D&D General WotC’s Official Announcement About Diversity, Races, and D&D

Following up on recent discussions on social media, WotC has made an official announcement about diversity and the treatment of ‘race’ in D&D. Notably, the word ‘race’ is not used; in its place are the words ‘people’ and 'folk'.

 PRESS RELEASE

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Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is strength, for only a diverse group of adventurers can overcome the many challenges a D&D story presents. In that spirit, making D&D as welcoming and inclusive as possible has moved to the forefront of our priorities over the last six years. We’d like to share with you what we’ve been doing, and what we plan to do in the future to address legacy D&D content that does not reflect who we are today. We recognize that doing this isn’t about getting to a place where we can rest on our laurels but continuing to head in the right direction. We feel that being transparent about it is the best way to let our community help us to continue to calibrate our efforts.

One of the explicit design goals of 5th edition D&D is to depict humanity in all its beautiful diversity by depicting characters who represent an array of ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, and beliefs. We want everyone to feel at home around the game table and to see positive reflections of themselves within our products. “Human” in D&D means everyone, not just fantasy versions of northern Europeans, and the D&D community is now more diverse than it’s ever been.

Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in. Despite our conscious efforts to the contrary, we have allowed some of those old descriptions to reappear in the game. We recognize that to live our values, we have to do an even better job in handling these issues. If we make mistakes, our priority is to make things right.

Here’s what we’re doing to improve:

• We present orcs and drow in a new light in two of our most recent books, Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. In those books, orcs and drow are just as morally and culturally complex as other peoples. We will continue that approach in future books, portraying all the peoples of D&D in relatable ways and making it clear that they are as free as humans to decide who they are and what they do.
• When every D&D book is reprinted, we have an opportunity to correct errors that we or the broader D&D community discovered in that book. Each year, we use those opportunities to fix a variety of things, including errors in judgment. In recent reprintings of Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd, for example, we changed text that was racially insensitive. Those reprints have already been printed and will be available in the months ahead. We will continue this process, reviewing each book as it comes up for a reprint and fixing such errors where they are present.
• Later this year, we will release a product (not yet announced) that offers a way for a player to customize their character’s origin, including the option to change the ability score increases that come from being an elf, a dwarf, or one of D&D's many other playable folk. This option emphasizes that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own.
• Curse of Strahd included a people known as the Vistani and featured the Vistani heroine Ezmerelda. Regrettably, their depiction echoes some stereotypes associated with the Romani people in the real world. To rectify that, we’ve not only made changes to Curse of Strahd, but in two upcoming books, we will also show—working with a Romani consultant—the Vistani in a way that doesn’t rely on reductive tropes.
• We've received valuable insights from sensitivity readers on two of our recent books. We are incorporating sensitivity readers into our creative process, and we will continue to reach out to experts in various fields to help us identify our blind spots.
• We're proactively seeking new, diverse talent to join our staff and our pool of freelance writers and artists. We’ve brought in contributors who reflect the beautiful diversity of the D&D community to work on books coming out in 2021. We're going to invest even more in this approach and add a broad range of new voices to join the chorus of D&D storytelling.

And we will continue to listen to you all. We created 5th edition in conversation with the D&D community. It's a conversation that continues to this day. That's at the heart of our work—listening to the community, learning what brings you joy, and doing everything we can to provide it in every one of our books.

This part of our work will never end. We know that every day someone finds the courage to voice their truth, and we’re here to listen. We are eternally grateful for the ongoing dialog with the D&D community, and we look forward to continuing to improve D&D for generations to come.

 

[Sadras]

okay, then what makes Keep on the Borderlands "a lot more complex"? are orcs getting ready to invade a city? or is the party just literally tasked with killing monsters for no reason other than they're nearby? it's one thing if there's an immediate threat that needs to be taken care of, but you didn't describe the adventure this way so I'm guessing that's not the case.

It is one of the earlier edition adventures where I believe (and someone can correct me on this - as our table has never gotten all the way through despite it being a decades old module) you are tasked with dealing with the the humanoid threat. So it is all about survival and looting. Beating/outsmarting the game.

It was a base module, so creative DMs often would use the module for the setting, maps and content and then further inject their own ideas, colouring up NPCs, providing a twist where perhaps a local evil resident could be perhaps using or teaming up with the humanoids for his own nefarious goals...etc
Smaller quests could be inserted such as recovery or a person or object, forging alliances or peace-treaties between the humanoids and civilised folk, determining the true reason for increased activity of the humanoids - perhaps they have been forced this far due to a threat further north (plague, undead, giants)...etc

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

Ah, I see. You just wanna blame the victim.
Done with you.

Victim of overinterpretation. Yes.
Goodbye sir.

 

[Sadras]

They've made a huge amount of effort it's still white nerds lol. You're getting more women but they're usually white female nerds.

Yes, but before it became a game that girls widely would come to enjoy, the white male population within the hobby had to grow. I'm sure as more and more black males get pulled into the rpg culture, they too will likely attract the black female population. What is interesting to me is if RPGs will grow within Muslim communities more so than just growing in black, latino or asian communities.

EDIT: I was in a group for a while with 2 Muslim brothers and from them I got the feel that they were the exception rather than the general rule. They would break from playing during the month of Ramadan.

D&D appeals to middle class university types IMHO. It's going to be a lot harder to break out of its class based appeal than any amount of diversity will. The main reason is financial.

100% in agreement. The exchange price plays a huge deal in this as well for places outside the US.

 

[Zardnaar]

Different thread. Same myopia.

They don't, "suddenly have a problem with it." They have been slowly changing representation in the game since 3e! They've been working this for decades.

Yes, but before it became a game that girls widely would come to enjoy, the white male population within the hobby had to grow. I'm sure as more and more black males get pulled into the rpg culture, they too will likely attract the black female population. What is interesting to me is if RPGs will grow within Muslim communities more so than just growing in black, latino or asian communities.

EDIT: I was in a group for a while with 2 Muslim brothers and from them I got the feel that they were the exception rather than the general rule. They would break from playing during the month of Ramadan.



100% in agreement. The exchange price plays a huge deal in this as well for places outside the US.

I don't expect a huge amount of Muslims to line up to play.

Magic is Haram in Islamic culture even stuff like horoscopes.

Might get the odd one or ones that don't practice but yeah.

At least that's how my Jordanian friend explained it when we drunk tea and chatted about whatever.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

A more apt metaphor:

You made a table and painted it with designs that are historic racist symbols.

Would you not repaint the table?

Yes.

No one "clumsily hit" racist stereotypes in D&D. They have been there for decades and were originally chosen by fantasy authors to support racist ideologies endemic to their cultures. It is no accident that drow have black skin, that orcs are "savage." These are old racist ideas about what makes someone good or bad!

PROCESS ONE, Tolkien:
Want a enemy that has all the worst trait of human nature and create orc.
PROCESS TWO, Racist:
Believe that PoC has all the worst trait of human nature.
This inevitably end in Orc and Poc has all the worst trait of human nature.

Two uncorrelated phenomena that casually overlap. So to confuse them is misinterpret.

Now we must avoid that those people are harmed (I sincerely agree with you) so we can do two alternative things:

1. partially or totally censor the Orc
2. explain to those harmed that they are misinterpreting, giving them cultural instruments and informations aimed at that.

Obviously, giving the fact that 1 is far easier than 2, it end up in doing 1. But I feel sad about it. Because it doesn't help who misinterpret to enlarge his vision of things, and also there is the risk that all that was written and who has written it remains with a totally unjustified stigma of racism.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

We now have to look at the roots of some of our beloved antagonists and find issues with them. The trope of Civilzation vs the Uneducated Savage Brute is a trope, yes inspired from humanity's racist history, during simpler times.

I really appreciate you post because is reasoned and not a collection of universal statement. But in this case I must dissent. The trope of Civilzation vs the Uneducated Savage Brute is a trope, is not inspired from humanity's racist history, but from a very real set of things happened at the crush of Roman Empire during the Barbarian Invasions. And there were real situation in which brute humans with a tradition of raiding and violence invaded civilized land.
Just to be fair with facts. Not a critic to your argument.

 

[Zardnaar]

I really appreciate you post because is reasoned and not a collection of universal statement. But in this case I must dissent. The trope of Civilzation vs the Uneducated Savage Brute is a trope, is not inspired from humanity's racist history, but from a very real set of things happened at the crush of Roman Empire during the Barbarian Invasions. And there were real situation in which brute humans with a tradition of raiding and violence invaded civilized land.
Just to be fair with facts. Not a critic to your argument.

Older than that. Chinese records have problems with raiders. Sea people in Egypt as well. Trade was more common but yeah.

 

[DammitVictor]

However, once anyone who has ever commented on my tempter or my passion for topics that they aren't passionate about learns that I'm White Hispanic, they attribute my (to be clear, pretty mild, non-violent, usually protective) temper and general passion to my Spanish/Mexican heritage.

Isn't it such an amazing coincidence that members of inferior peoples always have such short tempers? Why, you can't even murder them in the streets and tell them that their feelings and human rights don't matter without them throwing some kind of ridiculous temper tantrum-- you'd almost think we're the ones calling them racists on the Internet with the way they're carrying on.

It's getting so bad these days that some of them have even started resisting arrest before they even know the police have weapons pointed at their backs.

Thank God we can all sit around the gaming table and enjoy a nice game of Dungeons & Dragons and spend a pleasant evening killing all of the filthy savages living in the uninhabited wilderness without having to talk about or think about politics.

Let us explore this - Is Keep of the Borderlands now off the table? We cannot be 'clearing out' the humanoid threat anymore?

I don't think anyone is talking about going back and revising old products. They're not going to change Keep on the Borderlands, and they're going to keep selling Keep on the Borderlands, and nobody's really going to complain about it because it's forty years old and most people recognize that something published forty years ago is going to have some dated ideas.

On the other hand, how long ago was Curse of Strahd published?

I don't expect a huge amount of Muslims to line up to play.

Magic is Haram in Islamic culture even stuff like horoscopes.

Might get the odd one or ones that don't practice but yeah.

Most Christian sects take a pretty dim view of practicing magic, too. Real magic, at least. Most of the "kids" I play D&D with-- now long since grown-- were introduced to my pagan ass and my power metal roleplaying style by the youth pastor of their deeply conservative Baptist Church. Some of them had a problem with their kids playing in my group... and told them to go play D&D with good Christian DMs instead.

 

[Sadras]

Reflecting on our media is a cycle that has been going on for a long time and should continue for a long time. We should be reflecting, discussing, revising and re-examining the ways we tell stories. And when we have the opportunity to do better, we should do so.

...(snip)...

As for the fatality of racism... Have you been paying attention? For hundreds of years, racism has been used as a justification to kill people. I am not saying, and have never said, that racism in D&D has killed people. But the ideologies that lead to the deaths of unarmed black men, women, and children are embedded in D&D as well. Why stand in the way when we could instead talk about all the exciting ways there are to excise those ideologies?

Perhaps I have been going about this all wrong.

When people wanted to play female characters that could equal men's strength score I understood, even though personally I thought we could have balanced it out by giving female characters a higher cap in another ability. Blame it on the realism bug in me, but today I couldn't care.

When people said images of females were oversexualised which I agreed, I thought you could oversexualise the male figures but ok downplay the sexy look.

When people said there are not enough PoC within the images or the modules, I agreed - the hobby audience has expanded. I welcomed the change. We were all already using PoC within our own games before WotC implemented itth - whether they were PCs or NPCs.

When people said there are not enough non-hetero persons in the game, I agreed, sprinkle some colour. I had already included some of that before the change at WotC.

Now I'm told our orcs are based on racist ideas.

I'm saying SO WHAT they are made up creatures we fight and play all sorts of stereotypes. Many of us have brought nuance and depth to these beings in our own games (including the Succubus - just read Tales of the Wyre), challenging our players. Many of us have played humanoid characters. This is all before WotC decided to change them.

I'm then further told the current use of the orc perpetuates racism in real life. How I ask?
Oh because in our imaginary world the use of the word savage, tribal, less intelligent, fecundity and other negative words for one specific group was used throughout humanity's history to describe the others.

And so I ask? We're playing looting murderhobo's with classes like the assassin, backgrounds like the charlatan, skills like intimidation, spells that force people into submission and others that rape their thoughts. We raise and control undead! With humans being the brightest and the darkest of races, the most ambitious, the most power-hungry, the potential to do/be the most good and the most evil.

Yes but these negative racial stereotypes of the imaginary orc need to be excised from our game. We can be better.

Why? Are you identifying orcs as anyone in real life? Are racial stereotypes (HATE) any worse than the games primary driver of promoting mass slaughter, which is needed to rise in power (MURDER)?

No I do not identify orcs as black people but the descriptions used for orcs is the same as those used by 19th century 'scientists' who promoted their evil agenda. And thus removing such negative connotation from the orc means we are one step closer to being less racist or promoting racism.

I appreciate your attempt to better yourself or even enrich these fantastical antagonists I will gladly delve into the new material for further ideas for my own games. But I do not see the purpose of changing the lore in my fantasy medieval-inspired game (which includes all the ills of man, not just racism) in order to be a good guy in Real Life since I further more reject your perspective of orcs and RW people.

 

[Bohandas]

I'm glad they stopped misusing the word "race", but "folk" just sounds lame. Why don't they just use the word "species" since that's what they were using it to mean to begin with?