D&D 5E If not the word "race", what word instead?

[Derren]

I would rather use "Folk" instead of "Species."
Species feels far too Scientific and "Ancestry" makes me instead of think of hybrids instead of distinct different non-related beings.

Folk is usually used to describe family units or other people considered close relatives. Also using this work to indicate biology is confusing, especially when they do not match.

 

[Weiley31]

I'd be all for Heritage.

Just so I have an excuse to say "Heritage for The Future" when my players start creating characters.

 

[Cadence]

I think I lean Lineage. Culture and ethnicity sound better than race to me, but feel like they hint people towards real life comparisons. Ancestry and Heritage aren't bad.

 

[Haldrik]

I am updating the first post with words that I did not think of when creating the poll. This addendum is to add possibilities that people didnt get a chance to vote for.

• lineage
• dynasty
• genealogy
• clade
• parentage
• form
• biology
• stock
• root / branch
• genetics
• peoplehood
• progenitor
• pedigree
• birth

I think I lean Lineage. Culture and ethnicity sound better than race to me, but feel like they hint people towards real life comparisons. Ancestry and Heritage aren't bad.

I cant believe lineage didnt come to mind in time for the poll.

Species doesn't work because, clearly, humans, elves, and orcs are all the same species.

Dont forget, in D&D, species can cross-breed magically, making scientific definitions somewhat moot.

At least Morph isn't winning.

Actually these words − shape, skin, morph − came to mind from shapeshifter, skinwalker, and polymorph.

Folk is usually used to describe family units or other people considered close relatives. Also using this work to indicate biology is confusing, especially when they do not match.

The terms "folk", "clan", "kin", and "kind", are all Norse-isms to refer to giant, troll, elf, dwarf, and human. They thought of each as a family.

 

[Mercurius]

Whatever the word is, it should be somewhat accurate to what it describes. D&D races are most definitely not ethnic groups or ethnicities. In fact, that would be far more problematic than the word race.

Ancestry, heritage, lineage, etc, are less accurate than race and usually refer to something else, but could work if used in a general way.

Species has a scientific connotation that is incongruent with fantasy, imo, although is pretty accurate--arguably more so than race.

I think folk, kin, kindred or people are probably the best alternatives. They have grounding in fantasy literature and are non-specific enough to be applicable.

 

[Haldrik]

Biblically, Humanity (adam) is a Kind/Species (min). The taxonomy from broad to narrow looks like:

Kind/Species (min)
. Kin/Family (am)
. . Tribe (shevet/mate)
. . . Clan/Extended-Family (mishpakha)
. . . . House/Nuclear-Family (bet)

Related words that dont necessarily relate to biology: Nation (uma/lom), Ethnicity (goy), Language (safa/lashon), etcetera.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I still think Folk or People are the least problematic options, and Blood or Bloodline for the sub-races., because for the fantasy "races" their blood really does determine their mechanical benefits and drawbacks, while in the real world it is genetics and DNA, not our blood, that helps or hurts us.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The standard dictionary definition not-withstanding, in science some different species can interbreed and make hybrids - some of them with apparently just fine fertility. Humans & Neanderthals, or different types of Macaws seem to do just fine out to at least three generations so far. And there's the Beefalo. With a bit less robustness in either habitat for the hybrid, the Carolina Chickadee and the Northern Chickadee have a narrow but very long range of interbreeding. And then there's the Liger and Tigon and Hinny and Mule where the female is sometimes fertile.

I would be flabbergasted (assuming elves were real) if any mammologist would classify elves (adulthood at 100 and lifespan of 750, darkvision, no sleep) and humans (adulthoodin late teens, lifespan under 100, regular vision, sleep) as the same species, even if the produce a hybrid (adulthood 20, lifespan 180 years, inferior darkvision, need sleep). Similar for orcs and humans. All in the same genus seems like a thing, perhaps as a ring species, if they actually had a common descent (which, for example, in Tolkien the elves and men wouldn't - what's the standard D&D origin?).

I'd add that, if the standard dictionary definition is to be followed, orcs are also able to produce half-orcs or orcs "with all humanoids or similar stature". Given the difference between all those "humanoids", ranging from dwarves to elves, from dragonborns (hey, humanoid, despite them laying eggs) to tortle to yuan-ti... I am not sure we can take for granted that baby-making in D&D is like any form of real life sexual reproduction and gene-sharing. Maybe the babies are just created by Luthic or Correlon? I think species can be used as a replacement to race without carrying the "scientific baggage".

 

[ClaytonCross]

Species doesn't work because, clearly, humans, elves, and orcs are all the same species.

That actually is untrue, depending on setting. In older settings elves were made to be able to bread with humans with a curse as revenge by the wife of the creator of elves to punish her husband. Orcs were given a blessing to bread with any humanoid and create half orc off spring in order to rapidly increase their numbers. Half Orcs breading with half orcs generate full orc off spring so the they can increase there numbers then purify their blood lines. So in those settings that fallow that lore they are different species that can't normally bread together but magic. Its kind of link a scientist adding frog DNA to dinosaurs because the can.

 

[ClaytonCross]

Species, while not technically correct (half-elves, half-orcs exist) is close.

That actually is untrue, depending on setting. In older settings elves were made to be able to bread with humans with a curse as revenge by the wife of the creator of elves to punish her husband. Orcs were given a blessing to bread with any humanoid and create half orc off spring in order to rapidly increase their numbers. Half Orcs breading with half orcs generate full orc off spring so the they can increase there numbers then purify their blood lines. So in those settings that fallow that lore they are different species that can't normally bread together but magic. Its kind of link a scientist adding frog DNA to dinosaurs because the can.