How can I encourage players to play humans in addition to alien characters?

Necromancy via cloning!

Well, it does depend on the group and the people in it. I've had almost an entire group of humans before.

Playing as a Human does have its advantages. I personally think Humans are the most versatile species in the game. With starting characteristics of 2, a decent amount of XP to spend and a free rank in two non-career skills a human can play almost any type of party member whereas some species that already have 1s an 3s in other areas can't as easily take on certain roles within the party without investing more XP than might be necessary.

Then there is the in-lore reason of Humans being the most common of species on most planets, humans blend into the background whereas aliens tend to stand out, particularly on Empire controlled worlds where humans are less likely to attract scrutiny from the Empire.

End of the day, players will play who they want to play. For some of them (and some players have expressed this to me) if they are not as knowledgeable of the universe playing a human offers them a baseline context for their character, they can better inhabit the role than an alien.

50 minutes ago, Yaccarus said:

Necromancy via cloning!

Actually I have changed my mind on this topic quite a bit since then and now I am looking for positives to help encourage players to play humans too. I posted in another thread months and months ago that I had changed my mind on this but I do want to get more people playing humans. I was looking to other people here to help with this because I have had a different view in the past so I have to rely on others to try and see things a different way.

You can join Nitwyng on ignore.

11 minutes ago, Ebak said:

Well, it does depend on the group and the people in it. I've had almost an entire group of humans before.

Playing as a Human does have its advantages. I personally think Humans are the most versatile species in the game. With starting characteristics of 2, a decent amount of XP to spend and a free rank in two non-career skills a human can play almost any type of party member whereas some species that already have 1s an 3s in other areas can't as easily take on certain roles within the party without investing more XP than might be necessary.

Then there is the in-lore reason of Humans being the most common of species on most planets, humans blend into the background whereas aliens tend to stand out, particularly on Empire controlled worlds where humans are less likely to attract scrutiny from the Empire.

End of the day, players will play who they want to play. For some of them (and some players have expressed this to me) if they are not as knowledgeable of the universe playing a human offers them a baseline context for their character, they can better inhabit the role than an alien.

Thanks I was trying to think of how it's handled in this system without relying on my own memory too much as my books aren't with me and also in the setting because I have had a bias against the alien characters in the past. Looking for positive ways to deal with this situation.

13 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Actually I have changed my mind on this topic quite a bit since then and now I am looking for positives to help encourage players to play humans too. I posted in another thread months and months ago that I had changed my mind on this but I do want to get more people playing humans. I was looking to other people here to help with this because I have had a different view in the past so I have to rely on others to try and see things a different way.

You can join Nitwyng on ignore.

So you’ve “changed your mind on this topic quite a bit,” and you’re now looking for advice on...how to encourage players to do that exact same thing you advocated, but have changed your mind on....

Anyway...not that I expect you to peek behind the Ignore Curtain here (or acknowledge that you did, at least), as Ebak said, it mainly depends on the player and what they’re wanting to do with the character. One of my most recent characters is a double (triple, really) agent...a spy for the Rebellion who legitimately joined Imperial Intelligence as part of his cover (and, in turn, was assigned to deep cover within an underworld organization by the Empire). The Imperial Intelligence part of the character concept would be harder to pull off with a non-human.

Sometimes, though, it’s as simple as the player saying, “Y’know, it might be fun to play (insert alien species here).”

If you want a campaign with humans, tell the players that aliens are off-limit.

It depends on the approach of the player. If they're a stat person, humans are an easy sell. They get 110 XP to start, and 2 in everything means they fit every possible game mechanic the player wants to make use of. Plus getting to choose a free point in two non-career skills does help more than you think, especially if the character is from a Force and Destiny career. Think of the Mechanic who's specialization doesn't include a weapon. Or Perception is often a good choice. Or Vigilance. Discipline for force types.

Flavor-wise, humans can be from almost anywhere and have almost anything for their backstory. There's few communication issues. Finding gear is easier. Humans are more likely to come from upper-class backgrounds (though by no means is this exclusive to humans). They're also easier to play for newcomers. No accidentally getting your age, height or description wildly wrong. No slipping into talking about your favorite time of the day when you come from Ryloth!

There's also several more-or-less human races. Mirialan, Zabrak, Arkanian, Zeltron, Chiss. Miraluka aren't officially an FFG race, but there's a fair amount of lore around them, enough that many GMs would probably let one in.

I've only imposed a few limits on species selection (usually for campaign reasons, but only barring a few species) in my games, and human have made up < 50% of the PCs in all of them.

1 hour ago, sarg01 said:

It depends on the approach of the player. If they're a stat person, humans are an easy sell. They get 110 XP to start, and 2 in everything means they fit every possible game mechanic the player wants to make use of. Plus getting to choose a free point in two non-career skills does help more than you think, especially if the character is from a Force and Destiny career. Think of the Mechanic who's specialization doesn't include a weapon. Or Perception is often a good choice. Or Vigilance. Discipline for force types.

Flavor-wise, humans can be from almost anywhere and have almost anything for their backstory. There's few communication issues. Finding gear is easier. Humans are more likely to come from upper-class backgrounds (though by no means is this exclusive to humans). They're also easier to play for newcomers. No accidentally getting your age, height or description wildly wrong. No slipping into talking about your favorite time of the day when you come from Ryloth!

There's also several more-or-less human races. Mirialan, Zabrak, Arkanian, Zeltron, Chiss. Miraluka aren't officially an FFG race, but there's a fair amount of lore around them, enough that many GMs would probably let one in.

Thanks so much this was exactly what I was looking for. I need stuff like this to be able to sell the idea to players who simply dismiss humans as boring. Aliens are great but I also want humans in the game.

As my group has found playing the rebellion side, it’s difficult to do infiltration missions as aliens. At least as aliens who can’t pass as humans under a stolen stormtrooper helmet.

Humans have the most balanced statline. It’s the most flexible species outside of Droid, which has a number of different advantages and disadvantages on its own.

If GMs are adhering to lore, there should probably be a setback or two imposed on aliens using social checks against Humans who have drunk the Empire's Kool-Aid. Not everyone's a bigot in the GFFA, but a lot of the Humans are. Other Humans won't suffer the same social stigma.

16 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

If GMs are adhering to lore, there should probably be a setback or two imposed on aliens using social checks against Humans who have drunk the Empire's Kool-Aid. Not everyone's a bigot in the GFFA, but a lot of the Humans are. Other Humans won't suffer the same social stigma.

Conversely, humans will likely get the same treatment from non-human worlds oppressed by the Empire even if they are not Imperials (since all humans are the same in the eyes of the oppressed).

Humans may be the most versatile but pantorans make the best smugglers from a game mecha and ica perspective. It's possible for pantorans to start with a 4 in agility 3's in cunning and presence and 2's in everything else. That is likely the optimal starting statline for a stereotypical smuggler (pilot, face, gunslinger, gambler), and if I recall correctly they get a free rank in negotiation or cool. Why I mentioned that... the stereotypical smuggler might be the most frequently played star wars rpg character so they're pretty common/versatile too.

In general (but mostly in Age of Rebellion) I tend to divide species in two broad categories.

Those who can and those who can't be disguised as stormtroopers.

Humans also have a rather easy time passing as imperials even without face concealing headwear. Technicolor near-humans (Mirialans, Pantorans, etc) could pull this off as well, but would need make-up or something. I guess a balosar wearing a hat could pass a cursory inspection as well.

People not playing humans is a problem? Most systems it's the opposite.

Anyways: Stormtroopers aren't the only thing it is easier to disguise as. Since most species in the GFFA were meant to be played by humans, with a few puppet and CGI based exceptions, humans can disguise as lots of things. Repeated EU examples (Specters of the Past, Tatooine Ghost, Wedge's Gamble, lots of Wraith Squadron since it has an actor among the main cast), show stage makeup is way more advanced in the GFFA and temporary fake real looking appendages that can easily be added. Near humans aren't too disadvantaged by this, but most other species have significant difficulty disguising themselves as members of another race. Twi'lek could disguise themselves as Togruta, Chagrian or Iktotchi and none of those are doable in reverse. Indeed, most "aliens" have heavy sexual dimorphism on the head and can't even pull off disguising as the opposite sex of their own species that easily. Remember: It's better to wear a disguise while doing an op and ditching it afterwards than doing an op and disguising afterwards, especially so in a world of cameras and droids.

5 hours ago, NanashiAnon said:

People not playing humans is a problem? Most systems it's the opposite.

Anyways: Stormtroopers aren't the only thing it is easier to disguise as. Since most species in the GFFA were meant to be played by humans, with a few puppet and CGI based exceptions, so humans can disguise as lots of things. Repeated EU examples (Specters of the Past, Tatooine Ghost, Wedge's Gamble, lots of Wraith Squadron since it has an actor among the main cast), show stage makeup is way more advanced in the GFFA and temporary fake but real appendages can easily be added. Near humans aren't too disadvantaged by this, but most other species have significant difficulty disguising themselves as members of another race. Twi'lek could disguise themselves as Togruta, Chagrian or Iktotchi and none of those are doable in reverse. Indeed, most "aliens" have heavy sexual dimorphism on the head and can't even pull off disguising as the opposite sex of their own species that easily. Remember: It's better to wear a disguise while doing an op and ditching it afterwards than doing an op and disguising afterwards, especially so in a world of cameras and droids.

Well that's one I never thought of and it makes sense. I mean real people had to wear those rubber head masks to make the movies lol. Good stuff. I wouldn't say it's a problem but I would like to have some humans to hang the drama and tension on from time to time.

3 hours ago, Archlyte said:

I would like to have some humans to hang the drama and tension on from time to time

Why don't you do this with the alien PCs?

1 hour ago, Stan Fresh said:

Why don't you do this with the alien PCs?

Because, apparently, non-human characters “should be sidekicks” and can’t possibly be compelling PCs. 🙄

23 hours ago, penpenpen said:

Those who can and those who can't be disguised as stormtroopers.

Suddenly I get reminded of that one time during a D20 game, where the party decided to use a set of Stormtrooper armor to disguise their wookiee companion. ("As long as we roll high enough on our deception check...?") So then I imagined a Stormtrooper, well over 2 meters tall, with tufts of brown and black fur protruding from between the armor segments everywhere. And the deception check failing miserably, so they stated "This is TK Double-U zero zero. He forgot to shave for the past month as he was out in the field for continuous combat duty. Say hello zero zero." *tchk* "RRRRuagh!" *tchk*

To be more on topic, this humorous example does show why sometimes it might be compelling to play humans, or near-human species. Or to avoid missions where it is necessary to play humans and their look-alikes. This does not take away the fact that players will want to play whatever they want to play. The best bet would simply be to have a session 0, and out front state you want to lead a campaign about a bunch of humans who will be going on many, many spying and infiltration missions (for example).

The next thing you could do to have people choose humans, would be to alter their game stats, make them more powerful with added abilities. This, of course, would break them, change the balance dynamic between the different species.

A more heavy handed solution would be to clearly disadvantage aliens in the game. Narratively. During routine Imperial Customs Inspections, the humans have their idetities checked, and luggage x-rayed, while every alien gets that famous full-cavity search. Aliens would need to pay bigger bribes to get into certain establishments. Aliens are hunted more feverously when they are on the run, while the search for their human companions is stopped hours earlier.

But...

Whatever you do, which ever route you take to make humans more compelling, it might also mean you are depriving people of their fun at the table. There are players out there who always play humans, because they can't imagine what it would be like to play an alien. There are also people out there who never play a human, because they find humans boring. Or for other reasons, no matter how wrong. This one player I knew always insisted on playing a female twi'lek. Bog standard Modus Operandi; search the Internet for a very detailed, full-colour, voluptuous image of twi'lek pin-up art, and build a character around that. The only time he changed the formula, was when he searched the Internet for a very detailed, full-colour, voluptuous image of zeltron pin-up art once. Seemed obsessed with over-sexualized images of alien space babes. Such extremes aside, I met many players who like to play aliens, because they want to play something different from themselves.

So, I like to take things one step further back. You want to encourage your players to play more humans. A good start would then be, to get to know the reasons why they don't.

I find it depends on the players, you gotta know why they'd pick something. I've had groups that mostly make humans (typically due to no aliens interesting them or their concept just fitting with a human) and I've had groups that are all aliens. I tend to encourage human or near human just so they have someone the Empire doesn't, like, you know, openly **** on constantly . I personally prefer humans when I made PCs, in any game really, I like the versatility of mechanics humans are typically given as well as just liking being human, as that;s how I often imagine characters. Most characters in Star Wars are humans, so it typically makes sense for PC parties to be mostly human to me.

But it's all down to preference. If I want to encourage PCs to play humans I tend to either really up sell certain human variants (Mandalorian and Corellian, or Chiss, Pantoran, etc.) so they feel unique. Or I sell them on concepts that just can only work as a human. I don't try to be heavy handed with my approach, but I have "Well, I'd recommend at least someone who could pass for human." As being human in Star Wars does come with a lot of non-mechanical benefits, such as the Empire not hating you automatically, most disguises working, and no pre-established hatreds or enforced backgrounds. Like in my experience, every Wookiee and half of all the Twi'leks tend to be ex-slaves.

And honestly, what works best is just explaining to your players how you find more humans compelling. Mention how movies, even in sci-fi, have mostly human casts. Especially Star Wars, as the franchise does revolve around humans. The reasons behind this are obvious, but books are also human dominated too, so it's a choice people make. Often because humans are not just more relatable, but that we like to see ourselves in media. There's a reason Star Wars has humans at all, even if they're not biologically related to humans from Earth. Because we like to imagine that we'd be included in these adventures in the galaxy. While aliens are cool, humans offer a familiarity and connection to our lives that makes it, in my opinion, just as compelling.

WotC RPGs did state free Wookiees were "rare" during the Dark Times and early Rebellion eras (Saga Core Rulebook 23) and many of the "free" ones are escapees (Force Unleashed 157). That's consistent with the rest of the EU since the Empire did kinda go around hunting down Wookiees and enslaving them in retribution for helping Yoda escape. Twi'lek is more of an oddity since that's mainly a problem with those from Ryloth while they're relatively widespread across the Galaxy and many have never been to Ryloth.

4 hours ago, Xcapobl said:

Suddenly I get reminded of that one time during a D20 game, where the party decided to use a set of Stormtrooper armor to disguise their wookiee companion. ("As long as we roll high enough on our deception check...?") So then I imagined a Stormtrooper, well over 2 meters tall, with tufts of brown and black fur protruding from between the armor segments everywhere. And the deception check failing miserably, so they stated "This is TK Double-U zero zero. He forgot to shave for the past month as he was out in the field for continuous combat duty. Say hello zero zero." *tchk* "RRRRuagh!" *tchk*

To be more on topic, this humorous example does show why sometimes it might be compelling to play humans, or near-human species. Or to avoid missions where it is necessary to play humans and their look-alikes. This does not take away the fact that players will want to play whatever they want to play. The best bet would simply be to have a session 0, and out front state you want to lead a campaign about a bunch of humans who will be going on many, many spying and infiltration missions (for example).

The next thing you could do to have people choose humans, would be to alter their game stats, make them more powerful with added abilities. This, of course, would break them, change the balance dynamic between the different species.

A more heavy handed solution would be to clearly disadvantage aliens in the game. Narratively. During routine Imperial Customs Inspections, the humans have their idetities checked, and luggage x-rayed, while every alien gets that famous full-cavity search. Aliens would need to pay bigger bribes to get into certain establishments. Aliens are hunted more feverously when they are on the run, while the search for their human companions is stopped hours earlier.

But...

Whatever you do, which ever route you take to make humans more compelling, it might also mean you are depriving people of their fun at the table. There are players out there who always play humans, because they can't imagine what it would be like to play an alien. There are also people out there who never play a human, because they find humans boring. Or for other reasons, no matter how wrong. This one player I knew always insisted on playing a female twi'lek. Bog standard Modus Operandi; search the Internet for a very detailed, full-colour, voluptuous image of twi'lek pin-up art, and build a character around that. The only time he changed the formula, was when he searched the Internet for a very detailed, full-colour, voluptuous image of zeltron pin-up art once. Seemed obsessed with over-sexualized images of alien space babes. Such extremes aside, I met many players who like to play aliens, because they want to play something different from themselves.

So, I like to take things one step further back. You want to encourage your players to play more humans. A good start would then be, to get to know the reasons why they don't.

While I would like to answer this question I think it would offend some of the forum dwellers here who get upset when someone else does not like what they like.

1 hour ago, Archlyte said:

While I would like to answer this question I think it would offend some of the forum dwellers here who get upset when someone else does not like what they like.

This is the internet. Don't let their inability to deal with things like adults silence you on expressing yourself (so long as you're following the board rules, of course).

5 hours ago, Archlyte said:

While I would like to answer this question I think it would offend some of the forum dwellers here who get upset when someone else does not like what they like.

I'm guessing they want to take a species because of the mechanical aspects. "Oh, Falleen get Presence 3 and a free rank in Charm. Maybe I'll make my Politico a Falleen instead of a Human."