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

Incenjucar · Dec 1, 2022

Species may be the most portable term between languages. All the synonyms in English my translate awkwardly.

Frozen_Heart · Dec 1, 2022

Minigiant said:
Ick.
Too Sci-Fi
I prefer Heritage

(It's up BTW)

Never understood the logic of it being too sci-fi. By the same logic, rapiers are too sci-fi for DnD.

Both originated at around the same time (1500s).

Vael · Dec 1, 2022

Fan of dropping race, not a fan of species. Any of: Origin, Ancestry, or Lineage would have been a superior choice, IMO. Species makes a few options feel weird, like any transformation origin, like Reborn or Hexblood. Constructs like Autognome or Warforged. This isn't a dealbreaker, but I will probably use one of my preferences.

zhivik · Dec 1, 2022

Veltharis ap Rylix said:
Which is a problem for established settings like Eberron that make extensive use of them.

I suppose they can always use the term “subspecies“ or “variants”. Shadowrun does this, according to its lore, all metavariants (humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, trolls) are subspecies of Homo Sapiens.

Minigiant · Dec 1, 2022

Frozen_Heart said:
Never understood the logic of it being too sci-fi. By the same logic, rapiers are too sci-fi for DnD.

Both originated at around the same time (1500s).

Not all settings are based around the 1500s or 1600s.

That's why I like heritage. Linking it to Heir. Your mom or dad passed down the horns and tail.

John R Davis · Dec 1, 2022

Vael said:
Fan of dropping race, not a fan of species. Any of: Origin, Ancestry, or Lineage would have been a superior choice, IMO. Species makes a few options feel weird, like any transformation origin, like Reborn or Hexblood. Constructs like Autognome or Warforged. This isn't a dealbreaker, but I will probably use one of my preferences.

Actually I like Origin.

Incenjucar · Dec 1, 2022

Heritage can be cultural, and "Sub-heritage" sounds super weird.

Clint_L · Dec 1, 2022

Species is fine. We can get pedantic about it, but at the end of the day everyone will understand what you mean and it comes without a lot of baggage, which is mostly what they are going for. Honestly, I could care less.

Marandahir · Dec 1, 2022

Lieslo said:
I dislike the term species as this could imply the biological species concept as members of a population that can potentially interbreed. Where does this leave half-orcs, half elves etc? Its too loaded a term to be of use for the game as is race. My preference is ancestry

SteveC said:
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.

Hybridized cross-species that breed true exist in real world biology all the time.
Our little box of species is not well-defined, and in that regards, it's a feature of this usage, not a bug. We act like they're supposed to not reproduce, but that's because we want to divide everything into tiny little boxes to make sense of them. Biology doesn't work like that. Even Physics doesn't work like that (you keep cutting up matter into smaller and smaller parts until now you're in the quantum foam and there's weirdness like particles popping in and out of existence).

I still agree that it sounds too sci-fi but I may just need to get use to it.