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Two underlying truths: D&D heritage and inclusivity
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8020748" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>I think one piece of heritage of D&D is that there is good and evil for those who want to try to play that style of game. There are other RPGs where everything is explicitly gray, there is no hope or everybody is one of the bad guys. D&D can be and frequently is about the good guys saving the day and being victorious. Yes, it's playing to tropes and wish fulfillment but that's part of the fun. The good thing is that the game can also be as dark and depressing as you want.</p><p></p><p>So that's why I personally push back on the thought that there can never be evil races. Sometimes I want that simplicity and clarity.</p><p></p><p>Which is my question - is there any room to have an always evil race that is not fiendish in nature? I get tired of "the devil made me do it" campaigns if that's my only option for an (effectively) always evil bad guy or threat. </p><p></p><p>Let's say I come up with a new monster. Human intelligence with language and culture, but I don't want any correlation to real world. So I come up with the Tsocul. Basically human-size grasshoppers, an medium sized evil Jiminy Cricket. They're green, they have a 4 legs and 2 arms an exoskeleton, mandibles instead of a mouth. Much like their locust inspiration, they form destructive swarms that live only to wage war and destroy. They're particularly fond of elf flesh.</p><p></p><p>So far so good? </p><p></p><p>Except ... it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean bug people are cool and all but we already have thri-kreen and honestly I just can't see bug people anywhere but where it's warm.</p><p></p><p>So I tweak them a bit. They maintain the basic grasshopper shape, green 4 legs, mandibles but lose the exoskeleton and make them not insects. That's better. But the 4 legs? Eh, they don't really need it so make them bipedal. Keep the green skin ... but mandibles? Eh. Change those to tusks.</p><p></p><p>Oops, I just made orcs again. At what point did my locust person become something that represents real world people? I know of no ethnicity that has green skins or tusks, yet people insist that the correlation is there. What if the were pig faced? What if they had 4 arms instead of 2? Is there any way to create a humanoid race (bipedal, has a language, not inherently magical) that will not be considered racist? What about giant grasshopper people?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 8020748, member: 6801845"] I think one piece of heritage of D&D is that there is good and evil for those who want to try to play that style of game. There are other RPGs where everything is explicitly gray, there is no hope or everybody is one of the bad guys. D&D can be and frequently is about the good guys saving the day and being victorious. Yes, it's playing to tropes and wish fulfillment but that's part of the fun. The good thing is that the game can also be as dark and depressing as you want. So that's why I personally push back on the thought that there can never be evil races. Sometimes I want that simplicity and clarity. Which is my question - is there any room to have an always evil race that is not fiendish in nature? I get tired of "the devil made me do it" campaigns if that's my only option for an (effectively) always evil bad guy or threat. Let's say I come up with a new monster. Human intelligence with language and culture, but I don't want any correlation to real world. So I come up with the Tsocul. Basically human-size grasshoppers, an medium sized evil Jiminy Cricket. They're green, they have a 4 legs and 2 arms an exoskeleton, mandibles instead of a mouth. Much like their locust inspiration, they form destructive swarms that live only to wage war and destroy. They're particularly fond of elf flesh. So far so good? Except ... it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean bug people are cool and all but we already have thri-kreen and honestly I just can't see bug people anywhere but where it's warm. So I tweak them a bit. They maintain the basic grasshopper shape, green 4 legs, mandibles but lose the exoskeleton and make them not insects. That's better. But the 4 legs? Eh, they don't really need it so make them bipedal. Keep the green skin ... but mandibles? Eh. Change those to tusks. Oops, I just made orcs again. At what point did my locust person become something that represents real world people? I know of no ethnicity that has green skins or tusks, yet people insist that the correlation is there. What if the were pig faced? What if they had 4 arms instead of 2? Is there any way to create a humanoid race (bipedal, has a language, not inherently magical) that will not be considered racist? What about giant grasshopper people? [/QUOTE]
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