D&D 5E Don't play "stupid" characters. It is ableist.

[CleverNickName]

Remove the excuse. You can't police people to not playing offensive characters, but you can do your best to give them less excuse to do it.

Sadly, that would just encourage certain folks to find work-arounds...their characters' traits and flaws, their alignment, their backstory, we've all seen them used before in this manner. I think removing the stereotypes (i.e., call people out when they use them, and uninvite them from your games if they don't cease) would be far more effective.

Excuses are easy to invent.

 

[Umbran]

You can't police people to not playing offensive characters...

The writers of the game cannot. But at your own table, you most certainly can.

 

[LordEntrails]

You can do whatever you want. Some people might not want to play with you if they feel the way you roleplay is distasteful.

Fixed that for you

 

[Remathilis]

The writers of the game cannot. But at your own table, you most certainly can.

I assumed we were talking about the the game writ large and not individual tables. After all, the OP did not begin with "At my table..."

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Here is the dictionary definition:
stupid
adjective

UK /ˈstjuː.pɪd/

US /ˈstuː.pɪd/

silly or unwise; showing poor judgment or little intelligence

informal
annoying, or causing a problem

stupid
[ˈstjuːpɪd]

ADJECTIVE

1. having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
   
   The above is a bit minimized but it is the base meaning. So unless we are now changing definitions to suit agendas then what I said stands.

This is the first time that I've seen this fallacy being used, but this is an Argumentum ad Dictionarium fallacy, as well as a red herring. @Faolyn asked you how you defined stupid in your post, not how the dictionary defined it. Furthermore, the dictionary definition isn't very applicable in discussion focusing around D&D and "stupidity" in roleplay.

 

[Umbran]

Fixed that for you

Please don't do the FIFY thing.

 

[Eubani]

This is the first time that I've seen this fallacy being used, but this is an Argumentum ad Dictionarium fallacy, as well as a red herring. @Faolyn asked you how you defined stupid in your post, not how the dictionary defined it. Furthermore, the dictionary definition isn't very applicable in discussion focusing around D&D and "stupidity" in roleplay.

A word means what it means, you can't change the meaning of a word to suit your needs then blame those that utilize the word in it's actual meaning.

 

[Umbran]

I assumed we were talking about the the game writ large and not individual tables. After all, the OP did not begin with "At my table..."

The OP began with, "When you play 'stupid' characters...," (emphasis mine). This is pretty clearly a direct communication to the reader, as a player, and not an "open letter" to game writers. The OP, in fact, does not comment at all about how the game is written, but on how people sometimes play it, at tables.

So, I don't see how you got that impression.

Maybe you'd prefer it be about the game writ large. That's okay for you to want to talk about. I just see nothing in the OP that suggests that was the intent.

And, that may be largely for reasons already mentioned - the people writing the game can't enforce how it is played. Each of us, at our own tables, can. Thus, the writers are not an effective audience or target - we are.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

A word means what it means, you can't change the meaning of a word to suit your needs then blame those that utilize the word in it's actual meaning.

No one is changing the meaning of a word, and words often have multiple meanings. The dictionary definition is not the only correct way to use a word.

 

[Umbran]

A word means what it means

So the problem you have is that you stated what you claimed as, "the dictionary definition," as if there were only one.

But, there are several dictionaries, each with their own definitions. There is no one, singular, authoritative and prescriptive definition of the word. You were simply incorrect when you put that stake in the ground.

You can continue to defend it, of course. But you might want to consider if it is worth the energy.