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.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Agreed, 100%



This doesn’t exactly track. Minorities are still engaged with genre fiction and the other entertainment derived therefrom in very small numbers, despite the measurable shift in American demographics. The dearth of complaints may be less of a testimony to the issue than the lack of participation.

Put differently, the reason you may not see the complaints is because minorities are still staying away in droves. That the USA is now @72% white, but roleplaying is closer to 90%+ indicates there is a lag in participation. Why would this be? It could be a simple whiff of unwelcoming culture in the hobby, either from the words used or the players themselves. Or both.

It isn’t clear, one way or the other.

As hinted before, the fact that I can shrug this stuff off and continue to play despite the issues is no indication as to how others will react. Upthread I mentioned I only knew 2 other black gamers. I forgot one.

I have a cousin who lives a couple blocks from me, and he’s about half my age. I haven’t heard him peep about the issue. But we rarely discuss race issues in general. But I do know he’s an enthusiastic gamer in what appears to be a diverse and really cool bunch of kids.

There are a ton of reasons why the game skews much more "white" than the population and much more male than the population (this skew is enormous even today). The question raised in the original post is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error. The time spent discussing such irrelevant trivia is much better spent addressing the real barriers. This is the type of band-aid, feel good to a few changes that hold back progress because of the false sense of accomplishment.

 

[Tanin Wulf]

The irony of taking an extreme position (anyone who discusses this is an extremist and thus should be ignored) and then claiming you can't converse with extremists.

(I'm trying to tease out a bit more detail because in potentially heated conversations, poor communication kills.) I didn't see where the first part came into play, can you elaborate?

EDIT: Nevermind. I didn't see how far the thread had moved since then. =)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are a ton of reasons why the game skews much more "white" than the population and much more male than the population (this skew is enormous even today). The question raised in the original post is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error. The time spent discussing such irrelevant trivia is much better spent addressing the real barriers. This is the type of band-aid, feel good to a few changes that hold back progress because of the false sense of accomplishment.

Dude, until you’ve been THE black guy in a crowd of thousands*, don’t presume to tell a black guy that race “is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error“. I haven’t lived in a majority black community in 46 years, and there are still times when that much Caucasian-ness gets uncomfortable.

Some- not all- minority gamers have an issue with this term; percentages are unknown. Saying “it isn’t a problem” is, at the very least, bad optics. At worst, it’s a barrier.

In ADR training, one thing that is constantly stressed as a major stumbling block is being dismissive of the concerns of the other parties. Even if the issue is small, the fact that it gets swept aside without being addressed can kill the greater deal.

So, listen.



* or, possibly, the chromatically reversed situation.

 

[Celebrim]

Dude, until you’ve been THE black guy in a crowd of thousands*, don’t presume to tell a black guy that race “is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error“. I haven’t lived in a majority black community in 46 years, and there are still times when that much Caucasian-ness gets uncomfortable.

When I first moved to the States, I turned to my mom in the airport and said, "Where did all these white people come from?"

I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with the suburbs or Yankees.

Still, I'm not sure that's actually what he's saying. I think he's saying something more like, "I can understand if the whiteness of the hobby is a turn off, but the word 'race' itself isn't the problem." If someone has the courage to deal with all that uncomfortable whiteness, I really doubt they are going to stumble over the word 'race'. But then, everyone is individual. Just because I've never seen it, doesn't mean it isn't out there somewhere. Maybe he's wrong and it is a huge barrier, but it's not obvious to me that he's wrong. I've got a very small sample set of 'two', but yeah, I confess the idea that word itself is problematic hits me out of left field.

If that word bothers you so much, what do you do with something like this speech: http://www.martinlutherking.ca/Speech/The-Limitless-Possibilities-Of-T.html. Surely the term - or any term - is problematic only in proportion to the meanness of the ideas it is employed to create?

Some- not all- minority gamers have an issue with this term; percentages are unknown. Saying “it isn’t a problem” is, at the very least, bad optics. At worst, it’s a barrier.

Barriers come from all sorts of places. Tables could be unwelcoming because you are black. More likely, any table that is unwelcoming on that grounds, isn't just trying to keep the hobby exclusive and you probably don't know those people anyway because they don't want to know you. More often, at least in my experience, the barrier was less that we white nerds with our low social status (least of all me, who'd barely had white friends before junior high) weren't going to welcome a black nerd to the table, it was that no black kid was going to be caught dead socializing with us. For some, it might actually been a matter of physical safety, because as bad as peer pressure was for us for being a non-conforming social group, it was a lot worse for them. "Acting too white" wasn't a barrier that was enforced just from one side of the community. Liking basketball and rap was cool. Playing D&D was decidedly not. Heck, talking to white people was a risk for many, and not just because of the white people. That and of the handful of black nerds I knew, most came from families that would have forbidden it as a Satanic activity.

In ADR training, one thing that is constantly stressed as a major stumbling block is being dismissive of the concerns of the other parties. Even if the issue is small, the fact that it gets swept aside without being addressed can kill the greater deal.

So, listen.

That sort of cuts both ways though, I'd think.

 

[Aldarc]

The humans and elves didnt quite take their lands. The humasn certainly didnt as they lived in their own ones. The Elves founded their capital, uknowingly, upon an ancient buried Troll city which did anger the Troll,s but the region the Elves colonised wanst inhabited itself.

Also the specific Trolls that they waged war with, the Amani, although still retain Loa and other elements, dont have a very distinct real life counterpart. They resemble neither Mesoamericans (which are the Zandalari, and have become allies in the new Xpac), nor Afro-Carribean (the Darkspear, who arent cannibals, dont sacrifice sentients and werent ever "evil" or enemies).


Also, European cultures are similarly portrayed as enemies :

The Ogres are an expy of the Roman Empire.
The Vrykul obviously are vikings.
The Forsaken (not enemies per ser, but portrayed as immoral and ruthless) draw from Gothic Architecture.

I can push back on a fair amount of this but I'm not sure this is the time and place for getting into a drawn-out lore discussion about Warcraft. You are welcome to send me a PM to discuss this further. It's always nice to find a fellow well-versed lore fan. But part of the wider point that I was trying to make is not Warcraft per se, but the racist connections of FRPG race and real world human cultures.

 

[Celebrim]

But part of the wider point that I was trying to make is not Warcraft per se, but the racist connections of FRPG race and real world human cultures.

I realize this was your point, and I thought you made it very well. I just still don't see how this is a call to arms to remove the word 'race'. The connection between that and what you wrote, you didn't make very well. Perhaps the better solution is to change the way we handle fantasy races in the cases that are problematic, since all the supporting evidence you offered supported that thesis and not the thesis that the word itself was the problem.

 

[Sunseeker]

There are a ton of reasons why the game skews much more "white" than the population and much more male than the population (this skew is enormous even today). The question raised in the original post is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error. The time spent discussing such irrelevant trivia is much better spent addressing the real barriers. This is the type of band-aid, feel good to a few changes that hold back progress because of the false sense of accomplishment.

No one person, neither you, nor me, gets to say someone else's concerns are invalid.

Some people find TTRPG's use of "race" to the troublesome. Whether or not there are larger issues to be dealt with is beside the point, since we as individuals and as a society are quite capable of addressing multiple things at the same time, and there is absolutely NO burden that we need to address them in order of magnitude. There is similarly solid ground to argue from that chipping away at the small inequalities can be just as productive towards creating a better world as tackling the large ones.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Dude, until you’ve been THE black guy in a crowd of thousands*, don’t presume to tell a black guy that race “is not the reason, not a reason, and is a distraction and logical error“. I haven’t lived in a majority black community in 46 years, and there are still times when that much Caucasian-ness gets uncomfortable.

Some- not all- minority gamers have an issue with this term; percentages are unknown. Saying “it isn’t a problem” is, at the very least, bad optics. At worst, it’s a barrier.

In ADR training, one thing that is constantly stressed as a major stumbling block is being dismissive of the concerns of the other parties. Even if the issue is small, the fact that it gets swept aside without being addressed can kill the greater deal.

So, listen.



* or, possibly, the chromatically reversed situation.

Not American, grew up as a minority (15% of my town’s population) and lived 8/15 of my last year’s as a very visible minority, not even speaking or reading the local language well. So, how about neither of us presume anything?

If you told me racism or the effects of racism if not overt and direct racists driving blacks from the gaming table, I would agree without argument. If you are trying to tell me that elves as dwarves as races is the reason, then I am puzzled as to exactly where you are coming from.

I do think that 5e does a much better job of presenting a diverse set of art work, not having human races, making gender or lack of gender a non-issue and hand waving over sexuality and saying whatever you want were great steps in the right direction.

i don’t think calling elves a race and giving races in the game nothing but bonuses is the reason I should focus on.

 

[Yaarel]

I live in a place that officially about 60% latino, 20% black, 15% white, and 5% other.

As a socalled ‘white’ guy, I know exactly what it means to be a minority.

Fortunately, latinos generally have decent values, and are not especially known for hatemongering.

Nevertheless, there are enough latinos for enough of a hateful fringe among them, so that every one in my family has been the victim of ugly racism at some times. This includes racist violent crimes against someone because they are ‘white’, discrimination in the workplace, cruel social situations, and so on. Nevermind harm done innocently via cultural and language alienation.



My main point, no one has a monopoly on having to deal with unfair crap.

 

[Aldarc]

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