D&D (2024) What new jargon do you want to replace "Race"?

[Jack Daniel]

I vote against "schmorp." Sounds too much like Hello from the Magic Tavern's Smorps.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It very literally captures the difference. If your ancestors were elves, you’re an elf. If your ancestors were dwarves, you’re a dwarf. It is very much like the differences between human groups in that way.

But the difference between elves and humans isn't like the difference between human ancestries. There isn't really a substantive difference between people who are born here or born over there; there is a substantive difference between humans and elves. Also this argument could work for anything.

 

[Bedrockgames]

They aren’t like either, which is exactly why both terms fail.

Again, I would disagree. They aren't similar to gorillas and chimpanzees, but the difference between them is similar to the difference between those two species. We can quibble obviously. My point is it works to describe the kind of difference we are talking about between the different demihuman races. I mean you are talking about groups with vastly different physical characteristics, age limits, senses, inherent magical abilities etc. That is a kind of difference that is more akin to the difference between species than it is to the differences between human groups (who don't really have differences: you wouldn't give modifiers based on ethnicity for example, but you might give a modifier for someone being a Neanderthal rather than a human of our type).

 

[Charlaquin]

But the difference between elves and humans isn't like the difference between human ancestries. There isn't really a substantive difference between people who are born here or born over there; there is a substantive difference between humans and elves.

Is there? Elves are, what, a bit slimmer on average and have pointy ears?

Also this argument could work for anything.

Doesn’t work for species.

 

[Scribe]

I mean, why can't there be a genasi dragonborn or tiefling gnome?

There used to be options similar as I'm sure you are aware. At this point, with the proliferation and continued refinement of the various options present, its starting to look like 'custom X' is going to be the solution for such unions.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Is there? Elves are, what, a bit slimmer on average and have pointy ears?

Yes elves lives way longer than humans do. In most editions of the game they have senses such as infra vision, magic resistance, better physical dexterity than humans, etc. I mean if you just want to reduce elves to being slim humans with pointy ears, you can do that. But that is kind of boring in my opinion.

 

[Cadence]

There used to be options similar as I'm sure you are aware. At this point, with the proliferation and continued refinement of the various options present, its starting to look like 'custom X' is going to be the solution for such unions.

I was not (or if I was, I forgot!). Do you have a favorite I can go google up? (And probably embarrassedly say I have a copy on my book shelf).

 

[Bedrockgames]

Doesn’t work for species.

I think at this point, we are just going to disagree on whether this argument works for species. My point wasn't about species by ancestry. You can say anything in the world that evolved, is what it is because its ancestors were what it is, but that feels almost just like a tautology to me. But more importantly, I would say the difference between human ancestors and different species of human, is vast. Ancestry is something people think of as being more like ethnicity. And like I said before, if the point here is to move away from race because that is causing issue for people, then choosing ancestry as the term seems just as bad, if not worse, because it beings you more into blood and soil territory. Again, I am not personally worried about terms like race and ancestry here because I think most people can distinguish between their use in a fantasy RPG and how those terms are used in the real world. I am just saying if we concede race needs to be changed because of its connotations, surely things that also have those kinds of negative connotations would be just as bad (especially if those things suggest, as ancestry would, that the difference between humans and elves, which is vast, is similar to the difference between humans of different ethnicities, which is not vast).

 

[Charlaquin]

Yes elves lives way longer than humans do. In most editions of the game they have senses such as infra vision, magic resistance, better physical dexterity than humans, etc.

So, magical features.

 

[Scribe]

I was not (or if I was, I forgot!). Do you have a favorite I can go google up? (And probably embarrassedly say I have a copy on my book shelf).

Things like Wisplings.

Wispling

Wisplings were planetouched descended from the breeding of halflings and demons. Wisplings were of apparently normal halfling size and shape, with light brown skin and bright red hair, as well as angular features. They typically preferred to wear brightly colored clothing. Wisplings were...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com

Planetouched

Planetouched was a general term used to described mortal creatures whose lineages traced back to an outsider of some kind, causing them some unusual characteristics that persisted in the bloodline for several generations. Planetouched were not as dramatically different as a true hybrid (i.e. a...

forgottenrealms.fandom.com