Does DnD encourage racist thinking?

[DragonSword]

Interesting Question

Hi evey1

It's an interesting question and a hard one to answer. There are bound to be loads of different viewpoints on it. Great Fun!

Is there a problem in the D&D game with racism? I don't think there is much of a problem, but it is always possible for one to grow out of a controversial storyline or bad DMing. The point you must remember is D&D is a fantasy game. It is made to make it easy for people who want to role-play to do it in a simple world. Sure, if you want to make your campaigns life-like then get rid of all the stereotypes, remember that Dwarves are only miners if it comes into your world and in the end you make the decision on whether or not they are. The reason Dwarves are always good at mining and Elves are always charming and charismatic is because it makes it easy for the player to play. If they see an Elf, they know it will be charismatic etc. and don't have to spend ages with the mountainous task of trying to work out what this Elf is like (they spend enough time finding out othetr things about them anyway). In the end, the DM's job is to make it as easy and enjoyable as is possible for the players to play. Besides, classes, feats and skills were designed so that players don't just look at a Dwarf and think fighter.

What can we do about it? Here's my advice: Instead of totally disrupting every game with everyone different despite race and background, try adding one or two 'different' characters every so often. A butt-ugly Elf, a charismatic Half-Orc. Use your imagination. These exceptions also add colour to your campaign and make it more interesting, another goal for the DM.

That's my bit done, happy DMing

DragonSword

 

[Desdichado]

It was Beowulf, wasn't it?

Yes, it was. And the Wendol was supposed to be Grendel.

 

[Gizzard]

Looking at it from just the perspective of the adventuring party, D&D encourages a very liberal and cosmopolitan view of the world. In plenty of campaigns Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes and Elves all adventure together with very little attention to race. (Well, except between Elves and Dwarves, but even then inter-group dynamics tend to be more for fun than for blood. ;-) Not only does the party itself tend to be tolerant and accepting of the variety of its members, but they can go to any tavern or town and also be accepted.

OTOH, does anyone remember the Table of Racial Preferences from 1E? I think that was an (unfortunately) more realistic way of looking at interactions between different groups of people. Still, a lot of high-fantasy campaigns point the way towards a world without racism.

 

[Sanackranib]

raceism

each race prefers its own and treats all the other accordingly.

 

[Desdichado]

OTOH, does anyone remember the Table of Racial Preferences from 1E? I think that was an (unfortunately) more realistic way of looking at interactions between different groups of people. Still, a lot of high-fantasy campaigns point the way towards a world without racism.

Unless you're an orc or a goblin, of course.

 

[Sanackranib]

orcish severence

one of my former players would disagree he was always preaching that even kobolds had rights.

 

[Desdichado]

No, I mean you aren't free from being racially discriminated against if you are an orc or a goblin, not that you're a racist if you're an orc or a goblin.

 

[mythago]

Yes, but if half-elves and half-orcs are not sterile mules, then there has to be a closer relationship than that -- they have to be at most seperated into sub-species. That's what the definition of species is. And the examples you gave are creatures that are in the same genus, so this concept of alien-ness I've seen here is right out.

You realize you just contradicted yourself, yes? If the creatures had to be in the same SUBspecies, horses and donkeys would not be interfertile. Horses are Equus caballus, donkeys Equus asinus; they are not members of the same species but different subspecies. Their offspring are sterile (in most cases) because mules end up with an odd number of chromosomes. Odd numbers don't divide neatly in two during meiosis.

Anyway. So if you decide elves are technically Homo silvanus, or something, you could go with the idea that they can bred with humans.

I think the "blah blah magical blah" explanation is probably easiest

 

[WizarDru]

It was Beowulf, wasn't it?

It was. I have no idea what grade of crack I was, in fact, smoking. Family emergency today. Made me a little scatterbrained. Yikes.

 

[DM_Matt]

My take on this topic:

On a side note, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the issue of Tolkien's alledged anti-semitism in his portrayal of dwarves.

Here's a good article about it.

I've heard theories taht Orcs are supposed to be black, too.

Regarding that other one, tohugh, spome linguist analyzed the elvish lasnguages and both contained lots of Hebrew in thme, too (IIRC, both had Hebrew, latin, and Greek....one dialect had welsh, while the other has some other nordic language)