D&D (2024) One D&D Permanently Removes The Term 'Race'

In line with many other tabletop roleplaying games, such as Pathfinder or Level Up, One D&D is removing the term 'race'. Where Pathfinder uses 'Ancestry' and Level Up uses 'Heritage', One D&D will be using 'Species'.

Moving On From 'Race' in the 2024 Core Rulebooks

We understand "race" is a problematic term that has had prejudiced links between real world people and the fantasy peoples of D&D worlds.

www.dndbeyond.com

In a blog post, WotC announced that "We have made the decision to move on from using the term "race" everywhere in One D&D, and we do not intend to return to that term."

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I think the removal of the race term is something that's been expected for a long time. I think the term species is a poor choice for a fantasy game, and the scientist in me says "okay, so that means there are no half elves any more?"

I think there are a lot better alternatives (Ancestry or Kin come immediately to mind, I'm sure there are many others) but from the things I have a mind to argue on, it doesn't make the list. I do think think the specific choice will be jarring as there are better options for a fantasy based rpg.

Why can't there be half elves if species replaces race? Many irl species are capable of hybridisation.

There are even rare cases of domestic chickens and peafowl producing offspring. They're not the same species. Or the even the same genus. They're not even the same tribe of birds!

Genetics are weird.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Only they aren't, unless you try and make them to be. Which is the problem, not "bioessentialism" between species that have clear physical attribute differences. Stop equating fantasy species to different human ethnicities, the issue goes away. The different human ethnicities are ALL already represented in fantasy RPGs by the Human race species and they don't have different stat mods (well unless you are playing Birthright 2nd Ed AD&D).

You're basically asking people to just turn off their brains. Which unfortunately... for all of us thinking human beings just isn't possible.

Seems to me you're saying essentially "You know... the movie Starship Troopers is only an allegory to the rise of fascism if you THINK about it being it an allegory to fascism that way. But it's humans and alien insects, not humans against other humans! Totally different! Don't think about that way and everything's good!"

Well, no. Sorry. If something gets written or made that makes a 1-to-1 comparison from something "unreal" to something real... we thinking people are going to recognize it and make that connection. That's how our human brains work. That's why simile and metaphor are a thing. Telling us no to do that is like telling us not to taste our food when we put it in our mouths. It's just not something you can switch off.

And when that "unreal" thing that our brains WILL make a connection to is connected to a bad "real" thing... people will rightly point that out. And no amount of just saying "Just stop thinking about it that way and everything will be fine!" will actually work or solve the problem.

 

[Morrus]

(Also @Galandris)

This sentence of yours is troubling to me though. I didn't realize there were people that think this way. If I'm reading a book about a race who has a celebration similar to Day of the Dead, my first thought isn't, "Oh, these folks must be Mexican stand-ins", but, "Oh, they have a celebration just like the one we have in real life."

May I ask whether you're Mexican?

 

[Knight_Marshal]

Species doesn't work either. Is a Half-Elf a species?

 

[Umbran]

I guess this explains the need for sensitivity experts. Rather than spend the resources on these specialized teams though, wouldn't it just be easier to acknowledge fantasy is not real life? It can reflect it, but it's no more real than an image in a mirror is?

Fiction (that it is "fantasy" is irrelevant) can still be hurtful to people in the real world.

We are a language-using people. We understand symbolism. We understand simile and metaphor. We understand a thing standing in for something in the real world.

It is easy to say it is, "no more real than an image in a mirror" if that image isn't of you.

 

[MGibster]

4. Handel (staunch supporter of monarchy, rabid character)

Wait a minute. Are we seriously going to argue that a dude who spent the majority of his life in the 18th century is "problematic" because he supported the monarchy? I'm an American, and I don't even list "supporter of the monarchy" among the problematic elements of George III.

What remains to be seen is instincts impacting behaviour. Since race was connoted as a "real life human thing", you couldn't have a "savage race", because that referred to lexicon used to describe Africans in colonial times. Now you can have a territorial species, driven to agression of any competitor entering its territory, and it will be much more acceptable. Some will say the new word doesn't change anything, some will say it removes the bad associations.

I know this is the hope, but I don't think that's what's going to happen. It might placate people at first, but eventually species in D&D will have the same connotation as race. Each species in D&D is essentially human, and terms used to negatively describe them will be connected to language used to describe actual groups of people from our past and present.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Species doesn't work either. Is a Half-Elf a species?

It's a hybrid species. Just like many irl examples of hybrids.

 

[Bagpuss]

You're basically asking people to just turn off their brains. Which unfortunately... for all of us thinking human beings just isn't possible.

No I am asking you to see one as fantasy and the other as reality. Most thinking human beings are pretty good at telling the difference.

Seems to me you're saying essentially "You know... the movie Starship Troopers is only an allegory to the rise of fascism if you THINK about it being it an allegory to fascism that way. But it's humans and alien insects, not humans against other humans! Totally different! Don't think about that way and everything's good!"

Lots of people managed to enjoy it as a popcorn blockbuster, bug hut like Aliens. Even if you look at it as humans vs humans and realise it is about fascism and the othering of the enemy, it doesn't stop your enjoyment of it, if anything it improves it.

And when that "unreal" thing that our brains WILL make a connection to is connected to a bad "real" thing... people will rightly point that out. And no amount of just saying "Just stop thinking about it that way and everything will be fine!" will actually work or solve the problem.

Then play something different. If you are forever going to see gnomes or dwarves as anti semitic and orcs as a racial stereotype, and dark elves as racist no changes are ever going to remove that historical context for you. Because that context is always going to be there, it will never go away.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Wait a minute. Are we seriously going to argue that a dude who spent the majority of his life in the 18th century is "problematic" because he supported the monarchy? I'm an American, and I don't even list "supporter of the monarchy" among the problematic elements of George III.

No, I am jokingly pointing that viewing people with our current cultural values doesn't yield any useful result. It was obviously lost in translation. Sorry.

I know this is the hope, but I don't think that's what's going to happen. It might placate people at first, but eventually species in D&D will have the same connotation as race. Each species in D&D is essentially human, and terms used to negatively describe them will be connected to language used to describe actual groups of people from our past and present.

It's possible and even likely, despite the hope. I also think any term used will have the same fate in the end.

 

[MGibster]

No, I am jokingly pointing that viewing people with our current cultural values doesn't yield any useful result.

Darn it. I was all aboard the cancel Handel train!