D&D General Fantasy Racism in D&D

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Okay, so I want to make this clear. This thread is not about real world racism being echoed in D&D worlds, or anything like that. This is about how you do racism in D&D, if you do it at all.

So, in my campaigns, I do have racists. There are people who do hate other races just because of the fact that they are different. This is very similar to the real world, where people who aren't exposed to other people are more prone to racism. For example, in Eberron, warforged are hated and protested because they are new, strange, and seen as "not really alive", so people are racist against them. I have similar themes in the different settings I run campaigns in. Yuan-Ti are evil and killed when discovered, Tabaxi are seen as foreign, and are watched carefully by humans, and so on. Also, this is not true for every example of every race. Not every NPC is racist, but in general, people are.

What do you do in your games to tackle racism? Do you include it at all? How often?

This is the thread to discuss fantasy racism in D&D, so share your thoughts below.

 

[Mercurius]

Racism is uniquitous in human history. I think this question you ask has a secondary question, which is "how closely do you wish to emulate real-world cultural history?"

I don't think there would be a great range of answers. Speaking for myself, I don't really use D&D as a context to explore real world cultural dynamics, so the issue of racism is minimal. For me D&D is about having fun, a game of wonder and imagination, and a modality of healthy escapism. I only bring real world issues into the fantasy world if it serves the campaign environment I want to craft.

But sure, racial dynamics exist. I don't have an active campaign going, but I've played with racial enmities and attitudes--not as a means to explore real world dynamics, but as a way of flavoring the campaign world.

I haven't touched my last campaign setting in a few years, but from memory these are some examples. Elves were quasi-mystical and somewhat xenophobic, although it depended upon the sub-race specific to my world. Dwarves were almost as dominant as humans (it was post-apocalyptic and they survived better than others), but also had a sense of diminishing greatness and a resentment towards humans for rising quickly. Orcs were a mutated off-shoot of humanity who bore the brunt of the magical apocalypse, physically altered by it. The were based on European "barbarians," and were very shamanic and naturalistic (although an off-shoot--the "blue kith" named after their blue skin--had developed advanced magic and didn't really care about the ongoing squabbles of other races, instead focused on their research. Halfings were barge-dwelling nomads and mistrusted for their thievery, but also had a penchant for getting along with everyone and being intermixed with nearly every culture.

Racial tensions existed, but they were generally based upon history and not ideological ideas on race, or inherent superiority or inferiority. It was more distrust of otherness.

 

[Aaron L]

Well, the "fantastic racism" of a D&D setting isn't at all the same thing as real life racism; the various races in D&D are fully separate species that actually do have definable differences in ability, and not just minor population differences of the single human species.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Well, the "fantastic racism" of a D&D setting isn't at all the same thing as real life racism; the various races in D&D are fully separate species that actually do have definable differences in ability, and not just minor population differences of the single human species.

I am aware of this, yes. I just think the term "racism" is more used than "species-ism", though.

 

[Tonguez]

Pixies are widely reviled and many will attempt to exterminate them on sight (except gnomes who occasionally keep pixie slave girls).

Goblins are vermin who tend to infest the sewers and have things thrown at them when they appear.

Dragonborn are monsters and banned from most settlements

Elves are feared as soul stealers and thus treated with a mix of caution and hostility

In Bishnagar human visitors must stay in the Lowgate Caravanserai and register and pay a tax before the can enter the Gates to visit the Low Market (everyone knows humans are untrustworthy and prone to dishonesty)

 

[Zardnaar]

At a casual level. Elves don't tend to like Drow.

Don't over do it, make them villains and if the players don't like it don't do it.

I don't do mobs with pitchforks, but a race might not be safe in a dark ally in a rough part of town.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Fantasy worlds that have fantasy non-human races have xenophobia more than racism.

 

[Charlaquin]

I use racism in my D&D to deconstruct the typical fantasy tropes. The standard tolkienesque fantasy visions of the various peoples? Those are what bigots think of those peoples in my world.

 

[Weiley31]

I have an Half-Elf Warblade(Battle Master) who is "not quite fond" of Drow to the point that he may give glares to any Drow in the vicinity and if engaged in combat against Drow, will usually kill them on sight.

Now, this is not mostly due to a fantastical racism towards them. It stemmed from the fact that the female Elven Warblade, who taught him the Iron Heart Discipline and made him into a Warblade, had a blood grudge against the Drow because they killed her lover. Therefore, whenever she took in students/disciples as Warblades, she would take them on raiding trips in the Underdark and pretty much would have her disciples bring her Drow heads to gain recognition and advance in rank in her own eyes. This was the rite of passage for her Martial School. Plus the Underdark, being the Underdark, would weed out those who weren't quite up to being Warblades. Therefore, her training style and these raids "life or death" nature got heavily ingrained into him.

So far all the the Drow that he and the party encountered in the one Campaign have been dead set on killing the Battle Master and the party. So all the Drows killed in the campaign so far have been in defense. Amazingly the Battle Master voted to spare the life of a Drow prisoner they had captured but they pretty much mercy killed him because the Drow Prisoner knew he was dead anyway after revealing information to the party. The Drow Prisoner's superiors wouldn't tolerate such a thing and would have killed him for doing that, but in a much more painful/disturbing way. Poor guy was literlly in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

 

[Weiley31]

Elves don't tend to like Drow.

To quote the Barbarian in the last campaign's party: "Nobody likes the Drow."
But then again, NOBODY likes Lolth.