RPG Evolution: Do We Still Need "Race" in D&D?

The term "race" is a staple of fantasy that is now out of sync with modern usage. With Pathfinder shifting from "race" to "ancestry" in its latest edition, it raises the question: should fantasy games still use it?

“Race” and Modern Parlance​

We previously discussed the challenges of representing real-life cultures in a fantasy world, with African and Asian countries being just two examples. The discussion becomes more complicated with fantasy "races"—historically, race was believed to be determined by the geographic arrangement of populations. Fantasy gaming, which has its roots in fantasy literature, still uses the term “race” this way.

Co-creator of D&D Gary Gygax cited R.E. Howard's Conan series as an influence on D&D, which combines Lovecraftian elements with sword and sorcery. Howard's perceptions may have been a sign of the times he lived in, but it seems likely they influenced his stories. Robert B. Marks explains just how these stereotypes manifested in Conan's world:

The young, vibrant civilizations of the Hyborian Age, like Aquilonia and Nemedia, are white - the equivalent of Medieval Europe. Around them are older Asiatic civilizations like Stygia and Vendhya, ancient, decrepit, and living on borrowed time. To the northwest and the south are the barbarian lands - but only Asgard and Vanaheim are in any way Viking. The Black Kingdoms are filled with tribesmen evoking the early 20th century vision of darkest Africa, and the Cimmerians and Picts are a strange cross between the ancient Celts and Native Americans - and it is very clear that the barbarians and savages, and not any of the civilized people or races, will be the last ones standing.

Which leads us to the other major fantasy influence, author J.R.R. Tolkien. David M. Perry explains in an interview with Helen Young:

In Middle Earth, unlike reality, race is objectively real rather than socially constructed. There are species (elves, men, dwarves, etc.), but within those species there are races that conform to 19th-century race theory, in that their physical attributes (hair color, etc.) are associated with non-physical attributes that are both personal and cultural. There is also an explicit racial hierarchy which is, again, real in the world of the story.

The Angry GM elaborates on why race and culture were blended in Tolkien's works:

The thing is, in the Tolkienverse, at least, in the Lord of the Rings version of the Tolkienverse (because I can’t speak for what happened in the Cinnabon or whatever that other book was called), the races were all very insular and isolated. They didn’t deal with one another. Race and culture went hand in hand. If you were a wood elf, you were raised by wood elves and lived a thoroughly wood elf lifestyle until that whole One Ring issue made you hang out with humans and dwarves and halflings. That isolation was constantly thrust into the spotlight. Hell, it was a major issue in The Hobbit.

Given the prominence of race in fantasy, it's not surprising that D&D has continued the trend. That trend now seems out of sync with modern parlance; in 1951, the United Nations officially declared that the differences among humans were "insignificant in relation to the anthropological sameness among the peoples who are the human race."

“Race” and Game Design​

Chris Van Dyke's essay on race back in 2008 explains how pervasive "race" is in D&D:

Anyone who has played D&D has spent a lot of time talking about race – “Racial Attributes,” “Racial Restrictions,” “Racial Bonuses.” Everyone knows that different races don’t get along – thanks to Tolkien, Dwarves and Elves tend to distrust each other, and even non-gamers know that Orcs and Goblins are, by their very nature, evil creatures. Race is one of the most important aspects of any fantasy role-playing game, and the belief that there are certain inherent genetic and social distinctions between different races is built into every level of most (if not all) Fantasy Role-Playing Games.

Racial characteristics in D&D have changed over time. Basic Dungeons & Dragons didn't distinguish between race and class for non-humans, such that one played a dwarf, elf, or halfling -- or a human fighter or cleric. The characteristics of race were so tightly intertwined that race and profession were considered one.

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the changes became more nuanced, but not without some downsides on character advancement, particularly in allowing “demihumans” to multiclass but with level limits preventing them from exceeding humanity, who had unlimited potential (but could only dual-class).

With Fifth Edition, ability penalties and level caps have been removed, but racial bonuses and proficiencies still apply. The Angry GM explains why this is a problem:

In 5E, you choose a race and a class, but you also choose a background. And the background represents your formative education and socio-economic standing and all that other stuff that basically represents the environment in which you were raised. The racial abilities still haven’t changed even though there is now a really good place for “cultural racial abilities” to live. So, here’s where the oddity arises. An elf urchin will automatically be proficient with a longsword and longbow, two weapons that requires years of training to even become remotely talent with, but a human soldier does not get any automatic martial training. Obviously, in both cases, class will modify that. But in the life of your character, race happens first, then background, and only later on do you end up a member of a class. It’s very quirky.

Perhaps this is why Pathfinder decided to take a different approach to race by shifting to the term “ancestry”:

Beyond the narrative, there are many things that have changed, but mostly in the details of how the game works. You still pick a race, even though it is now called your ancestry. You still decide on your class—the rulebook includes all of the core classes from the First Edition Core Rulebook, plus the alchemist. You still select feats, but these now come from a greater variety of sources, such as your ancestry, your class, and your skills.

"Ancestry" is not just a replacement for the word “race.” It’s a fluid term that requires the player to make choices at character creation and as the character advances. This gives an opportunity to express human ethnicities in game terms, including half-elves and half-orcs, without forcing the “subrace” construct.

The Last Race​

It seems likely that, from both a modern parlance and game design perspective, “race” as it is used today will fall out of favor in fantasy games. It’s just going to take time. Indigo Boock sums up the challenge:

Fantasy is a doubled edged sword. Every human culture has some form of fantasy, we all have some sort of immortal ethereal realm where our elven creatures dwell. There’s always this realm that transcends culture. Tolkien said, distinct from science fiction (which looks to the future), fantasy is to feel like one with the entire universe. Fantasy is real, deep human yearning. We look to it as escapism, whether we play D&D, or Skyrim, or you are like myself and write fantasy. There are unfortunately some old cultural tropes that need to be discarded, and it can be frustratingly slow to see those things phased out.

Here's hoping other role-playing games will follow Pathfinder's lead in how treats its fantasy people in future editions.

 

[pemerton]

Lucky halfling is a pretty new one to D&D. As far as I know it's a 5Eism.

From the 4e PHB "Halfling" entry:

Second Chance Halfling Racial Power

Luck and small size combine to work in your favor as you dodge your enemy’s attack.

Encounter
Immediate Interrupt * Personal
Effect: When an attack hits you, force an enemy to roll the attack again. The enemy uses the second roll, even if it’s lower.​

 

[Aldarc]

I think the 4E designers mostly wanted to find some what to mechanically differentiate half-elves from elves and humans and settled on the notion of "well they live in both worlds and have to navigate them... sounds like a Charisma bonus!"

A move in that direction already began in 3rd edition. Half-elves (and half-orcs) were undertuned in 3.0. In 3.5, half-elves were thrown a slightly bigger bone, and they gained a +2 Diplomacy and Gather Information. From here the transition to a Charisma bonus is apparent, particularly in the context of how 4E did stat bonuses. And humans similarly were thrown a bone in 4E with a floating +2 to stat bonus of your choice.

But I do think that the Numenorean humans (i.e., Aragorn) likely played a significant role in shaping the half-elf. In terms of Tolkien, the mortal, lives longer than regular humans, charismatic presence, Numenoreans have more overlap with half-elves.

 

[pemerton]

Yes, you are a prime example of someone poorly arguing why the use of the word or concept of race as used in D&D is an issue.

I'll restate my principal reasons, then:

I don't encounter RPGing primarily as a "community" thing. I encounter it as a cultural thing - it's a hobby I engage in, and it brings with it a whole lot of stories and artefacts (books with words and pictures).

Most of my friends are not RPGers. Many think it's silly at best. One thing that reinforces their negative judgements is the preponderance of pulp-era sexist and racist tropes. I have many RPG books that I wouldn't want my young children to read, in part for these reasons.

So I would be happy if RPG publishers got rid of this sort of stuff from their books. And to be honest it seems pretty easy to do.

<snip>

It's only "genre appropriate" because the genre, in it's origins, is infused with either romantic/reactionary (JRRT) or modernist/biological (REH/HPL and similar pulp) racism. I would be happy for the games I play, and the fiction they bring with them, to transcend those origins.

Speaking purely from my own situation, based on the experiences I've had with the people I know, a game which begins by choosing a "race", with those choice still heavily steeped in Tolkienesque ideas, is not maximally welcoming to all people of colour.

<snip>

the way that "race" is used in fantasy RPGs is a different thing. It's not a tool of analysis. It's more like this enduring outpost of reactionary conceptualisations of human natures.

<snip>

Again to come at this from the angle that is closest to my own experience (I'm not a convention goer): before my daughters get near a convention, they would need to get near RPGing.

Now maybe I'm out of touch (I'm a middle-aged man) but for me fantasy RPGing is heavily grounded, in its tropes and the way it is presented and advocated, in a certain genre tradition. JRRT, HPL, REH, ERB, etc are the canonical authors of this tradition. Until my girls are late teenagers, how would I even show them REH or HPL? What are they meant to make of writers whose racism is so virulent? JRRT isn't as bad, but the issue is still there, as the films bring out.

In the fantasy literature that I see as canonical there are exceptions - eg Ursula LeGuin - but even in LeGuin European tropes, if not skin colours, still predominate.

<snip>

I think that fantasy RPGing has a problem here. Its approach to "race" is not all of it. Maybe it's not even most of it. I think it's part of it.

I think those reasons are pretty clear. I don't see how you can say they're bad reasons. At best you can say they're reasons you don't care about because they don't affect you.

In the context of fantasy race doesnt have the connotations of racial theory

What is your evidence for this assertion? Surveys? Systematic social inquiry? Your own intuition?

Common sense.

<snip>

Also the fact that millionsnof people had enjoyed thethese things for decades with only a recent tiny invisible subset trying to argue otherwise.

The last quoted sentence I'll ignore, as it's inanity speaks for itself.

Otherwise, "common sense" = "your own intuition". So this is another case of there being more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in your philosophy.

 

[Lanefan]

This is another one of those areas where real world DNA and fantasy world racial stuff just do not match up in any published works that I know of. And another reason why I think the use of Ancestry is a bad choice, In the real world, a couple can have a baby that looks nothing like them because their recessive genes just happen to combine in the right way. As an example, there are sets of twins where one is white and one is black and both parents are the same color. This kind of thing does not happen in fantasy settings.

Yeah, if we start involving recessive genes for anything other than faint tinges it can get very messy.

A woman with an elven ancestor is just not going to give birth to a full elf or a half-elf without the rules being written specifically to allow it.

Depends how far back that elven ancestor is. I assume by "woman" you mean human female rather than part-elf female, and no: even if the father was full elf if she's human then the child will be 4/8 elf (or half elf, depending which term suits ya better).

I also personally would not want rules that would allow this and I am not comfortable with anything lower than one quarter making a child different that their majority parentage. Anything less than that feels like the One-Drop Rule is getting brought into play.

Going from 1/8 (which is as fine as I tune it) making a difference to one drop making a difference is a bit of a jump.

I don't bother with recessive or [whatever the term is for the opposite of recessive] genes, I just split fractions and have done with it; with anything less than 1/8 making no mechanical difference. That said, a player is free to have a lower fraction somehow show up in a character's look or personality if so desired.

An example: a long-ago character in my game turned out to have a faint bit of Tabaxi in her background - not enough to make any game-mechanical differences - and the player decided that it would express as the character's fingernails tending to grow quickly and become somewhat cat-claw-like if left untended. And I think that's the key: let the player decide how - or if - any faint genes manifest in the character.

 

[pemerton]

I do think that the Numenorean humans (i.e., Aragorn) likely played a significant role in shaping the half-elf. In terms of Tolkien, the mortal, lives longer than regular humans, charismatic presence, Numenoreans have more overlap with half-elves.

How to build Aragorn in AD&D is a perennial question - of course one answer is "as a ranger", but rangers only do a mediocre job of modelling Aragorn (eg between The Strategic Review and the PHB they lose clerical spells and pick up druid and MU spells).

A half-elf cleric/ranger seems to be one way to do it.

 

[Lanefan]

How to build Aragorn in AD&D is a perennial question - of course one answer is "as a ranger", but rangers only do a mediocre job of modelling Aragorn (eg between The Strategic Review and the PHB they lose clerical spells and pick up druid and MU spells).

A half-elf cleric/ranger seems to be one way to do it.

I've never seen Aragorn as a half-elf in any way. He's a human, though an exceptional one.

And I've never quite got my head around why Rangers get spell use of any kind, based on Aragorn; I always assumed that notion came from somewhere else. Aragorn/Strider heals with herbs, and magical herbs is a design space the game has for some reason always ignored. He can, however, use magic devices just fine (e.g. the palantir).

 

[Hussar]

All of which is unfortunate, as they work best when left as close to Hobbits as the Tolkein estate will tolerate.

Otherwise they just intrude on the design space belonging to Gnomes.

And I'm not even going to start on the art other than to mention the sample halfling they've got for PF2 is probably the ugliest halfling/hobbit I've evern seen. It's closer to how I'd imagine a crackhead D&D gnome to look, only with bare hairy feet.

I dunno. 5e's a pretty strong contender for absolutely hideous halfling pictures.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Well, just for the record, every religious organization - nominally good or nominally evil - in my homebrew D&D world is a 'cult'. There are no 'churches' of anything in my homebrew world, and I personally feel labeling the cults as 'churches' is always inaccurate.

Technically speaking, Christianity is a cult. And properly speaking, Christianity is the only cult with churches because 'the church' is the Christian specific technical term for the members of the religion.

"Cult" to me implies a a strong proselytizing streak. I don't use it for the followers of my paganesque live-and-let-live deities, but I do for a particular, ah, assertively monotheistic war god. But oddly, I'm not sure I originally planned the campaign to use the label "the Cult of Magnar". I think my players might have just started calling it that, and it stuck. And they don't dislike the Cult; in fact, they're rather fond of the whole testosterone-and-beer angle. So that's a little anecdotal observation about the word's natural usage.

 

[pemerton]

I've never quite got my head around why Rangers get spell use of any kind

Farmir was a wizard's pupil. Aragorn can heal and turn undead. Maybe the reason for making his healing druidic is because he needs herbs to do it (though Athelas rather than mistletoe).

The idea that he's just using herbs, though, has no textual foundation. It's the hands of the king that are the hands of a healer. Otherwise he could have got a good night's sleep and sent his underlings to use the Athelas.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I've never seen Aragorn as a half-elf in any way. He's a human, though an exceptional one.

And I've never quite got my head around why Rangers get spell use of any kind, based on Aragorn; I always assumed that notion came from somewhere else. Aragorn/Strider heals with herbs, and magical herbs is a design space the game has for some reason always ignored. He can, however, use magic devices just fine (e.g. the palantir).

But those are because of his bloodline of the Numenorean kings. The Palantir responds to him because of that. The Athelas is more potent for him because of that. A lot of what is part of Aragorn is not because of any class we try to fit him into, but because of his blood and ancestry. He was taught how to use the stuff, but the ability to was already in him when he was born. For 5E, he would need a Wilderness Explorer sub-class of Fighter or Ranger, with no spells or animal companion, just skills and abilities. And even then, no one else could be the same as him without being his relative.