D&D General Demihumans of Color and the Thermian Argument

[slobster]

I mean, in Sue's defense when she picked out the costume, its not her fault that biology placed parts of herself at the number four. shrugs.

That or Reed just wanted the eye candy since knowing him, he made the suits.

So there's this interesting concept called a "Thermian Argument" that deals with the difference between an in-universe justification and a justification outside the fiction for why the creators made a creative decision in a fictional world over which they hold absolute power, and why using excuses within the former to 'explain' the latter can be a logical fallacy.

I actually think there was a thread on this site recently about the topic, you should check it out to learn more.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Right now I prefer representing different shades of skin tones over simulationism.

Star trek did not have problems adding dark skinned Vulcans. So there should be no problem adding dark skinned elves that are not drow.

Safly, when Tim Russ was cast to play Tuvok, people DID complain about black Vulcans.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Safly, when Tim Russ was cast to play Tuvok, people DID complain about black Vulcans.

But that did not stop them from doing it and repeating it over and over. As no complaims stopped them from having a female captain.
And today it is totally normal in Star trek to have diverse people.
You just have to start and ignore the vocal minority that is offended by such changes.

 

[Hussar]

It's not like we have to go back to the 90's for this sort of thing. When they announced a black actress to play Hermione in the stage version of Harry Potter, people lost their collective minds. Never minding that there is not one single reference to Hermione's skin tone in all seven books. Just that she had seriously curly hair. But, that didn't matter. And this was 2014 (ish)

The main issue though, or at least one of the issues, isn't really your home game. What you do in your home game is your business. But, if someone wants to play a southeast Asian halfling, just to pick a random example, there are very, very few images out there to draw from. It's not unfair to say that we can do a better job in the art department.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Honestly it makes no sense for the other DnD species to not have varying appearances and races. Maybe the magic of DnD worlds makes it work differently, but species naturally evolve and diversify over time.

Maybe they would have different diversity to humans, with their own traits between races. Maybe it would be similar (the fact that they can breed with humans suggests that similar convergent traits are likely). But if a group of elves live in a climate which has intense sunlight for thousands of hundreds of thousands of years, it makes sense that their skin will be darker and they will diversify from the 'classic' eurocentric elf.

Maybe some races of elves have more or less slanted eyes, or the tips of their ears curve a different direction. Maybe different hair colouration is common in different places.

Having diverse races other than humans isn't some social justice argument. It's simply logical for any species which exists and breeds over time. Even different races of lizardfolk might have different colourations, crest patterns, or spines.

 

[Weiley31]

So there's this interesting concept called a "Thermian Argument" that deals with the difference between an in-universe justification and a justification outside the fiction for why the creators made a creative decision in a fictional world over which they hold absolute power, and why using excuses within the former to 'explain' the latter can be a logical fallacy.

I actually think there was a thread on this site recently about the topic, you should check it out to learn more.

Yeah but I'm reading this thread.

 

[slobster]

Yeah but I'm reading this thread.

This thread...titled "Demihumans of Color and the Thermian Argument".

Are you sure you're reading it? It's gone over a few topics beyond just Sue Storm's choice in fashion (or more to the point, writers' choice of Sue Storm's choice of fashion).

 

[Weiley31]

This thread...titled "Demihumans of Color and the Thermian Argument".

Are you sure you're reading it? It's gone over a few topics beyond just Sue Storm's choice in fashion (or more to the point, writers' choice of Sue Storm's choice of fashion).

Six pages and counting.

 

[Weiley31]

But that did not stop them from doing it and repeating it over and over. As no complaims stopped them from having a female captain.
And today it is totally normal in Star trek to have diverse people.
You just have to start and ignore the vocal minority that is offended by such changes.

Tuvok was cool anyway.

 

[lingual]

Safly, when Tim Russ was cast to play Tuvok, people DID complain about black Vulcans.

Probably coming from a different place but white Goku was dumb and felt like a racist move by studio execs.

I think times have gotten better to the point where very few would bat an eye over a black Vulcan.