This argument goes all the way back to 1974 thanks to Gygax and Tolkien.

Imagine people arguing that one should only play human characters in fantasy games. Imagine a bunch of people arguing back that a fantasy game allows people to stretch their imagination and allows us to play non-human characters to experience life from a different perspective.

The original D&D White Box edition came with Men (Humans) as the base race that was eligible for everything in terms of character advancement. The “Demi Humans,” which were borrowed exclusively from Lord of the Rings, were Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits. (*Until threats of a lawsuit gave us Halflings.) The Demi Humans had their own advancement tables and were classes unto themselves.

Looking at life through the human lens.

We’re theoretically all humans on this planet. We experience everything as humans. The human centrist fantasy TTRPG crowd would have us believe that we can’t imagine life any other way.

Why did Gygax and Arneson even include Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings? Humans are the stars of the show. Humans were originally the only ones who could advance in a character class that we’re all familiar with. If I recall correctly, even Gygax himself wrote an essay about D&D being a human centric game.

Getting freaky with all those wacky Demi Humans.

I see a human every day when I look in the mirror. Sometimes, I just don’t want to play a human in my fantasy TTRPG. Heck, sometimes I don’t even want to be a human in real life. Have you seen how humans act toward one another and everything else in the real world? I’m not proud of it, either.

Yes, I want to play a pretend being in a made up game where we roll dice to simulate the effects of the pew pew and the pow pow. Yes, I want to play an elf sometimes. I want to play a dwarf sometimes. Different perspectives can be a lot of fun to envision even though I’ve never been one of these beings. (Hypothetically, of course.)

Stop casting aspersions on my character!

We have entire TTRPGs that revolve around playing Vampires, Werewolves, even My Little Pony characters. In fantasy games we have Tieflings, Cat Folk, and six foot tall talking rabbit people. Please do not associate me with any negative real life groups because I want to play one of these characters.

Likewise, if all someone wants to play are human characters, there is nothing wrong with them. They don’t lack imagination. They’re not late for the All White Bedsheet and Pillow Case of the Month Club bonfire. They’re not goose stepping to Wagner. They just like playing regular humans. There is a huge amount of diversity within “human” in most games which is not to be overlooked.

I’m gonna say it again.

To each his own. Please play the character you want to play and let others do the same. Neither side of this argument is 100% right or wrong. It’s just a matter of preference.

The only time it might make any difference is if someone wants to play a character that doesn’t exist in the GM’s campaign setting. Even then there are some workarounds. Or just roll with a different character species. It happens on rare occasions. Sometimes Elves or Orks just don’t run free in the campaign world. It happens.

Embrace that which brings the most joy whenever possible. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you.