D&D 5E The word ‘Race’

[LandOfConfusion]

One other comparison I just thought of is the word "gender". This is probably the best comparison to the real world we can make with the term "race" in D&D. There are indeed differences between the two genders. There are even perfectly normal cases (even though society doesn't treat these cases as normal) of a person not having a clear gender. This doesn't mean acknowledging the biological differences between genders is sexist. Grouping all members of a gender together and making general assumptions about them is sexist. Not to put too fine a point on this, but there is a reason there isn't a "World's Strongest Person" contest. (Maybe there should be.) The chemical make up of male humans tends to make their ability for physical strength be greater on average than female humans. Now that is not to say that all women are weaker than men. And certainly there are a great many women who are much stronger than a lot of men.

Now of course the word "race" is loaded for us because people use this word in the real world to stake out meaningless (usually appearance) differences between groups of people. So, I can understand viewing this word in a negative light. However, as I said in my previous post the word "race" has legitimate meaning in a D&D world, as opposed to it being abused and practically meaningless in the real world.

 

[epithet]

Depending on your setting, there are different races of man. For example, in Greyhawk, the ancient Flan people are a distinct race from the ancient Oerdian people. In many parts of the "known world" the various races of humans have interbred beyond the point where it is easy to say who comes from what genetic stock, but some groups, like the Scarlet Brotherhood, cling to notions of genetic purity.

And that's a good thing, it provides interesting cultural detail for the game world.

Among the elf species there are several distinct races. The same can be said of the dwarves. Some of these races are at war with others, just as some species are at war with others. This is nothing but tribalism, which is such a core component of the human condition that we cannot readily conceive of a world in which it does not exist, or easily suspend our disbelief enough to accept one if it were presented to us, even in in fiction. It's all just different flavors of "us" versus "them."

It doesn't matter how you restructure the game or re-parse the terminology, a game like D&D has to have a "them," and "they" need to be enough like "us" that they are relatable, because that's the only way that it is really satisfying to beat their butts. They also need to be different enough that we can tell they're "them," because moral ambiguity and nuanced ethics do not make for a happy band of murder-hobos.

 

[epithet]

... There are even perfectly normal cases (even though society doesn't treat these cases as normal) of a person not having a clear gender. ...

I think people get way too hung up on the word "normal." Just because a thing is naturally occurring and shouldn't be stigmatised doesn't mean it's "normal." Being XXY isn't any more "normal" than any other randomly occurring one-in-500 phenomenon.

I would speculate that there are very few of us in this community who are perfectly "normal," or who would really want to be. Normal is boring. Rather than stamping everyone's forehead with "normal," it's much more accurate and practical to destigmatise benign abnormality.

 

[Mistwell]

Acknowledging the biological differences between an elf and a human is not racism. The word race in this context, a context which doesn't exist in the real world so of course doesn't conform to real world definitions, is not racist. That said, you might buy the Blue Rose RPG from Green Ronin and see how they handle it. If any game is going to take this issue into consideration and come up with a decent way to deal with it, it would probably be that one.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I think people get way too hung up on the word "normal." Just because a thing is naturally occurring and shouldn't be stigmatised doesn't mean it's "normal." Being XXY isn't any more "normal" than any other randomly occurring one-in-500 phenomenon.

I think he's talking about a much rarer phenomenon, like XY individuals with defective prenatal androgen receptors who spontaneously change at puberty from "apparently female" to "apparently male." I read about a case like that in Discover magazine when I was thirteen. I'm not sure what the frequency is but my impression is that it's about as rare as Siamese twins, on the order of 1 in 100k births. Rarer than double 18s on straight 3d6.

I agree with your larger point of course. "Normal" is descriptive not normative. I don't regret not being more normal.

 

[LandOfConfusion]

I think people get way too hung up on the word "normal." Just because a thing is naturally occurring and shouldn't be stigmatised doesn't mean it's "normal." Being XXY isn't any more "normal" than any other randomly occurring one-in-500 phenomenon.

I would speculate that there are very few of us in this community who are perfectly "normal," or who would really want to be. Normal is boring. Rather than stamping everyone's forehead with "normal," it's much more accurate and practical to destigmatise benign abnormality.

I agree with you. My use of the term "perfectly normal" was to say that not clearly being one gender or another is not an "abomination of nature" or any other such non-sense.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not a fan of the term. There's better terms for the mechanical role that "race" fills within D&D, but "race" is historical. That history reminds me of some of the more awful things that D&D sucks up into its voracious fantasy blender.

I think that using the term ties us to a more biological view of what the game mechanic could fill than is necessary. The game mechanic is essentially a way to give yourself some minor stat enhancements and support abilities that are inherent to your character (ie, regardless of character class). There's nothing about that which lines up with "biologically distinct inhuman creature."

Race in the real world is a purely social construct built to crudely lump geographical and cultural distinctions and has a not-insignificant association with monstrous human behavior. Using the term in D&D to mean "pseudo-biological dividing line between fantasy archetypes" isn't the best use of the term in that real-world context.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Race in the real world is a purely social construct built to crudely lump geographical and cultural distinctions and has a not-insignificant association with monstrous human behavior. Using the term in D&D to mean "pseudo-biological dividing line between fantasy archetypes" isn't the best use of the term in that real-world context.

One fun thing to do with variant humans is to assign each feat to a race in-game. You could say that Cimmerians are Tough while Hyperboreans are Magic Initiates and Machakans are slender and Mobile and Valerians are famous for being Heavy Armor Masters. It makes more sense to me than "I'm human so I randomly develop favorable traits at first level," plus it allows people to visually identify some of your capabilities. I don't always do it when I make a variant human, but I do it sometimes.

 

[epithet]

...
Race in the real world is a purely social construct built to crudely lump geographical and cultural distinctions and has a not-insignificant association with monstrous human behavior. Using the term in D&D to mean "pseudo-biological dividing line between fantasy archetypes" isn't the best use of the term in that real-world context.

No, race is a lot more than just social construct. For example, your health could be strongly effected by racial predispositions. Some of us are more likely to become diabetic if we don't watch our complex carbs, others are more prone to develop food allergies that could lead to colitis or other inflammatory ailments. Some of us, I've discovered, are more attractive to mosquitos.

Just because it has been the basis or excuse some of our uncles or cousins have used to act like asses doesn't mean it's not a real thing.

 

[Leatherhead]

I wouldn't mind if they wrote species, but I doubt it would matter.

If race is problematic, species is even more so.