D&D General Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings of Color

[Thakazum]

Random anecdote: The original Atlantis Trilogy (aka Arcanum) by Bard Games had some dwarves with dark skin and dreadlocks. They weren't the only dwarves and they were in Gondwana. I loved it as a kid who is-not-exactly-white but I could see it as a problem because of the very real African Pygmy tribes. I am not sure if that was good (more diverse) or bad (stereotypes).

 

[Haldrik]

I like the elves of Norse sources, with solar tropes. So the sky-blue eyes and sun-gold hair and cloud-white skin, are important for skyey flavor.

At the same time, it is just as easy to have sky-blue skin, cloud-white hair, and sun-gold eyes, and still keep true to the sunray tropes.

Also, any skyey color is possible, including orange and red and purple sunsets. Even rainbow emerald green is possible on occasion.

Also, I feel solar eclipse tropes of solid black skin, the white-gold hair of the solar halo, plus an aura of starry sky is cool.

There is lots of room for varying the complexion of a character, and still stay true to the sunshine themes.

 

[the Jester]

The various nonhuman races in my campaign all have a variety of skin tones and lineages/subraces/cultures, though not all of them are similar to the human range. Elves in my game are more likely to be green or blue than they are to be black or pink like a human. Given the recent discussion about diversity in D&D, I think I'm going to start playing up just how nonhuman some of my nonhumans are.

 

[Shiroiken]

That said, the art doesn't seem to reflect the text, and most depictions of all four races--on memory--are more pale/white.

I think this is the primary disconnect. The descriptions of non-humans are generally different than any human ethnicity, and they should be. They are a completely different species with their own ethnic differences (the sub-races). The problem is the artwork being done by people with only a passing familiarity with these descriptions, inserting their own preconceptions instead. I've seen it repeatedly in RPGs, CCGs, boardgames, and even religious artwork.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Yeah, the text in the Player's Handbook describes all sorts of skin colors. The artwork usually doesn't, for whatever reason (on a tangentially related note, I remember reading comments from someone at Paizo expressing irritation that the tiefling artwork they often get from their artists matches the D&D tiefling despite Pathfinder not using that design as the default, so I guess artists are largely copying what they've already seen).

Regarding drow, I personally prefer the blue depictions Pathfinder defaults to and even D&D itself has used on occassion (such as on the cover of 3.5's Drow of the Underdark).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

This would in many ways be the Shadowrun approach, which conceivably Shadowrun might be the first RPG where "metahumans" of different ethnicities are a canonical and established thing where a Dwarf could be from Shanghai and an Elf could be from Nairobi.

Of course, Shadowrun also has regional meta-variants, which are tied to specific ethnicities. While trolls are found everywhere in the world, the cyclops variant of troll is only ever of Mediterranean descent, while the fomorian variant of troll is only native to the British Isles.

Despite whatever the origins of Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings, in core D&D they are now far removed from their mythological Earth origins, so they don't need to be locked in as exclusively European.

Are you equating "core D&D" to a specific setting, such as The Forgotten Realms? Because that one has always been on the extreme ends of published settings. It doesn't really make a fair point for comparison.

Personally, I place much greater weight in homebrew settings, and those aren't always quite so removed from mythological Earth.

 

[ccs]

Regarding drow, I personally prefer the blue depictions Pathfinder defaults to and even D&D itself has used on occassion (such as on the cover of 3.5's Drow of the Underdark).

You know that's not meant to show Drow having bluish skin, right?
That's a combination of a light source from the pictures left+ the fact that it's very hard to do solid black (& have it look good). Especially on dark backgrounds.
It's why you often see black things depicted with blue highlights.

 

[J-H]

I think this is the primary disconnect. The descriptions of non-humans are generally different than any human ethnicity, and they should be. They are a completely different species with their own ethnic differences (the sub-races). The problem is the artwork being done by people with only a passing familiarity with these descriptions, inserting their own preconceptions instead. I've seen it repeatedly in RPGs, CCGs, boardgames, and even religious artwork.

Old fourth-hand anecdote that may not be true: When Baldur's Gate II was sent out for Voice Acting work, the initial voice work that was done for "Elves" all came back sounding like "Keebler Elves." This was pre-movie LOTR and I guess whatever studio was recording for VA failed to adequately clarify which type of elf was being discussed.

In D&D, of course, Keebler Elves would be gnomes or halflings.

I usually assume skin color based on names, because we (usually accurately) stereotype certain names as belonging to specific cultures and ethnicities. Thor the barbarian is probably a big white dude, Nkwame the barbarian is probably a big black dude, Tai Ming is probably a big Asiatic dude, Rajadeet is probably a big South Asian dude, and Nguloc-phuo is probably a big(or maybe wiry?) Vietnamese-looking dude.

It would help a lot if D&D moved away from "Generic European stereotype mash-up." These days, "Generic Mesoamerican" or "Generic African" is likely to get all sorts of REEEEEEEE if the author doesn't look like he's descended from people who lived in the area being written about... so doing anything like that carries a lot of risk. Too many people with too many chips on their shoulders and no grace.

 

[TheSword]

I’m inspired by Rafe Judkins, Show Runner for the new Wheel of Time TV series. When asked about the diverse cast he said...

“As much as possible, our cast should look like America will in a few hundred years -- a beautiful mix of white, brown, black and everything in between.”

I don’t expect people from a European country to be monotonously white in this century, so I don’t really see why cultures in the Forgotten Realms or any other campaign setting should be any different. Most have existed for tens of thousands of years longer than known human civilizations in this world.

Any character can be any color. Simple. The PHB does an excellent job of demonstrating it. I don’t see the need to complicate it any more than this.

 

[Seramus]

I have a strong background in Shadowrun (1989), so I've pretty much always given the non-human races different geo-ethnicities. "Asian" equivalent Elves, Dwarves, etc. "Black" Halflings, Hobbits, etc. Just whatever real or imaginary ethnicity I can come up with gets used on every race, assuming that race has any business breeding at a given location (which is almost always unless there's a specific reason a region removes a race).