How to describe a race?

[Driddle]

(An aside and warning: We should probably be very careful of our comments on this topic. Previous discussion on race-identification issues and their overlap into the gaming environment have been deemed inappropriate for this message board.)

 

[Klaus]

From the dictionary.com thesaurus:

Race (noun): blood, breed, clan, color, cultural group, culture, family, folk, house, issue, kin, kind, kindred, line, lineage, nation, nationality, offspring, people, progeny, seed, species, stock, strain, tribe, type, variety

Breed (noun): brand, character, extraction, family, feather, genus, ilk, kind, likes, line, lineage, lot, nature, number, pedigree, progeny, race, sort, species, stamp, stock, strain, stripe, type, variety

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Allow me to toss my festive hat in the ring for either "lineage" or "heritage", if "race" is really going to be a problem - and I accept that groups concerned with the possible interpretations of language used may consider it a problem

I mean, I'll just write Race on any character sheets I make for my home group, but those are my non-"race", non-"species" choices.

 

[lukelightning]

This reminds me of my first D&D character, waaay back in first edition. I was brand new to gaming and had a lot of misconceptions.

I thought "race" spot on the character sheet referred to running speed. Yeah, it sounds dumb but on the character sheet it was right next to movement rate.

 

[Gloombunny]

Species. Speeeeeciiieeees.

I really don't like "lineage". That strongly implies that humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, etc, all have a common ancestor, which just isn't the case in most fantasy settings that feature them.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Race. As previously mentioned, gamers already know it and I just don't think it's an issue to explain what Race means in the game's context to a new player. "Species" is too scientific; I don't even like the "electricity" descriptor for lightning-based spells. There's really no word that immediately conveys the fantasy concept of Race to new players, that doesn't also sound too scientific. If it doesn't sound scientific, like kindred or whatever, you're just going to end up explaining what the word means to new players. Since race is already a commonly used and understood (at its basic level) word, it requires a minimum of explanation.

 

[Roman]

I would have thought that the exposure to the word "race" is wide enough in other games and mediums, including computer games, that no elaborate explanation would be necessary to avoid confusion with real world races. However, WotC apparently has data to the contrary, as I doubt they would just invent a problem for themselves, so let's try to be helpful to them.

Perhaps preceding the word "race" with an adjective, such as "fantasy" or "fictional" might do the trick: "fantasy races" or "fictional races". Of course, it could then be stated that the word "race" in the book will be used to refer to "fantasy/fictional races" from that point on.

 

[Driddle]

Perhaps preceding the word "race" with an adjective, such as "fantasy" or "fictional" might do the trick: "fantasy races" or "fictional races".

Huh.
Well, that would seem to do the trick.

 

[GreatLemur]

They basically should have been using the word "species" from the beginning. The fact that it wasn't fluffy enough for Tolkien's prose ain't a good reason not to use it. It's the one word the English language has which most accurately expresses the idea they're trying to convey, and that's pretty much that.

 

[Kaodi]

" Race " is the correct term for differentiation between folks such as elves or dwarves, who actually are very different. The idea of race has only been used incorrectly in referring to humans of different lands. I do not believe it makes sense to stop using a proper word to avoid confusion with a usage of the word that was never proper. It would be like stopping using the term " bear " to refer to Grizzlys, Polars, Brown and Blacks to avoid confusion with with Pandas and Koalas.