PsyzhranV2
Hero
For this specific discussion, which involves doing a critical analysis of the text of D&D 5e as released by WotC and Hasbro, then yes, absolutely. What people do in their home games is tangential to the central question of "Does the text of D&D 5e contain harmful ideas concerning race, and if so how are those textual elements best addressed?" To say "just homebrew it" would be a diversion from the central topic, which concerns the default, unmodified text of the books.I mean, by this logic, literally ANY house rule, any deviation of lore, any single word changed from RAW in any available book for the edition you play makes it Not D&D and not relevant to the discussion. If the book doesnt specifically say you can, you can't.
Which again, is making me see a lot of parallels between this thread and the "system (doesn't) matter" thread. Saying that you can do whatever in your home game does not absolve the text itself from analysis and criticism, whether it be on matters of game design or on representation and inclusion.