Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8020363" data-attributes="member: 82106">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&amp;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&amp;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&amp;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&amp;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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8020363, member: 82106"] 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. [/QUOTE]

Verification