D&D General “‘Scantily Clad and Well Proportioned’: Sexism and Gender Stereotyping in the Gaming Worlds of TSR and Dungeons & Dragons.”

[Emerikol]

My oldest son is mixed race. The idea that he's half anything is insulting, tbh. Regardless of anything else, the terminology is problematic. I imagine someone who is mixed race might* be really turned off to read a book with "half" being part of the description of multi-racial humanoids

*I say might, because I know mixed race people who weren't bothered, and those who were. Individuals being individual and all.

That is because there really is only one race on this planet. The human race. Whereas depending on the backstory, most fantasy realms present Elves as a real different race. They are not the same as humans. Same for all the others.

So I agree with you on the half part for humans. We are humans through and through. In a fantasy realm where there are multiple intelligent races, and they are real races, it seems fine to say half human half alien where alien is whatever other race you want to pick.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I do like some those old pictures, but I know it's never been in the right context for D&D and how things would actually go down.

Like maybe it's more like some adventurers saying "and here I was like in my trusty armored underwear and greatsword fighting off 30 orcs after the last night we had together" to some painter who mostly does erotic artwork, doing their best to depict what they were described, even though it's very far from what actually happened.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Did all half-elves have that origin? No, of course not. Happily married elves and humans living in communities where such unions are blessed became more common, as did the idea of half-elves as true breeding species. It was much more successful than half-orcs because elves were a good-aligned PC race and orcs and evil monster type. It was much easier to envision humans and elves living in peace than humans and orcs. Still, the "drama" of the race usually hinged on being between two worlds rather than part of one blended one. I wager more half-elves had one or more elements mentioned above than not.

I always felt there was a considerable attempt to try and capture the "between two worlds" element you see very strongly with Spock in Star Trek, too.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I think background options might be good but 5E made them a major locus of character power, unfortunately.

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure a thing being a "locus of character power" should inherently mean that it can't ALSO be a place for deep character development. Lean into it?

 

[M.L. Martin]

I always felt there was a considerable attempt to try and capture the "between two worlds" element you see very strongly with Spock in Star Trek, too.

Tanis Half-Elven is basically a mix of Spock, Kirk, and Archie Andrews.

 

[Remathilis]

I mean... Yeah, kinda.

We'll find out when the 2024 Monster Manual hits and Orcs are described in it as rapacious monsters, again.

I don't think that will be an issue as orcs made the jump to the PHB. They are a PC species now.

 

[Steampunkette]

Honestly... A5e has a pretty solid way of doing it, for me?

Heritage, Culture, and Background are all separated. So you could do a "Between Two Worlds" culture with a lot of social-centric function (because that's mostly what culture does in the system) for a character. You could even make a specific note in the culture that it is for characters who feel like they're a part of society that's kept at arm's length.

Maybe even make it a "Subculture" or "Metaculture" that gets applied to another culture and replaces certain features?

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure a thing being a "locus of character power" should inherently mean that it can't ALSO be a place for deep character development. Lean into it?

With backgrounds providing stat bonuses what stat bonus should I gain from the "Trans Woman" Background?

 

[abirdcall]

That's a really good question because a lot of people (including me some of the time) absolutely feel attached to more outsider-y characters, and when all characters are being depicted as Jolly Insiders with Happy Families and Healthy Friendships, I see how that's cool, but it's also kind of... narrow. I think background options might be good but 5E made them a major locus of character power, unfortunately.

Are they being depicted that way?

The species certainly are but that is a good thing. I'm glad they don't have species reserved for that.

There is a lot of room for what circumstances were like during the background and even after the background before the class.

The character could be a scribe but still treated horribly. There is also still the wayfarer.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I always felt there was a considerable attempt to try and capture the "between two worlds" element you see very strongly with Spock in Star Trek, too.

100% Spock and other similar characters were a big influence on the popularity of Half-Elves and the like.

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure a thing being a "locus of character power" should inherently mean that it can't ALSO be a place for deep character development. Lean into it?

It does mean it inherently can't in 5E, because a background controls what three stats you're allowed to put your starting +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1 into, and if someone has assigned "Between two worlds" WIS, CHA, and CON, say, you're pretty much stuffed if you want to play a martial character and not be actually noticeably sub-optimal (+1 is absolutely noticeable, from my experience with 5E, esp. when it applies to both attack AND damage - it comes out to significantly more than 5% in real terms).

If you gave it a unique "Choose any three stats" though (which, frankly, all background should have, but w/e), then sure it's fine.

 

[Emerikol]

I don't think that will be an issue as orcs made the jump to the PHB. They are a PC species now.

Oh wow, I didn't know that was the case. So what are the PHB 2024 races?