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40d:Human
Humans are intelligent humanoid creatures that live in cities on the plains. They are one of the races playable in Adventure Mode. Their buildings are made entirely of wood, and usually include several houses and shops, and a tavern. They are primarily interested in trade, and generally send large caravans in summer. They will siege any fortress that lets harm come to their caravans.v0.23.130.23a
Humans in Fortress Mode
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The first human caravan will arrive in the summer of your second year, provided a human civilization has access to your site. The caravan will have wagons, which carry lots of goods, but need a 3 tile wide corridor. Humans may also send a representative, and having more skilled trading nobles will upgrade him to a Merchant Baron or Merchant Prince, who have larger caravans.
If enough humans are killed while visiting your area, their civilization will invade and try very hard to obliterate your fortress. This can be viewed as either something to avoid, or a chance to test your network of fortress defenses. This can be especially tricky if a human noble has been to your fortress. All traps that she observed while walking inside will be essentially inactive for any invading humans.
If you succeed in defeating a human siege, they may send a diplomat to make an offer of peace, which you can accept or reject.
Living among them
Creating a settlement underneath a human town confers a number advantages. The human soldiers and guards, in the process of protecting their town, also protect your fortress. In addition, all the objects present in the town are assumed to be your property, which provides your fortress with a huge starting value boost. You may also reclaim the items present inside the various buildings, giving you a nice early cache of weapons, trade objects and furniture. Finally, the wood from the buildings may be acquired by deconstructing them, or undermining the structure.
Humans in Adventure Mode
Human towns usually have many different shops. They typically have swordsmen and plenty of drunks to recruit. The leader and quest giver of a city is called the mayor, who can generally be found in the tavern in the center of town.
Humans characters are, in every way, the middle road between dwarves and elves. Their starting equipment is metal, but the type of metal depends on how advanced that particular Human civilization is. Humans might have copper, bronze, or iron equipment. Humans may start with skill in any weapon (as opposed to the more limited lists that elves and dwarves use). Humans lack the special damage resistance of dwarves and the raw speed of elves, but they are one size category larger than dwarves. This makes them hit harder and absorb more damage (though it may not make up for their lack of damage resistance). Another downside for humans is that they have a life expectancy of 60-120 years, which is a lot shorter than dwarves and especially elves, but this is unlikely to affect anyone except a serious Fortress Mode addict.
They may buy both armor and weapons at human towns, and may scavenge dwarven weapons from abandoned fortresses. Masterpiece armor is extremely rare in human shops, but exceptional equipment is common, and temples contain abundant loot, so a human adventurer can easily pick up a set of exceptional gear.
Playing as Humans in Fortress Mode
To start a "Human fort" (or, alternately, an Elven retreat or Goblin tower) one need only add the tag [CIV_CONTROLLABLE] to the entity_default.txt file in the /raw/objects folder, under whichever race you wish to play. You should only do this after having already generated a world, otherwise you may encounter bugs. It's also advisable to only have one race playable at a time by removing the [CIV_CONTROLLABLE] tag from all but the race you wish to play, for similar reasons.
Gameplay adapts remarkably well, as if Toady intended us to do this, although there are a few bugs mostly relating to traders from certain races not arriving at your fort. The Elves can carry with them many different pets upon embarking, and the races will start with the appropriate food and plants (for example, humans have prickle berries instead of plump helmets by default).