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."

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Relevant to some of the biology stuff here...

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Is evolving from animals into a humanoid problematic at all? Or am I misremembering other things?

If they're tying the Ardlings more explicitly to celestial animals from the Beastlands, it's important to understand that many of those animals would likely have been "petitioners" originally anyway, which is to say they were the souls of mortals that ended up in the Beastlands (for whatever reason) and transformed into animals in the same kind of way that evil souls condemned to Baator and the Abyss are transformed into devils and demons.

That, plus the fact that these are celestial entities that take the form of animals rather than actual animals as they exist on the Prime Material, kind of changes the dynamic a bit...

 

[Vaalingrade]

Black RPG dude check-in: I’m OK with various takes on simian inspired fantasy & sci-fi playable species as long as they aren’t cribbing notes from RW bigoted stereotypes.

They show up in all kinds of genre fiction, after all.

Giant apes! Giant, technologically superior apes!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That said, I suspect some people are uncomfortable with D&D having species at all and are looking for a term that downplays the concept.

Been a gamer since ‘77, and black since ‘67.

Played in over 100 different RPG systems in 5 cities across 3 states. Been on this board for a while and have Modded here for a hot second.

And I have never seen someone express that position.

 

[CleverNickName]

Been a gamer since ‘77, and black since ‘67.

Played in over 100 different RPG systems in 5 cities across 3 states. Been on this board for a while and have Modded here for a hot second.

And I have never seen someone express that position.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Question is, does anyone not reading forums care about this stuff? No one at my table even knew about many of the latest "controversies" over race, orcs, drow, etc...... when I presented PF2, one player was like "where are the races".... when I mentioned the various online views, they all had trouble believing it was real and none had ever thought of any of it, even 30 year vets. And none said it would affect their purchasing habits.

Depends on who you are and what your gaming experiences have been like. I was aware of some of this back in my earliest days in the hobby, but there really wasn’t anyone to talk about it with.

For my first decade in the hobby, I met only one other gamer who was a racial minority, and no women in the hobby until the 1990s.

 

[Tonguez]

Removal of race: good.

Species? Meh. Give me ancestry or heritage -- or even "people"; species causes me to ask questions about interbreeding and biology and I really dno't want to deal with that in my fantasy game.

Of course, now we need to deal with specist terms like dwarf or halfling ... why have a people defined by their relation in size to another people?

Alternate solution: It's just class. Dwarf is a class, elf is a class ...

The way its going Dwarf, Elf etc are just a feat chosen with your background package

 

[Azzy]

Does Paizo have a trademark on the usage of the term in this context? If not, then WotC should use it too. They might be wanting to avoid a lawsuit, of course, much like everyone else uses GM instead of DM.

I doubt it. The term was used by a 5e-compatable product prior (I think) to PF2.

 

[CleverNickName]

What I'd like to see?
Ancestry: things you're born with, your DNA. Hair color, eye color, etc. "Nature"
Background: things you were taught, your upbringing. Social aptitude, language, culture. "Nurture"
Class: what you do for a living, your expertise. Training, knowledge, practice. "Career."

Which is pretty much what we have already, especially if we use the options in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. I'd make a few minor tweaks, like mapping ASIs to each category instead of feats, but I can cope.

 

[Hex08]

Question is, does anyone not reading forums care about this stuff? No one at my table even knew about many of the latest "controversies" over race, orcs, drow, etc...... when I presented PF2, one player was like "where are the races".... when I mentioned the various online views, they all had trouble believing it was real and none had ever thought of any of it, even 30 year vets. And none said it would affect their purchasing habits.

I suspect this would be the view at my table as well. RPGs are really my hobby, everyone else in my group just enjoys playing. I generally buy most, if not all, of the books and am the only one who spends any time on message boards or reading about the hobby in general. Even the other GM inherited his Pathfinder 1E rulebooks from me and he only looks at forums when he is looking for an answer about an adventure related question when he feels that asking me would be spoilerish. I doubt I would even try an explain the controversies to them because they don't have the necessary background to understand.

The modern view may be that some traditional D&D/RPG stuff hasn't aged well but without proper context it's not going to be an issue I would discuss with my players.

 

[dragoner]

Too Sci-Fi

Yeah, I use species in Solis People of the Sun.