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.

 

[TrippyHippy]

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).

The way I read it is that not all spells are arcane or wizardly. Most of the Ranger spells, if you look at them, are really just one-shot effects. Rangers get to heal, call shots and survive in wilderness with the 'spells' they have. So, don't look at them as spells, just think of them of particularly mysterious, one shot effects that they can do using things like herbs anda general awareness.

 

[Aldarc]

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

Consider that elves and humans have different destinies in Tolkien. Humans are mortal and elves are immortal. The various known "half-elves" had to choose how they would be counted, as elves or humans. So for the most part, it was human or elf sort of scenario. We don't have that in D&D. Numenoreans - particularly those of the line of Elros - and their descendants, e.g. the Dunedain, largely exist in the space between elves and humans. They are "functionally human" for the purposes of Tolkien in that they are mortal, but they are also had much longer lives and incorporated a lot of elvish culture. They even had an almost charismatic presence. They are considered "high men." In terms of D&D, the Numenoreans are functionally half-elves, at least in the absence of an "Atlantean" or "High Human" ancestry.

 

[pemerton]

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.

Class in D&D captures all this, though, because there is no other mechanical space for it to live.

Why can a paladin heal with a touch? Why do the gods answer this person's prayers (cleric PC), but not this other person's (fighter PC)? Because of a noble and holy origin?

Why when this person calls desperately for help, late one night under the brooding stars, do the Old Ones answer and make a pact with him/her? Whereas this other person was never made the offer, and so never had the chance to become a warlock? Is it because of a stain on the former's soul? Or perhaps the alignment of the stars at the moment of her birth?

The idea that D&D classes are simply proxies for training is not really plausible if you want your game to have the capacity to pick up these pretty typical fantasy tropes.

 

[Aldarc]

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION], from my limited understanding, a lot of that could also be covered in the Birthright setting.

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION], from my limited understanding, a lot of that could also be covered in the Birthright setting.

I don't know much about Birthright beyond that it exists (or once existed)!

I was thinking more in 4e/5e terms.

 

[Aldarc]

I don't know much about Birthright beyond that it exists (or once existed)!

I was thinking more in 4e/5e terms.

A lot of divine right of kings, bloodlines, lineages, etc.

 

[jasper]

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

but they have the "lucky" feat so any pictures taken by your phone of hideous halflings are magically deleted!

 

[jasper]

Stealing and modifying. Race is a protected class in WATERDEEP law (and many other CITY STATES) and laws exist that require classification or counting by it, which is why it is still used broadly in government. …
Elven Archer Guard, “you are under arrest Peter Parkerovick the Purple Paladin of Portaferry. For violation of 616 of the Waterdeep Anti-defamatory statues!”
Peter Parkerovick, “what did I do?”
Elven Archer Guard, “you made a joke against the Church of Tiamat!”
Peter Parkerovick, “So I said her CULTIST (monster manual 345) are wimps and go down in a round. (especially if they cute and gingers)!”
Elven Archer Guard, “That is a violation of 616. You should said NPC of a Vogue Religious Figure!”

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

The newer a religion or the smaller the number of followers, the more likely it will be called a cult, at least in the real world. Remember that at one time in history Christianity was just a cult.

And for those evil clergy, they are called cultists, maybe in homage to the cultists in Cthulhu.

I'm sure it was an homage to Cthulhu!

The word "cult" means a few different things in English.

-It can refer to something generic from the ancient world like "The cult of Osiris" which at the time was a normal religion. Usually these were pre-Christian religions that died out in Late Antiquity.
-It can also mean "new religion".
-Finally, and probably most notably these days, "cult" refers to an extremely tight-knit religious community that dominates the lives of its practitioners and is typically led by a charismatic leader. Whether the religious tradition they draw on is new or old isn't relevant. Westboro Baptist Church is rooted in Christianity but would qualify as a cult in this definition. Similarly, the Ultra-Orthodox Jews here in NYC may qualify.

The line can be a bit blurry, though, so I'd think of this more as an ideal type or family resemblance than something that can be checked with the rigor of mathematics. (I don't want to get into a nitpicking fest about this, although I guess... in addition to porn and spam, what is the internet for? Edit: Cat videos.)

 

[Eltab]

Reply to something a few pages back:

The opposite of "recessive gene" is "dominant gene".

Blue eye color is a recessive gene but green eye color is dominant (in my family anyways; I'm the only one).