Not every one like this kind of threads, most can be answered with a simple " depends on the game". It's almost Geralt's_pl level.
While I have nothing to add to the threads, I really like them, specially when people get creative:

I doubt that's the reason though, it seems more like dtgreene is targeted by trolls, possibly with alt accounts, who downvote every thread or post of hers just because. Downvoting often doesn't really have any other meaning here than that someone is abusing it as a weapon against posters they dislike, regardless of the quality of their contribution.

Members of the human race clicking on that red (-) button... :P

But couldn't a robot or skeleton do the same thing, but with the advantage of never getting tired?

Idk, a bored human is capable of surpassing bots and skeletons, and trolls, when pursuing the goal of trolling someone...

Now that I think about it, this is also the case in Dragonsphere (which deviates heavily from typical fantasy races). The humans, called in this world the Fair, are said to be blessed with children, of which they have more than any other race. And that at some point they will grow so much in population that they will wage war against each other.

Just for fun: According to what appears Tolkien's works, humans are different in:

The aspects that have become more common tropes of stock high fantasy:

- Shorter lifespans.
- Faster breeding.
- Middle height compared to other races. Less sturdy and resilient than dwarves, but faster, yet less son than elvenkind.

...

Aspects a tad more deep:

- Elves are "more" than humans. They live longer, have better health, are ingenious and capable, they can commune with nature profoundly, etc... They are more capable than humans. However, when faced with impossible odds, the best of humans seem to face doom more corageously than elves. Elves will often dismal. This is an important trait.

- Humans seem to be more manipulable (and malleable) than other races. See how no less than nine rings were conceived for them, and the strong effect they had on them.

- They leave the world for good after they die.

Culturally and technically:

- The most advanced human cultures do not reach the sophistication of the most advanced elven ones. Although the most advanced human kingdom eventually became the most mighty ever, up to the point of becoming a threat to lands guarded by the Valar themselves. Compare to barbarians threatening or destroying more advanced cultures in history.

- Having to face terrible supernatural enemies, the most sophisticated human culture learned how to make weapons capable of heavily damaging undead beings, in ways that no other arms even from elves or dwarves would.

-4 on all basic common sense checks that would be used to prevent terrible, but totally preventable situations from happening.

+4 on all subsequent creativity checks to try get yourself out of situations caused by failing the above checks.

Rinse and repeat.

It varies widely by the game, genre, etc.

Sometimes their special ability is "no bonus, but also no drawback".

D&D 2e Skills and Powers gave humans the special ability "gain XP faster", which is part of the fantasy trope that humans' main characteristic over other fantasy races is adaptability. (3e is similar, in that they get +1 skill point per level that they can put into any skill.)

All of this leads to the question: Do they need one? Do races need to have a racial special ability, or should it be tied to environment or upbringing? A lot of tabletop fantasy RPGs are asking this question and altering their designs (or not) according to different answers to that question. Now elves and dwarves, they're often done in the lore as "long-lived", that really sounds like a racial trait -- important biology. But, beyond that, does it matter for play?

Now, I tend to be on the [ahem] "woke" side of things, but I do feel that racial powers do belong in games, but should definitely slant in certain directions. The +/- certain ability scores that's been a staple? Or "only certain classes available"? Those are cultural usually and totally should be abolished. But others, like human adaptability, or dwarven physiologically resistant to poison, or elven inherent lack of need for sleep and resistance to charm? Sure, those are meaningful and not straight-jacketing.

When you get beyond fRPG, it might be different.

Stars in Shadows, the scifi 4x game I've been playing a lot [again] lately, humans' special trait is that they don't start with a home world. It was destroyed. Instead, they start with extra colony ships, so they have to find a key place to start, and start with a couple weaker colonies (rather than other races starting with one developed one with fixed attributes that benefit their powers).

Absurd Adaptability. There are places that by all means, we should consider inhospitable, but we decide to live there anyway. Bogmire slowly eating your house? Don't worry! I've got a solution to that! Scorching desert threatening to kill you in 10 minutes? Haha, I'll work around that!

As the snow falls: Every human is unique. Due to their lack of a global caste or organization of absolute ranks, they come from all backgrounds. The friend of a wizard could be magically inept. As varied as their appearance is, so are their skills and potentials.

That argument could be applied to most other races as well.

(Robots might be an exception to this. Also, there's one character in one of the Final Fantasy games who, as it turns out, is the result of mass production, so that character might not be unique in the game's world.)

Element I forgot in my post earlier:

One of the good design elements of Guild Wars (it had many, at least early on; despite being sold as a MMO and tied to a server) was that the player is only human. There's a rich world of other races, but, you, as the player are HUMAN, experiencing this world. Sometimes as an outsider. One of Guild Wars 2's many (many...) sins and regressions was introducing race selection in character creation.

I approve. So many automatically choose (a) Human(s) and not one of those other interesting choices.

humans should have cooking the minimum and negative in int