So can you make a fantasy world without fantasy staples?
Yes, I think so, with one small "but" edged in there.
I for one don't really think I want elves or dwarves in Deminar, unless we do something to radically alter their culture. Not because I *hate* either species like some people who like fantasy do (I know plenty of pretentious geeks who feel they're somehow "above" other geeks because they think elves are overplayed and don't like them), but because I want something a little different in the setting. What will effectively replace them? Possibly another species with a culture tweak, or possibly nothing at all, with the new Player Species being nothing like Dwarves or Elves.
Will people still want to play it? Sure, I think so, some might be miffed and never want to wander into our sandbox because they like a particular species, but I know plenty of fantasy worlds that don't have iconic species, friendly or hostile (Dragonlance never had Orcs, and technically never had halflings, but they really did), and still did just fine. However, I think you can't eliminate one particular species without really making the game difficult to into. And that's the plain ol' vanilla humans.
Humans are essential to getting players, because, no matter how exotic some players want to go, it's really hard to play anything but a human properly, so it's always a good staple to fall back on.
Let's honestly look at Elves for a second, in their Tolkien style, like most FRPGs use, these guys live for hundreds of years, magic comes to them naturally, and they have a fey quality about them. How does anyone truly embrace that mindset? I've DMed with a good number of players, many who have played elves, and while some were great roleplayers they weren't truly thinking like someone who was two hundred years old and who magic comes as naturally to them as speaking does to us. Why? Because it's impossible to do. If anything, we're playing humans with slightly elven nods, even myself as DM, you can't play such an alien mindset, and if you tried to force everyone too, they wouldn't have fun anymore and taking fun from players is the harshest sin a DM can commit.
So I believe that you have to have atleast the human option available (unless you're going for a very specific genre, like say a *shudder* anthro game), especially if you want to have a game a DM can use to attract new players. People new to RPGs tend to either pick the weirdest available species or fall back on being human because if you're going to act like someone, human is the easiest to do.
So, yes, there will be humans in Deminar. I already said I don't want half-breeds, but will any of the other "standards" make it in? Will there be Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings? Probably not all of them, and some that do make it, might not be completely recognizable (see Dragonlance Kender or Dark Sun Elves), but you'll see humans.
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