Is ambition a human only trait?

[Agrippa]

I'm curious how people regard ambition as it relates non-human fantasy races, especially in role playing games. Do you treat it as something that non-human races lack compared to humans or even view as an alien mindset? Or are they just as ambitious as humans, but less known for it? And if you do depict them as less ambitious do you try to enforce this mechanically or not? Older editions of D&D did this through, rather ham handedly, through level limits.

[SolEiji]

I'd say ambition is one of humanity's biggest traits, but not their only trait.  For me, it's a matter of their focus, and to what degree.  Humans are on one side and are ambitious about pretty much anything. 

On the other end of the scale, elves are classically the least ambitious, preferring to spend their twilight in their forests. 

Dwarves are ambitious, but generally keep their ambitions to matters under the surface: building great cities and mines, fighting off underdark threats, things of that nature. 

Gnome's ambition is technological, but also extremely unfocused so you get 1001 trinkets; the equal to iPods, reversible clothing, and swiss army knives and less things that require group focus like supercomputers, rocket ships, and the internet.

Halflings are like elves, unambitious and willing to stay in their shires, though on a personal scale they might have their own personal quests.

(Half-)Orcs have ambitions of war, with various levels of success.  The only reason why the classic orc hasn't become the leader in the arms race is that with all their in-fighting they keep losing or breaking their own new discoveries in war machines before they become mass produced.

That is, of course, just the generic classic look.  These vary with campaign setting (my orcs tend to look more like bugbears, all militarily advanced).  So I'd say other races usually do have ambitions, but humanity is "best" at it.

[zook1shoe]

Very well put, SolEiji

[Unbeliever]

I think the notion that ambition is a trait of humans is largely a product of poor writing and poor imagination.  Elves, dwarves, etc. all have these iconic traits, what do we give humans?  I know!  Ambition.  Adaptability.  And, similar mushy words like that. 

I think elves, etc. are capable of just as much ambition as humans are.  Anything less leads to a kind of silly world.  Generally, linking character traits too closely with races leads to issues as it is.  I could buy the idea that some elves mellow with age, though, thousands of years and all that, and perhaps are too wise or cautious to seem as ambitious as some humans.  Likely, though, they are just patient. 

Also, counterexamples abound.  Dragon Age:  Origins has a nice take on dwarves, and some of them are quite ambitious.  Tolkien, the granddaddy of modern fantasy and of elves in particular, has Feanor who is insanely ambitious. 

[ImperatorK]

When you play a long campaign and there's a human, a dwarf, a half-orc and an elf in the group, they're all leveling up the in same speed. I would say it's not a racial trait, it's an individuals trait.

[veekie]

I'd say ambition overall, should operate on the term of species lifespans, as a race, but individuals vary enormously. Thus long lived races tend to go for the steady, incremental gains with low risks, while short lived races go for immediate flashy gains at high risk. It's why goblinoids form hordes to seize much and lose much(they never do well on consolidation) and dragons prefer to remain isolated and secluded.

It's simply how much they're gambling. Decades of life for a chance at centuries of fame? Or thousands of years for the same?

[RedWarlock]

There's definitely the lifespan issue. If you made elves and dwarves as ambitious as humans, each individual would accomplish five to ten times what a given human could in their comparatively short lifespan, because they get that much functional adult time to work with. By scaling back their ambition, you basically put them on par with a human, just spread over the course of a lifespan measured in centuries rather than decades.

[bhu]

Chimps have demonstrated ambition.  If a chimp can do it I'd imagine other races could.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

  ... Chimps can hang out with Michael Jackson, so Half-Orcs can too.

[CaptRory]

I think the lifespan argument hits the nail on the head.

Also, consider that races similarly endowed in terms of lifespan like halflings turn their ambition in different ways. Halflings tend to turn their ambition inward focusing on family and simple pleasures for the most part. I'd get along well with halflings hehe.

It doesn't stop individual halflings from being adventure seekers or business magnates, but you can generalize.