable gaming experience. One that I would not taint with trying to introduce upon the player alien ideas that one would be unable to use as a vessel to visit our imagination. That is why, I believe, that humans represent the template of all other races in nearly every fantasy universe you place them into.

Mr B · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 382

Yes, that does bring up an interesting point. Since we can only communicate information that can be constructed from shared experience (yet another weakness of not being telepathic), we can necessarily speak only in terms of a variation of what we already know.

I guess that what I primarily mind about these things in the context of games is that the humans are pathetically average. A race with large stat fluctuations has the potential for significant advantages and significant disadvantages. Classes "lock in" on certain traits in order to function, meaning that an advantage can be exploited while a weakness is minimized. Since humans have no particular potential advantages, no class can exploit them.

Now if we could make a game that relied just as much on general flexability of skills as on utilization of specific skills, the average-ness of humans could be turned into a potential advantage.

Shaede · **Tuck in your shirt.** Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 107

FhaeRoX · Joined: 22 Apr 2006 Posts: 3 Location: The wrong place

Jack · **the fool** Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 773

Have you ever played an actual DnD RPG? Humans are always the balanced race. They can chose any class, and are adept at all skills. You just have to actually work at it 25% more to catch up with the pure breds.
_________________

The Wobbler · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 2221

Me · Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:56 pm Post subject: Re: The Problem With Humans

FhaeRoX · Joined: 22 Apr 2006 Posts: 3 Location: The wrong place

The Wobbler · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 2221

Iblis · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:06 am Post subject:

Gizmog1 · Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:16 pm Post subject:

My personal opinion is that for a middle of the road (Like humans) choice to be useful, there has to be a whole lot of options in terms of character creation, and skills. What good is it if a human takes no penalty or bonus on magic or melee combat if he has to choose between one or the other?

In Third Edition, at least, the human is a pretty bad choice. They get an extra 2 or 3 skill points per level, and a feat, but Dwarves can wear heavy armor without a penalty to speed. Moogle mentioned that game designers tend to favor humans because of some kind of Species Pride, but by that logic, I'd wager the folks down at Wizards of the Coast are of Elven descent. There's an elf for every time and occasion! There's wood elves who get a bonus to strength and a penalty to int! There's gray elves who get a penalty to strength and a bonus to int! If you can think of a penalty bonus combination, they've probably published an elf who has it.

The system really favors you to have that min/max advantage, especially at the lower levels, and I think the only way they could do that, short of giving humans something (Which would probably unbalance them), would be to make stats less of a crucial point in character creation by doing away with random stats, and making it some kind of a buy system. Maybe Humans would start with 6's all around, where as everyone else would have 4 6's, an 8, and a 2.

It may just be a fluke in 3E, or with the people I play with, but I've never seen anyone play a human who hadn't rolled consistently good stats. The guys who roll basically all 12s usually go Elf or Dwarf to get a 14 and a 10, the guys who roll an 18 a 12, a 10, and three 8s almost invariably for the +5 and -1, which a human couldn't even get. A DM I used to play with tried to fix it by giving all human characters a free +2 wherever, but that just made everyone play humans for the free feat, bonus, and a +2 to whatever your best stat was.

I've always kind of liked the idea that maybe a human who played something like a ranger or paladin, which doesn't start out with spells, would get spells a level earlier than a non-human ranger or paladin.

I think that the physical types kind of get screwed at the higher levels compared to the magic users, but that's sort of offtopic. Final Fantasy 6 offset that with tools, and Sword Tech, and Blitz which was neat.

I think Starcraft is probably one of the most fairly balanced games I've ever played, although it seems like more often than not the sole objective is to defeat the Protoss players before they get carriers. Once that's happened, there's nothing that the zerg really have that can beat Siege Tanks and Missile Turrets, which lets the humans bide their time getting nukes or whatever they really want to use to systematically eliminate the Zerg player.

Of course, Warcraft had a "good" system of balance too. No one was different except for how they looked! Each side had "Melee soldier" "ranged soldier" and "Wizard". To me that's boring, even though it ensures the best player will win everytime.

The original Street Fighter had it right, I think. Ryu had stronger fireballs than Ken, but Ken's kicks did more damage and were easier to pull off. (It may be vice versa, I haven't played the original Street Fighter in ages).