D&D General Demihumans of Color and the Thermian Argument

[mhd]

Assuming that we have a representative range of skin color and other phenotypical features, how do you all feel about how common and integrated that should be?

I mean, I think there's a difference between saying that your halfling can have an epicanthic fold, but that means they have to be from the far eastern parts of Smackdabmiddleearth, or that feature just being common enough in the core region of the campaign/setting.

So in other words, yes, the character can look like the PC, but they're "exotic". Is a general "melting pot" situation preferrable?

 

[Oofta]

Assuming that we have a representative range of skin color and other phenotypical features, how do you all feel about how common and integrated that should be?

I mean, I think there's a difference between saying that your halfling can have an epicanthic fold, but that means they have to be from the far eastern parts of Smackdabmiddleearth, or that feature just being common enough in the core region of the campaign/setting.

So in other words, yes, the character can look like the PC, but they're "exotic". Is a general "melting pot" situation preferrable?

Depends on campaign and setting. A Caucasian showing up in Peru in the 14th century would have been quite out of place. A variety of ethnicities in Europe at that time would have been uncommon but not unheard of.

 

[mhd]

Depends on campaign and setting. A Caucasian showing up in Peru in the 14th century would have been quite out of place. A variety of ethnicities in Europe at that time would have been uncommon but not unheard of.

Yes, you can find reasons for everything, that's a core theme of this thread. The question is if you're constructing this yourself and have all the creative freedom, what's better for the player(s)? I can build something like this Caucasian in Peru, but I can also build something like modern-day US or UK.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Assuming that we have a representative range of skin color and other phenotypical features, how do you all feel about how common and integrated that should be?

I mean, I think there's a difference between saying that your halfling can have an epicanthic fold, but that means they have to be from the far eastern parts of Smackdabmiddleearth, or that feature just being common enough in the core region of the campaign/setting.

So in other words, yes, the character can look like the PC, but they're "exotic". Is a general "melting pot" situation preferrable?

Note also that epicanthic folds are pretty common in some parts of Africa, and not because of Asian immigrants.

These sort of things could be just as widespread and non-issue-y as eye or hair color: one trait may be more common, but an uncommon trait doesn't always mean someone comes form halfway around the planet or is treated as a big deal.

 

[slobster]

Assuming that we have a representative range of skin color and other phenotypical features, how do you all feel about how common and integrated that should be?

I mean, I think there's a difference between saying that your halfling can have an epicanthic fold, but that means they have to be from the far eastern parts of Smackdabmiddleearth, or that feature just being common enough in the core region of the campaign/setting.

So in other words, yes, the character can look like the PC, but they're "exotic". Is a general "melting pot" situation preferrable?

I don't think it's a matter of 'preferable' personally. If you have established for whatever reason before that the prevailing skin color among wood elves is greenish to bluish, and someone wants to come in and play a black one, then you might have to come up with an explanation for how they are from a distant part of the continent, or something. If you have never really addressed skin color in a restrictive way before, you have a bit more freedom to say 'oh yeah it's always been like this.'

I do think it is reasonable for some races in some settings to be a little more restrictive. If someone asked to play a dwarf in my campaign with Native American features, sure. If someone asked me to play a drow but with Native American skin tones and features....well drow are, for better or worse, pretty tightly defined in their visual appearance. I'd be hard pressed to say yes to that request unless it was in a custom campaign setting and not the realms, or maybe if it were a literal reskin where we were using the stats for the race but the fluff was some other kind of elf, not the usual Underdark etc. lore.

As an aside, in terms of the 'realism' of the fantasy demihuman (or human!) melting pot, keep in mind that real world inheritance patterns, geographic distribution, and so on do not have to apply in any way to your campaign setting. You can have skin tones/general features for elves be inherited entirely from the mother, rather than mixing between parents, so half siblings can look as different as Japanese and pure sub-Saharan African descent. You can say that the forest centaurs have always looked more Mediterranean, with dark hair and olive skin, but that those born during the full moon have blonde hair, bronze skin, and golden eyes. You can have your dwarves all have essentially the same core skin color, but those that live deep down in the mountains and never see the sun have pale Caucasian appearing skin, while the more time they spend in the sun the more they gradually tan until if the live like the surface folk they appear completely black.

I mean you could also just say "sure Stan, you can play a white Aasimar, just know that most in this setting look visibly different from you and you'll be unusual." You don't need a big in-world explanation for it unless your players are interested in that, you plan to make it a plot point some day, or you are just a world building junkie, all of which are totally legit but probably aren't important to most(?) games.

 

[Oofta]

Yes, you can find reasons for everything, that's a core theme of this thread. The question is if you're constructing this yourself and have all the creative freedom, what's better for the player(s)? I can build something like this Caucasian in Peru, but I can also build something like modern-day US or UK.

If I'm creating a fantasy world from scratch, obviously everything I include or don't include is because I decided to make it so.

As far as what's better for the players? What's better for the players is a world that makes sense to me. I put a decent amount of thought into my world taking into consideration climatic zones, the effects of mountain ranges causing desertification, what trade routes might look like, on and on.

Part of that is deciding general ethnic variations. Dwarves from the far north have shocking white hair and ice blue eyes. Hill dwarves from my Mediterranean climate region have olive color skin and tend to have dark or frequently rusty red hair. Want an olive skinned dwarf from the far north? Sure, there's trade and occasionally a dwarf from the south will travel north. It may even be a recessive trait and the PC's parents both looked like "typical" dwarves for the region. I don't really care.

On the other hand I have a "lost continent". Which isn't really lost, but based on the geography of my world having one continent primarily in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere on the opposite side of the world they've never discovered each other. Unlike Columbus, they're good enough at math to realize there's no reason to try to sail to the opposite coast along the equator, especially because there are other perfectly good trade routes.

While I've never officially used this other continent (I've toyed with various ideas and roughly mapped it out), the two continents have not shared any trade or had any interchange for millennia. There's no reason for dwarves with white hair and bright blue eyes to exist there. I don't see that as a bad thing, it's just a logical conclusion from my world building. So if I ever do set a campaign there, they won't be an option.

As a real world analog if my campaign were set in my version of 14th century South America, the humans would look like they had Incan ancestry. Why? Because anything else would be anomalous and not make any sense based on the world that I'm modeling.

 

[Weiley31]

Like having Sue Storm respond to criticisms about her Costume having the number 4 as a Boob Window, thus presenting it as the character's choice rather than authorial or editorial intent.

I mean, in Sue's defense when she picked out the costume, its not her fault that biology placed parts of herself at the number four. shrugs.

That or Reed just wanted the eye candy since knowing him, he made the suits.

 

[Bohandas]

I always assumed that the drow's coloration and matriarchial society were refrences to black widow spiders

Or--alternately--elves are not symbolic of people, in which case they look like a specific thing that is purposively orthogonal to people and has no relevance to contemporary concerns.

This has always been my interpretation. The other interpretation seems really lazy and unimaginative.

 

[TheSword]

The main reason for a diverse range of skin tones is that in races that have existed alongside others for thousands if not tens of thousands of years, there really is no excuse for not having diversity. Like there is no reason. Unless you’re trying to create a race that believes in some pretty unpleasant ideas about racial purity… unlikely in a PHB race.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Like having Sue Storm respond to criticisms about her Costume having the number 4 as a Boob Window, thus presenting it as the character's choice rather than authorial or editorial intent.

This is another one with unfortunate implications in universe too as she started doing this after Malice possessed her, changed up the costume to the 4 window in a villainous makeover and nearly murdered her family while wearing it.

Twice.