D&D (2024) Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

[Micah Sweet]

Digitial Ownership is not real ownership. I keep saying this....

Certainly subscription ownership isn't real ownership. And yet it takes the same kind of money to procure...

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I actually think this is the best long-term approach for them if they are trying to avoid conflict. They get rid of the entire half-species, and they eliminate so many mechanical and racist-tropy problems. They can always create half-species later using magic, lycanthropy, etc. But to start with, their intentions are to simplify.
They are looking to expand their audience, and to do that, they feel they need to appeal to younger players. They probably believe keeping things simple will expand the audience.

Racism can be defeated by deleting characters of mixed origin.

Let's think how that sounds.

 

[MoonSong]

I actually think this is the best long-term approach for them if they are trying to avoid conflict. They get rid of the entire half-species, and they eliminate so many mechanical and racist-tropy problems. They can always create half-species later using magic, lycanthropy, etc. But to start with, their intentions are to simplify.
They are looking to expand their audience, and to do that, they feel they need to appeal to younger players. They probably believe keeping things simple will expand the audience.

Yeah, let's expand the audience by actively offending 500 million people...

 

[MoonSong]

I still can't believe WoTC has a big issue with me simply because I'm more of a mutt than my late dog Bauer was (god rest his doge soul).

Don't feel bad, they aren't actively malicious, just incredibly ignorant and unaware. They wanted to do something nice, but went too far in the other direction.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I actually think this is the best long-term approach for them if they are trying to avoid conflict. They get rid of the entire half-species, and they eliminate so many mechanical and racist-tropy problems. They can always create half-species later using magic, lycanthropy, etc. But to start with, their intentions are to simplify.
They are looking to expand their audience, and to do that, they feel they need to appeal to younger players. They probably believe keeping things simple will expand the audience.

h....how is the existence of mixed race/species characters racist?

 

[Weiley31]

h....how is the existence of mixed race/species characters racist?

I don't know. Ask WoTC and those who get offended by Half-Elf/Orc.

 

[Remathilis]

h....how is the existence of mixed race/species characters racist?

This would be my only thought.

Imagine an RPG set in the real world where you can pick your ethnicity: Caucasian, African, Asian, Latinx, etc. And then the only options you have for mixed race characters is Asian/Caucasian and African/Caucasian, and if you wanted to a different mix, you had to work with your DM to get them to allow it (and potentially make stats for it). People would be rightly pissed at that.

Now, is it better to say "you can pick any mixed race you want, but that doesn't change your stats?" In some senses no. But the alternative is either a system where you make your own species OR you create a stats for every combo that was, is, or will be.

And for every person saying "you can't compare D&D species to real-world races", then the point of representation is now moot. Several people in this thread have said they feel half-elves (and half-orcs) resonate because they are mixed race. That's fine and that's valid. But what is the game told you there were only two mixed races, and work with your DM if you want to be something else.

The problem is there is NO good solution to this. Hundreds of mixed species statblocks? A "build a species" ruleset ripe for minmaxing? Pick a set of stats and reflavor? Only two hybrids are recognized, the others are invisible" You can't win for losing.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

A "build a species" ruleset ripe for minmaxing?

I still don't understand why "Well, we can't condone min-maxing" is a suitable justification for not even trying to develop a system for mixed character ancestries.

 

[CreamCloud0]

h....how is the existence of mixed race/species characters racist?

preface this with the fact that for a long time intentionally or not there have been unfortunate implication parralels drawn between certain species and certain ethnic groups as well of the use of 'race' to refer to both (until recently)

so off of that i remember some conversations (here on enworld not WotC directly so this may be incorrect) referring to how Wizards wanted to be rid of the 'half' moniker which has been used in derogatory ways such as in the sense of being 'less than' other full blooded people of their race and the associated 'just one drop' mentality,

which leads into how in trying to wipe that entire reference off the board Wizards neglected to consider that some people actually take pride in being from mixed cultures and created a whole new set of unfortunate implications.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I can see the how having certain race combinations be the most powerful could be something they don't wanna bring up (like how Paladins selling their soul as Warlocks is usually optimal, just with more eugenics).

Still, if you're giving stats at all to them, you'll end up with some being more powerful than others, or stronger/smarter, even without the ASIs they bring. Using these fantasy races as stand-ins for irl people just leads to a lot of unfortunate implications.