That's perhaps one of the things I like about certain SaGa games (1, 2, and Frontier in particular); Humans *are* their own thing (with a partial exception in 2).

In SaGa Frontier, humans are the only race that gets the ability to use weapon (sword, gun, martial arts) techniques, so that's one unique ability; the fact that any of their stats can increase after a battle is, again, unique to humans. (Mystics can only gain HP, WP, JP, and Charm after a fight, while the other two races can only increase their stats through entirely unique methods.)

One thing I don't like about SaGa Frontier, however, is that the game is too human-focused; around half the possible party members are humans, and 5 of the 7 main characters are humans (or, in the case of Asellus, are at least treated as humans mechanically most of the time).

That feels more like a restriction imposed on non-humans rather than a special ability of humans. The level caps are also a poor mechanic in a game where you aren't constantly changing your party; it has the effect of making non-humans completely useless later on. (It didn't help that the level caps were hidden in the Dungeon Master's Guide, a book that the players were not supposed to have access to.)

3rd edition handled the racial situation much better; non-humans lost their class restrictions and level caps, while humans gained an extra feat and some skill points relative to other races.

Dual-classing feels a bit like the class change features of CRPGs (like most Wizardry games, as well as Bard's Tale (but only for casters), some Dragon Quest games (3, 6, 7, perhaps 9), and Final Fantasy 5), except with the extra restriction of losing access to previous abilities until you exceed your former level. I think this restriction really hurts the mechanic, and I much prefer the way it works in many non-D&D CRPGs to the way AD&D dual-classing works.

(Of note, I don't really like the way 3e D&D multi-classing works, as it makes dual caster set-ups non-viable without prestige class use.)

bet dt loves the comments to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s
I showed this to my friend
He’s now a mate

))))))))))))0

Forming crowds of arbitrary size blindly driven by a single idea. Mind of one, power of countless.

Going by Sapkowski... it's actually fertility and ruthlessness. And a short memory (attention span), both in the best and worst sense.

Dwarves are known to hold grudges for centuries, Elves pursue very long term goals. Compared to those those other races, humans are short-lived. A contract a human made - if an honourable one - might not survive the next generation.

On the other hand, most humans are comparatively easy to make them forgive. Life is short, after all.

As someone mentioned, other "races" are simply extrapolations of human traits:
- Elves - love for art and nature
- Dwarves - persistance and greed
- Orcs - fighting spirit and cruelty.

So humans as "base" value tend to be rather "normal". But how to put this into a special power? Maybe in a rock-scissor-paper scenario they are "the joker". Like in a "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock" scenarios they could be any two at the same time, to reflect their versatility.

I'd say Survivability, going through ToxicTom ideas.

Because yes, in a world with Orcs, Elves and Dwarfs, all that would matter for the fragile human race would be survivability. So probably we would develop skills for fast thinking, full awareness of field and strategy for community survival, as historically happened in years before Christ. People would fight for survival in tribes or around a family leader that demonstrate ability for long term survival strategic planning,

If we're talking about a specific "power": Some kind of Teleportation, as this helps to survive and in fighting situations as a group and alone.

Comment of the year already.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” - Robert Anson Heinlein

Abilities for humans are entirely dependent on the setting and other playable races of the game. Every race should be distinct in lore and attributes, so the other options will help define what humans are/can do. That applies to all the races really.

In the tv show Farscape, a human lives on a ship with a handful of other aliens and is basically the weakest race. As such, he has to find other ways to stand out and be useful. Elves are usually portrated as graceful, superior beings, yet in Dragon Age: Origins, they are a twice-broken people, living as savages or in slums.

In a world where all the races live 5 years, humans would be the "immortal" race. If everyone's one foot tall, humans are the giant race. If everyone can only go outside at night, humans are the amazing race that can weather both darkness AND light.

What humans can do and whether it's a bonus or penalty, again, depends on the setting and other races.

Most of the aliens in Farscape have at least one random weakness, making the humans even more vanilla: the Luxans suffer from hyperrage and react badly to bleeding, the Sebaceans don't do well in hot temperatures, the Pilot has reduced mobility, the translator microbes don't work on the Kalish...

However, they ended up making the human the most special one by granting him knowledge and power over *something very important*. Although that was not something inherent to his biology.

Putting aside that and their "bonuses", I was thinking specifically of the episode where it's shown they all have vastly superior vision. They can see images at greater distances letting them see... dun dun dun... far scapes.

Better looking ears and freedom from restrictive racial clichés. :P

I'm totaly fine with how they are presented in most RPGs, a blank slate with more customization options, no disadvantages to make up for stereotypical advantages that you might not even find useful, no baggage regarding lore, no silly looks or Scottish accents (unless they are Scottish, of course). ;)

Hive Mind, I mean we only need a few more years or decades and we have that ability perfected anyway.

Bonuses to deceiving or lying.
Fast learning skills.

Nice quote. It goes along with Pericles’s speech about the way of life of Athenians, as different from that of Laconians (“we can be many things”), in Tucidides’s The Peloponnesian War. That Heinlein knew well (along with Xenophon’s Anabasis and other classics). It is a a very good book.

Among other things, this fascinating book tells of the consequences of civil strife in a timeless way, valid in every age (profoundly worse than conflict with an external enemy).

It is interesting that you mention this. Ursula K. Le Guin reconciled SF with Tolkien’s fantastic tradition in Planet of Exile (actually she did reconcile SF and fantasy in a number of her works). In a remote planet, a sedentary people is to be sieged by a people of “barbarians” from other race. They seek the help of a small colony of stranded humans. They live longer and have great knowledge about many things. The sedentary people takes the role of “humans” in fantasy, whereas humans appear to the other people in a way that strongly reminds of the way Tolkien’s elves appear to humans. It is a nice read.