system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General Fantasy] What are the defining characteristics of humans in comparison to other races?

Elves are wise and stuffy, dwarves are skilled and extroverted, orcs are strong and combative.

What are humans?
gpt
In most traditional fantasy, humans have wider areas of expertise, and are more prone to adventure.

Dwarves, for example, are great at stonework and forging, while Elves are great at arts and arcana. Humans aren't the *best* in any of those areas, but you have humans that are excellent stone cutters, excellent smiths, excellent artists, and excellent mages.

D&D represents this by giving humans a +1 to every skill, while the other races get a +2, but only to certain skills.

Humans are more prone to adventuring, as well. Tolkien's Hobbits like to live quiet, content lives in their Shire, Elves will fight to protect their lands, and Dwarves will fight to protect their mines, but adventuring for the sake of adventure is rare in all three races. Humans, on the other hand, founded the Rangers.

This is also true in *Star Trek*. The Federation is comprised of thousands of species on hundreds of worlds, but humans make up the bulk of Starfleet's exploratory missions.

Humans are typically short lived compared to other species. Elves will live for a millenia, dwarves for centuries, and humans for eighty years, give or take. In fantasy, this often manifests as an urgency to wring as much as possible out of the short lives they've been given.

It also makes humans more reactionary. If a Big Bad Evil Guy sets up shop in the town next door, an Elf might shrug and wander off for a decade or two until the whole thing blows over. Humans don't have that luxury.