RPG Evolution: Do We Still Need "Race" in D&D?

The term "race" is a staple of fantasy that is now out of sync with modern usage. With Pathfinder shifting from "race" to "ancestry" in its latest edition, it raises the question: should fantasy games still use it?

“Race” and Modern Parlance​

We previously discussed the challenges of representing real-life cultures in a fantasy world, with African and Asian countries being just two examples. The discussion becomes more complicated with fantasy "races"—historically, race was believed to be determined by the geographic arrangement of populations. Fantasy gaming, which has its roots in fantasy literature, still uses the term “race” this way.

Co-creator of D&D Gary Gygax cited R.E. Howard's Conan series as an influence on D&D, which combines Lovecraftian elements with sword and sorcery. Howard's perceptions may have been a sign of the times he lived in, but it seems likely they influenced his stories. Robert B. Marks explains just how these stereotypes manifested in Conan's world:

The young, vibrant civilizations of the Hyborian Age, like Aquilonia and Nemedia, are white - the equivalent of Medieval Europe. Around them are older Asiatic civilizations like Stygia and Vendhya, ancient, decrepit, and living on borrowed time. To the northwest and the south are the barbarian lands - but only Asgard and Vanaheim are in any way Viking. The Black Kingdoms are filled with tribesmen evoking the early 20th century vision of darkest Africa, and the Cimmerians and Picts are a strange cross between the ancient Celts and Native Americans - and it is very clear that the barbarians and savages, and not any of the civilized people or races, will be the last ones standing.

Which leads us to the other major fantasy influence, author J.R.R. Tolkien. David M. Perry explains in an interview with Helen Young:

In Middle Earth, unlike reality, race is objectively real rather than socially constructed. There are species (elves, men, dwarves, etc.), but within those species there are races that conform to 19th-century race theory, in that their physical attributes (hair color, etc.) are associated with non-physical attributes that are both personal and cultural. There is also an explicit racial hierarchy which is, again, real in the world of the story.

The Angry GM elaborates on why race and culture were blended in Tolkien's works:

The thing is, in the Tolkienverse, at least, in the Lord of the Rings version of the Tolkienverse (because I can’t speak for what happened in the Cinnabon or whatever that other book was called), the races were all very insular and isolated. They didn’t deal with one another. Race and culture went hand in hand. If you were a wood elf, you were raised by wood elves and lived a thoroughly wood elf lifestyle until that whole One Ring issue made you hang out with humans and dwarves and halflings. That isolation was constantly thrust into the spotlight. Hell, it was a major issue in The Hobbit.

Given the prominence of race in fantasy, it's not surprising that D&D has continued the trend. That trend now seems out of sync with modern parlance; in 1951, the United Nations officially declared that the differences among humans were "insignificant in relation to the anthropological sameness among the peoples who are the human race."

“Race” and Game Design​

Chris Van Dyke's essay on race back in 2008 explains how pervasive "race" is in D&D:

Anyone who has played D&D has spent a lot of time talking about race – “Racial Attributes,” “Racial Restrictions,” “Racial Bonuses.” Everyone knows that different races don’t get along – thanks to Tolkien, Dwarves and Elves tend to distrust each other, and even non-gamers know that Orcs and Goblins are, by their very nature, evil creatures. Race is one of the most important aspects of any fantasy role-playing game, and the belief that there are certain inherent genetic and social distinctions between different races is built into every level of most (if not all) Fantasy Role-Playing Games.

Racial characteristics in D&D have changed over time. Basic Dungeons & Dragons didn't distinguish between race and class for non-humans, such that one played a dwarf, elf, or halfling -- or a human fighter or cleric. The characteristics of race were so tightly intertwined that race and profession were considered one.

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the changes became more nuanced, but not without some downsides on character advancement, particularly in allowing “demihumans” to multiclass but with level limits preventing them from exceeding humanity, who had unlimited potential (but could only dual-class).

With Fifth Edition, ability penalties and level caps have been removed, but racial bonuses and proficiencies still apply. The Angry GM explains why this is a problem:

In 5E, you choose a race and a class, but you also choose a background. And the background represents your formative education and socio-economic standing and all that other stuff that basically represents the environment in which you were raised. The racial abilities still haven’t changed even though there is now a really good place for “cultural racial abilities” to live. So, here’s where the oddity arises. An elf urchin will automatically be proficient with a longsword and longbow, two weapons that requires years of training to even become remotely talent with, but a human soldier does not get any automatic martial training. Obviously, in both cases, class will modify that. But in the life of your character, race happens first, then background, and only later on do you end up a member of a class. It’s very quirky.

Perhaps this is why Pathfinder decided to take a different approach to race by shifting to the term “ancestry”:

Beyond the narrative, there are many things that have changed, but mostly in the details of how the game works. You still pick a race, even though it is now called your ancestry. You still decide on your class—the rulebook includes all of the core classes from the First Edition Core Rulebook, plus the alchemist. You still select feats, but these now come from a greater variety of sources, such as your ancestry, your class, and your skills.

"Ancestry" is not just a replacement for the word “race.” It’s a fluid term that requires the player to make choices at character creation and as the character advances. This gives an opportunity to express human ethnicities in game terms, including half-elves and half-orcs, without forcing the “subrace” construct.

The Last Race​

It seems likely that, from both a modern parlance and game design perspective, “race” as it is used today will fall out of favor in fantasy games. It’s just going to take time. Indigo Boock sums up the challenge:

Fantasy is a doubled edged sword. Every human culture has some form of fantasy, we all have some sort of immortal ethereal realm where our elven creatures dwell. There’s always this realm that transcends culture. Tolkien said, distinct from science fiction (which looks to the future), fantasy is to feel like one with the entire universe. Fantasy is real, deep human yearning. We look to it as escapism, whether we play D&D, or Skyrim, or you are like myself and write fantasy. There are unfortunately some old cultural tropes that need to be discarded, and it can be frustratingly slow to see those things phased out.

Here's hoping other role-playing games will follow Pathfinder's lead in how treats its fantasy people in future editions.

 

[Shasarak]

I'm trying a kinder, gentler approach. I am burnt out on piss & vinegar from an unrelated discussion about the merits of homeopathy.

(That is, none. It has no merits at all.)

Oh come on, it at least has a placebo effect so that is one merit of Homeopathy.

 

[Dualazi]

Just examine your biases (which Tolkien didn't) and don't be lazy enough to base your fantasies on real world stereotypes. It's also still possible to like problematic things.

Tolkien didn't need to 'examine his biases' since most of his creative works are derived from other mythos' and heroic epics. There's nothing 'problematic' with his works. Also, that word has long since ceased to hold any meaning, it has been run into the ground to the point where it's simply used to denote something you don't like and something you would like others to dislike as well.

Did I say it was widespread? Did I say that D&D was training people? You're putting words into my mouth. But folks have said there's NO connection and yet there one is.

You cannot simultaneously claim that no real harm is being done or perpetuated and still then claim that the term is harmful and needs to be changed. It is 100% on the people advocating for the change to make the case why doing so is a good thing; that case has yet to be made, nor have any alternatives been offered that wouldn't be just as easily critiqued or co-opted.

The classification of humans by race is something that persists and continues to be an ugly thing. RPG rules are a small, tiny part of culture. But they're reflective of the world. This terminology is a product of its time, its embarrassing and there's no good reason to keep it. Do you have one? I haven't seen one in this thread.

The classification of humans pretty much by definition can't be ugly, it's just a system, one with varying degrees of usefulness and applications. Might as well say math is an ugly thing, it has as much substance as a statement. The terminology is also A-Ok, and is still used on some government paperwork today as remarked earlier in the thread, and that's not even discussing fictional worlds with significant physiological differences. Lastly, as I said above it is on YOU to provide a compelling reason for change, and there hasn't been one yet, nor any workable solutions.

Keeping the term won't keep me from gaming and I'm not going to spend as much energy on it as say, supporting the Oklahoma teachers. But I'll have this conversation if I can make the gaming community better for it.

I have quite a bit of confidence that the gaming community has been made 0% better as a result of this argument in one tiny corner of the internet.

I'll note that you didn't quote this part of my post for another reason to change it:


So you just don't give a damn about them or what?

Not in the slightest. As I said earlier, it's on other people to manage their own emotional state, and expecting every creative work to avoid anything "problematic" is not only insane on its face but would ultimately doom any creative exercise whatsoever. Also, as I mentioned earlier, no one (yourself included) has put up anything even resembling hard numbers for how many people are so incredibly hurt by 'race' that it needs to be changed. Until we have more information on that, and its effect on sales, then no changes need to be made.

Why are you so attached to a term that means something twisted (not just different, but twisted) from its use in game when you could use something else?

Because it's accurate, it's still widely used today, and because the only thing "twisted" here is your belief that race is akin to saying voldemort in H.P. It's still taught as race theory last I checked, news organizations and politicians still talk of race relations, and again, even governmental forms regard it as such. This is not a dirty word by any stretch of the imagination, least of all in settings with actual distinct races

Ever-shifting lists of demands? Treating others with respect is that hard for you?

Save your tricks of rhetoric, please. "Treating others with respect" encompasses a dizzying number of topics and can vary widely from culture to culture, and your basic implication is that I am too callous to engage in basic civility, all the while you clamor for others to acquiesce to YOUR demands. If you were to treat the D&D/RPG community with respect, you might have brought a stronger case before clamoring for changes while simultaneously claiming the moral high ground without justification.

 

[Aguirre Melchiors]

Arguing that someone become racist for see the term race in D&D is the same argument that people used in the 80s to say that D&D makes you worship the devil. Cringe.
Justa a reminder, people dont use race to humans, not in D&D, just to diferentiate humans from magic creatures that DONT exist.
this is a ''good'' a idea as safe space for only black people (we call it segregation)

 

[Shasarak]

Just on a slightly irreverent tangent: where do Half Elves actually inherit their +2 Charisma from? Elves don't get it (Dark Elves only get a +1) and Humans don't have it either. So why do Half Elves?

Because Half-Elves have to work harder to fit in to society.

Kind of like naming your son Sue would be my guess.

 

[pemerton]

If we stop using every word someone finds offensive, even if used in a completely different context, what exactly will be left? If the only requirement to stop using a word is that someone pipe up and declare that it has baggage, where is the line drawn on that? I refuse to agree to this type of useless censorship.

Who's censoring you? No one is stoppping you pubishing as many books as you like saying whatever you want about whatever "races" you want to dream up.

As far as the threat to your vocabulary is concerned - well, who would have thought that concepts of "race" might carry "baggage"? There's a head-scratcher if ever there was one!

 

[TrippyHippy]

Because Half-Elves have to work harder to fit in to society.

Kind of like naming your son Sue would be my guess.

So, are we arguing that these are somehow nurture rather than nature traits.....maybe Cultural rather than Racial....?

 

[james501]

Who's censoring you? No one is stoppping you pubishing as many books as you like saying whatever you want about whatever "races" you want to dream up.

I think you know you are arguing semantics here and what the actual underlying issue is.

 

[Shasarak]

So, are we arguing that these are somehow nurture rather than nature traits.....maybe Cultural rather than Racial....?

Maybe the combination of Elf and Human just makes them look good? Just like the Elven Sword gene I suppose.

 

[Lylandra]

After a good night's rest, I have to throw another point into this moshpit of arguments:

Even if race is still used in non-derogatory contexts in the English language, then consider the following:
The UN said there is only one race, the human race and all of its members are to be considered equals.

In D&D terms, this makes all humans have the same base stats and I guess this is why we don't see any magical or winged "other" human descendants.

Now we know that the term "race" is still used to describe differences in ancestral heritage and therefore phenotype. As you said, the media still continues to use the word - mostly in a non-discriminatory way - even if the word itself has its problems.

Now if you combine these two facts and take a look at "race" in a fantasy game, you'll see that these races, unlike humans, *do have* different ability boni or stuff they're good or bad at. Here, the same word is used for humanoids who are more different from each other than the Neanderthal from the Homo Erectus and who, biologically speaking, would have no reason to be able to produce offspring.
(I know, I know, it's fantasy. Hence half-dragon pixies.)

And while I definitely wouldn't say that this usage of the term "race" makes a gamer racist, it is 1) insensitive and 2) easily establishes a mental link between the two meanings of the word race if you don't reflect on the term.

And as a second thought: Did you notice that almost all RPG sytems use "gender" and not "sex"? Guess what'd be the reason for that...

 

[Shasarak]

Who's censoring you?

You know we can not discuss censoring in this thread, you need to go to the Meta forum to discuss censoring.