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

[Greg Benage]

We call it an elf-game, anyway, we just need to brand Elf.

"What kind of Elf are you playing?"

"I'm a dwarf."

Done.

 

[Cadence]

We call it an elf-game, anyway, we just need to brand Elf.

"What kind of Elf are you playing?"

"I'm a dwarf."

Done.

"Choose your Elfness from among Aasimar, Ardling, Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Genasi, Goliath, Halfling, Human, or Tiefling, or brew a custom Elfness from the table on the next page."

 

[Yaarel]

If the term Shmorp fuses the concepts of culture and species in the same way that racism does, how would it help avoid racism?

 

[ART!]

For the most part, members of a species can't successfully reproduce outside their species, so using the term to replace "race" doesn't really work, given that we have - at the very least - half-orcs and half-eves being common enough to list as their own "race" in 5E. I prefer it to "race", though.

 

[Charlaquin]

But you get stats related to that correct?

Depends what you mean by stats, I guess? You get features from it, but no ability score changes. Specifically, either the exact same features you would get from being a centaur, or the exact same features you would get from being a Triton.

 

[Charlaquin]

By rest you mean a small subset.

Neither of us have meaningful data on how many players are using such options, but I doubt WotC would have explicitly included the option in the playtest if they didn’t have reason to think the majority of their players would want such an option.

 

[Bagpuss]

For the most part, members of a species can't successfully reproduce outside their species, so using the term to replace "race" doesn't really work, given that we have - at the very least - half-orcs and half-eves being common enough to list as their own "race" in 5E. I prefer it to "race", though.

Which is the way it has been in D&D (you only had half-elves and half-orcs, much like Ligers are odd exceptions), none of the other races produced offspring at all if they mixed. Race meant species in D&D originally, as in the human race, distinct from other races and animals.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Depends what you mean by stats, I guess? You get features from it, but no ability score changes. Specifically, either the exact same features you would get from being a centaur, or the exact same features you would get from being a Triton.

What I am trying to figure out is if 'feature' here translates into any mechanical ability, bonus, or stat difference (or if it is purely superficial).

 

[Charlaquin]

I am unfamiliar with the "shmorp". Can someone explain this term, where it comes from, and how it is relevant to D&D?

It’s a completely made-up term, coined right here on ENWorld in one of these conversations, half-jokingly, because any real English word will have connotations someone might object to. Making up a new word specifically for the character feature formerly known as racket is, as the thinking goes, the only way to give it a totally inoffensive designation.

 

[Charlaquin]

We call it an elf-game, anyway, we just need to brand Elf.

"What kind of Elf are you playing?"

"I'm a dwarf."

Done.

“Kind” is doing the real lifting there.