Can someone with the phb explain the human racial optional feats rules?

Why of course my dear mechanical man. Honestly it's kinda poor form for wizards to include that bit in the 'free-to-play' rules as there is no way to take advantage of it without the actual PHB. That said;

Feats in the game differ from how they were handled in previous editions. No character naturally gains feats at any point during there character advancement. However, when a class would gain a 'Ability Score Improvement' during level up (that is to say every four levels) they have the option to instead take a feat (the game treats them as variant rules so you'll probably want to ask your DM if he is allowing them though).

Feats are basically a small collection of special abilities that can further customize your character's options and skills. Many are simply collections of previous editions feats rolled into a single ability; for example the 'Dual Wielder' feat grants your character 'Two-Weapon Defense' and that one feat that allows you to wield non-light weapons off-hand without penalty. It's kinda hard to explain since the bonuses they provide are so varied.

To the original question; assuming the DM is using Feats Human characters can use the optional rule that allows them to start the game with one. Honestly I kinda prefer the variant rule as humans seem a little 'meh' without it.

TL;DR Version: You can't take advantage of it without an actual core book so no need to worry about it.

I dont have the PHB in front of me, but I think the trade off is like

Normal:
+1 to all ability scores.

Variant:
+1 to two ability scores.
Proficiency in one skill
One feat

Yeah that's the trade off. Like I said I actually prefer the variant rules. +1 in everything just seems all kinds of 'eh'. It's nice and all but it kills customization and flavour for me. Then again I've always been against the 'humans are really good at everything they try' thing that is standard in D&D. I've seen humans who can't master single skills yet alone enough to justify bonuses!

Humans being varied means they should have choice at been good at some stuff while bad at others. The +1 to all abilities just seems like about half of them would be in either dump stats or marginal stats.

I think it always just came off a lazy to me to be honest. I can understand when your building humans for a generic rule book but if your building them with a specific setting in mind there is no reason why their racial attributes shouldn't reflect that.

For example if there is a human nation besieged on all sides by orcs for hundreds of generations, resulting in mandatory military service and turning their entire industry into a support network for war they really should have different traits from say a human nation which has known near constant peace and values magical power above all else. Ya get what I'm saying?

Elves get away with this all the time; what exactly justifies Sun and Moon elves (Forgotten Realms) being separate races when the only thing differentiating them is societal pressures. It just always boggled my mind that humans are the only race that doesn't get this treatment.

Hey thanks you two. Got another question that my group is sort of confused about. If you decide to get your average gold instead of your gear is that trading in just class gear for gold or do you give up both class and background in exchange for the money?

It's both class and background, I believe.

Thanks!

I've seen this question a few times now and have been wondering as well. It came up during character creation for my PBP game on GiantITP.

I just asked it over in the Q&A thread as well to get the conversation going.