D&D 5E If not the word "race", what word instead?

[Sadras]

Well, add that fuel to the fire

How so? Did they not say they were relooking at the word 'race'
Wasn't everyone expecting it?
I do agree with the twitter user in that I too find 'species' more along the lines of sci-fi.
I mean can anyone forget Natasha Henstridge's breakout role.

 

[Remathilis]

How so? Did they not say they were relooking at the word 'race'
Wasn't everyone expecting it?
I do agree with the twitter user in that I too find 'species' more along the lines of sci-fi.
I mean can anyone forget Natasha Henstridge's breakout role.

Just the fact Jeremy seems to be hinting at a defense for species being era appropriate.

 

[Sadras]

I'm sure they will come up with something that works. I have honestly enjoyed much of what they have done so far.

I think though like @MGibster, my table and I will probably carry on using the word. It does not strike us as negative, neither does subrace or subclass or sub whatever. It is just utilitarian for us.

As for the word race outside D&D, I think it is more useful in statistical surveys and such (government or otherwise) and do not try equate the word with the negative 'racism'

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Just the fact Jeremy seems to be hinting at a defense for species being era appropriate.

I get his point, but this is hardly about being era-appropriate, it's more about how one feels about it. The fact that we keep remembering episodes of psionic powers manifesting in fantasy stories doesn't prevent some people from stating that they are too sci-fi for D&D.

 

[Zsig]

I'm kinda torn.

I think the words Species and Ancestry works, but only as far as rules are concerned, most people wouldn't use those terms in-game.
Whereas Folk and People work in-game, but it's weird to use those words alone to describe the mechanic "Yo Joe, what's your character's people?"

The best approach would be to use one word for the mechanic aspect and, somewhere in there explain that in-game they should be called something else.

 

[Iry]

Race is a perfectly fine word for nature aspects (Darkvision, Resistances).

Culture is my preference for nurture aspects (Attributes, Weapon Training, Skills).

 

[Haldrik]

With 100+ votes the current ranking from top downward is:

...

• species

...

• ancestry
• folk
• people
• kin
• origin
• heritage

...

• culture
• kindred
• bloodline
• type
• kind

I also updated the first post with choices not mentioned in the poll.

 

[Grantypants]

Something that I think we're leaving out in this discussion. If we replace "race", we'll also have to replace "racial". Replacements like "ancestry" or "cultural" already have adjective forms : "ancestral" and "cultural". Other replacements ("people", "species", and "heritage", for example) don't have those adjective forms and so wouldn't work as well in practice even though their definitions might be closer to what we actually use "race" to mean in-game today.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Species. Just call it what it is. They aren't 'races' and that was never really accurate (but it probably sounded less 'sciency' back in the 70's when D&D took up using it). Species is an accurate term, and it lacks real-world racial connotations. I suppose some people might feel that some D&D species is meant to represent a stereotype of them, and explicitly deny that stereotype as human, but I don't think we can go much further down this path simply by using a different word in place of 'race' in D&D.
I suppose another thing that might help would be to be VERY clear as to which are PC races and which are monsters. PC races would then be treated in a manner which is sensitive to avoiding racial stereotypes, but pure monsters would require less concern in that respect, they are pretty much just generic 'bad guys'. Though still some basic thought is in order. The real problem here is that over time 'monsters' tend to become 'tamed' playables. Orcs in the original D&D game were simply monsters, playing one might be possible as a special set of custom house rules, but they were not thought of as 'like' humans. Nowadays an Orc as a PC is just a fairly normal thing in most games.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Something that I think we're leaving out in this discussion. If we replace "race", we'll also have to replace "racial". Replacements like "ancestry" or "cultural" already have adjective forms : "ancestral" and "cultural". Other replacements ("people", "species", and "heritage", for example) don't have those adjective forms and so wouldn't work as well in practice even though their definitions might be closer to what we actually use "race" to mean in-game today.

I don't think we need to be too terribly worried about it. 'Species Feat' doesn't roll off the tongue too clumsily for me at least...