The Problem With Demihumans

My idea is this: people often complain that demihumans are, like Star Trek aliens, usually just human beings but with rubber heads. There are often vague notions like "dwarves don't like the sea" and "elves are good with magic" but nothing much more interesting or detailed than that. -noisms


Demihumans are something I've been thinking a lot about in the last week, and this really sums it up for me nicely. Almost universally, the demihumans in nearly any fantasy setting are just human+(trait). Elves are petite humans who love nature and are good with magic. Halflings are tiny humans who are sneaky and brave. Dwarves are stocky, bearded humans who live underground.

A dwarf

Don't get me wrong, I love me some dwarves. I don't know if it is their manly beards, their obsession with over sized weaponry, their curious naming conventions or their generally curmudgeonly attitude, but I've got a real soft spot for them. They're like little vikings who live in mountains! Recently, however, I've come to realize that I don't need dwarves in my game to have dwarves in my game.

A human

What if, instead of using the same old fantasy races, you just reskinned them all into human cultures? Instead of having a race of dwarves that act like Vikings and talk like Scots, why don't you just have a cultural group of humans who act like Vikings and talk like Scots? Is their something inherent in a dwarf that prevents this? As far as I can tell, for Dungeons & Dragons anyway, the only inherently inhuman thing about ANY of the other demihuman races is that some of them have infravision or low-light vision (both of which can be hand waved as an evolutionary trait because such-and-such tribe of humans live underground, or because they are notorious for their keen eyesight) and long-life spans, which have practically no impact on actual play anyway. The vast majority of the mechanical difference between a demihuman and a human are cultural, not physiological. Some, like Elven Accuracy or the dwarves Stand Your Ground, might straddle the line, but I feel confident that most could be slightly reworked to be cultural. After all, numerous Westerns depict Native Americans as incredible trackers, and I doubt those old cowboys thought that Indians had some kind of innate super hearing.

As an American, I've been taught from a young age that the Chinese are good at math (INT+2), Jews are rich (x2 starting money) and African-Americans are great at sports (Free training in Athletics). Are these offensive, untrue generalizations,? ABSOLUTELY, PLEASE DON'T EMAIL ME ABOUT THEM. But in Dungeons & Dragons, there isn't any reason why generalizations couldn't be true. If there is a culture of doughty warriors who love beards, ale and warhammers, maybe they are famed for being tough and hardy (CON+2) and also known for their practicality and their strength (WIS+2/STR+2).Now, yes, this dwarfish human culture might be completely identical to normal dwarves on a character sheet, but does that in any way detract from the setting? Other than being a little taller and a little thinner, they fill the exact same "ecological niche" that dwarves do. In fact, they actually seem MORE interesting, because why are humans living in underground cities in the first place?

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that, due to Dungeons & Dragons being a fantasy setting, why NOT have dwarves? It's a fantasy setting, so there should be magic and dwarves and dragons, etc. Well, the problem with that argument is that, while certainly a valid opinion, it is an excuse, not a reason. It's the same sort of argument that Grognards use to talk about "wizard supremacy."

Perhaps, as a history major, I am biased. I'm so used to studying and identifying cultural groups from different time periods, that I already put human cultures in neat little boxes with ascribed traits, in a way that most people do not. I don't think that D&Ds history of assuming that humanities defining characteristic as versatility is accurate. Certainly as a species, yes, but as a culture? Especially historically, before the information age, this was just not particularly true. Just a few hundred years ago, the differences between people from two different cultures was vast. As far as I can tell, the only argument in favor of demihumans is that it allows the players to explore racism without real races. "Kenyan's are good runners" is really no different than saying "Elves are good runners (DEX +2)", and yet one is racist and another is not. And yet, by the same note, saying that "Humans from the kingdom of Elffe are good runners (DEX +2)" should work just as well.