But the ability to make tools with thumbs far outweigh speed gained from walking on all fours.
And no, the wheel is not useless without an engine.
...Have people forgotten how to walk all of a sudden? D:
And about wagons and carts? Which are still used as toys and in grocery stores?
God Armok, what is civilization coming to?
removing them adds more chance for variety
Bipeds. Remember that? Is this what your asking for, a wider array of variation in biped lifeforms? Or an interchangeable flag in the raws?
Actually, I wasn't asking for anything. I was having a small chat about importance of humans in fantasy worlds.
Yes, yes. But along the lines of monkeys. As a race. Humans are monkeys, afterall. If we weren't, we wouldn't have two bones in our forearms, like our calves. We are built to balance ourselves on tree limbs. If we were meant to walk on the ground, we'd have one bone there. Like other ground pounders.
All tetrapods have tibias and fibulas like humans, as well as radiuses and unlas. Sorry, carry on, zoology is a bit of a sticking point with me.
As far as humans in fantasy's go, isn't it just the way it is? I mean without humans how would we differentiate elfs from anything else. Yeah, they have pointy ears, but heck.. They'd be just the humans, replacements. Until something more humanly arrived. Its not so much a matter of humans being in the fantasy, as the human ideal, the human feel, and the human impression.
Combat calculations would stink if we didn't have humans, and human-like weapons.
So you say we need humans as an "average?" Makes sense, except that currently humans are the largest of all civilized races.
Of course the races would have to remain true to their own styles, so nothing too crazy like elves making mountain homes and humans protecting forests. What I'm suggesting is that each civ has their own art pref, minor deviations from their laws e.t.c. Which would make for more/less conflicts and more interesting interactions between fortress and civ.
My two cents: Races should have a starting point, defined in the raws and perhaps with some starting variations predefined. All elves start out hippies, all dwarves start out with metalsmithing, all goblins start out evil, all kobolds start out mute, all humans start out...
humaney, although the elves might be culturally carnivorous, the dwarves might focus more on traps than on armies, the goblins might follow tundra spirits or something rather than demons, kobolds might sometimes have organization in their governments, and humans might...um...I'm not sure. Then history would shape them. If a civilization of elves protected a fortress of goblins from human attacks, the goblins might join the civ and spread their ideas throughout it, or the elves might show the goblins the grandeurs of the forest retreats, leading to goblin traders bringing pig tail cloth, blood thorn armor, and tame giant bats. Dwarves and humans might trade steel for large human weapons, only to unite against a goblin civ that's terrorizing the trade routes, who then forge a treaty with subterranean animalpeople to raid dwarves' settlements, and causing later goblin armies to include animalmen squads. If unusually humble and kind kobolds came to dwarvish settlements begging for food, and the dwarves agreed for whatever reason, the possibilities multiply to include kobold underclasses, secret raids on nearby settlements occupying prime land, and multi-race forts. Dwarves who value human, um, values might decide plains and savannas sound nice and therefore spread there, engulfing the original human lands and leading to dwarves with access to longland grass, elephants, and pikes. Et cetera. Please excuse the
wall of text and the
tv tropes links.
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Topic: Considering Races' Roles (Read 16976 times)