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Agreed, although Lovecraft barely benefited financially from his work when he was alive. Also agreed. Avoiding deliberately insulting material is important. I disagree. If I try to avoid offense, but offense is still taken, I am not at fault. Yes, it is an opportunity to discuss such things...

OK, let's assume that I believed that D&D perpetuated racist ideas (which I most assuredly do not). What SPECIFICALLY would you do to change it? I've heard: Replace "race" with another word, which I think most people have agreed fixes nothing as other words can carry the same connotations...

I completely disagree here. I know a number of Lovecraft fans and none of them would condone any sort of racism. All of them, without exception, are aware of Lovecraft's flaws and they can appreciate his work while acknowledging them. Thinking we have to purge work from the collective...

BS. If anything, Avatar turns those stereotypes inside out. The "savages" were shown to be anything but. The real savages were shown to be the so called civilised people wrecking their world. Moreso, you didn't actually address Ovinomancer's question. Namely: How can a vague link to racism in a...

It doesn't. It's the exact same argument people used in the 80's to suggest D&D turned people evil and drove them insane. It may sound ridiculous now, but it was a very serious topic back then. I had people go out of their way to insist my mind and soul was in danger as long as I played D&D. No...

Not cannibalism. That would be orcs eating orcs. If a lion eats a human, it is not practicing cannibalism. I'll grant you the word mongrel does appear in Lovecraft's works. However it is a common word for any kind of cross-breed, including dogs. The description explains the existence of orc...

There is no indication of any relationship to cannibalism or degeneracy. The description certainly doesn't indicate those qualities. Of those, only degeneracy would provide a clear link to Lovecraftian style, so is not a valid example. Orcs being nasty and breeding a lot is hardly proof of...

Yes it is irrelevant. I've studied Lovecraft's works for years. Please explain in detail how you feel H.P. Lovecraft's use of race affects D&D materials, including citing a piece of text from a core book.

That's a racial difference, hardly a "radical stereotype". It's the same as saying Storm Giants are stronger than humans. You can certainly make elves that are different if you find them boring. You can make weak giants too, but they probably wouldn't be very interesting. It sends the message...

I haven't made any strawmen. I'm pointing out the futility of doing what you are suggesting - namely removing racial modifiers. So you transfer the "differences" to features, or some other mechanism, but that begs the question of "How does an ability modifier convey racial differences in a...

...and completely irrelevant.

Ditto. Everybody at the time knew it was just a silly effort to deflect and placate the religious wackos. It doesn't, but that doesn't stop people who can find something to be offended by pretty much anywhere. Bingo. The end result is just stupid. Variety is not the same thing as...

"Could" - meaning you do not advocate the idea? You are just throwing out random ideas with no notion that they are good or bad? So......again you may as well just remove stats altogether. I mean they serve no purpose other than to enable distinctiveness, and it seems to be that very...

That is what you said. Quote: "Personally we could remove racial modifiers entirely and leave "racial differentiation" entirely in the hands of special features."

I think that's a load of crap. Since you are advocating that elves, dwarves, etc all get the same racial stats, then surely orcs, trolls, ogres, giants, dragons, and beholders should have the same stats too. We wouldn't want to be unintentionally racist to players who want to play as a...

Wow, you have to be ten kinds of stupid to take differences between dwarves and elves and use it to justify stupid human predjudices. Cats are more dextrous than humans. That's not racist. Aligators are stronger than humans. That's not racist either. The differences between the fantasy races...

Somebody else said that, but I'm not buying it. Boots of of elvenkind enable silent movement. The cloak of elvenkind says nothing about muffling anything, only camouflage giving advantage on stealth checks involving sight, while the cloak of invisibility provides...uh...invisibility. Ergo -...

No.

There are good and bad rules. There are good and bad Sage Advice clarifications of rules. Why is anyone surprised at this?

With regard to chainmail bikinis: That's the second time in as many days I've seen that exact same BS quote. The other was with regard to artwork in a computer game unrelated to D&D. Is there a factory somewhere stamping out people with this bizarro-world viewpoint? People like to look at...