D&D 5E I thought WotC was removing biological morals?

[Micah Sweet]

View attachment 141995

Not a fan of insulting gifs.

 

[Umbran]

It should be obvious that different species behave differently based on the forces of evolution.

That's fine, for non-sentient beings. But consider that in humans in the real world, subject to the forces of evolution, you see behavior ranging from beatific to rat-bastardy.

Also consider that our fantasy worlds do not clearly operate under the forces of Darwinian evolution at all.

 

[Alzrius]

Well, to be fair, for all we know the gods prevent various species from actually dying out.

That a lot of racial gods are proactive about protecting their people has been established for quite a while. Take these excerpts from DMGR4 Monster Mythology (affiliate link) for example:

 

[Charlaquin]

Not a fan of insulting gifs.

Sorry, I was being glib, but my point is, if it’s obviously racist to depict humans that way, maybe we shouldn’t be depicting other sapient humanoids that way, hmm?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sorry, I was being glib, but my point is, if it’s obviously racist to depict humans that way, maybe we shouldn’t be depicting other sapient humanoids that way, hmm?

And we get back to why we have other sapient humans if the differences are purely cosmetic.

 

[Charlaquin]

And we get back to why we have other sapient humans if the differences are purely cosmetic.

The differences aren’t purely cosmetic, so this argument isn’t the mic drop you seem to think it is.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The differences aren’t purely cosmetic, so this argument isn’t the mic drop you seem to think it is.

As I've mentioned before, trance and the presence of darkvision aren't exactly robust features (especially with the proliferation of darkvision).

 

[Faolyn]

And we get back to why we have other sapient humans if the differences are purely cosmetic.

Because the differences are not purely cosmetic. And--and this is the important thing--you can have differences without assigning morality to them. For instance, elven trance, dwarven understanding of stone--no morality attached, and because of that, nobody is upset about that sort of "biological determination."

Edit: Since you don't like trance and darkvision, you can consider other traits as well. Look at minotaurs. They're written as violent monsters, but imagine if they instead kept their Labyrinthine Recall feature as PCs. Interesting trait, no morality attached.

 

[Umbran]

Or not. It's all just made up.

Yeah, and that's part of the problem. Enter the Thermian Argument.

If we admit that it is all made up, then no in-fiction justification holds merit. The world fiction was made by the decisions of real-world humans. If your races are that way "because that's how the world works", then... why the heck did you make a world that results in racist gunk? Remake the world already!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because the differences are not purely cosmetic. And--and this is the important thing--you can have differences without assigning morality to them. For instance, elven trance, dwarven understanding of stone--no morality attached, and because of that, nobody is upset about that sort of "biological determination."

Edit: Since you don't like trance and darkvision, you can consider other traits as well. Look at minotaurs. They're written as violent monsters, but imagine if they instead kept their Labyrinthine Recall feature as PCs. Interesting trait, no morality attached.

I agree interesting racial features could exist (look at the warforged). They're just rare. Most everything's either cultural or boring.