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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8018153" data-attributes="member: 59082">Racism is uniquitous in human history. I think this question you ask has a secondary question, which is "how closely do you wish to emulate real-world cultural history?" I don't think there would be a great range of answers. Speaking for myself, I don't really use D&D as a context to explore real world cultural dynamics, so the issue of racism is minimal. For me D&D is about having fun, a game of wonder and imagination, and a modality of healthy escapism. I only bring real world issues into the fantasy world if it serves the campaign environment I want to craft.But sure, racial dynamics exist. I don't have an active campaign going, but I've played with racial enmities and attitudes--not as a means to explore real world dynamics, but as a way of flavoring the campaign world.I haven't touched my last campaign setting in a few years, but from memory these are some examples. Elves were quasi-mystical and somewhat xenophobic, although it depended upon the sub-race specific to my world. Dwarves were almost as dominant as humans (it was post-apocalyptic and they survived better than others), but also had a sense of diminishing greatness and a resentment towards humans for rising quickly. Orcs were a mutated off-shoot of humanity who bore the brunt of the magical apocalypse, physically altered by it. The were based on European "barbarians," and were very shamanic and naturalistic (although an off-shoot--the "blue kith" named after their blue skin--had developed advanced magic and didn't really care about the ongoing squabbles of other races, instead focused on their research. Halfings were barge-dwelling nomads and mistrusted for their thievery, but also had a penchant for getting along with everyone and being intermixed with nearly every culture.Racial tensions existed, but they were generally based upon history and not ideological ideas on race, or inherent superiority or inferiority. It was more distrust of otherness.</blockquote>

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