D&D 5E D&D Races: Evolution, Fantasy Stereotypes & Escapism

[Vaalingrade]

Basically one day magic comes back and people start digivolving to Rookie in the form of elves, trolls, etc. Turns out this is because magic runs in cycles and without the power source, the 'fantasy race' genes don't work.

Classism and racism immediately come into effect because, humans.

 

[Hussar]

Let me tell you about the gritty steampunk/gas lamp fantasy game I plan to run that specifically calls for a noble savage.

Please don’t.

 

[DarkMantle]

Also, at least to me, utterly pointless.

Oh I got another one!

You know what's pointless? Most of this thread

 

[Faolyn]

Duplicate

 

[Faolyn]

We disagree. You and I both know that if we disagree it wont resolve, so, we disagree.

Typically was added because some people couldnt make the obvious leap, or needed it spelled out for them because (hi again Drizzt) they just didnt think about it? I dont know.

It certainly wasnt added for the sake of the people who play against Orcs/Drow as the typical bad guy, we dont need Typical in our Alignment line, never have.

Are you really comparing one individual to an entire race?

Also, do you honestly think that there are people who are just coming into the game who automatically know who these rare individual exceptions are? Because I have spoken to plenty of newbies who don't. I've spoken to newbies who didn't know that the DM isn't really supposed to tell the players the monsters' AC and hp right off the bat.

And heck, I've been playing since '91 or so and I don't necessarily know all of the people and events that get bandied about as common knowledge on these forums (I don't read the D&D novels).

Do you not realize that it was added for the sake of people who aren't you?

 

[Scribe]

Are you really comparing one individual to an entire race?

Also, do you honestly think that there are people who are just coming into the game who automatically know who these rare individual exceptions are? Because I have spoken to plenty of newbies who don't. I've spoken to newbies who didn't know that the DM isn't really supposed to tell the players the monsters' AC and hp right off the bat.

And heck, I've been playing since '91 or so and I don't necessarily know all of the people and events that get bandied about as common knowledge on these forums (I don't read the D&D novels).

Do you not realize that it was added for the sake of people who aren't you?

Case in point.

 

[Malmuria]

The addition of "typically" felt very corporate, a way of reintroducing alignment but not substantively dealing with its implications and potential problems. Why should an entire race of humanoids, for example, be "typically" of any one moral persuasion? So they can be reliable stereotyped in their moral outlook with a few Drizzt-like exceptions?

 

[Irlo]

I'm on my primitive smart phone and the battery is weak..., but I really believe what you are getting at is so far beyond the realm of a word, even a definition of a word, and is so far down the rabbit hole of assumptions, politics and personal interpretation, I don't really think it can be discussed with earning myself another warning/infraction.

You may not believe their is a link between tech levels and religion. I certainly don't.

Yet you fear others do.

You don't feel the racist assumptions, beliefs or views are valid, neither do I.

But you fear others do.

So again it's George Carlin's 7 Words bit.

What are the words?
Who says these are the words?
Why are they OK in one scenario but not another, and by whose decree?

It's not that I fear that people make those connections. It's that I know they have made (and still make) those connections. Powerful societies have been mistreating others on those grounds for centuries. I think words carry the meaning that's been attached to them through usage, and I don't think it's as easy to disentangle them as all that. Clearly we disagree strongly. That's okay. Let's move on.

There is no list of banned words. There is no authority overseeing common usage. There is no decree.

 

[Laurefindel]

The addition of "typically" felt very corporate, a way of reintroducing alignment but not substantively dealing with its implications and potential problems. Why should an entire race of humanoids, for example, be "typically" of any one moral persuasion? So they can be reliable stereotyped in their moral outlook with a few Drizzt-like exceptions?

Pretty much exactly that.

For the better or for the worse, D&D has cultivated a certain image of its peoples and monsters that help define the line as part of the D&D experience. Dwarves are short people that live underground or otherwise associated with mountains and caves. Elves are elegant and live in forests or secluded, wonderful cities, etc. This was helpful to give a good idea of what D&D was, beyond the rules. To create recognizable archetypes, you need stereotypes. Either you use existing ones, or you create your own, because stereotypes are models, a norm, and you want to create a brand that is recognisable.

Now, D&D is getting more and more varied in scope and settings. Greyhawk and Forgotten realms and Mystara and all the early setting pretty much all used the same assumptions (read stereotypes) about its people, but there are other models now, such as Eberron and Dark Sun. But even in these news settings, the classic stereotype is often broken just to create another. The elf of Greyhawk, the elf of Dark Sun, and the elf from Eberron are all different from one another, but they are all defined by their own setting's stereotypes.

By using "typically" WotC still abide by those setting stereotypes as guidelines to create a recognisable baseline, but legitimize variations from the norm.

 

[Bohandas]

The addition of "typically" felt very corporate, a way of reintroducing alignment but not substantively dealing with its implications and potential problems. Why should an entire race of humanoids, for example, be "typically" of any one moral persuasion?

Because they're not human and presumably don't think in precisely the same way, in the same way that you would not expect a dog to have the same temperment as a cat