Quote from: jhkim on October 08, 2024, 07:04:48 PM

QuoteA setting where humans always seem and feel out of place.  A setting that doesn't cater, to humans.  Humans are far fewer in number, and are just trying to hang on. Perhaps, long after a cataclysmic event?  Perhaps, something has twisted reality itself?  Perhaps, something else?

ElfQuest is one setting that comes to mind, which has an official RPG adaptation from Chaosium.

I thought of ElfQuest, too. Humans in that are little more than cavemen. But they also have a negligible impact on the story. I wouldn't expect them to be playable in an ElfQuest RPG. I'm not sure if that fits what Man at Arms had in mind.

Arguably humans are exceptional in the wider Tolkien mythos. They're the lastborn of Illuvatar, the designated inheritors of Middle Earth, and are rarely POV characters in the stories.

I think they'd only ever be the exception in RPG terms is they were not the race used for the statistical baseline that other races deviate from. I'm not sure I've ever seen a game where humans were the option and that was the case, though. Maybe you could say they are in Mutant Year Zero? If memory serves there's a supplement that that allows you to play an unmutated human, whereas mutants are more the baseline character type.

Quote from: ForgottenF on October 09, 2024, 10:08:02 PM

Quote from: jhkim on October 08, 2024, 07:04:48 PMElfQuest is one setting that comes to mind, which has an official RPG adaptation from Chaosium.

I think they'd only ever be the exception in RPG terms is they were not the race used for the statistical baseline that other races deviate from. I'm not sure I've ever seen a game where humans were the option and that was the case, though. Maybe you could say they are in Mutant Year Zero? If memory serves there's a supplement that that allows you to play an unmutated human, whereas mutants are more the baseline character type.

I'm not familiar with that supplement for Mutant Year Zero.

There are a number of games where the default character type isn't human -- like Vampire: the Masquerade, Spookshow, etc. And sometimes there's an optional supplement for being human, but I think humans are still the exception in such games. That's true even though the system usually still has human average as the default stat value.

Amber Diceless assumes that PCs are Amberites, and the baseline for stats is Amber level. (You can get points back if you reduce your stat to Chaos-level or Human-level.) Humans aren't nearly unplayable in that game, in my experience.

Quote from: Man at Arms on October 09, 2024, 05:42:30 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on October 09, 2024, 04:18:29 PMWorld of the Last Sun is that way. Humans are an endangered species, mostly having been replaced by a number of weird mutant races.

That would make humans special, and unique.

Yes, also, only pure humans can become Clerics.

I own the Transformers RPG.  I would guess it's a bit obvious, but you don't play humans in that game.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on October 10, 2024, 10:42:37 AMI own the Transformers RPG.  I would guess it's a bit obvious, but you don't play humans in that game.

Unless you're forming the head of a headmaster combiner...

For something where humans are more the background creatures. Wouldnt that fit like 90% of the World of Darkness setting?

Quote from: Omega on October 10, 2024, 12:13:10 PMFor something where humans are more the background creatures. Wouldnt that fit like 90% of the World of Darkness setting?

Yup.

Any of those urban fantasy games about secret vampire and werewolf society would count.

However, think the original question was where to find classic fantasy genre games of swords, magic, chain mail armor, and stone castles that are centered around non-humans

All the ones I brought up were either sci-fi games, or anthropomorphic animals.  Or both. 

Hell, I just thought of another game.  Usagi Yojimbo.  It's medieval Japan, but it's about anthropomorphic animals.  Usagi Yojimbo is a walking,  talking rabbit.

As for games centered around non-humans like elves, dwarves, or others, with no humans are hard to find.  That I can't think of any games like that.  All I've seen are games like D&D.  The only one that might fit that narrow description is Elf Quest.  Or Pundit's Last Sun setting.  That's it.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on October 10, 2024, 04:13:42 PMAs for games centered around non-humans like elves, dwarves, or others, with no humans.  That I can't think of any games like that.  All I've seen are games like D&D.  The only one that might fit that narrow description is Elf Quest.  Or Pundit's Last Sun setting.  That's it.

There are also a couple of games of playing orcs or other evil races in medieval fantasy, like the Ork! Roleplaying game.



There's also _Orx: Nasty, Brutish, and Short_ along with the old Flying Buffalo game _Monsters, Monsters_.

There's an upcoming Smurfs RPG. At least in the TV show humans were pretty rare.

Goblinoid Games put out a Planet of the Apes style game

And there was the furry 80s/90s RPG, Justifiers