Racially diverse artwork in D&D...does it influence you?

[Wyrmshadows]

I suppose it's a turn-off when it feels entirely forced, either as part of a conscious agenda or simply from a narrow 21st-century American (or British, Aussie, etc.) worldview.

I must admit, it feels particularly odd to have a "white" halfling next to a "black" halfling, or whatever. (Together, they fight crime!)

LOL

That is funny

Forced to me would be an art layout with a black man in a samaurai outfit, a white woman in a Native American outfit, and an asian in a traditional African garb.

Cultures are different and they are often rooted in ethnic identity the regions of the world from which those ethnic groups hail. Thank god they are different. In my fantasy I don't want a gigantic world-spanning "human" culture that is a monolithic entity in the name of diversity because ironically that would destroy all the real diversity of the human race as the expense of PC diversity.

I don't want humans to suffer the same fate a the non-human races of fantasy. Talk about monolithic and dull cultures. Dwarves love mountains, elves love the woods and halflings (recently) love rivers. This would make sense if these races were extant only in a given region of a setting. However, as it stands dwarves, elves, halflings, etc. are what they are no matter where they are in the world in traditional D&D/Western fantasy.

I would like to see elves that love the desert the way their kin in the north love the forests...ah, I found them...in my campaign setting.



Wyrmshadows

 

[Klaus]

I always try to include some racial diversity whenever appropriate. For instance, the first adventure I illustrated was Fiery Dragon's The Giant's Skull. I had to come up with iconics:

[sblock]

[/sblock]

Since I already knew of the 3e stance of having more diverse ethnicities, I was bummed from the lack of such variety in 4e art (I can remember a female halfling in the Races section, a bald female human in the NPC section and the half-elf paladin in the Classes section). Even the Elves, described as being usually tan or brown in complexion are pretty much all pale-skinned.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Ironically, Mialee is darker-skinned than most Fourth Edition elves.

 

[Tharkun]

I for one don't enjoy seeing all the multiracial groups in RPGs. When I think multiracial I think of a half Orc or a half Dwarf or half Elf or whatever not a American Indian/Jew mix or something like that. It's different sure but something I would rather not have in my RPG games.

 

[Cadfan]

Forced to me would be an art layout with a black man in a samaurai outfit,

I believe that instead of "forced," you meant to say, "totally awesome."

http://wen-m.deviantart.com/art/Anima-no-11-54338807

a white woman in a Native American outfit,

They're called Druids these days. There's tons of them. Although sometimes they have point ears.

...what? Elves are white people. We all know it.

Also, here's a native american knight, just for variety.

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs11/f/2007/118/6/d/Anima______no_9_by_Wen_M.jpg

Ok.... apparently the first link is glitched and I can't see the image. So... I feel stupid now?

Editted to add- if you click on the view full size link on the left, you can see the image even if the preview isn't visible to you.

 

[A Passing Maniac]

If there's one thing D&D needs more of, it's black samurai.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Bondage midgets? This movie I must see.

As for more diverse art in RPG books: all for it. I live in Sydney and have lived in London and both have very ethnically diverse populations. It strikes me as weird to only see caucasian types in the art work. As a marketing decision I find it very odd that WotC would in fact intentionally keep everything so, um, white. Yet at the same time aren't these the people who alternate the gender of personal pronouns used in the products? (a good thing too!) Strange bit of schizophrenia.

 

[Celebrim]

I grew up in a former British colony that is about 97% black, 2% assorted asian, and 1% white. When I moved back to the states it felt wierd to have all these white people around - and that's in an area that was 30-40% black.

However, if I were to look at a peice of fantasy artwork with a black person in it, the first thing I would think is that they consciously shoe horned a token black face into the art work purely for the sake of superficial pandering to ideas of racial diversity.

The problem I would have is that virtually no fantasy setting that has been a part of D&D has a mixed population of black and white characters. Nor would I accept such a setting unless somehow the cosmology was a blend of African and European mythological themes. If the big archetypal cosmopolitan city isn't sandwiched up next to norse inspired barbarian lands, but instead inspired more by Carthage or Cairo, then I'm going to think having a black character is acceptable and even cool.

But otherwise, it's just stupidl; because, the characters skin color and ethnicity is being set by something outside the story rather than by something which came from within the setting. If I see a black face in the middle of what is obviously a wholly european inspired setting, it's going to remind me of 'the Moor in Medieval England' in that very bad Kevin Kostner Robin Hood movie.

Instead of worrying about ethnic diversity for ethnic diversities sake, they should be thinking about true cultural diversity - such as what it would have been like if pre-historical Benin had domesticated the zebra, the elephant and the buffulo and gone on to produce rational philosophers in the mold of Socrates and rational lawmakers in the mold of Hammurabi. What would Nyambe be like if the high middle ages were an African era, and some Ethiopian and Egypt analogues were two of the world's great trading superpowers. In a setting were a tropical darkskinned kingdom was central to its history in some form, then ok, let's see dark skinned 'knights' mingling with nordic barbarians and pygmy rogues alongside desert dwelling drow and sleek asian shapeshifters. Whatever. But whatever you do, don't shoehorn some dark skinned character into the middle of what is otherwise a stock European world and expect me to think that makes you cool in some fashion.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The problem I would have is that virtually no fantasy setting that has been a part of D&D has a mixed population of black and white characters.

Eberron does.

It's a nonsense argument anyway. If you're not playing in medieval Europe, there's no reason to have an all-white world. It's not like only white-skinned people could think up longswords, plate armour, castles, and such. All D&D settings have medieval trappings, but that doesn't mean they are medieval Europe in drag.

 

[Wyrmshadows]

There is something to be said regarding the idea that creating a false PC homogeny ruins the real and interesting diversity of the human family. There is something awesome about a black skinned warrior hailing from an African type nation in a fantasy setting where he actually acts and thinks along the lines of his people. That's cool.

Bland is simply swapping out the caucasian man-at-arms to the duke with a darker skinned man-at arms who is fundamentally the same guy as the caucasian guy and doing it for the sake of diversity when that isn't real diversity at all.

Real diversity isn't merely an issue of skin tone, angle of the eyes, height od the cheekbones, etc. it is cultural, it is belief system, it is worldview. I am not against Africans, Asians, Arabs, Native American types, etc. in Euro-drag if that is what a PC desires to play.

However, that isn't real diversity because it is merely adding different skin tones to European genre tropes. This is superficial diversity at best and at worst it is as disengenuous as painting black spots on a white dog and calling it a dalmation. It might look like a dalmation from a distance, but close up it is just a painted white dog.


Wyrmshadows